Train to Retain

TRAIN TO RETAIN

A project report submitted to the faculty of Trevecca Nazarene University School of Business

in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts

by Daniel W. Sorrow

Julie Rigsby Project Thesis Coordinator

MHR 176 February 18, 2008

Sorrow ii CERTIFICATION PAGE We certify that the project thesis prepared by Daniel Sorrow Entitled, “Train to Retain�

has been accepted by the faculty of Trevecca Nazarene University.

This project thesis is to be regarded as confidential, and its use as a sample in future classes is restricted.

Approved by

________________________________ Site Contact

______________ Date

________________________________ Project Thesis Coordinator

______________ Date

Accepted for the University by

________________________________ Academic Coordinator, MHR Program

______________ Date

Sorrow iii ABSTRACT The main purpose of this project thesis was to identify methods to improve the consistency of care for the youth residing at the Woodland Hills Youth Development Center. One method of improving the quality and consistency of care was to develop a method to increase the retention rate of Children’s Services Officer’s (CSO’s). The method chosen to increase retention was to utilize training processes. The secondary purpose for this project thesis was to decrease costs and additional work related to constantly hiring and training new Children’s Services Officer’s. The title of the project thesis, Train to Retain, describes both the goal of the project and the process used to achieve it.

Once the Trevecca Project Thesis Coordinator and the Woodland Hills Youth Development Site Contact approved the project, the real work began. The process began by reviewing the recruiting, interviewing, hiring, and training processes for CSO’s. Every three weeks, the Human Resources Department, the supervisors and managers conducting interviews, and the Training Department are involved with this overall process, which occupies a lot of time and costs a lot of money. As the next step, the researcher conducted an in-depth review of literature in order to determine specific intervention methods related to the unique retention issues of a state operated treatment facility.

During the project thesis, Trevecca Nazarene University provided the researcher with a module of study defining statistical review analysis methods including numerous statistical formulas. A Project Research Plan (PRP) was developed which established measureable objectives. The researcher then

Sorrow iv selected an intervention option that would enable him to implement the measureable objectives from the PRP using the statistical percent change formula. The objectives were specifically selected to establish acceptable percentages from which to measure increased retention. The objectives chosen by the researcher would enable him to determine required data and then collect the data in able to measure the results of the objectives during the project thesis period. The researcher collected the data and then used the data to evaluate the success or failure of the intervention process.

Throughout the intervention process, the researcher applied the information gained from the literary review. The researcher reviewed processes regarding training and appropriate changes were implemented. Several of the changes were regarding the mindset of the Officer’s. For example, by simply eliminating the term “guard”, the Officer’s began to see themselves as an integral part of the youth’s treatment plan rather than just security personnel. Other remedies were not so easily accomplished. During the early stages of the process, trainers were not using lesson plans when presenting information to new hires. Information presented to one group of hires would not be provided to the next group of new hires. The corrective action required each of the presenters to develop detailed lesson plans and to use them during their presentations.

The intervention process was very successful. One of the objectives was to increase retention by at lease 20%. The retention level among CSO’s actually increased 57% through the two data collection periods. As a comparison, the researcher applied the same percent change formula for a period prior to the

Sorrow v intervention process. The results of this comparison indicate a 79% increase in the retention of CSO’s. Although this appears to have solved the retention problem, additional recommendations were made regarding the need to increase leadership training at the lower supervisory levels.

Sorrow vi TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT............................................................................................................iii I.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PROBLEM...........................................................1 Statement of Purpose..................................................................................1 Setting of the Problem.................................................................................2 History and Background of the Problem......................................................3 Scope of the Project.....................................................................................5 Significance of the Project...........................................................................6 Conclusion...................................................................................................7 Definition of Terms.......................................................................................8

II.

REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE.................................................................9 Overcoming the Effects of Lower Wages in the Public Sector....................9 Understanding the Costs of Employee Turnover.......................................11 Determining the Effects of Training on Retention......................................13 Effects of New Employee Orientation on Retention..................................15 Leadership and Retention..........................................................................16 Becoming an Employer of Choice.............................................................18 Conclusion.................................................................................................20

III.

OPTION SELECTION................................................................................21 Project Options...........................................................................................21 Conclusion.................................................................................................22

IV.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INTERVENTION (OPTION 1)............................23

Sorrow vii Statement of Objectives.............................................................................23 Description of the Intervention...................................................................25 Conclusion.................................................................................................27 V.

THE EVALUATION PLAN.........................................................................28 Objective Analysis Design.........................................................................29 Conclusion.................................................................................................34

VI.

SUMMARY OF RESULTS, CONCLUSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS..............................................................................36 Summary of Results and Conclusions.......................................................36 Recommendations for Further Research...................................................41 Conclusions................................................................................................42

WORKS CITED.....................................................................................................45 APPENDIX A REFLECTIONS............................................................................48

Sorrow 1 I. DESCRIPTION OF THE PROBLEM Introduction A New Employee Orientation session was conducted for employees hired on February 1, 2007, at the Woodland Hills Youth Development Center (Woodland Hills). At the start of the session, all the new employees were excited to be at their new place of employment and were very positive about the potential opportunities available to them. During the second day of the orientation session, an interesting outcome occurred. Several of the presenters began providing information which caused the new employees to become scared.

Although the presenters did not intend to frighten the new employees, their intentions alone could not prevent this from happening. The majority of the new employees were classified as Children’s Service Officers (CSO’s or officers), and the majority of the information the new employees heard about included horrific stories of incidents involving students and officers. At that point during the orientation, it became apparent that irreparable damage had occurred with respect to the new officers being able to continue their employment at Woodland Hills.

Statement of Purpose The purpose of this project was to create and implement a solution enabling Woodland Hills Youth Development Center to improve retention of Children’s Service Officers. Retaining qualified officers is critical to accomplishing the goals and objectives of the organization.

Sorrow 2 Setting of the Problem Woodland Hills Youth Development Center is a treatment facility for youth’s ages thirteen through eighteen years of age. The organizational structure is that of a typical governmental agency, the structured frame. The Superintendent is the leader of the Center, and he alone is at the top of the Organizational Chart.

Directly beneath his position are the Children’s Service Managers. The Superintendent is very open to change provided it falls within the policies and procedures of the Department of Children’s Services and the American Correctional Association.

Youths who have arrived at Woodland Hills have been adjudicated by the Juvenile Justice center and have been found guilty of at least three felonies, or of an act against a person or people. They are then placed through a very detailed classification program. Once classified, they are placed in a treatment program.

The treatment team consists of several well thought out and very well organized departments. Case Managers, Counselors, Medical Staff, and a fully functional High School make up a great portion of the treatment program; however, Children’s Service Officers comprise the majority of the workforce.

Children’s Service Officers provide services twenty-four hours a day, divided into three shifts of eight hours each. They have often been mistakenly referred to as guards. Their duties and responsibilities are of much greater importance than as someone who simply guards. They fulfill a significant role in the treatment program of the youth population at Woodland Hills.

Sorrow 3 Much of what is missing in the lives of the youth before they arrive at Woodland Hills is consistency. Very little consistency existed in their lives in the manner in which their parents have or parent has raised them, and very little consistency with regard to the daily activities of their family lives in general.

Consistency has been lacking in the area of Children’s Service Officers; however, this is not due to their performance, but due to retention.

History and Background of the Problem Every three weeks, the Human Resources Department of the Woodland Hills Youth Development Center has been tasked with pulling State of Tennessee Civil-Service Registers in order to fill the vacancies for the position of Children’s Service Officer. Once they have pulled the registers, they have sent letters to the applicants. The letter each individual received announced the vacancy and informed them to call for an interview time during certain days of the upcoming week.

