Tool 2 Designing and Analyzing
Turnover Data Reports
This Tool Includes
Explanations on how turnover data reports can assist you
in reducing employee turnover.
Guidelines for designing turnover reports.
Sample turnover data reports.
How Turnover Reports Can Help
Having good turnover data at your disposal is an invaluable
planning tool. So often the reports we rely on just dont tell us
what we need to know in a simple, straightforward manner.
Worse yet, in many human services agencies, turnover reports
dont exist at all.
Turnover reports can provide very important information about
whats going on in your agency. Having good turnover data
can help you:
Understand the magnitude of your turnover problem or
whether you even have one.
Analyze the causes of turnover in your agency
Determine the impact of any steps you take to address
turnover and retention issues.
Provide responses to inquiries from various constituencies
including legislators, commissioners, boards of directors
and the media.
The sample reports we show will not provide you with all the
answers as to why your agency has high turnover rates, but
they can help you frame the questions.
We understand that the reports outlined in this Tool are
sophisticated and that your agency may not have the capacity
to obtain the data and develop similar reports. However, any
turnover data you have is useful.
Start with the basic demographic data you have and build
more sophisticated reports over time. For example, you might
begin by selecting one position where you have the most
concerns about turnover and tracking that position for a year.
Defining Turnover
We define turnover here as the number of people leaving an
agency or category during a specific time period (usually one
year) divided by the average number of employees in that
agency or category during the same time period.
14
Turnover Tool Kit Tool 2 Turnover Reports
Turnover can be measured at many levels. You can measure
the number of employees leaving an agency, a department or
division, a classification, or a single position. Regardless at
what level you apply the definition, the basic calculation
remains the same.
Sample Reports and Guidelines
Each of the following sample report formats includes a brief
description of what it measures and how it might be used. All
of the sample reports are designed:
To measure departure data from one pay period to
another, cumulating the data for year-to-date reporting.
For a hypothetical large, statewide human services agency
providing child welfare services in multiple locations.
To track turnover within the hypothetical Childrens
Services Specialist (CSS) classification, (the classification
for all child welfare workers) and major groupings of
similar, specialized jobs within the classification (such as
Protective Services [PS], Foster Care and Adoption).
As a series of reports, which when analyzed together,
provide a complete picture of an agencys turnover. No. people leaving (1 year)
Turnover =
Average No. Employees (same year)
15
Date: J anuary 7, 2005
No. % No. % No. % No. % No. % No. % No. % No. % No. % No. %
Pay Period 26 3 50.0% 1 16.6% 1 16.6% 0 0.0% 0 0.0% 1 16.6% 0 0.0% 0 0.0% 0 0.0% 6 100%
Year-to-Date 169 73.4% 15 6.5% 23 10.0% 0 0.0% 11 4.7% 7 3.0% 0 0.0% 1 0.4% 4 1.7% 230 100%
No. % No. % No. % No. %
Pay Period 26 1 50.0% 0 0.0% 1 50.0% 2 100.0%
Year-to-Date 11 57.9% 2 10.5% 6 31.5% 19 100.0%
No. % No. % No. % No. %
Pay Period 26 0 0.0% 1 100.0% 0 0.0% 1 100.0%
Year-to-Date 27 45.7% 13 22.0% 19 32.2% 59 100.0%
Pay Period 26 6 66.6% 2 22.2% 1 11.1% 9 100.0%
Year-to-Date 230 74.7% 19 6.2% 59 19.2% 308 100
Separations
Left
Classification
Reason for Departure
Separation from the Department.
Leaving the CSS classification, although staying in the Department.
Leaving the Protective Services Worker, although staying in the CSS classification.
The specific reasons for Separationare identified here as Resigned,Moved to New Department,
Retirement,etc. Reasons for separations in your agency may be different. Moved to New
Departmentis a Separationreason in this report because it is designed from the departmental
perspective.
The specific reasons for Left Classificationare identified as Lateral Transfer to a Different
Classification,Promotionand Demotion.
The reasons for Left Programidentify the specific programs or specialized jobs to which a PS
Worker could transfer such as Foster Care, Adoption or J uvenile J ustice. This section of the report
tracks the number of CSSs who left the Protective Services Program (or the PS Worker J ob) and
became a Foster Care Worker, Adoption Worker or a J uvenile J ustice Worker. (Employees
transferring to another office but remaining a PS Worker are not counted in this report.)
