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Public safety workers in Troup County could soon be getting advancement bonuses as part of a proposed employee incentive program.

Representatives from the sheriff’s and marshal’s office along with the fire department and 911 discussed a planned employee recruitment and retention program for public safety employees during the Troup County Board of Commissioners work session on Tuesday morning.

Emergency Management Director Zac Steele said public safety leaders began collaborating with County Manager Eric Mosley a couple of months ago to discuss ideas to improve public safety recruitment and retention. 

“We started borrowing some ideas from other agencies and started building ideas for a pay scale for recruitment and retention,” Steele said. “We’ve come up with individual matrixes where you can earn raises.”

If approved by the commissioners public employees can earn raises and bonuses for earning certain certifications, Steele said, suggesting that similar incentives could be used for all employees who attain higher education.

“It gives them a reason and something to look forward to. A lot of times we get asked when people come to work here, ‘What’s my future like if I want to grow here? What are areas that we can offer?’ And a lot of times, especially in the fire department, what we say there’s room for promotion to sergeant, lieutenant and battalion chief throughout your career. But some of those people starve for more throughout their career,” Steele said.

“Having smart employees will lead to better production, less liability and it will reward the employee with a paid stipend upon the completion of their certification goals,” said TCSO Lt. Stewart Smith.

Full and part-time employees, both certified and civilian staff, will be eligible after they complete their probationary period, Smith said.

A set of preapproved classes that will benefit both the employee and the agency will be allowed and paid for by the agencies. If classes are not preapproved, employees can speak with their supervisor for approval.

“When you start investing in people, they start feeling good about themselves. If they feel good about themselves, that’s just going to shine a light on everybody else that’s around them and makes other people want to step up and be there,” said Troup County Marshal Keith Flory.

Fire Chief Michael Strickland said they have invested considerable time to make sure every department is involved and the plan is fair and equitable for all employees.

“We have firefighters that come in, the younger firefighters, they have a quest for knowledge. They want to learn things. They want to grow, they want to make this a career. We certainly want to encourage them to do that,” Strickland said.

The program would help more with retention than recruitment currently as, surprisingly, there is only one open position in public safety as of last week. The incentive program would also require employees to sign off on a two-year commitment to their departments.

“This increase in pay is going to be excellent to make a better employee professionally, not only for our departments but also for citizens,” Troup 911 Director Shannan McLaughlin said. “We have many [employees] that are capable of becoming certified training officers, but we want to encourage them to want more. I want them to want my job.”County considers public safety incentive program