Correction appended.
Athens is looking for a new human resources director after the previous one left his position Sept. 6, for a company offering him double the pay of what he was earning from the city.
“Kelly Schultz got scooped by LinkedIn to take a job in Marietta with a company out of Marietta where headhunters learned about him and his skill sets,” Mayor Steve Patterson said.
Patterson said Shultz was an amazing individual with a great amount of experience and that his move was very unfortunate for Athens.
“He was an outstanding employee,” Patterson said.
The company who recruited Shultz in Marietta was able to pay him twice what the city of Athens was able to offer him.
“It has been difficult to find someone with the experience and attributes that the Mayor wants in an HR Director who is willing to come to Athens for the amount we are able to pay,” Kathy Hecht, the Athens city auditor, said in an email.
A vacancy in a position such as an HR director is very tough to fill due to the specific experience and qualifications needed to fill the job.
“The HR director must have the education and experience for the position. There are a lot of employment laws and regulating agencies that a public entity must answer to so we have to be diligent when putting someone in that position.” Hecht said in an email.
Hecht also said people have good backgrounds, but it’s hard to find someone who can just jump in and fill the position.
“The pool for candidates that are already here in Athens is, you know, not very big,” Hecht said, “And if they do come from a larger city or private company, they probably were getting more money than we can pay. So it's just difficult.”
Even with it being a tough position to fill, Patterson said there are possible candidates inquiring about the position.
“We have an active search and we have candidates that we will be interviewing,” Patterson said.
Hecht said Shultz was a very nice person to both work and interact with. He was very well informed, very well educated and very personable. He was also very willing to work with employees to work out a variety of issues.
“The other thing about an HR person is they also need to be the person that someone who is going through a divorce, just found out they have cancer or some other physical issue that might affect their work that they can go and talk to and find out what they can do if they have to be out for surgery,” Hecht said. “It's a very important position really is to the employees and the city.”
The city HR director is one of four direct appointments made by the mayor, the service safety director, the city planner, the HR director and the mayor’s executive assistant.
A previous version of this article misspelled Kathy Hecht’s name. The article has been updated to reflect the most accurate information.