Every three weeks, the Superintendent, Children’s Services Manager for Security, and the Administrative Lieutenant have spent two or three days interviewing the applicants applying for the Children’s Service Officer vacancies.

Once the interviewing process was complete, the Superintendent and Children’s Services Manager sent to Human Resources a consolidated list of applicants whom they chose to make an offer of employment. At this point, the Human Resources department conducted background checks on each potential new hire. If the background checks did not disqualify the applicant, he or she was called and offered the position. During the week of interviews, the Training

Sorrow 4 Coordinator was planning to conduct New Employment Orientation training for the upcoming week.

Every three weeks, thirty-nine different classes were taught during the orientation week by twenty-six instructors. The orientation training consisted of forty hours of mandatory training as directed by the Department of Children’s Services, and the American Correctional Association. During the orientation session, the Training Coordinator was present and functioned as the facilitator.

Every three weeks, the new officers were sent to the Tennessee Corrections Academy in Tullahoma, Tennessee for three weeks of Pre-Service training. This training was very intense and equipped the new officers for their assigned duties, as much as reasonably possible. As a live-in course, the new officers received room and board at the expense of the State of Tennessee. They were also provided with their uniforms while at the academy. Again, this training is mandated by both the Department of Children’s Services and the American Correctional Association.

Every three weeks, new graduates of the Tennessee Corrections Academy have returned to Woodland Hills Youth Development Center. At this point, they were placed in a two week ‘On the Job Training’ program with experienced officers. It is also during this period that a number of them have quit and the hiring process begins again.

The Human Resources Analyst has stated this is an ongoing problem for a long time in both the Department of Children’s Services and in the Department of

Sorrow 5 Corrections. She has worked for both departments and has been exposed to the same problem in each department.

Scope of the Project One of the responsibilities of the Training Coordinator is to facilitate New Employee Orientation (NEO). During the NEO sessions, some issues which are directly contributing to the retention problem have presented themselves. First, there were no lesson plans being used by the majority of the trainers. They were predominately ‘shooting from the hip’ which caused their presentations to wonder outside their assigned subjects. Second, many of the trainers were telling new employees stories of horrible things they have seen or heard about since working at Woodland Hills. One of the new employees, who quit after she returned from three weeks of intensive and expensive training at the Tennessee Corrections Academy, stated, “The stories they told during orientation scared the hell out of me!” She was a very high-quality new hire. She had just graduated from Middle Tennessee State University with a degree in Criminal Justice.

Once the problem is solved, Woodland Hills will be able to retain more officers. As a benefit of achieving higher levels of retention, the organization will save thousands of dollars in manpower between pulling registers, allow managers to perform interviews less often in order to fill vacant positions, and provide fewer orientation sessions which are currently being performed every three weeks.

There is another major concern which retention will correct. The youth at Woodland Hills need consistency in their lives. The virtue of trust, as explained

Sorrow 6 in Erikson’s theory of the Eight Stages of Life, has not been attained by the majority of the youth. The previous Woodland Hills Psychologist stated, “The majority of the youth are still in the ‘Trust/Mistrust’ stage of development.” This is the initial stage upon which all other stages of development build upon.

At no point during this project will proper names of employees or students be used. Their names are not of any significance to the problem. Research will be focused on effective ways to increase retention, and determining measurable objectives to evaluate success using historical data as a baseline. Research will not be focused on the student population. The student population will only be mentioned in terms of explaining why the organization exists and ways which retention of officers will have a positive effect on their treatment program.

Significance of the Project Woodland Hills Youth Development Center is a treatment facility for juvenile offenders. The primary mission of Woodland Hills is to effectively treat the youth in their care and prevent them from becoming re-offenders thus being returned to the facility or a similar facility. The goal of this project was to determine if a quality training program will offset the high turnover within the ranks of the Children’s Service Officers. Any treatment facility is only as effective as the people providing treatment. In order for the program to work as intended, there must be consistency in the team approach to accomplishing the organizational mission and goals.

Sorrow 7 Conclusion Woodland Hills Youth Development Center is dedicated to providing the utmost in care for the youths sent to the facility. In order to continue doing so, new employees must be well trained. Training will increase their level of competence and confidence in their work, thus aiding in increased retention.

Sorrow 8 Definition of Terms Register – The register is a document on which applicants are placed by the State of Tennessee once the Department of Personnel determines the applicant has met all listed requirements for the Civil Service position they have applied for. When a vacancy appears, the agency (Department of Children’s Services) with the vacancy pulls the register to acquire a list of qualified applicants.

Sorrow 9 II. REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE Introduction Every three weeks the staff of the Woodland Hills Youth Development Center (WHYDC), a facility operating in the public sector, must undertake a very time consuming and costly process. The process consists of recruiting, setting appointments, interviewing, hiring, and training new personnel primarily in the employment classification of Children’s Services Officer (CSO). The process must be repeated so often due to the lack of employee retention. Employee retention is a major factor in today’s competitive work environment. Many dollars are spent recruiting, interviewing, hiring, and training the workforce which are then lost when the new employee decides to pursue other interests. The review of literature will provide supporting documentation necessary to aide in increasing the retention rate of CSO’s.

Overcoming the Effects of Lower Wages in the Public Sector Working in the public sector offers many personal rewards for individuals not intrigued by the call of higher earnings found in the private sector. Salaries at Woodland Hills, as with all state agencies, are established by the upper echelons of state government. Management can not offer higher pay above the current pay scale. The pay scale offers both a minimum and maximum range, but offering wages far above the minimum salary would adversely effect the departments operating budget. A potential retention problem occurs when the lower level employee has accepted the position out of desperation rather than having felt the call to public service. Managers and leaders must be very creative in order to

Sorrow 10 overcome the adverse effects of this problematic scenario. In, High Impact for Low Wage Earners, Tom Nelson offers an idea which would incorporate training into the solution. Nelson suggests, “For many companies operating on slim margins, the solution to retaining good low-wage workers cannot be a bigger salary or better (and expensive) benefits. But Shipler [David Shipler, author of The Working Poor] thinks there are things that companies can do. Training lowwage employees and moving them up, for example” (Nelson). As quoted by Nelson, one method an organization can utilize to substantiate the value they place on their lower-wage employees is to offer continuous training opportunities.

Training opportunities generally equate to possible advancement, which would lead to increased earnings, and higher levels of retention.

Another method to retain low-wage earners would be to minimize or remove existing stereotypes from the role of the low-wage earner’s duty position. The terms, “Guard” and “Prison Guard” have often been associated with very derogatory images over the years in the movies and in the news media. The CSO’s at Woodland Hills are often viewed as being “Prison Guards” and have been referred to as, “Guards”. In an excellent article written by Shari Caudron, HR Behind Bars, Caudron was corrected by her escort at a prison in Colorado after she had mistakenly referred to a corrections officer as a guard. Caudron’s escort told her, “We never use that term. We call them `correctional officers.'

We're working hard to overcome the stereotype of the brutal prison guard made famous by Hollywood” (48). This solution may sound like semantics, but how employees view themselves and their work is very critical to their performance.

Sorrow 11 Likewise, increasing employee confidence with regard to their performance is a key to decreasing employee turnover. Minimizing negative stereotypes would also lead to creating a more caring work environment which would help to increase employee retention. Shawn Abraham, author of Please Don’t Go, agrees when he states, “In creating an effective retention program, compensation and benefits are certainly factors in a person's job satisfaction, but a caring workplace where employees feel valued is critical” (62).

