Elgin councilwoman questions hiring recruiters

An Elgin councilwoman says the city should look at ways to save money when looking for employees before hiring recruiters, especially for midlevel positions.

Elgin has spent $65,000 in the last two years, according to information obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request.

"We need to look at social media. I don't think we used LinkedIn to advertise our positions, and that's really big right now," Councilwoman Tish Powell said. "I know a lot of people who got jobs off LinkedIn. That's a lower cost and could be a very effective option."

Recruiters were hired to look for candidates for seven positions, two of which were filled when Director of Public Services Greg Rokos was hired in March 2014 and Director of Communications Kristine Rogowski was hired in early January. The five remaining positions - chief financial officer and four engineers - are still unfilled, Rogowski said.

Hiring recruiters makes sense for top posts like the police chief, fire chief and CFO, Powell said.

"When you look at the salary for the position that we're recruiting for, basically the investment we're making in that person, what we're paying them and how long they stay, ($65,000) it's not a huge amount of money," she said. "However, if there are other ways to accomplish this - with midlevel management positions in particular - we should try to pursue those first."

Elgin's human resources department - which includes three people plus a part-time payroll clerk and an intern - is small for a city its size, City Manager Sean Stegall said. The city has 626 full-time employees and 301 part-time employees.

"Most governments our size have at least six (HR employees), and anywhere from six to nine," he said. "Part of our model is to use consultants to supplement our workforce. That saves money for pensions and health insurance costs."

The search for Rokos cost about $21,500 while the search for Rogowski amounted to about $12,100.

Recruiters also have the skills and expertise to maximize diversity among applicants, Stegall said. Mayor David Kaptain agreed, pointing out diversification is among the city's goals. "You have to have a broad enough pool of applicants," Kaptain said.

The human resources department was directly responsible for hiring 32 people in the last two years, 30 of them police and fire department employees - for which HR administers testing and the board of fire and police commissioners conducts interviews - and two IT employees initially hired through a temp agency, Rogowski said.

HR Director Gail Cohen said she plans to work with Rogowski to start using social media to advertise positions.

"I agree it's something we need to do," she said. "The whole world of social media is out there and we're not using it. I want to look at using social media holistically by looking to the obvious and the not so obvious."

Councilman Toby Shaw said recruiters are often necessary, especially in specialized areas like engineering. "($65,000) doesn't sound astronomical to me for what we're doing," he said, adding his main concern is that the city only hires people when they are truly needed.

The CFO will be hired within a month at the earliest and the engineers within the next week or so, Stegall said.