W.R.L.O.A. Total
This report provides sufficient detail to allow you to monitor in each pay period how many of your PS
Workers left the agency due to resignation, retirement, transfer to another state agency, etc. You can
also determine how many were promoted or demoted or laterally transferred.
Demotion
Reason for Departure To Foster Care To Adoption To J.J.
Reason for Departure
Lateral Transfer
(Different Class)
Promotion
Total Departed
Turnover Report
by Reason for Departure within Program
Total
Discharge
Expired
Appointment
Death Medical Layoff Resigned Retirement
Protective Services Program, Protective Services Workers
This report tracks departures from a specialized job (Protective Services Worker) within the larger
Childrens Services Specialist (CSS) classification.
In this Department, there are three basic Reasons for Departurefrom the Protective Services
Worker job:
Left Program
Layoff
(R.I.F. or Seasonal)
Moved to New
Department
Total
Total
Left Program
Reason for Departure Separated
Left
Classification
Demonstration Data Only 16
Date:
Classification Pay Period Dates
No.
Employs
on Payroll
Separations
Percent
Separated
(Pay Period)
Percent
Separated
(Proj. Annual)
Left Class
(Promote,
Demote,
Lateral)
Separations +
Left
Classification
Percent
(Pay Period)
Percent
(Proj. Annual)
Left Program
Separations
+ Left Class
+Left
Program
Percent
(Pay Period)
Percent Leaving
Program
(Proj. Annual)
Foster Care 1
12/7/03-
12/20/03
861 2 0.23% 6.04% 1 3 0.35% 9.06% 3 6 0.70% 18.12%
2
12/21/03-
1/3/04
855 1 0.12% 4.55% 3 4 0.47% 10.66% 5 9 1.05% 22.75%
26
12/12/04-
12/25/04
866 3 0.35% 17.56% 2 5 0.58% 18.59% 2 7 0.81% 19.62%
Protective
Services
1
12/7/03-
12/20/03
717 5 0.70% 18.13% 1 6 0.84% 21.76% 4 10 1.39% 36.26%
2
12/21/03-
1/3/04
711 4 0.56% 16.38% 0 4 0.56% 18.20% 1 5 0.70% 27.17%
26
12/12/04-
12/25/04
726 6 0.83% 32.72% 2 8 1.10% 34.66% 1 9 1.24% 42.86%
Adoption 1
12/7/03-
12/20/03
92 1 1.09% 28.26% 0 1 1.09% 28.26% 0 1 1.09% 28.26%
2
12/21/03-
1/3/04
92 0 0.00% 14.17% 0 0 0.00% 14.17% 0 0 0.00% 14.17%
26
12/12/04-
12/25/04
90 1 1.11% 6.44% 0 1 1.11% 7.14% 0 1 1.11% 7.69%
Juvenile
Justice
1
12/7/03-
12/20/03
227 0 0.00% 0.00% 0 0 0.00% 0.00% 0 0 0.00% 0.00%
2
12/21/03-
1/3/04
227 0 0.00% 0.00% 0 0 0.00% 0.00% 0 0 0.00% 0.00%
26
1/4/04-
1/17/04
227 0 0.00% 8.61% 0 0 0.00% 9.22% 0 0 0.00% 9.22%
Total
Children's
Services
1
12/7/03-
12/20/03
1897 8 0.42% 10.96% 2 10 0.53% 13.71% 7 17 0.90% 23.30%
2
12/21/03-
1/3/04
1885 5 0.27% 6.90% 3 8 0.42% 11.03% 6 14 0.74% 19.31%
26
12/12/04-
12/25/04
1909 10 0.52% 24.32% 4 14 0.73% 26.76% 3 17 0.89% 30.52%
Data from this report will help you frame the questions to determine the underlying causes of the turnover rates: What are the issues? Is it the nature of the job? The stress of the workload? The
quality of the supervision? The volume of the paperwork?
