Bartholomew County Council to push for employee annual reviews

The Bartholomew County Council is considering ways to encourage department heads and office holders to provide annual merit reviews to county employees.

A plan is being discussed to withholding part of the annual employee raise for those offices which do not provide reviews. County Council members have long pushed for a merit system for raises in the county. Ultimately, the hope is to better reward the county’s good employees and to keep them onboard.

County Councilwoman Leah Beyer offered a plan at yesterday’s budget hearing meeting, to fund a 4 percent raise for all county employees, but to hold back 1 percent of that raise only to departments that complete employee reviews. She called the 1 percent a kicker to incentivize the creation of a review system.

Beyer suggested that next year the department heads could set goals and expectations and then tie raises to those reviews going forward.

Councilman Greg Patterson suggested that the plan further reward good employees by allowing for a higher raise for those who exceed expectations in the annual reviews.

Budget hearings for the county continue this week in the afternoons through Thursday in the council chambers at the Governmental Office Building on Third Street in Columbus.