Since lawmakers gave state agencies the go-ahead to award bonuses to attract and keep quality state employees in 2001, six North Dakota agencies have given out $409,606 worth of bonuses to 145 employees.

Employees who receive the bonuses must stay with the agency for one or two years, and agencies must fund the bonuses from within their salaries and wages budget.

The Department of Transportation has utilized the bonuses more than any other agency, giving out 73 recruitment bonuses - primarily to recruit engineers, realty officers, telecommunications specialists and mechanics - totaling $287,401. The bonuses are usually equal to a month and a half of salary, which usually amounts to $3,000 to $4,000. The employee must agree to stay with the department for two years, and they get half of the bonus immediately and half after one year.

DOT deputy director Tom Freier said the bonuses help the agency find people for positions that are hard to fill, particularly in certain locations. The biggest bonus awarded to date was a $9,040 bonus the DOT used to lure an administrative transportation engineer to Devils Lake. Freier said it's not always easy to get people to live in rural areas.

"They'd rather be in Bismarck or Fargo," he said.

Of the 73 DOT employees who received bonuses, 44 are still with the agency, 20 completed their commitments, two resigned, two turned down the second half of their bonuses, one resigned after a year, and one was "discharged."

Freier said before the bonus program began, the department had many vacancies, but today the DOT is as fully employed as they've been within the past five or six years. He said the bonuses help the department attract engineering graduates that are heavily recruited by out-of-state firms. Entry-level DOT engineers start at about $28,000 per year, he said.

The Information Technology Department has given out 12 recruitment bonuses, averaging $2,200 each, for a total of $26,500. Of those 12, eight took a pay cut to work for the state, including a Coloradoan who swallowed a $2,500-per-month pay cut. Ten of the 12 are still working at the agency, one transferred to another state agency and one left "involuntarily."

The state Department of Human Services has awarded 23 recruitment and retention bonuses totaling $46,052. Of the 16 employees who got recruitment bonuses, 11 completed their time commitments, two left the department, one resigned for health reasons and one resigned five months short of her two-year obligation to have a baby.

Linda Houfek, human resources director for the state corrections department, said her department has used bonuses to attract counselors and six registered nurses, particularly to the Jamestown prison. The department has awarded $9,000 worth of recruitment bonuses.

Instead of giving bonuses to new employees, the state Highway Patrol awards bonuses to existing employees who recruit new people. If a Highway Patrol employee recruits a trooper applicant who completes law enforcement academy training, the recruiter gets a $500 bonus.

Highway Patrol Maj. Neil Johnson said the bonuses were needed because the number of qualified applicants the Highway Patrol was attracting dropped 55 percent from 1995 to 2000.

Seven of the 10 people who graduated from the academy in 2000 were successfully recruited, so the Highway Patrol paid out $3,500 in bonuses. Just this month, five of the 10 grads were recruits, resulting in $2,500 in bonuses.

"We consider employees our best recruiters," Johnson said.

The Bank of North Dakota primarily focuses on keeping its valuable, sought-after employees. It has awarded 16 retention bonuses in two years, including eight to information technology employees who are critical to the development of a new Web-based project, six loan officers and two banking services managers. The state bank also gave one recruitment bonus to a communications employee.

On Tuesday, a committee of lawmakers got an update on the 21/2-year-old recruitment and retention program, which they approved as a pilot program in 2001 and then reauthorized this year. Lawmakers questioned where the agencies find the money for the bonuses and how well the program is being monitored.