KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Knoxville Mayor Indya Kincannon told councilmembers city wages were at a "breaking point" last year, in 2022.
She proposed a number of changes to boost employee recruitment and retention, including a 6% across-the-board salary increase and a $15 per hour minimum wage policy that went into effect on July 1, 2022.
Knoxville Civil Service Director Vicki Hatfield told the Civil Service Merit Board those raises have helped with retention — but not so much recruitment.
"[Recruitment] is a huge struggle. I mean, it's not just us, it's everywhere," she said. "We're simply not getting the applicant numbers that we used to get. They're just not applying in the first place."
She said they are losing a significant number of applicants between the time they apply and exams, like the ones required to join the Knoxville Police Department.
"We're still tracking downward on applicants, unfortunately, even after the compensation changes last year, which we really hoped would bring in new applicants with greater entry salaries," Hatfield told board members. "We actually went down another 10% since last July, so that one is continuing to track downward."
Assistant Fire Chief Mark Wilbanks said the fire department's recruitment is about more than just better pay.
"The biggest challenge is finding folks that actually want to work in the fire service," he said. "This is a 24-hour-a-day job. When you go to work, you're gone for 24 hours, you're away from your home and your family. You do sacrifice a lot doing this type of work."
He said the compensation is helping KFD to a certain extent.
"What we are seeing is more of our younger people are staying around," Wilbanks said. "But, it's hard to compete with places like Y-12 and ORNL fire departments that pay considerably more than the city does."
Hatfield said retention is improving citywide because of the pay raises.
"For the first time in about ten years, turnover trended in the right direction," Hatfield said. "I credit that to the compensation changes that HR made — employees that might have left otherwise, maybe they were retirement eligible or might have gone to another employer decided to stay."