Employees in the public sector owe a duty to the citizenry to ensure the work being performed is being done to the highest possible standard. The public, or society in general, is in a constant state of change. Leaders in the public sector must embrace this fact and respond by constantly training their employees to respond to the demands created by changes in society. In 2002, Willow Jacobson, Ellen Rubin, and Sally Selden released a comprehensive study regarding the significance of training in the public sector. In their study, Examining Training in Large Municipalities: Linking Individual and Organizational Needs, they contend, “in an increasingly competitive job market, it is essential that governments explore training as both an opportunity to retain employees and as a means to attract and develop new employees.” (487).

Understanding the Costs of Employee Turnover The costs associated with employee turnover can be extreme. In her article, The High Cost of Turnover, Brenda Campbell emphasizes, “the cost of productivity loss, training and development, advertising, and recruitment can total millions of dollars. That figure is compounded by the cost of losing talented

Sorrow 12 employees” (61). There is a double-edged sword associated with costs in that the former employee is also losing dollars when they leave work. There is more to this than the obvious implications of quitting a job, assuming they have not already agreed to another position prior to quitting.

Former employees could have been receiving health insurance, vacation, life insurance, or other costly employer benefits. If so, they will not receive these benefits while they are unemployed. This could cause many hardships for the former employee and their family. The local Personnel or Human Resources office could provide annual training to emphasize the various benefit programs the organization offers. This is one of the methods to help retain quality employees recommended by Holly Dorna in, Become an Employer of Choice: How to Attract and Retain High Quality Employees. She suggests providing employees with documentation indicating how much the organization spends on their employees in addition to their payroll check. Costs such as matching tax dollars, Social Security, Unemployment Taxes, and various Insurance benefits should be presented to employees for this purpose. Dorna asserts, “Retain quality workers. Show them the money. If you haven't already done so, give your employees an annual total compensation breakdown, showing what you've done for them lately. Employees don't see, and consequently don't appreciate, the costs you pay out with every paycheck.” (8). Most employees naturally think of their financial value in terms of what they take home each pay period rather than the total expenses suggested by Dorna.

Sorrow 13 While most managers view turnover through the costs associated with dollars, this limited definition of cost does not totally define the high cost of employee turnover. Depending on the employee or employees who have decided to leave the organization, poor employee morale can result with remaining employees which adversely effects productivity. In the article, Corrections Officers – An Overview of Workforce and Profession, the author stresses one of the major effects of employee turnover is that, “high turnover rates generate stress and burnout, resulting in higher turnover” (3).

An incident occurred at Woodland Hills Youth Development Center which gives credence to this theory. A class of four CSO’s started orientation on February 8, 2007. They returned as graduates of the Tennessee Corrections Academy on March 5th. The first officer to quit from this group resigned on March 6th. Two of the remaining three officers’ also quit within two weeks for personal reasons. The first officer had found another position, but the last two had not.

Regarding employee turnover, in the aforementioned article by Brenda Campbell, she proclaims, “Experts say it's [turnover] your [managements] fault, and the cost of productivity loss, training and development, advertising, and recruitment can total millions of dollars. That figure is compounded by the cost of losing talented employees.” (61).

Determining the Effects of Training on Retention In order to determine the effects of training on retention, the goals of the organizations annual training program must be clearly understood all personnel.

If the goal of the training program is to simply conduct training on a periodic basis

Sorrow 14 because it is a requirement from higher headquarters, the desired effect on retention will be very minimal if any at all. The goal of the training program should be to provide training because it is imperative for successful employee performance. With employee performance as the goal, the outcome should be positive because successful performance has a positive affect on employee morale. There are four key ingredients which must be included in the annual training plan for obtaining this type of training outcome.

The first key ingredient is to ensure all personnel selected to provide training are themselves trained as trainers. According to Lewis Dzimbiri in, Trainer Training – The Malawi Case, the job of the training manager is to, “train not only trainees but also other trainers” (17). It is a mistake to assume successful leaders are also successful trainers. The same prerequisites which turn employees into leaders are required for turning leaders into trainers, namely training and experience.

The second key ingredient is to ensure training provides both value to the organization and focus’s on increased employee performance. In, One More Reason not to Cut your Training Budget: The Relationship Between Training and Organizational Outcomes, Patrick Owens Jr., addresses the second key ingredient by pointing out, “Training, while intuitively an organizational need and oftentimes even palpably measurable, is laden with issues regarding its contribution to organizational value and employee effectiveness” (163). All training must be geared towards a well defined objective leading to increased

Sorrow 15 employee effectiveness. Training for any other reason is considered a waste of time by those forced to endure it.

The third key ingredient is that training must be thoroughly planned and properly executed. Training should never be considered as the last resort or as a quick fix, but the first priority. Frank Santora, in his article, The Training Director’s Role, argues “The demand for increased productivity and more quick fix training programs creates inefficiencies and wastes resources, not to mention that it creates stress and strain on our staffs (50).

The fourth key ingredient is to ensure training is considered as much a part of the organizational system as all the other components. Under the concept of systems theory, it must be clearly understood by all managers, leaders, and trainers that an imbalance in one part of the system affects the subsystems as well. According to the, Systems Management Student Guide, the definition of a subsystem or component is defined as being, “composed of interrelated parts of elements. This is true for all elements – mechanical, biological, and social. Every system has at least two elements, and these elements are interconnected” (Trevecca). With the ground rules established for creating the training plan, the strategies for improving retention through training can begin.

Effects of New Employee Orientation on Retention Orientation is the foundation upon which the new employee will establish either his loyalty or lack of loyalty with respect to the organization. Instilling a sense of loyalty towards the organization is a key function of the orientation process. Loyalty is also a critical factor to examine when determining retention

Sorrow 16 issues. Warns William Umiker in, Principles of Workforce Stability, The Health Care Manager, “Employees who have not been oriented adequately lack a sense of loyalty to their organization” (Umiker). An employee who is not loyal to the organization has no problem walking away from it, oftentimes without notice.

An orientation program not only strives to instill loyalty, but it also provides the golden opportunity for the organization to continue the sales or recruiting process carried over from the interview. New employees must be constantly resold on the decision they made to accept the organizations offer of employment. According to Joe Mullich, author of, They’re Hired, Now the Real Recruiting Begins, the process of “re-recruiting” occupies the first 90-100 days of employment. Mullich declares this initial employment period, “can be the difference between an employee who stays for a decade and one who’s gone before the year is out” (1).

During the first month of employment, CSO’s assigned to Woodland Hills are at the facility for only one week before leaving for the academy to attend three weeks training. Mullich’s argument indicates more effort should be placed on contacting CSO’s while they are at the academy to reinforce their decision to work for the organization.

Leadership and Retention In, A Systems Approach to Small Group Interaction, Stewart Tubbs defines leadership as, “influencing others to accomplish organizational goals” (223).

Leadership is not the process of demanding certain actions take place, or else.

That is more along the lines of a dictatorship. In order to become an effective leader, personnel in leadership positions must really get to know their

Sorrow 17 subordinates or followers. Taking time to know their subordinates will enable leaders to understand the various personality traits associated with each subordinate. Understanding personality traits enables leaders to motivate subordinates by utilizing effective leadership attributes which compliment the employees personality traits.

Attaining effective leadership attributes is not an automatic function of adult development. The effective leader must be trained how to lead subordinates. At Woodland Hills, the lowest level of leadership is at the CSO level. They are required to lead twelve youths throughout their designated treatment program along with the assistance of a Case Manager. The minimum educational requirement for the CSO duty position is a High School diploma or equivalent (Tennessee Department of Personnel). While at the academy, CSO’s are provided with three weeks of intensive training to assist them in accomplishing their general duties. Very little of the training is leadership oriented (Tennessee Corrections Academy). Upon returning from the academy, they are provided with an additional two weeks of On-the-Job training (OJT) to further enhance their specific duties.

