Final Report: Executive Summary: February 25, 1997

Prepared for: The Alliance for Consumer Options

Prepared by: Sheryl A. Larson

A special thanks to Bob Hafdahl, Lynne Megan, and the Data Collection Committee from the Alliance for Consumer Outcomes, and to Lynda Anderson, Kathy Burkholder, Amy Hewitt, Charlie Lakin and Bob Prouty, University of Minnesota, Center on Residential Services and Community Living.

Funding for this study was provided by the Alliance for Consumer Options.

Executive Summary

This study describes recruitment challenges faced by 144 randomly selected residential, vocational, in-home support, and mental health agencies in Minnesota (of 488 eligible agencies). The agencies in this study employed 9,591 direct support workers (DSWs) and 1,026 first line supervisors. Based on these numbers, the number of direct support workers statewide is estimated at 32,503 and the number of first line supervisors is estimated at 3,477.

Both public and private agencies reported difficulties recruiting and retaining new workers. Approximately 9% of direct support positions and 5% of first line supervisor positions were vacant at the time of this survey. This represents an estimated 2,872 direct support vacancies (1,426 FTE positions), and 119 first line supervisor vacancies statewide. On an annual basis, with turnover rates in small residential facilities averaging almost 50% annually (Larson, 1996), 15,252 direct support positions have to be filled to replace workers who have left. Additional new direct support workers have to be hired to provide services to the estimated 2,089 new people with disabilities who begin receiving services each year statewide (an estimated 1,295 direct support workers).

Recruitment and retention costs are large and growing. Agencies reported spending $47,880 for advertising to recruit new workers just during August 1996. This translates into estimated annual advertising costs across the 488 agencies statewide of approximately 1.95 million dollars. In addition, these agencies paid for 28,497 hours of overtime in August 1996, mostly to cover shifts vacant because of unfilled positions. This translates into an estimated 1.16 million hours annually. If the average worker in Minnesota earned $7.28 per hour, this represents $4.22 million annually in overtime expenditures (beyond the straight time expenses).

Direct support worker positions were vacant for an average of 3.1 weeks before being filled, and first line supervisor positions were vacant for an average of 2.4 weeks. When direct support worker positions were advertised, the average agency received 10.0 applications with variations depending on the type of agency. Residential agencies received 7.3 applicants per position while mental health agencies received 15.4 applicants per position. Some providers reported having fewer applications come in than the number of positions open. Clearly there is a need for a targeted systemic workforce development plan to address challenges facing the human services industry.

A majority of Executive Directors and Administrators reported that wage and hour considerations (69%), finding qualified staff members (69%), and staff turnover (57%) were "major problems" for their agencies. The top three recruitment barriers or disincentives were lack of qualified applicants (69% of all agencies reported this to be a moderate or a severe barrier), lack of applicants (67%), and compensation or pay (67%).

These results suggest that recruitment and retention challenges are pressing needs that must be addressed. Members of the Alliance for Consumer Options (1997), after reviewing the data in this report, made several recommendations about ways to address these challenges. Recommended recruitment strategies included expanding the pool of DSWs through School-to-Work and Welfare-to-Work initiatives, initiating targeted recruitment, training and support programs, improving DSW wages and benefits and describing the nature and needs of DSWs. Recommended retention strategies included developing realistic job previews, providing assistance and training to measure and reduce staff turnover, and developing a program to enhance the status of DSWs.

Recommended education and training strategies included identifying DSW training needs, identifying and distributing competency based training materials, providing technical assistance, training and support on the delivery of training, expanding training and career development opportunities for DSW, and developing a competency-based training program for supervisors of DSWs. Finally, they recommended conducting studies of efficiency and productivity to examine the cost implications of recruitment and retention outcomes, examining cost efficiencies possible within the current service delivery system that might be used to improve wages and benefits, and examining DSW roles, consumer directed services, and managed care initiatives that might lead to more efficient uses of resources and personnel.

1 This number is a duplicate count in that most people who receive vocational services also receive residential services.