Stretch roles and the planning industry's demographic weirdness

[MacheteJames]

I want to talk about something that I'm observing in the pool of candidates for planning leadership roles.

It is no secret that for years, planning salaries have failed to keep pace with housing and other cost of living increases. Couple the payscale with the requirement for night meetings and the decorum collapse of the past six years, and planning is a hard sell. I think our industry is losing talent to other fields because the secret about working conditions has gotten out.

With that said, those of us in management roles still need to make hires and fill roles so that work can get done. On this board, we've talked about how the lost generation of planners, those who graduated into the Great Recession and either took non-planning roles right off the bat or did a stint and were either made redundant or left the industry, never to return. And, the downstream results of that, how we now have a dearth of folks who are turnkey ready for leadership amidst mass boomer retirements.

As a compensatory strategy to get mid to senior roles filled, I'm seeing a lot of orgs that are making stretch hires - bringing in folks with 5ish years of experience, giving them a management title, a salary that's above that of individual contributor staff but less than that of the few seasoned managers that exist (in my market, say, $85-90k, as opposed to $120k), and letting them prove themselves. Usually they can. It can be a little odd to work alongside peers (both internally and externally) who are 15 years younger, but it all seems to be working? Crusty old planning board chairs expecting more seasoned municipal staff just have to make do.

Anyways, are other folks seeing this in the markets you work in?

 

[bureaucrat#3]

I have a senior planner role that has been advertised on and off for almost two years with two bumps in salary to try to get interest. Most of my applicants have 2 years of experience or less, have no experience, or they're on their 4th job in 5 years. I'm seen a couple of resumes and even interviewed at least one person that would be a great fit in planner role. I really need someone that I can hand off projects. I need someone who can do research, write some code, or lead an area plan. I haven't found a candidate yet that I feel good taking the reins.

I go back and forth between we're not paying enough or recruiting correctly. I think being a small/medium town in the deep south with little name recognition hurts.

I met with my counterpart in another city last week. They were probably at least 15 years younger than me. They're going to be a rock star if they don't burn out. Extremely smart and can handle the public/elected officials. I think they fit the definition of a stretch hire that will work out.

 

[SlaveToTheGrind]

I have a senior planner role that has been advertised on and off for almost two years with two bumps in salary to try to get interest. Most of my applicants have 2 years of experience or less, have no experience, or they're on their 4th job in 5 years. I'm seen a couple of resumes and even interviewed at least one person that would be a great fit in planner role. I really need someone that I can hand off projects. I need someone who can do research, write some code, or lead an area plan. I haven't found a candidate yet that I feel good taking the reins.

I go back and forth between we're not paying enough or recruiting correctly. I think being a small/medium town in the deep south with little name recognition hurts.

I met with my counterpart in another city last week. They were probably at least 15 years younger than me. They're going to be a rock star if they don't burn out. Extremely smart and can handle the public/elected officials. I think they fit the definition of a stretch hire that will work out.

I'd be interested in what the advertised salary/hourly is compared to mine.