A former pastor of the Church of the Nazarene, Rev. Jon Gray, had a saying which fits many training situations, “We learn more by what’s caught than what’s taught. (Gray)” Depending on what the new CSO’s have caught during OJT will be the true basis for their potential performance, and the overall effectiveness of the organization. With this at stake, additional leadership training is required for those selected to mentor new CSO’s. The results from a recent survey

Sorrow 18 conducted by the Woodland Hills Training Coordinator listed Leadership Training and Communication Skills as two of the main subject’s in which employees would appreciate receiving additional training opportunities (Woodland Hills).The survey results indicate CSO’s are willing but unable to provide the type of leadership skills they desire. Inability often leads to frustration, and frustration leads to increased employee turnover.

Becoming an Employer of Choice The ultimate goal of any organization’s retention program is to be considered as an employer of choice. In June of 2006, the Nashville Business Journal published an article by Mark Marshall addressing the topic of becoming an employer of choice. Marshall defines an employer of choice as, “When given the choice about what job offers to accept, the candidates you are most interested in choose to join your team more often than not. And when given the choice about staying with your organization or accepting another offer, most of your key employees choose to stay” (Marshall). The problem rests with knowing how to become the employer mentioned in his definition. Further in the same article, Marshall provides some very disheartening statistics for the future regarding the ability to find qualified employees. He adds, “Although 41 million people are expected to enter the American work force by 2010, 46 million college-educated baby boomers will retire in the next 20 years creating an expected shortage of 14 million skilled workers by 2015, according to The Aspen Institute” (Marshall). An agency which is struggling in 2007 with retention issues will have an even more difficult time in the future.

Sorrow 19 The time to become an employer of choice is now. Planting and nurturing the seed of effective change is a laborious process which often takes several seasons before its fruits can be enjoyed. Marshall concludes his article by discussing a process known as talent management. “Talent management begins by looking at why employees leave organizations” (Marshall). The best way to become an employer of choice is to take a hard look at why people are leaving.

Once that process is completed, determine what can be done to remove or alleviate the reasons they stated. One of the best methods to determine why people leave is to use exit interviews.

Exit interviews should be conducted on all personnel who voluntarily quit or transfer from the agency. In Eilene Zimmerman’s article, Use of Exit Interviews Grows, Get’s More Sophisticated, she quotes Richard Wellins suggestion regarding developing an exit interview with questions similar to an employee engagement interview. As an example, Wellins illustrates, “on an engagement survey you might ask, ‘Do you feel you have opportunities to expand your knowledge and learning? Are we meeting your needs for learning and growth?’ and on the exit survey it’s the same questions, only past tense" (qtd. in Zimmerman). In contrast, Richard Harding contends rather than asking people why they have left, managers need to determine why people are staying. He believes conducting exit interviews with people who have just left, “is like shutting the barn door after the horse has left the barn” (qtd. in Zimmerman). Regardless of the method used, an effort must be made to determine how to become an

Sorrow 20 organization of choice. The effort must be made on a consistent basis with the results being used to make positive changes in the organizational climate.

Conclusion The information provided by the review of literature indicates the Woodland Hills Youth Development Center must begin to develop processes for addressing its retention needs. Increased efforts must be made to determine why personnel decided to leave, or perhaps why remaining personnel have decided to stay.

Based on the research findings, reasonable solutions are available to assist in this worthwhile endeavor.

Sorrow 21 III. OPTION SELECTION Introduction Employee retention is a major factor in today’s competitive work environment.

Every three weeks the staff of the Woodland Hills Youth Development Center (WHYDC) was undertaking a very time consuming and costly process. The process consisted of recruiting, setting appointments, interviewing, hiring, and training new personnel primarily in the employment classification of Children’s Services Officer (CSO). The process was repeated so often due to the lack of employee retention. The research and literary review of the project thesis examined the possible causes of low employee retention. The research included ideas for overcoming the issue of lower pay for state government employees, and the possible effects a quality training program may have towards improving employee retention in general.

Project Options Upon completion of the research and literary review pertaining to the retention problem at the WHYDC, it was necessary to chose one of three possible problem-solving options. The options consisted of: an applied design alternative; a grant proposal submission; and an alternative policy decision presentation.

With regard to the situation at WHYDC, time was the main criteria to consider in choosing and implementing an option as soon as possible.

The grant proposal submission option involves applying for financial funds to implement a solution to a problem existing within a non-profit organization. This option usually deals with a situation that is neither critical nor has time restraints.

Sorrow 22 Although the WHYDC is a non-profit organization of state government, a grant would not have been of assistance to ease the retention issues at Woodland Hills.

When an organization is looking for methods to solve a problem, it is wise to examine as many alternatives as is reasonably possible. This would have been a more preferable method for the WHYDC to use when compared to the grant proposal submission. The fact remains that time was a critical factor which must be considered. The alternative policy option would have taken a longer time to implement. The project thesis deals with a proposed solution which can be implemented, tested, and evaluated before the program ends, the alternative policy option was not selected.

Conclusion The selection of option one, to apply a design intervention, was based on the following criteria. The need to retain CSO’s is critical at Woodland Hills. The youth at the facility need consistency in their lives. The management teams have been tasked with providing a higher level of consistency in personnel who provide direct care for the youth. With this in mind, it was imperative to act as quickly as possible in order to test and implement a possible solution in a very short time period. This project thesis provided the opportunity for WHYDC to design, implement, and evaluate an effective training plan utilizing the management skills taught in the Management and Human Relations (MHR) program.

Sorrow 23 IV. DESCRIPTION OF THE INTERVENTION (OPTION ONE) Introduction Woodland Hills Youth Development Center (WHYDC) suffered from low employee retention levels, particularly in the job classification of Children’s Services Officer (CSO).The Human Resources section, various managers and supervisors, along with the Training Coordinator were mired in a three week cycle of recruiting, interviewing, and training new CSO’s. The costs associated with training new CSO’s was extremely high for the state’s taxpayers, but that is not the only reason increased retention levels were needed. The students placed at WHYDC required constant and consistent care in their treatment programs.

Low retention rates were very damaging to the effectiveness of the treatment programs. In addition, when CSO’s quit they were not immediately replaced. This means the facility was not as safe, orderly, and secure as it should have been for the students and remaining employees. A training plan was needed to implement management’s desire to increase employee retention. Chapter four will introduce the objectives of the intervention and will describe the anticipated outcome.

Statement of Objectives The lack of employee retention had created a turbulent environment at WHYDC, not only for the staff but for the students as well. The proposed intervention described in this project thesis should enable WHYDC to increase retention rates among CSO’s which will lead to a safer and more consistent work environment.

Sorrow 24 Objective One

By September 30, 2007, there will be a 20% increase in the retention of Children’s Services Officers at Woodland Hills Youth Development Center.

This objective was extremely critical to WHYDC’s ability to accomplish its objectives without sacrificing safety, security, and orderliness. Children’s Services Officers were the backbone of the facility. While it’s true all sections and departments were critical, the CSO’s provided the safe environment in which the others operate.

Objective Two

By September 30, 2007, the number of New Employment Orientation (NEO) sessions at WHYDC will decrease by 10%.

This objective was chosen because it is cumulative regarding the issues of recruiting, interviewing, and training new CSO’s. The amount of NEO sessions can only be decreased by recruiting, interviewing, and hiring fewer CSO’s. This scenario will only occur as the need for new CSO’s decreases.

Objective Three

By September 30, 2007, employee turnover will decrease by 10% by providing additional supervisor training courses at WHYDC. This objective was chosen because of the amount of new CSO’s leaving due to supervisory issues. Most good leaders are not born as such, but are trained to become good leaders. Training in leadership and effective communication is imperative for any organization to attain high retention levels.

