NEWBURGH HEIGHTS, Ohio — Recruiting and retaining employees has always been a challenge for the Village of Newburgh Heights, says Mayor Trevor Elkins. 

  • The shorter work week is a way to be more competitive
  • The police department is already advertising the 32-hour work week for open positions
  • The new policy goes into effect in Newburgh Heights in February

“Because of our size. and the budgets of our surrounding communities are stronger than ours,” said Elkins. “Although we always strive to maintain a competitive pay rate, we do regularly lose our employees once they’ve been trained and proven they’re good, quality, solid employees.” 

So, he did some global research to find ways to be more competitive, finishing with the idea of a 32-hour work week.

“And one of the things I came across was a 32-hour work week experiment with a firm in New Zealand, and then I followed up shortly before we actually introduced the legislation with a story I heard on NPR about Microsoft’s experiment with a 32-hour work week in Tokyo,” said Elkins. 

The police department is already advertising the 32-hour work week for open positions, saying it’s already gotten more applications than normal. 

“Everyday policing brings about a number of stressors in and of itself and we certainly don’t want work to be one of those in your life,” said Newburgh Heights Police Chief John Majoy.

Newburgh Heights Police Chief John Majoy says the department has been using a number of part-time officers in the past, and the new work week will allow the department to hire more full-time officers.

“Part time officers are wonderful and they do a nice job for us. However, being relying upon them heavily can be challenging because some of them have full-time jobs and the majority of them do, and therefore, their availability is limited, they can’t work Monday through Friday during the day, or midnight shift during the week, or something like that,” said Majoy.

The new policy goes into effect in February.

Mayor Elkins says leaders from as far away as Maine and California have expressed interest in learning the results.