A Guide to Hiring and Retaining Local Government Workers

A Breakdown on the Issue

Local governments are the backbone of functioning communities, responsible for everything from clean water to road maintenance and emergency services. These essential services depend on a dedicated workforce. But that workforce is increasingly hard to find and keep.

As of late 2023, state and local governments had 850,000 open positions with only 330,000 hires that month. It’s a wide gap that illustrates the recruiting challenge still present today. Case in point, 51% of HR managers frequently have to reopen job postings due to insufficient candidate pools.

The retirement wave compounds the challenge. Nearly 38% of the local government workforce is expected to retire within five years, taking decades of institutional knowledge with them.

The hiring pipeline is squeezed at both ends. Thanks to baby boomer retirements, experienced staff are leaving faster than agencies can replace them. Among staff who remain, 77% say departures have increased their workload, which increases burnout and attrition rates over time.

Clearly, the stakes are significant. Understaffed agencies struggle to deliver the services communities depend on. This article explores what’s driving the local government recruiting challenge and what agencies can do about it.

Why Does It Matter?

One of the consequences of turnover is the loss of institutional knowledge. When an experienced employee quits or retires, they leave with years of accumulated understanding about asset conditions, maintenance protocols, agency practices, and operational history. That knowledge is rarely documented well enough to be transferred.

CentralSquare customers, like the City of Gresham, OR, have experienced this firsthand. When agencies rely on informal knowledge-sharing, they often have to start from scratch when a tenured employee walks out the door. Mission-critical information needs to live in a system, not just in a person’s head.

Many seasoned employees are leaving, or plan to in the next few years. According to a survey of 592 local government leaders, 1 in 4 don’t envision themselves working in a government role within the next two years.

This turnover, combined with growing service demands and an increasingly complex operating environment, makes local government talent retention critical.

How Do We Recruit the Right People?

Recruiting and retention require a more deliberate approach than many agencies take. The following public administration best practices address four of the most common gaps, from how positions are posted to how employees are supported once hired.

1. Standardize the Hiring Process

According to ICMA, many government agencies lack a standardized approach to recruitment. Hiring managers often start from scratch, writing job descriptions and figuring out where to post them without guidance. The result is inconsistency across departments and longer time-to-hire.

Standardization helps both applicants and agencies. When candidates know what to expect (e.g. a clear job description, consistent communication, and a predictable timeline), they’re more likely to stay engaged. And when hiring managers work from a shared framework, they spend less time reinventing the wheel and more time evaluating candidates.

According to a 2023 NLC article, 36% of HR leaders reported an increase in time to hire. On average, time to hire in the public sector is significantly longer than the private sector, making it harder to compete for qualified candidates.

Keeping job descriptions current matters too. Outdated postings that misrepresent the role lead to poor-fit hires, which increases turnover rates. Reviewing job duties regularly and maintaining local government job resources ensures you’re attracting candidates who are actually good fits.

2. Embrace Unconventional Hiring Practices

Local government roles may be “invisible” to the younger generation of workers. They may not understand what public administration jobs involve or the range of careers offered.

Meeting candidates where they are matters. That means promoting local government job postings at career fairs, university career centers, and community events—not just government job boards. Platforms like LinkedIn and Indeed reach audiences that government websites don’t, and they allow agencies to present themselves as modern, mission-driven employers.

Employee referrals are another underused channel. Current staff are your most credible advocates. Encourage them to share job postings on their own networks and articulate what makes your agency a good workplace. Formal job listings can’t replicate this level of authenticity.

Broadening your outreach doesn’t just fill positions faster. It also builds long-term community awareness of local government careers.

3. Create an Environment Where Employees Want to Stay

Recruiting younger workers requires understanding what they actually want. According to Handshake research, Gen Z priorities have evolved from previous generations. More than a well-paying job, they want work-life balance (78%), learning and development opportunities (87%), and employer values that align with their own (65%).

Local government jobs are actually well-positioned to meet several of these priorities, including stable employment, work-life balance, meaningful community impact, and public service values. The challenge is communicating them effectively.

Building that connection starts internally. Employees who feel connected to their community and their mission are more likely to stay.

• Community events are a natural touchpoint between residents and staff, and an opportunity to build trust.
• Citizen feedback programs, like surveys, create a sense of shared purpose and help community members feel heard.
• Modern tools that allow staff to work effectively, instead of fighting outdated software, show that your agency invests in its people.

4. Prioritizing Employee Well-Being

Burnout is one of the biggest drivers of turnover in local government. According to a CivicPulse survey, 39% of local government leaders report feeling burned out. That number rises to 53% among managers across industries.

Preventing burnout requires an investment of time and money. By providing employee wellness programs, access to therapy or counseling, and peer support groups, your staff can get the stigma-free support they need before reaching a breaking point.

Team cohesion matters as well. When employees feel overwhelmed and isolated, they are more likely to disengage and leave. Regular team-building helps staff feel less alone in the work and better equipped to tackle community challenges together.

A supported team is a stable team. And a stable team serves the community better.

Investing in People Is Investing in Your Community

The workforce challenges facing local government aren’t going away on their own. Retirements, long time-to-hire, and burnout are connected issues. Addressing them as such produces better outcomes than treating each one as a separate challenge.

Agencies that take a holistic approach are better positioned to keep institutional knowledge in-house and staff invested in their communities. That includes standardizing hiring, meeting candidates where they are, investing in workplace culture, and supporting employee well-being.

By investing in your people today, you can position your municipality to be effectively serving its citizens in five years. Schedule a conversation today to learn how CentralSquare tools can help your agency build and retain a stronger team. Your work is too important to leave understaffed.

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