Sorrow 25 Description of the Intervention The intervention for this project thesis was to create a training plan for the Woodland Hills Youth Development Center, which would enable the facility to increase CSO retention levels. The training plan was designed with the hope of enabling the facility to overcome low retention rates through increased training opportunities which would lead to advancements within the Department of Children’s Services. The plan was drafted by the Training Coordinator, and was approved by the Training Advisory Committee and ultimately by the Superintendent of the Woodland Hills Youth Development Center. The plan was then implemented on July 1, 2007.

The training plan was designed to represent WHYDC as an open system.

Each section within WHYDC was dependant upon all other sections in order for the facility to be successful. Woodland Hills Youth Development Center was a state operated facility; therefore, several key factors were included in the training plan. The factors included: accreditation; pre-service training requirements; inservice training requirements; and other state-related mandatory topics. The primary focus of the training plan was employee retention. With regards to retention, the areas receiving the most focus were New Employee Orientation (NEO), and leadership development at the CSO and supervisory levels.

New Employee Orientation was considered to be a critical aspect of employee retention and was addressed as such in the training plan. The orientation period sets the standard for what the new employee should expect throughout their term of employment. The first 90-100 days were considered to be the most critical with

Sorrow 26 respect to retention. The statement, “…to continue the sales process…” best illustrated the retention process during this period.

Management understood that simply because someone agreed to work at WHYDC that it did not mean they agreed to stay indefinitely. The hope was that CSO’s will stay longer than they have been staying. Since the retention issues were more prevalent among more of the newer hires, it was the consensus that NEO must be improved in order to improve retention among newer hires. The NEO section of the plan detailed what was expected by staff members as they interacted with the new employees. Staff members were directed to be prepared when given the opportunity to present information to new employees by using approved lesson plans and additional training materials. A two-week On the Job Training (OJT) program was initiated to provide additional guidance and confidence for new CSO’s when they returned from their three weeks of training at the Tennessee Correction Academy (TCA). The OJT program functioned under the direction of a Lieutenant, but the actual training program was operated by seasoned CSO’s and supervisors.

Leadership training at the supervisor and CSO level was also believed to be extremely critical to the facilities ability to retain CSO’s. For staff already in supervisory roles, the primary training goal was to establish a program to improve methods of effective communication. Surveys taken in April, coupled with random informal exit interviews, indicated lower-level supervisory personnel lack basic leadership skills and effective communication skills. The training plan

Sorrow 27 included annual leadership training for Corporals and Sergeants. CSO’s were considered leaders as well with training deficiencies of their own.

The training plan took into account that most CSO’s perhaps had very limited knowledge in the area of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, and Erikson’s eight stages of development. CSO’s have been trained at the TCA regarding the policies and procedures for working with the youth, but they have received very limited training as it pertains to why the students performed the acts which placed them at Woodland Hills in the first place. This has often led to CSO’s judging the students as criminals which ultimately creates an unhealthy fear in the minds of the officers. Increased knowledge removes unhealthy fear, which leads to a deeper level of understanding resulting in personal and professional growth. The purpose of increased understanding was not to create an attitude of sympathy towards the youth, but rather an attitude of professional compassion climaxing in an attitude of belongingness and dedication to duty by fulfilling a desire to benefit the greater good of society.

Conclusion Each section of the proposed intervention was studied and approved by the WHYDC Training Advisory Committee, the Training Coordinator, and the Superintendent. The training plan is currently in effect at WHYDC. Statistics are being collected to measure the effectiveness of the training plan with regard to increasing CSO retention.

Sorrow 28 V. The Evaluation Plan Introduction Before the start of this project, the Woodland Hills Youth Development Center (WHYDC) was unable to retain an acceptable number of Children’s Services Officer’s (CSO’s). The processes involved in replacing CSO’s is very time consuming and repeats itself every three weeks. The process included the Human Resources Department, the Security Manager with several of his lieutenants, and the Training Coordinator. A training plan was designed which focused on increasing CSO retention levels in order to alleviate both the time issue and the affects this process has on the youth’s at WHYDC. The youths adjudicated to WHYDC by the court system were classified into various treatment programs. One of the most critical aspects of the treatment plan involved consistency among the staff members responsible for evaluating the youth’s progress. Children’s Services Officer’s may be assigned to serve as Five Day Officer’s (FDO’s) once they complete their initial training period. Five Day Officer’s having been assigned to work a specific dormitory are trained to participate in the treatment plan’s evaluation process. Children’s Services Officer’s spend more time with the youth than any of the other member’s of the treatment team; therefore, their consistent evaluations were critical to the youth’s ability to progress through their individual treatment program. In order to provide consistency for the youth’s at WHYDC, the CSO retention levels had to be increased. This intervention offered the opportunity to evaluate the effectiveness of the training plan as it relates to increasing the CSO retention levels.

Sorrow 29 Objective Analysis Design Children’s Services Officer’s retention levels must be increased in order to increase the effectiveness of the treatment program for the youth and to reduce repetitive hiring practices. Without finding a way to increase retention among the CSO’s, the entire treatment program suffers. This intervention was designed with the primary purpose of increasing CSO retention levels.

Objective One

By September 30, 2007, there will be a 20% increase in the retention of Children’s Services Officers at Woodland Hills Youth Development Center.

This objective was extremely critical to WHYDC’s ability to accomplish its objectives without sacrificing safety, security, and orderliness. Children’s Services Officers are the backbone of the facility. While it is true all sections and departments are critical, the CSO’s provide the safe, secure, and orderly environment in which the others have operated.

Data Collection Plan and Analysis Prior to implementing the training plan, WHYDC was seeing a significant loss of newly hired CSO’s. The majority of the losses were occurring during the first ninety days of their employment. One of the immediate methods used to slow this trend was to examine and revise the New Employee Orientation (NEO) process.

In order to determine if the retention objective was being met, data had to be collected which measured the number of CSO’s hired versus the number of CSO’s quitting due to personal reasons within the first ninety days of their

Sorrow 30 employment. The Human Resources (HR) department maintains rosters of personnel as they are hired and separated. The rosters are respectively titled, “Report of New Employee’s”, and the other is titled, “Report of Active Service Termination”.

In order to collect data consisting of two reporting periods of equal length, the time period of April through June of 2007 is the period of data collection before implementing the training plan. The period of July through September 2007 is the data collection period from which to compare data after the training plan was implemented.

Number of personnel to quit Number of personnel to quit after implementing the plan − before implementing the plan ⋅ 100 Number of personnel to quit before implementing the plan If this value is 20% or more and is positive, the conclusion will be that the objective has been met.

Limitations of the Data Collection Plan The limitations of the data collection plan were minimal with regard to the numbers of personnel hired and separated during the data collection periods.

The numbers of personnel reported on the HR generated reports are accurate.

The only limitation is determining the exact reason why newly hired personnel quit work. The only information posted to the Report of Active Service Termination is, “Personal Reasons” for personnel who quit.

Sorrow 31 Objective Two

By September 30, 2007, the number of New Employment Orientation (NEO) sessions at WHYDC will decrease by 10%.

This objective was chosen because it is cumulative regarding the issues of recruiting, interviewing, and training new CSO’s. The levels of NEO sessions can only be decreased by recruiting, interviewing, and hiring fewer CSO’s. This scenario will only occur if the need for new CSO’s decreases.

Data Collection Plan and Analysis One of the major problems which this intervention is attempting to solve pertains to the recurring process of hiring and training new CSO’s. Every three weeks the processes of recruiting, scheduling interviews, conducting interviews, running extensive background checks, making job offers, and training new hires repeats itself over and over again. Not only is this process time consuming, it all but eliminates other productive work which could be occurring. In order to determine if this objective has been met, the number of New Employee Orientation (NEO) sessions would be collected indicating the number of sessions occurring within ninety days prior to the training plan being implemented. This figure will serve as a base figure. After the training plan has been in place for ninety days, the number of NEO sessions will be tabulated to determine if the objective was met.

