Getting and Keeping Legislative Staff.

• Author: Aro, Karl

A strong and rapidly changing economy increases the competition for the best and brightest employees.

Vigorous competition has lately intensified the efforts to attract the best and brightest to public careers. Equally powerful is the competition legislatures face in retaining good employees. Such challenges are partly the result of a robust economy where all workers are in high demand. And even if the economy cools, recruiting and keeping legislative employees will still be a battle.

Younger workers don't expect to stay at the same place for their entire careers, and public service isn't the call it once was.

State legislatures and their staffs are bound by formal rules and procedures, not to mention laws, in ways that other organizations are not. Most states are constrained by salary schedules that allow managers very little leeway in what they can offer desirable candidates. It's rare--maybe impossible--for a public agency manager to use a signing bonus or other special inducements to attract candidates. Similarly, state governments usually cannot provide special bonuses for outstanding work, flexible working hours or redefinition of responsibilities that business uses to retain its best workers. Those are the realities you face when you are talking about salaries funded with taxpayer dollars. Nevertheless, there are some methods that legislative managers can use to help attract and keep highly qualified individuals.

In 1997, the Maryland Department of Legislative Services had a turnover rate of approximately 25 percent. Human Resources Director Cathy Fiddes says they have been able to lower that rate somewhat by boosting salaries and providing for meaningful merit increases, but they are still experiencing a rapid rate of turnover, primarily among younger staff--those with one to three years of experience.

"My suspicion is that we have to do more to further the development of staff by providing ongoing training to enhance their skills, and by creating innovative opportunities for advancement in a flat organization," she says.

STAFF MOTIVES

Before mapping out the right practices to create a desirable work environment, one must have an idea of what motivates current legislative staff. Why did they come to work for a legislature? What inspires them to stay? Do the responses to these questions differ among generations? And how do you plan for the next wave to join the workforce?

To find answers to these questions, NCSL's Legislative Staff...