TWIN FALLS, Idaho — Over the past few months, the city of Twin Falls has been dealing with numerous employees out sick or in quarantine as well as trying to fill open positions. Officials are now working even harder to find experienced applicants to take on these roles.
“So right now, we’re down about 30 people (out sick), and we’re also short about 40 positions,” said Joshua Palmer, the Public Information Coordinator for the City of Twin Falls.
To reduce the number of city workers out sick, officials have implemented safety protocols where it's necessary.
“As we’re out with the public, especially our first responders, they’re taking those efforts to try and mitigate the risk, like wearing the proper protective clothing," said Palmer. "Also, within City Hall, we just try space out.”
Although a lot of committees and departments are having difficulty finding new employees, two fields have been hit the hardest to find qualified candidates, the police department and public works.
“We need to have a large number of people who know how to rebuild roads, maintain waterlines and infrastructure," said Palmer. "That can be complex and can be challenging, trying to find folks with that skill set to do that.”
Since the labor shortage is affecting multiple industries, the city is adopting aggressive hiring maneuvers to attract applicants by including more perks. Such as multiple forms of PTO and other additional city perks.
“There’s a lot of things that organizations are already doing that they offer to their employees," said Palmer. "Such as paid family leave and holidays. What we’re seeing is they’ve become more competitive. We’re seeing other organizations that are hiring the same talent that we would like, step up their game, and we need to do the same.”
Anyone who is interested in working for the city is encouraged to reach out.
“Go to our city website to check it out. Or just talk to a city employee about it, if they’re curious about what it’s like to work for the city of Twin Falls, we have 400 plus employees that would love to talk about it.”
