Michigan Civil Service Commission may extend signing bonuses for hard-to-fill state jobs

LANSING — The Michigan Civil Service Commission will this month consider a plan to make signing bonuses and retention bonuses permanent for certain hard-to-fill jobs.

Under a pilot program, the state paid $165,000 in signing bonuses to 128 new employees who hold specified jobs in information technology, as occupational safety advisors, and as auditors and financial analysts, during the 2023 fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, officials said.

The bonuses range from $2,500 to $5,000, depending on the job, with half paid at the time of hiring and the other half paid after completion of a probationary period.

The state says it didn't pay any retention bonuses under the pilot program for those jobs, but wants to keep retention bonuses as an option.

"Making the pilot program permanent provides departments the flexibility to offer recruitment incentives for certain high in-demand positions," said Lauren Leeds, a spokeswoman for the Office of State Employer in the Department of Technology, Management and Budget.

The state "needs every tool possible to attract, recruit and retain a talented workforce," she said.

The commission is expected to take up the issue at its Dec. 13 meeting, spokesman Kurt Weiss said.

The state has had difficulty finding and retaining employees in certain jobs, particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic began around March 2020, but in some cases even before that.

The pilot program up for discussion Dec. 13 is only one of several programs under which the state pays signing and/or retention bonuses in connection with certain jobs.

For example, new corrections officers at the Michigan Department of Corrections are approved for signing bonuses under the current state budget and nurses in the MDOC have been eligible for signing bonuses for years, Leeds said.

The total amount of signing bonuses and retention bonuses paid under all such programs last year was not immediately available.

Also, about 3,000 of the state's roughly 50,000 employees, whose jobs are not directly represented by unions, are eligible for performance bonuses. The state paid 1,546 employees just over $5.6 million in one-time, lump-sum bonuses during the 2021 fiscal year, the most recent year for which figures were immediately available.

The Civil Service Commission has four members, appointed by the governor. No more than two members can come from the same political party.

Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @paulegan4.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Commission may extend signing bonuses for hard-to-fill state jobs