The Town of Slave Lake has a hard time holding on to employees. As many as a dozen have left this year so far, and according to a recent report, “with a total staff complement of 35, a total of 43 employees have terminated in the past two years.”
As of last week the Town four employees short, needing to fill a spots in Public Works, Utilities and Economic Development, as well as finding a replacement for long-time Director of Operations Allan Anderson.
The difficulty in retaining staff is a headache, says Town Manager Jay Simons. But he thinks that with recent policy changes – including pay raises – the situation should improve.
“I think morale has improved significantly,” he says.
Morale has been an issue. It came up in a recent human resources review the Town commissioned to probe the workings of the organization.
In its Feb. 19 summary, the consultant’s report said, “Existing staff were asked for their views on the reasons for staff leaving the Town. Wage levels, communication problems, staff morale and inconsistent application of policy were cited as possible reasons.”
The report went on to say that, “Job satisfaction is low, and employees do not feel that their contribution is appreciated or recognized.”
A number of recommendations came out of the review, all of which Slave Lake Town council accepted. Simons says some have already been implemented, with positive results. These include wage level adjustments (to bring them in line with the market) and the hiring of a Human Resources Coordinator. His name is Mike Balaski, and he’s supposed to devote half his time to human resources and the other half to administrative support duties.
“One of his jobs is to look at all those (human resources) policies,” says Simons. “You’ll see them come to council at regular intervals.”
What policies are those? They’re the ones, according to the report (based on employee interviews), “that were irrelevant, outdated, ignored, inconsistently applied and not used.” They include policies on hiring, orientation, vacation, leaves of absence, overtime, grievance procedure and discipline.
A separate new development in the human resources area is the formation of a Workplace Initiative Committee. It will give employees a forum to present their complaints or ideas that they feel they haven’t been able to air through the regular channels. Its purpose will be twofold, Simons says – to serve as an arbitrator in disputes, and “all human resources policies will be vetted by the committee.”
Another report recommendation was to separate ‘works’ from ‘water’, or in other words public works from utilities. There had been one foreman over both of those departments, but now there are two.
The human resources review grew out of a recommendation by Simons to council last year, after he’d been on the job for a few months. He says that the organization wasn’t in good shape.
“I didn’t come here to make change,” he says. “But it wasn’t working. Council wasn’t happy.”
But neither were some staff members happy with the possibility of sweeping changes. There were questions raised about Simons’ leadership style, and they were presented to council. Simons puts it down to fearmongering.
“There was a lot of alarm before the report even came out,” he says. “But the recommendations are quite minor.”
Actual changes in personnel as a result of the recommendations don’t amount to much. The Human Resources position was created. The extra foreman’s job was created. The Special Events Coordinator position went from half time to full time.
Otherwise, a new department of Administration has been created, taking over various aspects of administration that had not necessarily been under that formal heading before. The corporate clerk position, records management, human resources, corporate strategic planning, office maintenance, business licensing, police support, contract management and capital operational planning and budgeting are among them. That’s Simons’ bailiwick, where he’s helped out by new admin, support person Pat Fremit. The Planning and Development Officer now reports directly to the Town Manager, rather than to the operations department.
Keeping good employees is a challenge for every employer in Slave Lake, not just the Town, as Mayor Ray Stern pointed out to The Leader in an interview. Stern says he’s hopeful, though, that as the report’s recommendations are implemented, the situation will improve.

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