Worcester takes steps to boost hiring, retention

Amid national staffing shortages in local government that worsened throughout the pandemic, the city of Worcester is taking steps to boost hiring and retention, including a new marketing campaign.

A few weeks ago, the city launched its Work for Worcester campaign, which includes a video promoting city employment opportunities. The city is also offering free employee parking and has waived physicals and drug testing for certain positions.

With a workforce of about 2,000, Worcester wants to remove barriers to hiring and create a more diverse and equitable workforce, said Acting City Manager Eric Batista.

“In this day and age, we’re looking at what we can do differently as a city to be more competitive with the Amazons of the world, with the Googles of the world,” Batista said.

The city’s marketing campaign features sandwich boards, graphics and a video for the city website and social media. In the minute-long video, Batista urges people to consider municipal careers in jobs that range from landscapers and plumbers to attorneys and nurses.

“No matter what branch of city government I visit, I find caring and creative individuals who are trying to make Worcester the best mid-sized city in the country,” Batista says in the video.

Batista is no stranger to recruiting videos. In 2021, when he was the city’s director of urban innovation, he appeared in one of the MMA’s MassTownCareer videos to promote municipal careers. The new Worcester video, created by a city employee, has already generated much attention, he said. “It’s everywhere,” he said.

As of Oct. 1, Worcester is waiving parking fees for city employees, a move that could save workers nearly $700 a year. Officials are also looking at comparable waivers for people who commute by bus and train.

The city still requires physicals and drug tests for police officers, firefighters and positions that involve physical labor and public safety, but has eliminated physicals and drug testing for many other positions, Batista said.

On the Work for Worcester page, the city emphasizes benefits such as tuition reimbursement and loan forgiveness through a federal public service incentive program, tuition waiver programs, and pension and retirement plans.

Over the summer, Worcester had more than 100 job openings, in part due to seasonal needs. At one point, the city had to close some facilities due to a lifeguard shortage, and shift people around in its recreational programs, Batista said.

Worcester is certainly not alone in its staffing struggles. Between March 2020 and March 2022, municipal employment shrunk by more than 300,000 jobs nationwide due to staffing shortages, a decrease of 4.5%, according to a recent National League of Cities report.

“Public sector employers, especially municipal employers, have struggled the most to retain workers — negatively impacting local governments’ ability to deliver for their communities,” the report states.

Worcester struggles to compete against the higher pay and flexibility offered by other employers, said Human Resources Director Bill Bagley. The city allows remote work on a case-by-case basis, he said, but most positions mostly require in-person work.

Officials are seeking other ways to make compensation and benefits more competitive, Bagley said. In particular, he said, it’s working on a more robust employee learning and development program, and is exploring ways to provide more flexible leave benefits.

“Our long-term objective is to make the city of Worcester an employer of choice in the area, as opposed to a step along a career path that leads an employee to an opportunity elsewhere,” Bagley said. “We want employees to grow here and stay here.”