Fife Council is facing a recruitment challenge with more than 2,000 employees leaving the organisation last year.
Filling vacant posts in Scotland’s third largest local authority is proving difficult, with national shortages impacting on recruitment.
Top hot spots include key frontline roles such as home carers, cleaners and HGV drivers.
However, there are also shortages of environmental health and planning officers, as well as maths and English teachers.
Human resources chief Sharon McKenzie says a huge amount of work is ongoing, both to keep existing staff and to attract people into the organisation.
Fife staff shortages ‘not unique’
The number of people leaving Fife Council in 2022-23 amounted to 11.2% of the total 18,400-strong workforce.
And Ms McKenzie said there is still a relatively high number of unfilled posts.
She added however: “The key message is Fife is not unique in terms of the challenges faced but the difficulties on the back of the pandemic are now starting to lessen a little bit.”
The figures emerged as it was revealed Fife Council’s staff sickness levels have reached a record high.
Growing pressure on workers due to staff shortages was cited as one of the key reasons for that.
Competition from private sector
Ms McKenzie says there is also an ageing workforce with many people retiring.
And competition from elsewhere has had an impact.
“A peak of recruitment post-pandemic meant competition for talent was significant,” Ms McKenzie said.
“The private sector paid incentives to attract staff, particularly HGV drivers.”
The situation is now becoming more positive with fewer job adverts and a higher number of applicants per role.
And the council is using a range of methods to attract people, including job fairs and social media.
“We are encouraged to see some signs of improvement,” added the HR head.
“A younger workforce is starting to come through and we’re looking at ways to reduce temporary contracts.”
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