Summary of Report 20-703

Voluntary separations increased 7.7 percent since fiscal year 2018. The majority of employees left state employment on their own accord. Voluntary separations, including retirements and excluding interagency transfers, accounted for the majority (76.0 percent) of the State’s total separations in fiscal year 2019.

Involuntary separations accounted for 24.0 percent of the State’s total separations in fiscal year 2019. That was an increase of 3.2 percent in the number of involuntary separations compared with fiscal year 2018

Jump to Chapter 1 

The top two reasons employees reported in exit surveys for leaving state employment during fiscal year 2019 were for retirement and for better pay/benefits. Similarly, state agencies reported that employees seeking better pay elsewhere was the top reason for employee turnover with their agency.

Jump to Chapter 2 

Turnover was highest among employees under the age of 30, and more than half of the employees who left state employment in fiscal year 2019 had less than 5 years of state service. The turnover rate of 39.7 percent for employees under the age of 30 was almost twice the State’s average. This was a 9.2 percent increase in separations for those employees compared with fiscal year 2018. In addition, employees with fewer than 5 years of state service accounted for 63.8 percent of total separations (19,505 separations) and almost half of those employees (45.9 percent) were in either the Correctional Officer or Direct Support Professional job classification series.

Four occupational categories had turnover rates higher than the statewide turnover rate. The Criminal Justice occupational category had the highest turnover rate (29.3 percent) in fiscal year 2019, followed by the Social Services (27.5 percent), Custodial (27.3 percent), and Medical and Health (20.9 percent) occupational categories.

Jump to Chapter 3 

Several agencies had high turnover rates in fiscal year 2019, similar to fiscal year 2018. Twenty-six state agencies had turnover rates that exceeded 17.0 percent in fiscal year 2019, excluding agencies with less than 50 employees. Seventeen of those agencies also had turnover rates that exceeded 17.0 percent in fiscal year 2018.

Among all agencies with 1,000 or more employees, the Juvenile Justice Department, the Health and Human Services Commission, and the Department of Criminal Justice had the highest turnover rates in fiscal year 2019 at 35.2 percent, 28.3 percent, and 26.6 percent, respectively. Those three agencies also had the highest turnover rates among all agencies with 1,000 or more employees in fiscal year 2018.

Jump to Chapter 4