Number of NEO Sessions Number of NEO Sessions after implementing the plan − before implementing the plan ⋅ 100 Number of NEO Sessions before implementing the plan

Sorrow 32 If this value is 10% or more and is negative, the conclusion will be that the objective has been met.

Limitations of the Data Collection Plan The limitations of collecting data for this objective recently became quite high.

Once the new fiscal year came into being on July 1st of 2007, WHYDC received funding for twenty additional CSO positions. Even though the funding was approved on July 1st, the HR department was not approved to begin hiring against the classification positions until September 1st. With this issue at hand, it will not be possible to limit the number of NEO sessions as hoped during the earlier stages of this intervention. With the knowledge gained during this intervention process, the writer will be able to monitor this objective at a later date using the new figures.

Objective Three To decrease employee turnover by 10% by providing additional supervisor training courses at WHYDC by September 30, 2007.

This objective was chosen because of the amount of new CSO’s leaving due to supervisory issues. Most good leaders are not born as such, but are trained to become good leaders. Training in leadership and effective communication is imperative for any organization to attain higher retention levels.

Data Collection Plan and Analysis Shortly after assuming the position of Training Coordinator at WHYDC, the writer was made aware of numerous newly hired and trained CSO’s quitting work because of poor leadership practices of their immediate supervisors. In April of

Sorrow 33 2007, a mandatory Needs Assessment Survey was distributed to all CSO’s requesting their assessment of various processes and issues at WHYDC. An overwhelming majority of those responding to the survey listed ‘Leadership’ and ‘Effective Communications’ as two of the top problem areas at WHYDC. These issues were addressed in the training plan as well as possible corrective measures.

The HR Analyst and the Training Coordinator had discussed implementing exit interviews for personnel deciding to quit work for various reasons in order to more accurately track the reasons for quitting. The hope was to use this information as a basis for additional training opportunities and to track the progress for this objective. The data collected at the end of the ninety days preceding the training plans implementation on July 1st would be the initial period. The data collected ninety days following the training plans implementation would be the period to see if the plan was successful.

Number of personnel to quit Number of personnel to quit after implementing the plan − before implementing the plan ⋅ 100 Number of personnel to quit before implementing the plan If this value is 10% or more and is negative, the conclusion will be that the objective has been met.

Limitations of the Data Collection Plan The limitations of the data collection plan for this objective were very numerous. Shortly after the plan was implemented, a process known as Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) was implemented throughout the

Sorrow 34 Tennessee Department of Children’s Services. The process calls for each specific area of each Youth Development Center (YDC) to focus their work efforts towards standardization.

Each YDC has a training coordinator, but none of the other training coordinators are involved in an intervention process to improve their organizations retention levels for their CSO’s. Likewise, each YDC has a HR Analyst, but not each YDC is working on creating an Exit Interview form from which they can track their personnel losses with the intent of correcting issues which are leading to losses.

The CQI process of standardization has hampered the intervention process in other ways as well. For example, the Training Coordinator was in the process of writing lesson plans for leadership and effective communications classes prior to the CQI initiative being implemented. Since the standardization process began, it has taken the forefront ahead of the intervention process. This is not to say the CQI process is bad, it is not. In fact, in many ways it will eventually serve as a helpful tool to improve retention throughout the other YDC’s and at WHYDC. The process of developing CQI and implementing the changes is very lengthy and time consuming. In regard to this objective, CQI is simply an obstacle which limits the writer’s ability to implement effective change and capture data as a result of that change.

Conclusion The Woodland Hills Youth Development Center was struggling with poor CSO retention levels. A training plan was implemented which focused the efforts of

Sorrow 35 staff and management towards increasing CSO retention levels. This intervention provided the opportunity for establishing objectives which would allow WHYDC to increase their retention levels. Each objective can be tested and measured to determine success by evaluating the final data collection information.

Sorrow 36 VI. SUMMARY OF RESULTS, CONCLUSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS Introduction Prior to implementing this intervention, Woodland Hills Youth Development Center (WHYDC) suffered from a lack of retention from their Children’s Services Officer’s (CSO’s). A training plan was designed, approved, and implemented with the hope of not only increasing retention among CSO’s, but among the other employment classifications of the facility as well.

Summary of Results and Conclusions This chapter will review the results and conclusions of the three objectives this researcher developed to address the retention issues of the Woodland Hills Youth Development Center. In order to evaluate the success of his efforts, tangible data was gathered and evaluated for each objective. The following presentation of information summarizes the results and conclusions that addressed those objectives.

Objective One

By September 30, 2007, there will be a 20% increase in the retention of Children’s Services Officers at Woodland Hills Youth Development Center.

This researcher gathered data in the form of personnel reports from the Woodland Hills Youth Development Center Human Resources department to determine the success or failure of the training plan. The primary data collection process was divided into two equal periods: April through June; and July through September. Although the date periods previously mentioned were the primary data collection periods, this researcher, due to his professional involvement with

Sorrow 37 the intervention process, decided to take action to correct the retention issue prior to the initial data collection period. This researcher was hired as the Training Coordinator on February first of 2007. Before March first, this researcher had already begun the process of identifying some of the issues which were causing WHYDC to suffer from low levels of retention and establishing a preintervention process. As a result of the pre-intervention, the results of the intervention process may seem skewed.

The data collection process for determining the number of new hires was taken from the Human Resources report titled, “Report of New Employee’s Woodland Hills 2007”. The data collection process for determining both the number of separations and the reason for separation was taken from the Human Resources report titled, “Report of Active Termination Woodland Hills 2007”.

During the data collection periods a determination had to be made regarding what type of employment separations would be considered for this intervention.

Since the majority of the CSO’s were separating before their six-month probationary period ended, this researcher decided to collect the number of voluntary quits along with the number of probationary discharges. During the data collection period of April through June of 2007, three CSO’s quit and four were discharged during their probationary period, accounting for a total of seven separations. This period established the base line for determining the success or failure of meeting the established objective. During the data collection period of July through September of 2007, two CSO’s quit and one was discharged during their probationary period, accounting for a total of three separations. In order to

Sorrow 38 determine if the objective was successful, this researcher used the following percent change statistical formula: Number of personnel to separate Number of personnel to separate after implementing the plan − before implementing the plan ⋅ 100 0 0 Number of personnel to separate before implementing the plan Percent Change =

(3

− 7) ⋅ 100 0 0 (or 1); Percent Change = -.57 or a 57% 7

decrease in the number of CSO’s quitting or being discharged during their probationary period after implementing the intervention. This equates to increase in the retention of Children’s Services Officer’s of 57%. The objective was to increase retention by 20% in order for this objective to be considered successful.

Based on the findings, the intervention was very successful in accomplishing this objective. In fact, it was more successful than the researcher anticipated.

Furthermore, should this researcher include the data collection from the preintervention period of January through March 2007, the results are even greater when compared with the final collection period of July through September 2007.

Using the same percent change statistical formula indicated above, the figures are: Percent Change =

(3

− 14 ) ⋅ 100 0 0 (or 1); Percent Change = -.79, which equals a 14

79% decrease in the loss of CSO’s, or a 79% increase in retention of Children’s Services Officers.

Sorrow 39 Objective Two

By September 30, 2007, the number of New Employment Orientation (NEO) sessions will decrease by 10%.

This researcher collected data for this objective using the Pre-Service Training Schedule provided by the Tennessee Corrections Academy (TCA) and the WHYDC Training Coordinator’s schedule of New Employee Orientation.

