OCEAN CITY — Updated salary and incentive packages for part-time seasonal employees were reviewed this week ahead of the summer recruitment season.
It’s no secret Ocean City has struggled to recruit, hire and retain much-needed seasonal part-time employees to fill out its ranks in several key departments. To that end, resort officials over the last few post-pandemic years have been coming up with creative ways inch up pay rates and add incentive programs to retain returning employees and attract new workers in almost every department.
Just this week, the Police Commission learned through the most recent testing dates in January, the Ocean City Police Department reported having 51 seasonal officer applicants with 16 failures for a variety of reasons, three conditional hires and 26 candidates still in the process. By comparison, last year the OCPD had 115 total applicants for seasonal officer positions, resulting in 42 hires. Similar numbers thus far bear out for the hiring process for much-needed public safety aides (PSAs).
Similar issues remain with the recruiting and hiring of municipal bus drivers and Boardwalk tram drivers and conductors. Last year, resort officials implemented an aggressive salary increase and incentive package for bus and tram drivers, and while the programs have nudged up the numbers, the ranks are still a little thin just months before the summer season ramps up again, Transportation Committee officials learned this week.
Similar issues remain with the Ocean City Beach Patrol, which continues to hold recruiting and testing sessions in advance of the summer season. Last summer, the Beach Patrol fell a little short of the desired number of Surf Rescue Technicians, resulting in creative deployment efforts to ensure the beach was covered.
Does not matter how much money you give them
Visiting folks to OCEAN CITY are extremely mean and violent … that does not include wanna be gangsta groups
All they want is poor girls & boys from Europe who will work for peanuts !!!!!
esp the Pretty ones !!
Challenge continues to be the mindset in charge. From elected officials to town government heads of departments. Leadership remains the same, yet the turnover with rank and file….to include the realized summer part time help cant be figured out. Doing the same thing over and over…maybe squeezing that very tiny budget brings in nada. Change starts at the top since the top is out of sync with todays societal change. The towns government is very aged. All this data is readily available via FOIA or reviewing the salaries that are posted yearly. Easy to determine age based salaries in todays internet capabilities. Plus if you have 30 yrs in with OC, why retire? Its easy once you are with the in crowd!!!!!