SILER CITY — Commissioners gathered Monday at town hall for the first time since renovations began there in early 2020, meeting in the courtroom to unanimously approve a plan allowing town public works employees to receive increased pay for various certifications.
Town Manager Hank Raper brought the item before the board, saying other departments in town have a similar pay plan in place. It made sense, he said, to implement something similar in the public works department.
“We do not have that type of career development progressions program for the guys in public works,” he said. “We’re really just trying to put together some type of progressive program so that guys have opportunities to advance in their career without having to go through solely a promotional opportunity.”
The plan approved by commissioners would have pay increases for employees in the garage, street maintenance, sanitation and water/sewer maintenance divisions in the department based on certification completions.
Raper said the plan would give current and new employees an opportunity to advance their careers by creating an entry-level to supervisor model. When employees obtain certain qualifications or certificates from training, they will be provided an opportunity for a new position and higher pay.
“We want to try and recruit new employees and retain quality employees that we do have,” Raper said. “We want to make sure that we’re training them and developing them as much as possible so they’re in the best position to move up these supervisory roles or advanced, operate roles when they become available.”
Raper said the town would help provide access to certification training opportunities, as well as create positions for employees as they complete training. Some examples include obtaining a commercial driving license, becoming a certified utility location technician and more. Street maintenance workers at the entry-level will receive $1,000 for completing training programs, and street maintenance supervisors would receive $2,000.
Raper said he hopes this gives public works employees the opportunity to learn more about various disciplines and help provide help in different areas when needed.
“Part of the goal of this process to bring adequate training and develop our employees … so we can assist each other with a variety of tasks that come before us,” he said. “We want more of a blending of that so that way we have ‘all hands on deck’ to solve whatever problems that we have.”
Reporter Taylor Heeden can be reached at theeden@chathamnr.com.