Homeless in Arizona

I prefer a honest job where I am not paid with money stolen from other people.

That is unlike several so called people who claim to be Libertarians like Mike Dugger who has worked for the Federal government for years as a mailman or Powell Gamil who has worked for the state of Arizona for years as a microbiologist.

Source

Governments fight to keep IT workers

By Michelle Ye Hee Lee The Republic | azcentral.com Sat Feb 23, 2013 10:33 PM

Local governments find it difficult nowadays to compete for employees with technical specialties, a dilemma spurred by high demand for technology workers and the ability of companies such as Google to offer cushier salaries and swanky offices.

Some Valley governments, including Maricopa County and Phoenix, say they struggle to recruit and retain skilled information-technology workers. In many cases, private companies can double the salaries offered by local government.

The tech industry changes rapidly, requiring employees to constantly retrain for new skills and employers to spend on new and ever-evolving programs.

Local governments are just beginning to bounce back from the recession that squeezed tax revenue and led to wage stagnation. Maricopa County, for example, still has a freeze on merit-based raises, meaning new hires are coming in at starting salaries that nearly match those of employees hired six years ago.

At Maricopa County, the issue has rippled beyond the central IT office to the Treasurer’s Office, courts and other agencies. There was a 10 percent voluntary turnover across county IT positions last fiscal year, and the turnover rate is projected to be 20 percent for the current fiscal year ending June 30, said David Stevens, county chief information officer.

The county has seen higher turnover among critical positions that also are highly competitive locally and nationally, Stevens said. Those include systems and network administrators, information systems architects, database administrators, programmer analysts and project managers.

The problem is compounded by the flight of older employees, who delayed retirement to ride out the recession but are now leaving. The remaining pool of younger candidates is much more tech savvy, but less likely to consider anchored government jobs where they will stay for decades. Instead, these new candidates are more likely to use government jobs as steppingstones to better-paying private-sector jobs, said Alan Shark, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Public Technology Institute, a non-profit organization that represents technology interests of cities and counties.

“It’s getting worse, and I think it’s going to get dramatically worse,” Shark said.

Maricopa County is leading an effort to find solutions for local governments nationwide. As the fourth-most-populous county in the nation, the county is in prime position to help other local governments, County Recorder Helen Purcell said. Purcell is the chairwoman of a committee at the National Association of Counties addressing IT retention and recruitment concerns for U.S. counties.

Technology is at the core of a wide array of government services: issuing marriage licenses, tracking tax revenues, processing building permits, maintaining sensitive law-enforcement records and so much more.

Yet rapid turnover among IT staff has created delays in projects while local governments recruit and try to retain new hires.

“You just don’t have the resources to do it, so it compromises services,” said Brad Hartig, Scottsdale’s chief information officer.

Having a stable IT workforce also is crucial to maintaining a secure cybernetwork, Purcell said. She noted government’s increasing vulnerability to international hacking groups. In 2011, for example, one such group hacked into the Arizona Department of Public Safety’s computer network and the websites of other national government agencies.

Purcell’s committee is surveying best practices and seeking suggestions on how to minimize IT turnover. It will issue a report at NACo’s summer convention.

A number of strategies can help. To start, local governments need an aggressive and targeted recruiting campaign. Shark said they must recognize that talented IT workers are so crucial to service delivery that they are worth the extra investment.

Recruiters also can appeal to public-service sentiments to draw employees into the public sector to stay, Shark said.

Good government benefits also serve to lure workers. As Phoenix recruiters realized that private-sector salaries were almost impossible to match, they appealed to candidates to consider less pay in return for better pension benefits and job stability, said Lisa Esquivel, Phoenix’s deputy human resources director, who oversees recruiting.

Phoenix promotes work-life balance and telecommuting for IT professionals, who can access the system remotely. Phoenix recruiters also underscore that all work for the city is based in Phoenix, eliminating the need for disruptive travel, Esquivel said.

Another strategy beyond competitive pay is to offer job candidates a dynamic workplace where they can develop new skills and work with high-quality technology, said Rob Sweeney, acting chief information officer for Phoenix’s central IT services department.

“I’ve always talked about the city of Phoenix being the GE of the public sector,” Sweeney said. As the nation’s sixth-largest city, Phoenix offers diverse IT opportunities ranging from telecommunications to public safety, he said. The key is to show employees that they can take advantage of new opportunities within the city.

Some local governments also are collapsing several positions into one, combining salaries — and responsibilities — so that employees can be paid more, Purcell said. Another option is to outsource their IT functions and staff to smaller counties that can’t afford their own, she said.

As a part of their compensation plans, local governments must show they are willing to invest in employee training to keep their skills up to date, Purcell said. In return, employees must commit to staying at their jobs.

“We’ve looked at (telling employees): ‘OK, if we’re going to be spending thousands of dollars on you to send you to special schooling and so forth, then you’ve got to commit something back to us, too,’” Purcell said.

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Average salary comparisons

System network engineer: $52,000 Maricopa County, $79,890 nationally.

Information-systems architect: $84,000 Maricopa County, $85,430 nationally.

Database administrator: $78,000 Maricopa County, $83,860 nationally.

Programmer analyst: $53,000 Maricopa County, $76,800 nationally.

Sources: Maricopa County Office of Enterprise Technology, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics