In the middle of the wave of new employees of Sonoma County underlines the latest survey in relation to leadership and management problems

In less than two years, Sonoma County has made great progress in reducing the level of open spots in his workforce. The district officers highlighted on Friday during a special meeting of the Supervisory Board.

In the same session, however, district officials recently cited a survey of 2,318 employees who showed that 709 or under a third plan to leave their district jobs. Career climbing, salary and advantages were called the main factors for the end of those who plan.

The district survey concluded with an external consultant found that employees are largely satisfied with their work and consider them important, but many are concerns about the management, culture and workload of the workforce.

Supervisor Chris Coursey and the CEO Lynda Hopkins have taken on in one of the most important findings in the survey: a large gap in the way in which employees and their bosses looked at the same workplace elements.

According to the survey, 88% of the “leading managers” stated that their employees' ideas. In contrast, 53% of lines employees said that high -ranking managers have appreciated the ideas for employees.

In addition, 89% of the leading managers stated that their actions match the values ​​of the department, while 64% of the employees answered the same question in the confirmation.

“This is a real call for managers to re -evaluate how they operate their departments,” said Coursey.

Hopkins said she would like to see how the county looks more closely at the inequality between “employees at the line level and higher management”. It also emphasized the need to create more integrative and collaborative work environments.

The discussion on Friday was the first meeting of vacancies, attitudes and storage as part of a new state mandate in which the public authorities have to hold a public hearing on the state of the workforce. These hearings must be held before the acceptance of budgets.

Janell Crane, the district's HR manager, said that the district had made significant improvements to the workforce's job offers, which rose during the Covid 19 pandemy.

Crane said that the district's vacancy rate was 8.36%from March 4. This rate was 13% in August 2023, when vacancies in critical positions in key departments reached up to 40%.

The lack of staff immediately after the pandemic were the worst that the county had seen since the great recession a and a half earlier.

An investigation of the six-month pressed crats showed that the vacancy rate-die since the great recession had influenced the provision of essential services for residents in need of protection, including Medi-Cal recipients and patients in the field of mental health care, even as the reduced workforce with increasing work, overtime and burns.

The district officials prompted the personnel defect to start a number of recruitment initiatives, including the setting of bonuses, targeted work fairs and change the requirements for work qualification.

The district brought CPS HR Consulting, a public authority that specializes in the support of the local governments in order to see how employees feel for working for the district.

So far, the district has issued 21,000 US dollars for the services of CPS HR Consulting. These costs are expected to achieve $ 63,000 because the company continues its tasks, which will also include hosting employee focus groups, said Crane

The survey carried out in November 2024 asked questions about job satisfaction, workplace culture, leadership, future plans and experiences with harassment or discrimination. About half of the 4,000 employees of the district reacted to the survey.

An attempt was made to assess the commitment of the employees based on job satisfaction, motivation, pride at work and the personal connection with the district as an employer.

The most important results were: The number of employees who were “not committed” with their work rose significantly to 18%- 20%after three years of employment; At 47%, the fully remote workers had the highest relief value, while remote employees with the option on site had the lowest “non -committed” score with 14%. The local employees had the highest commitment score with 37%.

The survey also dealt with discrimination or harassment at work. The employees were asked: “Who discriminates them?”

A third of the 255 respondents of this question said that other employees discriminated them while 13% stated that the source of harassment or discrimination was members of the public.

Crane said that the next steps in the evaluation of the district of the district include focus groups and a more precise analysis of the data that examines demographic data and individual departments.

Future surveys could be carried out every two years to pursue the district's progress, said Crane.

“The forward -looking work is not solved with a single initiative or politics,” she said. “This will require persistent commitment and persistent attention from our side and the cooperation with the departments to do this work.”

You can reach the author Emma Murphy at 707-521-5228 or Emma.murphy@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @murpheports.