How Can Local Government Become an Employer of Choice for Technical Professionals? Lessons and Experiences From the City of Phoenix

• Author: Lera Riley,G. Zhiyong Lan,N. Joseph Cayer
• Published date: 01 September 2005
• Date: 01 September 2005
• DOI: 10.1177/0734371X05276218
• Subject Matter: Articles

10.1177/0734371X05276218
REVIEW OF PUBLIC PERSONNEL ADMINISTRATION / Sept. 2005
Lan et al. / LESSONS AND EXPERIENCES
How Can Local Government
Become an Employer of Choice
for Technical Professionals?
Lessons and Experiences From the City of Phoenix
G. ZHIYONG LAN
Arizona State University
LERA RILEY
City of Phoenix
N. JOSEPH CAYER
Arizona State University
Using lessons and experiences from the city of Phoenix in information technology
professional recruitment and retention, this article argues that in spite of public-
sector constraints, local governments can and should become an employer of
choice for technical professionals in this age of rapid change and technological
progress. The article concludes that those who think and act strategically wil
more likely be the winners in the next technological rally.
Keywords: local government; human resource management; IT professionals;
employer of choice; public personnel
TheU.S.governmentisthelargestemployerofciviliansinthecountry,
with a total of 21 million full-time employees and a human resource bud-
get exceeding $100 bil ion per year (Condrey & Maranto, 2002; U.S. Census
Bureau, 2004). Government tasks range from the most unskil ed to the most
complex, including, but not limited to, civil engineering, nuclear research,
information technology (IT), biotechnology, environmental protection, and
medicine. Of the three levels of government, local government is by far the
largest employer (4.9 times more employees than the federal civilian
Authors’ Note: We gratefully acknowledge the useful input and comments from Danny
Murphy, director of the Department of Information Technology in the city of Phoenix, and
his staff.
Review of Public Personnel Administration, Vol. 25, No. 3 September 2005 225-242
DOI: 10.1177/0734371X05276218
© 2005 Sage Publications
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REVIEW OF PUBLIC PERSONNEL ADMINISTRATION / Sept. 2005
Table 1. March 2002 Statistics on Government Employees and Payroll
Federal
State and
Total
(Civilian) Local Total
State
Local
Employees (in 1,000s)
21,039
2,690
18,349
5,072
13,277
Payroll ($ millions)
63,922.0 11,599.0 53,323.5
14,837.8 34,486.7
Ratio of Payroll to Employees
3.04
4.31
2.90
2.93
2.60
Source: U.S. Census Bureau (2004).
workforce and 2.67 times more than the state workforce; see Table 1; U.S.
Census Bureau, 2004). Furthermore, comparatively speaking, local govern-
ments’ average employee payrol is the lowest among the three (7% less than
the state government and 37% less than the federal government).
In spite of these numerical differences, governments at al levels invari-
ably depend on technologies for their operations (Babcock, Bush, & Lan,
1995; Bush, 2002; Chen & Perry, 2003; Fletcher, 2000; Schulz, 2001;
Wade, 2001). Dependency on complex technical skil s has created chal-
lenges for human resource managers in recruiting and retaining skilled pro-
fessionals for a number of reasons, including uncompetitive compensation
packages, inflexible recruitment and human resource management systems,
less-than-desirable budget situations for technology support, and unfavor-
able popular images of government. The IT rally at the turn of the century
highlighted these challenges.
Currently, with an unemployment rate as high as 5.2% or more, public-
sector human resource managers are able to take a breath. Nonetheless, they
can hardly forget what they experienced during the trying years just a short
time ago. Many predict that the past decade is no more than a prelude to an
e-revolution that has yet to ful y manifest itself (Abramson & Means, 2002;
Council for Excel ence in Government, 2001; Gates, 1995; Gore, 1991;
Hobbs, 2001-2002; F. Thompson, 2001-2002; Wagner, 2000). Even in
today’s economic downturn, millions of dollars are still finding their way
into the IT industry, preparing for its new rally (T. X. Wang, personal com-
munication, March 3, 2004). At the same time, other technologies, such as
human genomics, material science, alternative energy, and environmental
sustainability, are starting to demonstrate their viability in contemporary
life. In an age of technology pervasiveness, how local government—the
largest public sector employer and the front line of public service delivery—
can become an employer of choice for technical professionals is becoming

