HomeMy WebLinkAboutINS-19-013 - Conversion of Positions from Temporary Full-Time to Permanent Full-Time StatusREPORT TO:Community and InfrastructureServices Committee
DATE OF MEETING:August 12, 2019
SUBMITTED BY:Denise McGoldrick,GM Infrastructure Services,519-741-2600 x4657)
MichaelMay, DCAO and GM Community Services, 519-741-2200 x7079)
PREPARED BY:Denise McGoldrick,GM Infrastructure Services,519-741-2600 x4657)
Michael May, DCAO and GM Community Services, 519-741-2200 x7079)
WARD (S) INVOLVED:All
DATE OF REPORT:July 29, 2019
REPORT NO.:INS-19-013
SUBJECT:Conversion of Positions from Temporary Full-Time to
Permanent Full-Time Status
__________________________________________________________________________________________
RECOMMENDATION:
THAT the following temporary positions be converted to full-time positions:
Five (5) Parks Maintainers
One (1) Operations Technologist
One (1) Utilities Maintenance Assistant Gas and Water
Two (2) Office and Program Assistants in Community Centres
BACKGROUND:
The City of Kitchener has adopted a rigorous approach to vacancy management, which ensures
that there-
time staff positions) without prior Council approval. As a result, staffing levels have remained
relatively static in relation to growth and in fact the number of staff per capita ratio has decreased
over the past five years as demonstrated in figure 1.
The City of Kitchener is proud of its culture of continuous improvement and ensuring its
resources are optimized to the maximum extent possible to meet service growth,changing
service expectations, and regulatory service changes triggered by other levels of government.
From time to time, existing positions not included in the core complement warrant being made
permanent due to the ongoing nature of the work. In these situations, staff have recommended
to Council that these positions be converted from temporary status to permanent full-time status.
Previous reports to Council requesting conversion of temporary staff to permanent status were
made in spring 2013 and fall 2011.
***This information is available in accessible formats upon request. ***
Please call 519-741-2345 or TTY 1-866-969-9994for assistance.
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Figure 1: The ratio of City of Kitchener employee headcount (permanent full-time equivalents)
compared to the population of Kitchener.
Converting positions from temporary to permanent full-time status typically has no financial
implication to the City. It does however address three concerns:
1)It ensures that the City continues to act in good faith with respect to itscontracts with the
inrelation to the
maximum allowable length of temporary assignments;
2)Itdemonstrates an intent to treat all employees fairly and with the same level of
commitment on the part of the organization which fosters higher levels of employee
engagement and morale; and,
3)Itrecognizes that Employment Standards make little distinction between long-term
employees and permanent full-time employees as it relates to notice and severance
requirements.
REPORT:
Nine positions in two departments are recommended for conversion from temporary to
permanent full-time status. These recommendations are a result of internal review of service
capacity, changing regulatory requirements and/or are linked to council approved support for
program plans. Many of these conversions are time-sensitive as they relate to winter
maintenance planning activities and/or have seen multiple contract extensions. These positions
are described in more detail below.
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Parks Maintainer (5 positions)
Over the past 20 years, there has been no addition of any full time equivalent (FTE)role within
the frontline park operations team.Growth impacts have been mitigated through significant
advances in efficiency and saving; developing better routing, understanding equipment needs
and delivering enhanced shift structures to maximize equipment use, which has largely allowed
staff to maintain acceptable service levels. However, increasingly, and particularly over the past
5 years, an increase in temporary staff to address pressureshas seen a significant proportion
of the operational workforce consisting of temporary staff. Staffing within Parks and Cemeteries
is approximately 44 FTEs,with between 25 and 70 temporary staff from season to season. In
2018, 73 temporary staff were hired within the division.
Temporary staff will always be a key component of the Parks and Cemeteries operations. In
summer particularly, the significant seasonal demands mean that temporary staff will always be
required to support base operations. However, in winter, the reliance on temporary staff is
relatively new; less than 10 years ago, the City did not engage any temporarystaff in the winter
season. The growth in temporary staff has been as a response to growth in the Cityand changes
to provincial minimum maintenance standards.
The significant reliance on temporary staff has several impacts:
In winter particularly, the inability for temporary staff to undertake overtime means that 3
shifts need to be utilized to provide24 hour cover. FTE staff have access to overtime and
could largely provide the same cover in two shifts with overtime during weather events,
allowing for more productive use of staff at peak hours.
There are significant 'soft costs' associated with temporary staff; supervisors spend
approximately 3 months hiring for both the winter and summer season including advertising,
recruitment and training, on average this utilizes approximately11 hours of dedicated
supervisory time per hire. This accounts for 418hours of supervisory time; in addition, this
process is also supported by an estimated 185 hours of Human Resourcestime and almost
50 hours of Fleet time.
Each new temporary staff member requires around 52 hours of equipment training. In 2019,
10 new parks staff training had a lost operating time cost of $24,000 in summer.
Almost 78% of the Parks & Cemeteriestemporary staff return contract after contract -
continually being re-recruited and on boarded every 6 months.
