1. Columbia Fire Department
Employee Retention Plan

2. 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.

3. 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 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.”

4. 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.

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

6. 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

7. 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.

8. Current Departmental Status
Status of 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

9. Employee Losses from
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 years of service 25
Employees lost with years of service 18
Employees lost with 21plus years of service 78
Total hired: Total lost: 305 Net Gain: 54

10. 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
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.

11. 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

12. $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

13. 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 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

14. 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 **

15. 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

16. 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