WELLINGTON COUNTY – County managers are keeping an eye on staffing levels in an effort to deploy staff as effectively as possible with COVID-19 restrictions in place, reports administration, finance and human resources committee chair Chris White.
“All our staff and department heads are watching staffing levels very closely,” White told Wellington County councillors at the April 30 meeting.
“We haven’t brought on the summer students and some of the casual workers, and there are some full-time positions that are remaining vacant, but at the same time we’re finding ourselves redeploying staff.”
White noted that as a result of a staff member at Wellington Terrace testing positive for COVID-19 several weeks ago, 12 employees had to be isolated and were unavailable for work for a period of time.
“We need to keep our bench strength up,” White pointed out.
An April 30 press release notes the county continues to actively redeploy available staff to the Wellington Terrace Long-Term Care Home and to assist at county child care centres currently providing emergency child care for health care workers and first responders.
The county currently employs approximately 925 people and almost half of them work at either Wellington Terrace (approximately 316) or in the Children’s Early Years Division (approximately 122).
“Many services provided by the county are considered essential and have continued during this time on either a full or modified basis,” the release states.
There county notes there are only 13 full-time employees from other departments who are unable to perform their daily work from home due to the nature of those positions. Ten of those 13 have been redeployed to assist at Wellington Terrace along with several other part-time staff members.
Other county employees have opted to take a leave of absence during this time, the release states.
“It’s essential that we continue to keep all available employees on a rotating redeployment schedule,” said Warden Kelly Linton.
“All available staff will be redeployed to Wellington Terrace and/or our emergency Child Care Centres to assist with screening, cooking, housekeeping and other administrative duties as required.”
Human resources director Susan Farrelly said, “If an employee was to test positive for COVID-19 at either Wellington Terrace or one of our Emergency Child Care Centres, multiple employees would need to be off in self-isolation simultaneously for an extended period of time.
“There would be a real ripple effect if more than one employee providing essential service tested positive. We need to ensure for service continuity purposes that we have staff members ready and available for redeployment at any time.”
White commended the county’s administration and human resources staff for quickly adapting to new realities.
“They’ve had a bit of a curveball thrown at them and I think they’ve responded very well,” White stated.
