Planning Through the Great Reshuffle: Checking in with Planners in PA

Planning as a profession has kept a studious eye on the COVID-19 pandemic as it promises, even as it declines, to redefine everything from where we live to how we work.

At the same time, the government, private sector, and nonprofit organizations that employ planners have had to navigate extremely challenging fiscal and hiring environments. As the Great Resignation reaches a scale large enough to cause some to now term it the Great Reshuffle, we thought it would be timely to check in with leaders across the state and see how organizations at all levels are faring.

For a state perspective, we asked Justin Dula, of the PA Department of Environmental Protection’s Office of Environmental Justice about his experiences. Justin shares, “COVID has changed the way we work in the public sector. For a long time, governments encouraged remote working as a way to help limit stresses on transportation systems but were hesitant to adopt remote working policies themselves. After over a year of public sector employees working from home, these systems were largely adopted by governments. Now, in order to remain competitive with private employers, many government employers are offering virtual or hybrid work options for employees. In this tight job market, it is important for the public sector to remain flexible in order to be competitive in attracting talent.”

Lancaster County Planning Commission Director Scott Standish shares challenges specific to hiring: “… we have certainly been impacted by the challenge of filling several vacancies on our staff – from the administrative level to our deputy director’s positions. We are having more success in hiring entry level planners right now over more experienced ones. All of that is to say, we have had to become more strategic in the way that we are utilizing our limited staff resources. This has resulted in the staff needing to be more agile and re-assigning tasks to achieve our highest priority goals. From a more positive outlook, we were already in the process of re-organizing the office to be more effective, efficient, and customer friendly – the last two years has certainly accelerated that effort.”

At the local level, State College Borough is facing similar issues. Ed LeClear, Director of the Borough’s Planning & Community Development Department notes, “From a local government perspective, we held open a large number of vacancies during the first two years of the pandemic and only recently began hiring again. Besides the obvious burn-out and morale issues caused by doing more with less during COVID, two challenges became immediately apparent: (1) Our pay scale is set by governing body action and is based on a consultant-led pay study that was conducted before COVID. We do not have the flexibility to pivot to increase wages like the private sector which puts us at a considerable disadvantage when trying to recruit talent. It will likely be 2023 before we have an updated pay-scale, which will put us even further behind. And (2) Local government has to be responsive to our residents which means we have to be physically present for work in our building. Recruiting high-quality and in-demand talent is challenging with working-from-home is not an option.”

Meanwhile, Lawrence County’s Planning Department has been insulated from staffing changes. Planning Director Amy McKinney shares that, “as a department with a small number of employees, the challenge has instead been continuing to offer quality service to the municipalities as the amount of work handed to the Planning Department grows.” 

From grappling with how to stay competitive as an employer to managing increased workloads with the same or fewer people, from maintaining staff wellness to bridging the in-person/work-from-home divide, it is clear that planners and the organizations that hire them must maintain an incredible degree of flexibility and responsiveness.

For those seeking to fill positions, remember to leverage your APA-PA membership. The PA Chapter posts employment opportunities on our website as well as on our social media accounts at no charge for members, reaching over 2500 member planners!