‘Deep wounds, trust issues and lack of morale’ alleged
Health district officials vowed to meet with employees after getting blasted at last week’s Washoe County District Board of Health meeting. The reason: A controversial Korn Ferry study, which changed Washoe County employee salaries, was criticized again by Northern Nevada Public Health employees. Those employees in NNPH’s environmental health division accused county officials of disregarding their input, fostering the worst morale issues they’ve experienced and creating an untenable situation.
The environmental health division (EHS), they said, was the most complex division at NNPH, without appropriate compensation, and NNPH leadership has not been open and transparent with employees.
They also said health officials refused to consider their concerns. The pay structure developed following the salary study was implemented so that longer-term employees were making less than their newer counterparts. Several county employees said the study’s implementation ignored concerns and created an apparent disparity.
County officials disputed the allegations.
“Washoe County had not conducted a salary study in over 20 years and was therefore not competitive with other public organizations and was losing talented, skilled and valuable employees to those other organizations,” county spokesperson Bethany Drysdale said. “In the end, all of the new salary ranges increased for the more than 2,000 employees covered by the study, and no employees’ pay was decreased.
“WCEA has not been made aware of any planned meetings or changes in management’s decisions, so nothing has changed”
“Employees who were hired at different times were affected differently, and that gives the perception of inequity,” she added. “That is unavoidable. There had to be a start date. Every position was adjusted to be competitive and fair. If we had to do it all over again, we would do it exactly the same way. We are receiving more applications for all levels of positions than we’ve ever seen before.”
Mia Gzebb, a health department employee, said the salary adjustments created inequality, despite concerns expressed before the wages were changed.
“New employees were given a 5.3% increase to meet the bottom of the range,” she said. “And employees over one year of experience, who had completed training and probation, were given a 0.3% increase of $0.11. Our 5% merit above the base wage that we earned on our one-year anniversary was effectively erased.”
Gzebb also said concerns were repeatedly raised with health department management but were not addressed.
“When we inquired about how this could happen and requested adjustments to fix this issue, we were given vague responses by county HR that did not acknowledge these inequities and did not adequately explain the decisions behind the denial,” she said during public comment at the board of health meeting. “These issues could have been solved months ago if HR leadership had decided to acknowledge our concerns instead of ignoring them and telling us there’s no solution.”
Another employee said the salary changes have led to low morale.
“The responses that we have received have less than left us feeling demoralized, belittled and frustrated,” Olivia Alexander-Leeder said.
And another employee repeated that concerns were consistently ignored.
“I have never witnessed the current level of poor morale or lack of leadership at the Health District for the staff within EHS,” Jim English said. He also said the department is being mismanaged. “For the past five years, EHS has been unable to meet the inspection requirements and state mandates. Five years. You can’t blame that on COVID.”
Justin Norton, Washoe County Employee Association president, said county officials did not consult his organization about the Korn Ferry study.
“The WCEA repeatedly shared employee concerns with HR and senior county management and made a recommendation [on] how to implement the study to avoid inequities, but the recommendation was not taken,” he told This Is Reno. “HR created an appeal process, and WCEA directed employees to utilize that process for any concerns. While we feel this process was not well executed and inequalities exist, we are not confident that we have any ability to challenge the execution, though we continue to consult with our legal counsel as issues are brought to us.”
After employees blasted Washoe County commissioners last Tuesday—and the District Board of Health on Thursday—health officials said they would meet with staff to discuss their concerns.
“Washoe County is providing an opportunity for NNPH to work together to resolve the unique salary equity issues that were raised by our staff,” health spokesperson Scott Oxarart said. “NNPH and District Board of Health leadership will be meeting with EHS staff after the holidays to discuss concerns and appropriate resolution.”
Norton said that was news to him.
“WCEA has not been made aware of any planned meetings or changes in management’s decisions, so nothing has changed from my previous response,” he told This Is Reno.