Employee Turnover Report
By Program
J anuary 7, 2005
This report displays data for the agencys four specialized jobs within the Childrens Services Specialist (CSS) classification. Turnover data is summarized at the bottom of the report for everyone in the
classification. The report reflects separations those employees who left the classification or left the program for each program, and a total turnover calculation for the agency per pay period. The
report shows data from pay periods 1 and 2, and then skips to pay period 26, to illustrate the year-to-date totals.
Based on tracking turnover for 26 pay periods, we find that:
The turnover rate for all of childrens services is 24.32%, if you define turnover as the number of CSSs who left the agency as a percentage of the average number of CSSs who were on the payroll
during the 26 pay periods.
If, instead, you define the turnover rate as the number of CSSs who left their job, the rate is 26.76%. This definition truly reflects the replacement rate, combining those who left the agency with thos
staying but taking a promotion, demotion, or another job at the same classification level.
If you add the number of employees who moved from one program to another, the turnover rate jumps up to 30.5%.
The turnover rate of Protective Services workers leaving the agency is twice as high (42.86%) as for Foster Care workers (19.62%) and more than four times the rate for Adoption (7.69%) and
J uvenile J ustice workers (9.22%).
Demonstration Data Only 17
Date: J anuary 7, 2005
No. % No. % No. % No. % No. % No. % No. % No. % No. %
Pay Period
Year-to-Date 55 23.9% 62 26.9% 37 16.1% 21 9.1% 22 9.6% 14 6.1% 12 5.2% 7 3.0% 230 100.0%
Pay Period
Year-to-Date 1 5.3% 3 15.8% 2 10.5% 2 10.5% 4 21.1% 3 15.8% 4 21.1% 0 0.0% 19 100.0%
Pay Period
Year-to-Date 0 0.0% 1 0.0% 6 10.2% 12 20.4% 20 33.9% 10 16.9% 7 11.9% 3 5.1% 59 100.0%
Pay Period
Year-to-Date 56 18.2% 66 21.4% 45 14.6% 35 11.4% 46 14.9% 27 8.8% 23 7.5% 10 3.2% 308 100.0%
Pay Period
Year-to-Date 107 14.9% 126 17.5% 87 12.1% 86 11.9% 84 11.7% 86 11.9% 76 10.6% 68 9.4% 720 100.0%
Percent
Departures
52.3% 52.4% 51.2% 40.1% 54.8% 31.4% 30.1% 14.7%
Protective Services Program, Protective Services Worker
Employee Turnover Report
by Length of Service within Program
10 + years Total Length of Service 2 - 3 years O - 6 months 6 months - 1 year 1 - 2 years 3 - 5 years 5 - 7 years
The purpose of this report is to help determine the relationship between turnover and length of service. As with the previous reports, this report also allows you to analyze turnover based on departures
from the agency, departures from the classification and departures from the Protective Services worker job.
For Total Departures, turnover within the first year of employment accounts for almost 40% of the turnover that occurred in the past year (18.2% plus 21.4%).
More than half (52.3%) of all employees with less than six months of service leave the job.
Another 52.4% of the employees with between six and twelve months of service also leave.
For employees with one year or less of service, almost all of them leave the agency.
As length of service increases, employees are more likely to remain with the agency, but move to different classification or transfer to a different specialty within the CSS classification.
A high percentage of employees leaving during the first year suggests several questions: Are new employees really a good fit for the job? Do the new hires accept the job offer without really
understanding what the job is all about? Are the new employees receiving the supervisor support they need to help them through their first several months on the job?
7 - 10 years
Employees
on Payroll
Left Program
Total Departures
Separations
Left Classification
Demonstration Data Only 18
Date: J anuary 7, 2005
No. % No. % No. % No. % No. % No. % No. % No. %
Pay Period
Year-to-Date 10 4.3% 23 10.0% 16 6.9% 33 14.3% 99 43.0% 22 9.6% 27 11.7% 230 100.0%
Pay Period
Year-to-Date 2 10.5% 4 21.0% 2 10.5% 1 5.3% 4 21.0% 5 26.3% 1 5.3% 19 100.0%
Pay Period
Year-to-Date 5 8.5% 1 1.7% 5 8.5% 4 6.7% 40 67.8% 2 3.4% 2 3.4% 59 100.0%
Pay Period
Year-to-Date 17 5.5% 28 9.3% 23 7.5% 38 12.3% 143 46.4% 29 9.4% 30 9.7% 308 100.0%
Pay Period
Year-to-Date 97 13.5% 107 14.8% 40 5.6% 55 7.6% 165 22.9% 206 28.6% 50 6.9% 720 100.0%
Percent 17.5% 26.2% 57.5% 69.1% 86.7% 14.1% 60.0%
Left Program
Total Departed
Total
Separations
Left Classification
Degree
Employees
on Payroll
Employee Turnover Report
by Degree within Program
BSW Criminal Justice Sociology Psychology Other B.A. MSW Other M.A.
