MSPB also said that agencies must be aware that hard-to-fill positions may be different from those where it is hard to keep employees once they are hired.
“When trying to understand retention trends, agencies should rely on data—rather than perceptions of talent scarcity. Much attention has been focused on occupations such as information technology and engineering. Retention in professional occupations is indeed lower, overall, than in administrative occupations. However, retention is lower yet in the ‘Other’ occupational category, which includes protective occupations such as police officer and firefighter,” it said.
Of the five “PATCO” categories, administrative employees have the highest retention rate, 94 percent after one year and 91 percent after two, followed by professional employees, 92 and 86, then technical 88 and 82, clerical, 87 and 79, and other, 85 and 78.
Said MSPB: “Retention rates differ much more across occupations than they do across lines of age, sex, or ethnicity and race. For example, the challenge of retaining Millennials is real, but pales next to the challenges of retaining physician assistants (two-year retention rate of 73 percent) and materials handlers (65 percent). Such occupational differences do much to explain why some good managers may find themselves continually recruiting, while some ineffective supervisors still manage to have capable and committed staff because the jobs ‘sell themselves.”
There also are differences among agencies, with the SEC best among the 12 agencies shown with a 97 percent retention after one year and 93 percent after two, followed by EPA, 95 and 90, NASA, 95 and 89, and Air Force, 94 and 89. At bottom was VA, 87 and 80, with HHS just above at 89 and 81.
