Jan. 12—HENDERSON — Jamie Dittmeyer, the city’s human resources director, shared some insight into Henderson’s employee shortages, as well as herself.

She’s been working since August, after former Director Elgin Lane retired.

“I can’t believe it has been that long,” she said. “Time flies by, it really does.”

Besides handling benefits for employees, she’s also in charge of finding new ones.

Henderson’s city government has a number of vacancies it’s been trying to fill for some time. The city engineer position sits empty, Public Works is 11 cards short of a full deck, even Recreation and Parks is missing a maintenance crew leader. The shortage has been going on for at least two to three years, by her reckoning.

The continuing shortage may “have a lot to do with advertising,” said the director. She’s looking for more platforms, à la Indeed or Glassdoor, on which to advertise vacant positions.

“We’re looking to do some things to improve that,” Dittmeyer said. Part of that process is looking for best practices — studying how other municipalities handle hiring and retention, seeing what works and what doesn’t and applying those lessons at home.

Indeed, employment efforts are divvied up into two realms — hiring, finding people for the job, and retention.

Recruitment is the tougher nut to crack, she said. Dittmeyer hopes that policies like offering hiring bonuses and implementing a referral program, which would reward employees for referring candidates to city positions, will encourage more people to apply.

The referral program hasn’t been implemented yet, but it is in the works and is close to being handed to the City Council for review, she said.

As for retention, Dittmeyer mentioned the city is hoping to find a firm to conduct compensation and pay studies within a “few months.” Those studies would compare salaries for Henderson’s workers to those in municipalities across the state and country. Henderson is growing, with at least two housing developments and the S-Line, so getting those positions filled will be “critical” to ensure the city can provide services to a larger population.

Story continues

Born in Montana, Dittmeyer would later get her degree in human resources from the University of Mount Olive.

“I had always been real interested in human resources,” said Dittmeyer, “even since my high school days. It interested me. I always liked dealing with people, helping people and with problems.”

She worked in customer service escalation at the time, so pursuing HR felt like a natural fit.

Dittmeyer later moved to Oxford to escape the cold climes of her home state, in part, and would go on to work for the Chapel Hill-based medical company, Virtual Benefit Solutions, as its HR director.

Though unaccustomed to some aspects of the public sector, like working with the city council and attending its meetings, she’s been settling in just fine.

“I’m still learning a lot, but I am doing really well, learning new things every day,” she said.

Dittmeyer has been making some good memories so far, too — recalling Community Cleanup Day. She and city staff got out into the community, met citizens and “got things cleaned up.”

“That was a highlight, so far,” she said.

She thanked City Manager Terrell Blackmon and everybody else who works for the city for their help in getting her adjusted.

“Everyone has been very gracious and welcomed me,” said Dittmeyer, “and I appreciate that.”