Protective Services Program, Protective Services Worker
This data suggests several questions: Do the BSW and MSW employees have significantly lower turnover rates because they were more committed to the field of child welfare
before taking the job? Has their education better prepared them to cope with the demands of the job? Did the employees with the Other BA degrees really know what to expect
when they accepted the job offer to work in child welfare?
The highest percentage of employees who Left Classification are those with MSWs. Since employees can leave the classification through promotion, demotion or lateral transfer, it
would be worthwhile to drill down into the data to determine how many of the MSW employees leaving the classification were actually promoted.
The purpose of this report is to help determine the relationship between turnover and employees level and type of education.
Total Departed shows the number and percentage of employees who departed the Protective Services job within the past year by degree type.
Notice the very high proportion of overall turnover by employees in the Other BA category -- over 46% of all turnover is among employees in that category.
The percentage of overall turnover by employees with a BSW (5.5%) or MSW (9.4%) is relatively low.
From this, we cant really tell if the turnover of employees who majored in social work is lower than for employees with other degrees, or if they represent such a small portion of the
workforce that their turnover rate appears low. Looking further at the report, we find:
Of all the employees working in Protective Services during the past year (average of 720), 97 had a BSW (13.5%), and 206 had a MSW (28.6%).
The lowest turnover rates are among employees with BSWs (17.5 percent) and MSWs (14.1 percent). Compare this to the 86.7% turnover rate among employees in the Other
BA degree category.
The turnover rate among Sociology and Psychology majors is also very high, but relatively low for employees with a Criminal J ustice degree.
Demonstration Data Only 19
W-M % W-F % No. % B-M % B-F % No. % H-M % H-F % No. % A-M % A-F % No. % NA-M % NA-F % No. %
Total
Male
%
Total
Female
%
Grand
Total
Pay Period
Year-to-Date 25 10.9% 94 40.9% 109 47.4% 10 4.3% 42 18.3% 52 22.6% 11 4.8% 33 14.3% 44 19.1% 3 1.3% 7 3.0% 10 4.3% 1 0.4% 4 1.7% 5 2.2% 50 21.7% 180 78.3% 230
Pay Period
Year-to-Date 3 15.8% 6 31.6% 9 47.4% 2 10.5% 3 15.8% 5 26.3% 2 10.5% 1 5.3% 3 15.8% 0 0.0% 1 5.3% 1 5.3% 0 0.0% 1 1 7 36.8% 12 63.2% 19
Pay Period
Year-to-Date 6 10.2% 24 40.7% 30 50.8% 4 6.8% 10 16.9% 14 23.7% 2 3.4% 8 13.6% 10 16.9% 1 1.7% 4 6.8% 5 8.5% 0 0.0% 0 0 13 22.0% 46 78.0% 59
Pay Period
Year-to-Date 34 11.0% 124 40.3% 158 51.3% 16 5.2% 55 17.9% 71 23.1% 15 4.9% 42 13.6% 57 18.5% 4 1.3% 12 3.9% 16 5.2% 1 0.3% 5 6 70 22.7% 238 77.3% 308
Pay Period
Year-to-Date 48 6.7% 262 36.4% 310 43.1% 31 4.3% 207 28.8% 238 33.1% 21 2.9% 90 12.5% 111 15.4% 18 2.5% 30 4.2% 48 6.7% 2 0.3% 11 13 120 16.7% 600 83.3% 720
Percent
Departure
70.1% 47.3% 51.0% 51.6% 26.6% 29.8% 71.4% 46.7% 51.4% 22.2% 40.0% 33.3% 50.0% 45.4% #### 58.3% 39.7%
Protective Services Program, Protective Services Worker
Employee Turnover Report
by Race, Sex within Program
White Black Hispanic Asian Native American, Eskimo Gender Totals
Total N.A.,
Eskimo
Total Asian
Date: J anuary 7, 2005
Total Hispanic Total White
Demographic Variable
Total Black
This report shows turnover by race and sex. The purpose of this type of report is to monitor the turnover of different demographic groups and to determine if any
relationships appear to exist between turnover and gender and/or race/ethnicity.