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Lan et al. / LESSONS AND EXPERIENCES
227
an increasingly pressing concern for public-sector human resource
managers.
Some managers are predicting that the current employer-friendly mar-
ket will not last long and that the next labor crunch may be even worse than
the one seen in 1999 (Council for Excel ence in Government, 2001). Most
everyone available to work in the next 25 years has already been born, and
the Bureau of Labor Statistics is projecting a shortage of 4 million workers
by 2006 and 10 mil ion workers by 2010 (Council for Excel ence in Gov-
ernment, 2001). Should human resource managers not stay alert to the sit-
uation, not think strategically about the issue, and not be prepared to take
on the next challenge, the frustrations they experienced in the past decade
could easily come back again in a more acute form.
With this in mind, we review the experiences of human resource manag-
ers from a successful local government, Phoenix, in hiring and retaining IT
professionals during the frantic years of the IT rally in the past decade. We
attempt to see whether those experiences can be instructive for new efforts
in ensuring future human resource management success, especially at the
local level.
WHY HIRING AND RETAINING
TECHNICAL PROFESSIONALS IS AN ISSUE
Frankly, governments in the United States have not always been the most
willing and friendly employers of technical talent. Steven Pearlstein (2004)
of the Washington Post vividly described the government’s awkward position
in the use of technology through his comments on the U.S. system of
healthcare. According to Pearlstein, the U.S. system of healthcare is one of
the most technically advanced industries and, at the same time, one of the
most backward. On one hand, the government has miracle drugs to stave
off AIDS and heart attacks, and on the other, the prescriptions for these
miracle drugs are still written and delivered by hand. It has diagnostic tools
that produce three-dimensional images of brain tumors in real time, but it
still takes 2 hours for the film to be delivered to the doctor’s office
(Pearlstein, 2004).
The same situation is true of government employment of technical tal-
ent. On one hand, government needs to possess a caliber of top-level scien-
tists and technical professionals to provide technical and policy guidance
and develop applications of the newest technology for citizen consumption.
On the other hand, government has to deal with day-to-day budget short-

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REVIEW OF PUBLIC PERSONNEL ADMINISTRATION / Sept. 2005
falls and a rigid personnel system that make it hard to compete with the pri-
vate sector in recruitment of employees during times of need. Furthermore,
a more profound issue lies with the roots of the U.S. public service system:
the tension between democracy and merit. Controversies have always
existed regarding the proper limits of governmental institutions, control
over bureaucracy (all three branches), and the nature and quality of public
service (Ingraham, 1995). These tensions lead to discussions of whether
government should be limited in its function by set boundaries, whether
strategic decisions regarding government’s use of technology should be
made by technical and policy experts or by the general populace, and
whether government deserves to be in a position to hire and retain the best
and the brightest and possess and utilize the best of technology. In spite of
these controversies, demands for high-level governmental services have
never faded. National and international competitions have constantly
demanded that government strive to be the best and, hence, seek to employ
the best. The recent surge of the IT revolution once again put the
government on trial.
Strictly speaking, recruiting and retaining good employees in any job
category can be a challenge. Dedicated, energetic, and ethical employees are
always hard to find, and hiring individuals with special skills on top of those
qualities is even harder. Throughout the country, governments have invari-
ably had trouble hiring or retaining engineers of various kinds, for example,
civil engineers, transportation experts, or even police officers or lawyers,
because of a temporary short supply. Hiring IT professionals in the past
decade, however, topped the list of challenges.
First, IT is a relatively new profession. The demand for technology pro-
fessionals literally exploded within a very short period. Moreover, hiring
and retaining such employees have to be accomplished in the context of
uncertain budget situations, low compensation packages, and fixed human
resource procedures that are not compatible with this type of hiring
exercise.
Second, IT jobs are too important to leave vacant for an extended period
and wait for an appropriate hire. The nature of the job affects the operation
of the entire organization. IT provides critical organization-wide services.
If there is a system failure, a database error, a computer crash, an e-mail that
cannot go through, or a citizen service that cannot be provided, the effect is
immediately felt organization-wide (Toregas & Sterling, 2001-2002).
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