Columbia Fire Department Employee Retention Plan

City Council Vision Statement Focus Areas Addressed 01 Attracting & Retaining Talent 07 Leading The Way In Innovative & High Quality Municipal Services Goals Addressed #3 Foster a healthy quality of life focusing on safety, culture, and recreation. #5 Provide high quality municipal services, efficiently, effectively, and responsively.

Purpose This plan was designed to target areas of attrition that will assist the Columbia Fire Department in the retention of our employees With the help of City and County management through the implementation of the comp and class study we have made great strides. However, our research is showing that the department is still in need of an aggressive pay step plan to remain competitive in the market place. CFD has hired an average of 51.2 employees per year since 2010. However, CFD continues to lose an average of 43.6 employees per year. The Columbia Fire Department is fully committed to retaining the best qualified employees. But in order to do so, the city must invest in our personnel at a competitive rate, or we will continue to have a revolving door where CFD pays to train the best, to watch them take their skill set else where. We must address this with a sense of urgency. 91 Personnel in less than 20 months. The Fire Department cannot continue to sustain this attrition without wide-reaching implications. Other Departments have been heard saying, “We would hire a CFD firefighter and not put him through additional training because we know the level they are trained to. We could put them on the floor immediately.”

Background In our 2012 Attrition Study, the department conducted surveys of current and former employees. We identified the following contributing factors that needed to be addressed to return our attrition factor back to a manageable number. The department determined the manageable attrition range of 3-5% , with our target goal at 3% overall.

Contributing Factors & Target Resolutions Internal employee satisfaction issues Communication Development of guidelines Officer Development / Respect from Managers Employee Recognition Seek Employee Input

Contributing Factors & Target Resolutions Rewarding merit increase based on high performance The department currently is involved in the City new evaluation pilot program and is excited in the direction the City is heading The need to increase Firefighter time off The department is working with City Management to address A solution in this area is expected to reduce the overtime within the department Lack of incentive pay Higher Education & Specialized Training Incentive Pay was implemented in October 2016

Contributing Factors & Target Resolutions Low compensation with limited movement through the pay bands and pay compression Research is showing that starting salaries are competitive but the lack of movement is where CFD is losing ground Comparison to Charleston Fire – starting pay is a few hundred dollars different. But with their pay step plan those same firefighters will be $11,000 ahead by year eight CFD has developed a proposed plan for review of City and County Leadership. This plan will allow CFD to be competitive within the Fire Service market place. Research shows that in most departments surveyed, their employees will reach their mid-point around year 8-10.

Current Departmental Status Status of 2016-2017 budgeted positions 503 – Fulltime budgeted positions 480 - Sworn 23 - Non-Sworn 10 - Vacancies ** In 2010, the department had 73 vacancies ** Year Resigned Retired Disablity Terminated Recruit School Washout Deceased Total 2010 2 11 3 10 1 29 2011 8 15 4 14 44 2012 18 5 42 2013 7 2014 17 49 2015 54 2016 21 13 58 99 80 27 19 74 6 305

Employee Losses from 2010-2016 Conditional offered / Recruits Lost over 7 years (15 Classes) 75 Employees lost with 0-5 years of service 81 Employees lost with 6-10 years of service 34 Employees lost with 11-15 years of service 25 Employees lost with 16-20 years of service 18 Employees lost with 21plus years of service 78 Total hired: 359 Total lost: 305 Net Gain: 54

7 Year Trend Fire Employee Net (-/+) Loss/Gain This Graph shows the number of new recruits hired each year in grey. The number of employees that have separated employment are in black. The net gain or loss is shown in red with the black line trending our gains and losses, with a negative spike through 2009-2012. Notice that even with the large groups of hires, the fire department is still not gaining ground. CFD has negative net gain of 6 since 2009, even after 220 new hires! Averaged over 7 years, CFD has hired 47.1 employees each year and still remains understaffed by 35 today.

CFD has lost a total of 305 personnel between 2010-2016 This is equivilant to 66% of the Suppression Division 2016 attrition rate was 13.1%. This is four times the targeted attrition rate of 3%. Of the 13.1%, we continue to experience the most impact in the area of separations/resignations( 7.4%). In 2015 after the implementation of the comp and class, the CFD only saw a reduction of 3% in the number of employees resigning for other employment. CFD has already lost 7 members in 2017 with more losses pending *2014 includes through July with 2 more pending. CFD current salaries lower than all other departments that responded to the USC study for all ranks except Division Chief. Year to date numbers are increasing each week. CFD Attrition 2010-2016

$7.2 Million in New Hire Costs Since 2010 These costs are based on the number of annual departures. Projected employees are not counted. $7.2 Million in New Hire Costs Since 2010

New Hire Costs since 2010 has cost the department over $7.2 Million Each new hire costs $20,000+ for entry level training and will take 18 weeks to complete None of these costs include promotional, specialized or advanced training required by regulation / law CFD has hired an average of 51.2 employees per year since 2010. However, CFD continues to lose an average of 43.6 employees per year. *2014 is projected to lose more personnel CFD current salaries lower than all other departments that responded to the USC study for all ranks except Division Chief. Year to date numbers are increasing each week. CFD Attrition 2010-2016

Compensation Recommendations Year one: All employees to receive the approved increase (this will help reduce compression issues) Year two: Institute the proposed Annual Step Increase plan to move employees toward the mid-point of their pay range. This will run for 8 to 9 years depending on the option used. Those employees above the mid-point would receive compensation based on the City merit increase plan. **For the purpose of this document, a 2% merit was used to give a reference point **

PROPOSED PAY STEP PLAN (Option 1) 4% Annual Step Increases 2% Performance Based Merit 4.0% Start 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Mid Point Firefighter 107 33,336 34,669 36,056 37,498 38,998 40,558 42,181 43,024 43,885 44,762 45,658 46,571 41,670 (Option 2) 3.5% Annual Step Increases 3.5% 34,503 35,710 36,960 38,254 39,593 40,978 41,798 42,634 43,487 44,356 45,244 (Option 3) 3% Annual Step Increases 3.0% 34,336 35,366 36,427 37,520 38,646 39,805 40,999 41,819 42,655 43,509 44,379

Cost Breakdown For Two Years Current Option 1 (4%) Option 2 (3.5%) Option 3 (3%) City Year 1 654,575 572,753 490,931 Year 2 630,491 552,980 476,193 Total 1,285,066 1,125,733 967,124 County 567,544 496,601 425,658 544,139 478,802 414,072 1,111,683 975,403 839,730