City Braces for Historic Retirement Wave

Traverse City commissioners tonight (Monday) will discuss a strategy for addressing one of the most pressing operational issues facing the city: the potential for a full third of its employees to retire in the next 2-3 years. City Manager Benjamin Marentette says the retirement wave will impact almost every department, with the city looking to hire a consultant to identify ways to recruit, retain, and reorganize its workforce.

Employing approximately 200 full-time staff, the city will soon “begin seeing the most significant number of retirements that this organization may have ever seen, due to the age and years of service of our current workforce,” says Marentette. He notes the stream of exits has already begun, with recent high-profile retirements that include Fire Chief Jim Tuller, Director of Public Services Frank Dituri, Deputy City Manager Deb Allen, and Executive Assistant/Purchasing Agent Kim Sheridan.

“While we are happy for our employees and wish them many years of healthy, much-earned retirement, it presents organizational considerations for which we must be thoughtfully and strategically prepared,” Marentette wrote to commissioners. Since “service demands and community expectations continue to evolve” even in the face of those exits, and more upcoming retirements “create succession and institutional knowledge risks,” the city needs a “long-term staffing model that is operationally resilient and fiscally sustainable,” Marentette wrote.

Commissioners will weigh in at tonight’s study session on a recommendation to issue a request for proposals (RFP) to develop what Marentette calls a Future Workforce Strategy. That strategy will address several elements. One is workforce capacity, identifying where retirements pose the greatest risks, where positions could be combined or eliminated, adaptive staffing models that account for Traverse City’s seasonality and “significant fluctuations” in year-round populations, and career strengthening opportunities.

Marentette tells The Ticker the goal is not to cut current staff – hardly an ideal approach when 33 percent of the workforce could soon be departing – but evaluate whether some positions could be eliminated through attrition as they’re vacated or else merged into other roles. Technology or efficiency improvements could help in some areas, as could more proactive efforts to recruit and retain staff.

“We’re going to make sure we’re fiscally responsible, but we also need to be an employer of choice,” says Marentette. “Cost of housing affects wages and our ability to attract employees and keep them, so we’ll be looking at the total benefit and compensation mix.” He emphasizes the aim is not to majorly restructure the benefits employees already have but rather consider what kind of packages to offer going forward. Multiple union contracts are coming up for negotiation over the next year, so the city will also need to ensure those contracts reflect any benefits offered to new employees, Marentette says.

The city could also consider incentives to keep employees in their roles rather than exercising retirement options immediately, Marentette says. “It may make sense for some roles financially and operationally, and it may not for others,” he says. Another option is strengthening internal career paths. That could include increased leadership training, more internal promotions, and cross-training throughout departments.

“Younger employees sometimes want more variety (in their positions),” he says. As an example, commissioners tonight are set to discuss the city’s approach to snow removal and the desire to increase staffing to provide more reliable service. One potential solution is to cross-train employees to work in different city departments at different times of year, or even partner with other community organizations to share staff. Meeting packet materials mention a potential partnership with BATA, as the transit organization may have winter availability among its employees during the slower time of year for bus service.

A consultant could analyze all these options, plus provide “actionable 3, 5, and 10-year workforce forecasts and (an) implementation roadmap, including review of benefits/total compensation program to ensure we are providing the right future benefits that are attractive to tomorrow's workforce,” Marentette wrote. The workforce is just one of several areas in which the city is being forced to reconcile with modern demands, with other discussions ranging from the future of the Governmental Center to address aging roads and pipes.

“We’re in that point in our organizational life cycle where a lot of these components – human resources, capital resources, facilities, infrastructures – are coming to a head,” Marentette says. “I think it’s an opportunity to think through a lot of these things and innovate. The situation calls for that. After a few decades, a lot of things might start to change.”

Marentette says that if commissioners are supportive of the RFP, he’s hopeful that process could wrap up in approximately nine months so the city can start quickly implementing its recommendations. “The clock’s ticking, because we could see a major exit over the next couple years,” he says.