Every three weeks a new class of Children’s Services Officer’s begins preservice training at the TCA. The week preceding the first week of academy training is used by WHYDC for New Employee Orientation (NEO) training. Even though the TCA designates a new class start every three weeks, WHYDC is not obligated to send CSO’s if there is not a need for this training. For example, should WHYDC not have any vacant positions to hire new CSO’s, they would not have to send anyone to training. If no one is scheduled to attend the TCA, there would be no need to conduct New Employee Orientation. This objective was intended to work in concert with Objective 1. An increase in retention should likewise lessen the number of NEO sessions.

The primary data collection process was divided into two equal periods: April through June; and July through September. The Woodland Hills Youth Development Center is operated by the state of Tennessee. During the first collection period, the Woodland Hills Youth Development Center conducted five NEO sessions. Due to a change in the number of CSO’s allocated to Woodland Hills during the second collection period, another five NEO sessions were conducted during this period as well. The states’ fiscal year operates from July

Sorrow 40 through June of each year. On July first of this year, Woodland Hills Youth Development Center’s number of CSO allocations was increased by twenty-one.

Had the number of CSO’s not been increased, the number of NEO sessions would have been less than the previous collection period. As a result of this increase, it has not been possible to conduct fewer orientation sessions. The percent of change formula will be used to further illustrate this lack of change.

Number of NEO Sessions Number of NEO Sessions after implementing the plan − before implementing the plan ⋅ 100 0 0 Number of NEO Sessions before implementing the plan Percent Change =

(5

− 5) ⋅ 100 0 0 = 0% change in the number of NEO sessions.

5

This objective was not successfully met.

Objective Three To decrease employee turnover by 10% by providing additional supervisor training courses at WHYDC by September 30, 2007.

This researcher intended to collect data from exit interviews received from employee’s before they left the facility once they had tenured their resignation.

Shortly after assuming the position of Training Coordinator at WHYDC, the writer was made aware of several newly hired and seasoned CSO’s quitting work because of poor leadership practices displayed by their immediate supervisors.

This objective was selected in an effort to overcome this reason for turnover.

During the initial stages of the intervention process, the Director of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) began a process called Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI).

The purpose of CQI was to standardize all areas of the Department of Juvenile

Sorrow 41 Justice within DCS. The writer unfortunately assumed that during the process of CQI that it was not going to be possible to implement this objective during the intervention period. To do so, it was assumed by this writer that each Training Coordinator would have had to initiate the same leadership training classes.

During a CQI meeting conducted on October 9th, the writer was informed by the Director of DJJ that it would have been acceptable to have implemented this objective. Based on the aforementioned information, data was not collected during the intervention’s data collection period’s from which to compare statistical information for accomplishing this objective.

Recommendations for Further Research Based on the research data, this researcher recommends Woodland Hills Youth Development Center continue reviewing other possible causes of turnover.

Once the causes have been identified, research should be undertaken leading to an intervention process. The intervention process should include measurable objectives in order to take action to alleviate the causes of low retention levels.

This researcher also recommends continuing the current practices established throughout this project thesis and implementing the objectives which were not measurable due to the circumstances of change in the organizational environment.

The aforementioned objective, which included providing additional supervisor training courses at Woodland Hills Youth Development Center, is an example of a measurable objective which can be implemented to further increase retention.

This researcher has continued to hear negative reports from current and previous

Sorrow 42 employees regarding leadership inadequacies among the lower-level supervisors. Lower-level supervisors have the majority of the daily influence over the new employee’s; therefore, it is critical they receive additional leadership training once they are promoted to a supervisory position.

New supervisors are required to attend New Supervisor’s Training (NST), but the application of the skills taught during training has seemed to be optional rather than required. This researcher recommends an assessment method be put into place for mid-level supervisors to monitor the performance of newly promoted supervisors to ensure newly acquired leadership training skills are being practiced. Other than the current annual performance evaluation system, there does not seem to be an additional system in place to allow for follow-up evaluations or reinforcement training when leadership deficiencies manifest themselves.

Conclusions During the introduction of this Project Thesis, this researcher stated the fact that the Woodland Hills Youth Development Center was having a very difficult time retaining new Children’s Services Officers. In fact, every three weeks the Human Resources Department, the Security Department, and the Training Coordinator were in a constant process of repeating the hiring and training processes. This researcher sought an intervention which would alleviate the time, money, and energy spent repeating this process with such frequency. A training plan was developed in order to alleviate the retention issue.

Sorrow 43 Once a project was identified, the focus had to be narrowed down to determine what was causing the problem. The major issue involved determining the areas which could be remedied during the Project Thesis time restrictions.

Before this researcher could identify the exact areas from which to apply the intervention, a lot of research had to occur.

Several weeks of library and online research opened this researcher’s eyes to several possible issues which can cause increased turnover, along with several remedies for lessening turnover issues. This process was instrumental towards leading this student researcher to determine three objectives for increasing retention at Woodland Hills. Based on the findings of the research process, the areas of emphasis this student researcher opted to identify included: improving retention through the New Employee Orientation program; lessening the number of New Employee Orientation sessions being conducted; and increasing retention by providing additional supervisor training to the lower level supervisors.

In order to see if an intervention process is working, data must exist both before and after the intervention process in order to make comparison measurements. This data must be able to substantiate the results for each stated objective. This researcher chose to use the percent change formula to compare the aforementioned data.

The data collection periods were three months before the intervention was introduced and again three months after the intervention was introduced. The

Sorrow 44 data collected after the intervention was introduced was used to determine success or failure of the project using the statistical percent change formula.

In conclusion, the Woodland Hills Youth Development Center was able to increase the retention levels of their Children’s Services Officer’s. An increase in retention enabled Woodland Hills to provide better care and treatment for the youth in their custody, which was the main reason this project thesis intervention was chosen by this researcher.

Sorrow 45 Works Cited Abraham, Shawn. Please Don’t Go. School Planning and Management. 46.2 Feb 2007: 60(4). Thomson Gale. Trevecca Nazarene College. Nashville.

30 April 2007 <http://www.galegroup.com Campbell, Brenda. The High Cost of Turnover. Black Enterprise. Dec 2002. Vol. 33, Iss. 5; pg. 61, 1 pgs. ProQuest. Trevecca Nazarene College. Nashville. 13 May 2007 <www.umi.com/proquest>.

Caudron, Sheri. HR Behind Bars. Workforce Jun 2000. Vol. 79, Iss 6pg. 44, 6 pgs. ProQuest. Trevecca Nazarene College. Nashville.

30 April 2007 <www.umi.com/proquest> Corrections Officers â&#x20AC;&#x201C; An Overview of Workforce and Profession. Briefing Memorandum. Date unknown, post 2004. scholar.google.com.

5 May 2007 <http://law.wustl.edu/prisoncommission/PDF/overview.pdf> Dorna, Holly. Become an employer of choice: how to attract and retain highquality employees.(STAFFING). Behavioral Healthcare 27.2 Feb 2007: 30(2). Thomson Gale. Trevecca Nazarene College. Nashville.

23 April 2007 < http://www.galegroup.com> Dzimbiri, Lewis B. Trainer training - the Malawi case. (Training 101: Training Nontrainers to Train). Training & Development 49.n8 August 1995. Thomson Gale. Trevecca Nazarene College. Nashville. 1 May 2007 < http://www.galegroup.com>

Sorrow 46 Gray, Jon. Church of the Nazarene. Covenant Fellowship Church of the Nazarene. Mt. Juliet, TN. 2002-2005 Jacobson, Willow, Ellen V. Rubin, and Sally Coleman Selden. Examining training in large municipalities: linking individual and organizational training needs. Public Personnel Management 31.4 (Winter 2002). Thomson Gale. Trevecca Nazarene College. Nashville. 1 May 2007 <http://www.galegroup.com> Marshall, Mark. Being an Employer of Choice: How to attract, retain talent.

