News – Sheridan Media
Sheridan’s cost of living along with the city’s pay rate are working against the city when it comes to recruiting and retaining city employees.
At Monday’s Sheridan’s City Council meeting, Human Resources Director Heather Doke said since 2017, the city has seen a 10-15% turnover rate each year.
The rate was 13%, or 24 employees last year, six of which retired, while the other 18 left for jobs with more pay.
Doke says it costs the city about 6-to-9 months of an employee’s pay to replace them and last year it cost the city between $628-thousand to $1 million.
So far this year, eight employees have either left or given notice, three of which retired, while the rest left for either better pay or better benefits.
If the trend continues, the city stands to lose a total of 36 employees by the end of the year and so far the city has received about half of the number of job applicants compared to this time last year.
In terms of cost of living, not counting Jackson, Sheridan was number two in the state, and was tied with Gillette at number two, in cost of living index.
Cheyenne was number one in both categories.
At the city council meeting Doke read an email from a firefighter applicant out of Colorado, who had to turn down a job offer.
Heather Doke
“With inflation like it is, and the mortgage rates going up as drastic as they are, we just could not do it. It would have made our mortgage payment go up nearly $1,000 a month. Our hopes were to purchase a home similar to what we have, and possibly a few acres. Had this been a year or two ago, we would be calling Sheridan home.”
Doke added that in a pay survey of six fire departments in Wyoming, Sheridan was last of the six.
A pay survey of 10 police departments in Wyoming, showed that Sheridan was number eight.
In the past 17 years, the Sheridan Police Department has been fully staffed for a total of only four months.
Doke says sometimes, officers are going to the Sheriff’s Department for more pay.
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Last modified: February 8, 2023