Learning from Those Who Leave

The primary resource of the Cooperative Extension Service is its staff and volunteers. Because local Extension staff members lead the program process, their loss interrupts program continuity and possibly even creates program voids for periods of time. While some level of staff departure is inevitable, turnover and prolonged vacancies are a financial and time drain for the organization. An Ohio State University Extension study concluded that net costs to Extension are $80,000 each year. This reflects costs to replace all individuals minus salary savings created by the vacancies.

However, an equally serious aspect of the issue is the loss of program effort that most surely accompanies a staff vacancy. To date, no acceptable method exists to determine just how costly the factor of loss is to the clientele, the Extension system, or to staff morale.

In 1995, Rousan studied a group of 67 county agents who had voluntarily left the Ohio State University Extension system. As a result, he made a series of recommendations that challenged OSU Extension to investigate further why staff leave and what similar characteristics they might share.

That work has led to an organizational commitment to gather information to help better understand what motivates staff to leave. Behind the commitment is an expectation that the information will improve recruitment efforts, hiring processes, staff development, supervisory practices, worker expectations, job satisfaction, and the organizational environment as it relates to diversity issues.

Exit Interviews

To further the original work, Ohio State University Extension began in 1997 to conduct exit interviews with all staff who left employment. While Rousan (1995) had studied the agent, the current exit interview process extends to all staff. Agents, specialists, administrators, secretaries, and program assistants are included in the interview process. The expanded analysis enables Extension administrators to gain and examine information from individuals with disparate job responsibilities.

The 1997 group consisted of 84 individuals who voluntarily left the Ohio Extension system; the 1998 group included 87 individuals. All were offered an opportunity for an exit interview; 87% were interviewed in 1997, and 78% in 1998. Interviews were conducted in person or via phone, and the same set of questions was asked each exiting employee.

A series of open-ended questions was asked of the exiting employee. Questions focused on areas of satisfaction about employment with Extension, reasons for leaving, work environment, relationship with supervisor, and opportunities for professional development. Interviews averaged 50 minutes in length, and ranged from 25 minutes to 2 hours. All conversations were recorded in writing and read back to the exiting employee to confirm accuracy.

Key words were then coded for data collection. The key words' code came from a pilot study conducted in 1996. In that pilot study, exiting employees at all levels were interviewed to build the initial data pool that led to the development of key word codes.

All interviews in 1997 and 1998 were conducted by one of two people. Both interviewers independently coded narrative comments to assure some consistency in use of the key codes. Results of the independent activity were then compared to determine how similarly the two used the codes. To address issues of confidentiality, interview forms were coded by a numeric system instead of by name.

The questionnaire included 15 questions covering 5 categories. Categories of questions included positive aspects of Ohio State University Extension; supervision and support; working conditions; benefits and salary; and career development.

The four concluding questions were: