Some Seymour town hall employees haven’t had annual reviews in years.
Half the town’s employees are nearing retirement age — and there’s no succession plan set up.
And First Selectman Kurt Miller has 24 different department heads reporting to him on a daily basis.
Those were some of the highlights from a human resources review of Seymour town employees. Consultants from the Seymour company, The Human Resource Consulting Group, presented their report to the Board of Selectmen Tuesday at Seymour Town Hall.
Following the presentation, Miller said he planned to request $40,000 in the 2012 – 2013 budget to pay for human resources services.
“I think we need to start changing the way things are run in Seymour,” Miller continued. “And I think this is a very important first step.”
Some details highlighted in the human resources review:
- Seymour has 24 departments, and four unions. The total number of employees was not mentioned.
- The town lacks a mission statement.
- 50 percent of the workforce is older than 60 years old. But there is no plan in place for succession in major positions that could soon be vacated due to retirements.
- “Performance management,” or reviews and discipline, is not consistently applied in all departments.
- There is no structured training or professional development plan.
The human resources review was launched in March 2011. Robyn Pato, the manager of HR Consulting Services, said Seymour employees described the work atmosphere as “informal” and “stagnant.”
Miller said he was starting to address some of the major issues.
For example, he has started a regular weekly meeting of department heads. They are working to come up with a mission statement.
Miller said he also plans to start writing job descriptions. The current descriptions were written by the employees, Miller said, and are basically a list of day-to-day tasks.
Miller said the changes are a “work in progress.” He said the goal is to have a better work experience for employees and better output to make sure tax dollars aren’t being wasted.