Nashville Business Journal. 2 June 2006. 25 April 2007 <http://nashville.bizjournals.com/nashville/stories/2006/06/05/smallb4.html > Mullich, Joe. Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re Hired: Now the Real Recruiting Begins. Workforce Management Online. January 2004. 5 May 2007 <www.workforce.com> Nelson, Tom. High Impact for Low Wage Earners. Workforce Management Online. August 2004: 47-50. 5 May 2007 <www.workforce.com> Owens Jr., Patrick L. One More Reason Not to Cut Your Training Budget: The Relationship Between Training and Organizational Outcomes. Public Personnel Management. Summer 2006. Vol.35, Iss. 2; pg. 163, 9 pgs.

Trevecca Nazarene College. Nashville. 3 May 2007 <www.umi.com/proquest>

Sorrow 47 Santora, Frank R. The training director's role. Training 42.12 Dec 2005: 50(1). Thomson Gale. Trevecca Nazarene College. Nashville. 1 May 2007 < http://www.galegroup.com> Tennessee Corrections Academy. Training Schedule Class CSO-510 Weeks 1-3.

January 2007.

Tennessee Department of Personnel. Class Specification, Childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Services Officer. March 2006.

Trevecca Nazarene University. #4410 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Systems Management Student Guide.

Revised 2006. Pg 15.

Tubbs, Stewart L. A Systems Approach to Small Group Interaction. 9th Edition.

New York: McGraw-Hill, 2007 Umiker, William. Principles of Workforce Stability The Health Care Manager. Dec 1999. Vol.18, Iss. 2; pg. 58, 7 pgs. Trevecca Nazarene College. Nashville. 3 May 2007<www.umi.com/proquest> Woodland Hills Youth Development Center. Results of the FY 2007 Training Needs Assessment. April 2007.

Zimmerman, Eilene. Use of Exit Interviews Grows, Gets More Sophisticated.

Workforce Management Online. September 2005. 16 May 2007 <www.workforce.com>

Sorrow 48 APPENDIX A: REFLECTIONS I recall how hard my heart was beating when I realized the Management and Human Relations (MHR) program required a Project Thesis in order to meet the criteria for graduation. It was not a heartbeat of anticipation, but of dread. I had never attempted such an undertaking before during my academic studies; therefore, not only did I not have any idea of how much work was included in the process, I also had no idea how rewarding it would be either. The dread began to ease when I was provided with a Project Thesis Handbook during Convocation, which explained the process in detail. Not only was I provided the handbook, but was fortunate enough to have Mrs. Julie Rigsby assigned as my Project Thesis Coordinator. Julie was instrumental in providing constant support and encouragement throughout the entire Project Thesis. I have reassured the newer MHR Cohort, which recently started class on Monday evenings, how fortunate they are to have Julie as their Project Thesis Coordinator as well. Through the assistance of Julie and the Project Thesis Handbook, my view on the purpose of the Project Thesis eventually took on an entirely different meaning.

As a direct result of Project Thesis, I now feel very confident in my ability to research an identified problem, determine an intervention process, establish measurable objectives, collect required data, evaluate the results of the outcomes, and clearly express my findings and recommendations in writing. Prior to Project Thesis, I honestly had no idea how to start such a project. Perhaps the greatest advantage I gained from Project Thesis was the ability to conduct

Sorrow 49 meaningful research and use the information to create a method to intervene in the situation based on the works of others who have attempted a similar project.

When the Project Thesis first began, I knew which problem area I wanted to address and attempt to overcome. Based on the experience levels of those around me, I was free to attempt to resolve the retention issue, but it was going to be a futile experiment. Perhaps the greatest surprise to me during this process what that the intervention was actually working. Deep down inside I wanted the intervention to work, but the voices of those I work with convinced me it was useless. This taught me a valuable lesson; turn off the voices of doubt and give the process a chance to work. This lesson will enable me to conquer other situations that present themselves to me in my personal and professional life. For example, due to the Biblical Perspectives portion of MHR, I am now a Sunday School teacher for an adult class at my church. Project Thesis has given me the ability to conduct additional research of the lesson material. This alone allows me to create deeper, more meaningful connections between the subject matter and the objectives and desired outcomes of the lesson. This allows me to provide a deeper level of understanding for my class members.

One of my fondest memories of Project Thesis came in October, during a meeting at work. The Director of Juvenile Justice was presenting information to all of the Superintendent’s and Site Coordinator’s of a new program called, “Performance-based Standards” (PbS). During the presentation, someone mentioned the idea of PbS possibly increasing retention of various employee’s at the Youth Development Centers (YDC’s). The Superintendent of Woodland Hills

Sorrow 50 Youth Development Center, who is also my Project Thesis site coordinator, looked at me in a certain way, and I began to speak of my Project Thesis. I emphasized what I had learned from the process and gave some of the results from my objectives. Everyone looked at me in such a way that I cannot explain.

There was a feeling of respect and admiration, which made it hard to stay on track for a moment or so. The majority of the people who hear of my Project Thesis believe I am in a masters program instead of a bachelors program.

One of the biggest problems I had in achieving an objective involved receiving an increase in the number of assigned personnel during the intervention process.

The objective I am referring to was to decrease the number of New Employee Orientation (NEO) sessions by 10%. By doing so, I would have also eliminated the issues regarding the hiring process, which I previously mentioned. The stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fiscal year operates from July to June of each year. July of 2007 was the month I was using to begin collecting the second set of data to determine if the intervention process was improving the retention issues documented from April to June. At the same time, Woodland Hills acquired an additional twenty-one CSO positions. The new positions needed filled immediately because our youth population was beginning to increase drastically. Obviously, it was impossible to decrease the number of NEO sessions when the number of authorized personnel is increased. The lesson I learned from this situation was to understand the limits of my span of control. Although my desire was to lessen the number of NEO sessions, those above me in the chain of command had other ideas. My desires

Sorrow 51 and objectives were forced to take a back seat to the desires and objectives of management.

Another problem I faced was the inability to provide additional leadership training to supervisors in order to increase the retention of CSO’s, which was another one of my objectives. This was due to changes taking place throughout the Juvenile Justice Division of the Department of Children’s Services. Due to the standardization initiative of PbS across all YDC’s, I was not able to establish the supervisor training program which I had learned about during the literary research phase. My desire remains to create a training program that will enable supervisors to understand the issues involved with supervising Millennium generation employees in today’s workplace. Woodland Hills is continuing to lose proficient employees due to a lack of understanding in this area of supervision.

Numerous exit interviews and conversations with personnel who have provided a resignation notice continue to indicate the reason for separation is due to the actions and attitudes of employees and supervisors rather than the actions and attitudes of the youth.

Project Thesis, when coupled with the knowledge I have gained during the Management and Human Relations program, has allowed me to come to a significant conclusion regarding my success during this project. I have positively proven that Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and Mayo’s Hawthorne experiments were effective. Woodland Hills Youth Development Center was able to increase retention through New Employee Orientation by meeting the basic human needs

Sorrow 52 of our new employeeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, and by ensuring they received constant care and attention during the training process.

Project Thesis has become a very valuable tool for me. I can pull this tool out of my academic toolbox and use it efficiently for the rest of my life. I have often wondered how much better my military career would have been if I had received this knowledge earlier in my life. Not only that, but also how much better of a parent I would have been as well by assisting my oldest son with his research projects when he was in school. The knowledge I have received from Project Thesis is applicable in many facets of my life, but I must choose to apply it.