How the Right Software Can Help Deal with Government Staff Shortages

It’s no secret that government staff shortages are widespread, affecting nearly every department in towns, cities, and counties across North America. While there are many factors behind this growing problem, what’s clear is that this issue requires everyone to work smarter and be creative. The right software can be a part of the effort to streamline government and help a slim workforce keep up with the needs of communities.

Research from the National League of Cities found employment in local government dropped by 300,000 workers from March 2020 to March 2022. The Great Resignation, when many employees voluntarily resigned from their jobs during the pandemic, set things in motion, but it’s been hard for governments to get back to full staff even years later.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce says the country is down 1.7 million people in its workforce compared to February 2020. Even if everyone unemployed got a job, America would still have millions of jobs that aren’t filled. Canada, too, is struggling to find enough workers. Across the country, there were just 1.4 unemployed people per job vacancy by early 2022 — a big drop from 2016, when there were 4.4 unemployed people per vacancy, according to Statistics Canada.

What’s Behind Government Staff Shortages?

A June 2024 opinion piece from Governing says part of the problem with government staff shortages owes to the Silver Tsunami. Officials have warned for a decade about the large percentage of the workforce nearing retirement age, without enough younger professionals coming up to take their place — and it’s here now. Still, there’s another problem: A “skills tsunami” as technology has rapidly advanced and available employees aren’t ready for the jobs of today.

According to Governing, there were 4 million job openings and 10.3 million unemployed people across civilian employment sectors in late 2013. A decade later, that dropped to 7.2 million unfilled jobs and 6.2 million unemployed. During this time, state and local government job openings climbed from 298,000 to 746,000.

Worker shortages burden employees who remain in government departments, which can contribute to increased burnout and make turnover even worse. Governing recommends agencies should:

• Focus on expected retirements and promotions.
• Improve retention by reviewing pay increases and the overall work experience.
• Look for opportunities to teach new skills so employees can work more effectively with rapidly advancing technology.

How Software Helped One City Do More with Less

Like many other local governments across Canada, the City of Brockville, Ontario, was dealing with a government staff shortage. That’s why officials there decided to streamline the way they did community development by switching to Cloudpermit beginning in 2022.

The city’s Chief Building Official, Sebastian Scott, said the community previously had “non-practical steps” like writing reports in the field and re-entering it at the office. It was becoming a problem as the staff was down by an inspector due to retirement, and they knew they had to reduce administrative tasks to make up the difference.

By using our community development software’s online platforms for permitting and enforcement, he said Brockville has brought new levels of efficiency and transparency to its permitting and enforcement services.

In our industry, we're dealing with a shortage of staff, regardless of the technology or software we adopt. Without the right tools in this job market, it's challenging to attract talent,” Scott said. “Municipalities must provide the necessary resources for their staff to succeed. Online software like Cloudpermit is one of these critical resources.”

Getting Creative to Address the Staff Shortage

According to Governing, a job’s salary remains a top priority for all applicants — and that’s why local governments need to match private-sector positions and no longer rely on job security in government as being enough in hiring.

The National Association of Counties cited examples of counties getting creative and changing their policies to find enough employees for their departments. There’s a big reason why this is so crucial now: Local government was one of only two sectors that hadn’t returned to pre-pandemic employment levels nearly three years after COVID emerged. The only other sector? Mining and logging.

The association pointed to changes nationwide in response to ongoing government staff shortages. In San Juan County, Washington, for example, the county rolled out a 32-hour work week to address a job vacancy rate of more than 10%. Shortening the work week while increasing pay could help provide flexibility for potential employees and make these government positions more attractive.

Fairfax County, Virginia, started a low-cost daycare program for its staff and raised county employee wages to deal with a 14% job vacancy rate. In Harris County, Texas, the county decided to take questions about criminal history off its job applications, giving applicants a fair chance to be considered without the bias of a past criminal conviction or arrest.

Work Smarter with the Right Software

There have been signs of improvement in government hiring since the pandemic. The 2023 State and Local Government Workforce Survey reported more than three times as many governments were increasing their full-time hiring rather than decreasing it. Even so, only about 10% of survey respondents said the number of resignations and retirements was down from 2022, and because of that, job openings reached a 20-year high in 2023.

Local governments must be creative while improving their salaries, benefits, and work-life balance to match private-sector job opportunities. Still, the problem will likely take a while to resolve, and that means departments have to find ways to be more efficient and productive than ever with a lean workforce.

That’s one of the big reasons why finding the right community development software should be a top priority for addressing government staff shortages. A comprehensive platform can speed up permit processing timelines, boost citizen engagement and transparency, and streamline how departments work and notify applicants of status updates.