EXAMINING TURNOVER AND REASONS FOR DEPARTURE OVER TIME MARCH 2020
CONTACT US
BACKGROUND
Questions or comments regarding findings can be directed to the FSPSF Principal Investigator, Dr. Dina Wilke, at dwilke@fsu.edu or (850) 644-9597.
The effectiveness of public child welfare services has long been impacted by instability in its workforce. Turnover among child welfare workers is a significant national struggle that has profound consequences for vulnerable children and families. Reducing preventable turnover among frontline professionals is one of the most critical issues in the field today. National turnover rates are high (approximately 30%-40% annually)1 and frequent changes in caseworkers delay permanency decisions and impact other child and family outcomes.2 This research brief presents rates of agency departure and reasons for leaving in a cohort of child welfare workers from the first three years of the Florida Study of Professionals for Safe Families (FSPSF). These findings are presented by role (DCF Protective Investigators [PI], Sheriff’s Office PI, and Dependency Case Manager) and time period (six-month increments).
METHODS The Florida Study of Professionals for Safe Families is a prospective longitudinal study of a cohort of frontline staff hired into the Florida child welfare workforce. The FSPSF is a state-wide study of newly hired workers who began employment between September 2015 and December 2016. All DCF circuits, CBCs, and county sheriff’s offices in Florida provided access to their pre-service training classes for study recruitment purposes. A total of 1,500 trainees provided baseline data, representing 84% of all new hires across Florida during that time. An electronic survey is sent to participants at 6-month intervals. In order to ensure that participants are at the same approximate point in their employment trajectories, surveys are distributed quarterly based on date of recruitment into the study. Participation has been excellent; we have averaged more than a 70% response rate across all waves of data collection. During each survey, participants were asked if they remained employed in their original child welfare agency. Those who said “no” were asked a series of follow up questions including reasons for departure and new employment information. The results presented herein represent findings from the workers who indicated leaving their original, baseline agency.3
1
United States Government Accountability Office (2003). Child welfare: HHS could play a greater role in helping child welfare agencies recruit and retain staff [GAO-03-357]. Washington DC: Author.
2
DePanfilis, D., & Zlotnik, J. L. (2008). Retention of front-line staff in child welfare: A systematic review of research. Children and Youth Services Review, 30, 995-1008.
This definition likely does not capture the true impact of departure on child welfare caseloads for two reasons. First, many organizations employing child welfare workers also provide other social or law enforcement services. Therefore, some workers could leave their child welfare positions, yet indicate they still worked for their original hiring agency. For example, a PI at the Department of Children and Families could have moved to a position in Economic Self-Sufficiency and still indicated they worked for DCF. Second, this definition does not include workers who left frontline casework for a promotion or related opportunity in their agency. 3
FINDINGS DEPARTURE By wave 7 — approximately 3 years post-baseline — 78% of workers had left their original child welfare agency. Figure 1 shows a breakdown of departure by time period. Overall, the first 18 months represent the most common time for departure with about 57% of new workers having left during that time period. The greatest level of departure was between 7-12 months, when 23% of respondents indicated they left their agency. Importantly, approximately the same proportion of workers left in the first year of the study (41%) as left in the following two years (37%).
Figure 1.
Figure 2 shows agency departure by role and by time period and includes a marker for cumulative departure. The 7-12-month time period is a stress point for all roles, but particularly for the PIs employed by DCF. Further, about 20% of dependency case managers leave at both the 6-month and 12-month time periods. Comparatively, the PIs employed by county sheriff’s offices have the lowest cumulative amount of agency departure over the 3-year period, although still high at about 61%.
Figure 2.
BL
Percent Departure by Time Period
W2
W3
W4
W5
W6
W7
Agency Departure over Time by Role
80 70 60
Percent
50 40 30 20 Mental Health
10 0
0-6
7-12
13-18
19-24
Months
25-30
31-36
At each wave, workers cited difficulties with their job responsibilities or the agency environment as the top two primary reasons for departure (Figure 3). Job responsibilities were the primary identified reason for departure at 6 months, 12 months, 18 months, and 30 months, while agency environment was the most frequently cited reason at 24 month, and 36 months. Although not uniform, the general trend appears to suggest that struggles with job responsibilities contribute most to early agency departure, while dissatisfaction with an agency’s environment contributes more to later agency departure.
Figure 3.
Reasons for Departure by Time Period
0-6
7-12
Months
REASONS FOR DEPARTURE
13-18
19-24
25-30
31-36
SUMMARY These data clearly show high rates of turnover. By 12 months of employment, about 41% of each pre-service training class departed their agency. Further, in this cohort, almost one-quarter of new workers left during a 6-month window within the first year, relatively soon after acquiring caseloads following training. Regardless of when they leave, workers most commonly cite leaving due to either their job responsibilities or the agency’s environment. Several analyses from the FSPSF cohort have described the significant challenges workers face in their early employment tenure including training,4,5 transitions from training to casework,6,7 working with difficult cases,8 and physical and mental health changes.9 Investment in the success of early-career workers must be considered an essential imperative to strengthening child welfare services. 4
Florida Study of Professionals for Safe Families (2019). Beginning the “never-ending” learning process: Training experiences of newly hired child welfare workers. Florida Institute for Child Welfare. https://ficw.fsu.edu/sites/g/files/upcbnu1106/files/Research%20Briefs/FSPSF-Beginning-the-Never-Ending-Learning-Process-190628_0.pdf
5
Florida Study of Professionals for Safe Families (2018). Field training experiences of newly-hired child welfare workers. Florida Institute for Child Welfare. https://ficw.fsu.edu/sites/g/files/upcbnu1106/files/pdf-files/FSPSF-Field%20Training%20Experiences%20of%20Newly-Hired%20Child%20Welfare%20Workers-180619.pdf
6
Florida Study of Professionals for Safe Families (2017). Child welfare workers’ preparedness for transition from training to independent work. Florida Institute for Child Welfare. https://ficw.fsu.edu/sites/g/files/upcbnu1106/files/FSPSF-Child%20Welfare%20Workers%20Preparedness%20for%20Transition%20from%20Training%20%20to%20Independent%20Work-170220.pdf
7
Florida Study of Professionals for Safe Families (2018). Transitioning from training to independent work: Impacts on early turnover. Florida Institute for Child Welfare. https://ficw.fsu.edu/sites/g/files/upcbnu1106/files/Research%20Briefs/FSPSF-Transitioning%20from%20Training%20to%20Independent%20Work-%20Impacts%20on%20Early%20Turnover-101617.pdf
8
Florida Study of Professionals for Safe Families (2018). Newly-hired child welfare workers’ perceptions of exceptionally challenging cases. Florida Institute for Child Welfare. https://ficw.fsu.edu/sites/g/files/upcbnu1106/files/Research%20Briefs/FSPSF-Newly-Hired%20Child%20Welfare%20Workers%E2%80%99%20Perceptions%20of%20Exceptionally%20Challenging%20Cases-181005.pdf
9
Florida Study of Professionals for Safe Families (2019). Exploring the physical and emotional health of early-career child welfare workers. Florida Institute for Child Welfare. https://ficw.fsu.edu/sites/g/files/upcbnu1106/files/Research%20Briefs/FSPSF-Exploring%20the%20Physical%20and%20Emotional%20Health%20of%20Early-Career%20Child%20Welfare%20Workers-190401.pdf
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