For Total Departure, most of the departures (40.3%) are among white females. This is not surprising since they comprise 36.4% of the
Protective Services (PS) workforce (see Employees on Payroll row).
The most interesting data is contained in the bottom line of the report. Males have a much higher turnover rate (58.3%) than females (39.7%).
White males (70.1%) and Hispanic males (71.4%) have particularly high turnover rates.
In terms of race and ethnicity, Blacks/African Americans have the lowest turnover (29.8%) while Caucasians/Whites (51%) and Hispanics
(51.4%) have the highest turnover. Black females comprise a large percentage of the PS workforce (33.1%) and have a very low turnover rate of
26.6%. White females, on the other hand, comprise 36.4% of the PS workforce and have a turnover rate of 47.3%.
Employees
on Payroll
Total Departed
Left Program
Separations
Left
Classification
Demonstration Data Only 20
Date:
County Pay Period Dates Payroll Separations
Percent
Separated
Left
Class
Percent Left
Class
Seperations
+ Left Class
Percent Left
Class
Left County
Percent Left
County
Seperated +
Left Class+
Left County
% Seperated +
Left Class +
Left County
County A 26
12/12/04-
12/25/04
135 0 0.0% 0 0.0% 0 0.0% 0 0.0% 0 0.0%
Year-to-Date 140 21 15.0% 0 0.0% 21 15.0% 2 1.4% 23 16.4%
County B 26
12/12/04-
12/25/04
114 1 0.9% 0 0.0% 1 0.9% 1 0.9% 2 1.8%
Year-to-Date 120 37 30.8% 1 38 31.7% 9 7.5% 47 39.2%
County C 26
12/12/04-
12/25/04
210 2 1.0% 0 0.0% 2 1.0% 0 0.0% 2 1.0%
Year-to-Date 217 39 18.0% 0 39 18.0% 3 1.4% 42 19.4%
County D 26
12/12/04-
12/25/04
188 0 0.0% 0 0.0% 0 0.0% 1 0.5% 1 0.5%
Year-to-Date 186 65 34.9% 3 1.6% 68 36.6% 16 8.6% 84 45.2%
Total
Children's
Services
26
12/12/04-
12/25/04
1909 10 0.5% 4 0.2% 14 0.7% 7 0.4% 16 0.8%
Year-to-Date 1925 404 21.0% 41 2.1% 445 23.1% 125 6.5% 570 29.6%
J anuary 7, 2005
Employee Turnover Report
County Summary
Totals Shown Below Include Data From Other Counties Omitted because of Space Limitations
Children's Services Specialist Classification
This report is intended to be monitored centrally to track turnover in the county offices of a statewide organization. It could also be used by a large county, city or private agency with
multiple district or branch locations.
The primary purpose of this report is to help determine if turnover rates differ significantly from one county to another. This report does not track transfers from one program to
another within the classification.
This report tracks turnover by three different departure definitions:
1. Separations from the agency.
2. Departures the classification (promotion, demotion or lateral transfer to a different classification within the agency).
3. Transfer from one county to another, although remaining in the Children's Services Specialist (CSS) classification.
For the four counties used in the example, the overall turnover rate ranges from 16.4% in County A to 45.2% in County D.
Both Counties B and D have a high percentage of employees leaving the agency (30.8% and 34.9%) as well as a relatively large percentage of employees transferring to CSS
positions in other counties (7.5% and 8.6%).
The fact that turnover rates in Counties B and D are roughly double those of Counties A and C suggests several questions: Are there problems with the supervisory and
management style in offices B and D? Are there some things about the nature of the communities that make the job more difficult or perhaps a less desirable place for employees
to live? Are many of the new hires in Counties B and D residents of neighboring counties where hiring opportunities are more limited?
Demonstration Data Only 21