Permanent FTE staff have several advantages. In a changing climate where shoulder seasons
see early and late growth and can see extended seasonal use of parks, having a broader FTE
complement means greater flexibility to meet seasonal needs. With changing patterns of
weather in winter, having staff familiar with summer operations means the City isable to change
and undertake summer activities more efficiently with a larger number of cross-season trained
FTE staff. For the staff, having a secure, year round role with benefits and security provides a
greater degree of engagement opportunity with the City.
For these reasons, it is recommended that five temporary positions beconverted to permanent
full-time status.
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Operations Technologist (1 position)
nd
On June 11, 2018, Council received staff report CAO-18-013 (2Quarter Audit Status Report),
which provided the results of the Winter Maintenance Comprehensive Audit. One
recommendation to assist with existing gaps in data management and analysis related to winter
operations was tocreate a permanentposition as a shared resource for Parks and Cemeteries
and Operations-Roads & Traffic.A temporary Operations Technologist was engaged to
implement the recommendations from the audit and to confirm the ongoing need for the staff
resource.
In addition to the work on the recommendations from the Comprehensive Winter Maintenance
Review, the temporaryOperations Technologist has enabled progress on key projects such as
the Regional Maintenance Agreement analysis; LEAN reviews; and has identified approximately
$200,000 in previously unrecovered revenue.
With the complexity of the roads and parks operations, the need to analyze expenditures and
revenues, evaluate innovativeand more productive ways to delivereveryday coreservices while
also supportingstrategic corporate initiatives (e.g. protected bike lane pilots, Complete Streets,
Love My Hood, Development Services Review); staff are recommending the conversion of the
temporary Operations Technologist to a permanent position.
Utilities Maintenance Assistant -Gas and Water (1 position)
The Water Infrastructure Program (WIP) Review (2017) was a comprehensive review of both
capital andoperating infrastructure needs to achieve required service levels for the water,
sanitary and stormwater utilities. A significantresourcing gap was identified for the maintenance
programs to shift the utility from a reactive maintenance program to a preventative maintenance
program. To assist in developing more formal preventative maintenance program,a temporary
utilities maintenance assistant was retained. This position directly supportsthe water
maintenance programs by scheduling, compiling reports, creating, monitoring and closing work
orders and ensuring that follow-up work is scheduled, completed and invoiced.
Although this position is largely required for water, there are similar maintenance requirements
on the gas system. The majority of staff work on both gas and water so scheduling is required
for both systems and individual workloadand commitments impacts the other utility. Without
resources to properly plan/schedule activities to address the maintenance backlog and follow-
up work, the maintenance related commitments made under WIP cannot be achieved. Staff are
recommending the conversion of the temporary Utilities Maintenance Assistant to permanent
status.
Community Centre Staffing Forest Heights & Stanley Park Community Centres(2 positions)
In 2016, the Community Centre section underwent a very extensive reorganization of the staffing
it was discovered that the community needs a
Community Centre and Stanley Park Community Centre) were not being met by the new staffing
model. Both of these centres serve larger geographic areas of the community than most other
centres, which adds work demands on staff at the centre. These two centres also host two of
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the largest and most active Neighbourhood Associations in the City. In the last year, between
these two centres, there were over 700 registered programs, numerous drop-in programs, and
a significant number of large special events.All of this increased activity requires additional staff
support.
In order to respond to the community need at both of these centres, in October 2017 staff started
a trial to convert existing part-time Office and Program Assistant (OPA) positions at both centres
to full-time positions on a temporary basis. It had been found that, with only part-time hours, staff
were not able to keep up with the demands of the centre and provide service to the community
in a timely manner.Utilizing full-time temporary staff through this trial, operations at those
centres stabilized and staff were able to provide appropriate service and support to the
Neighbourhood Associations, community partners and residents. This temporary trial confirmed
that converting these part-time positions to full-time positions met the community need at both
centres.For that reason, staff are recommending these two temporary full-time OPA positions
be converted to full-time on a permanent basis.
ALIGNMENT WITH CITY OF KITCHENER STRATEGIC PLAN:
the delivery of core service.
FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS:
There are no financial implications associated with the recommendations. The following outlines
the funding sources for the positions proposed to be converted from temporary to permanent
full-time status.
Parks Maintainer (5 positions)
The cost for these positions will continue to be funded through the tax-operatingbudget for the
Parks and Cemeteries division.
Operations Technologist (1 position)
The cost for this position will continue to be funded 50% through the tax-operating budget for
theParks and Cemeteries division and 50% through the tax-operating budget for the Operations-
Roads and Traffic division.
Utilities Maintenance Assistant Gas and Water (1 position)
The cost for this position will continue to be funded from thewater utility operating budget..
Office and Program Assistant Community Centres (2 positions)
The cost for this position will continue to be funded from the tax-operating budget for the
Neighbourhood Programs and Services division.
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT:
INFORM
council / committee meeting.
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PREVIOUS CONSIDERATION OF THIS MATTER:
Previous reports to increase the permanent full-time equivalent headcount include:
FCS-13-053 Conversion of Positions from Temporary Full-Time to Permanent Full-Time
Status
FCS-11-193Parking System Administrator Position, Director Purchase Representative
Position, Senior Quality Assurance Position
ACKNOWLEDGED BY: Dan Chapman, CAO
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