After successfully completing the Town Manager search for Waterville Valley, New Hampshire, the Select Board asked us to come back and help with the next hiring priority: multiple vacancies in the utility/wastewater department.
What did we do to help?
Hiring qualified water and wastewater operators has become a significant challenge for communities across the country, and the problem can be particularly difficult for smaller and rural systems. EPA says utilities face ongoing challenges recruiting, training, and retaining workers, with roughly one-third of the water-sector workforce eligible to retire within the next ten years. EPA has also specifically identified small and rural systems as facing challenges including operator turnover, limited financial resources, and an increasingly competitive market for qualified workers. Pretty much everyone we know in New England has the same experience, and we’ve seen job postings open for more than a year without finding a good applicant.
For Waterville Valley, Rethink Local approached the challenge as more than simply filling an open position. Our work included:
- Understanding the staffing problem before advertising the job. We reviewed and updated the Utility Department’s staffing structure, workload, budget constraints, job descriptions, pay ranges, and licensing requirements so that recruitment decisions reflected the Town’s actual operational needs now, importantly, in the future, as the Town begins a large treatment facility upgrade. We also filmed a short recruitment video, which sometimes can make all the difference!
- Creating multiple ways for the right person to enter the organization. Rather than assuming there was one ideal candidate, we developed options for recruiting licensed operators, more experienced supervisory candidates, operators licensed in other states, and people who might enter the profession without an existing license but could progress through a certification pathway.
- Reworking the positions and recruitment message. We developed multiple potential job postings with different experience, licensing, responsibility, and compensation levels, along with clearer language about why someone might want to work for the Town. This allowed the Town to cast a wider net instead of waiting for a narrowly defined candidate who might never apply.
- Expanding where and how the Town recruited. In addition to traditional municipal and industry job boards, we looked at additional recruitment channels, professional networks, direct outreach, and ways to reach people working in related public- and private-sector utility roles. Working with the Granite State Rural Water Association was extremely helpful, not just in helping identify license pathways, but in identifying potential applicants who would be a good fit.
The value of this approach is that the end product is not just a single recruitment. It gives a small municipality a clearer understanding of its staffing needs, more realistic pathways for bringing new operators into the profession, stronger recruitment materials, and a repeatable process it can use the next time a vacancy occurs. Waterville is going through a capital and operational transition, and is now much better prepared for the challenges that lie ahead.
What did Waterville Valley think about our work?
“Alex Torpey and Rethink Local have successfully supported the Town of Waterville Valley through two critical recruitment efforts this past year: the search for a new Town Manager and the hiring of key personnel for our Wastewater Treatment Facility, including a Superintendent.
Their organized, thoughtful, and professional approach not only resulted in multiple successful hires, but also ensured that Town decision makers were well‑informed and engaged at every step of the process.”
– Steve Royer, Assistant Town Manager, Waterville Valley, NH
