US Government Healthcare Agency
Former Employee Survey
Background
The agency was facing a demographic “bubble” – over the next few years it expected that many
“baby boomers” will retire, causing a talent shortage. This is expected to be especially severe
among healthcare professionals. Faced with this problem, the agency hired Sirota to investigate
the reasons employees were leaving their organization – and to see if there were steps that
could be taken to improve retention.
Work Performed
Sirota contacted 7,600 former employees of the agency who had left voluntarily. They were
asked to complete a 40-question survey – either through an automated telephone system or a
dedicated website. The questions were chosen by Sirota to include those that had previously
been proven to be important to employee attraction and retention as well as questions to be
asked in a planned internal employee survey. About 25% of those asked completed the
questionnaire.
The findings provided a strong insight into the key reasons why people had left the agency and
what actions could be taken to reduce future turnover. For example, the survey showed that
three-quarters of the nurses who left moved to another healthcare job. Half said they left for
negative reasons – and would have stayed with the agency had the conditions been right. When
asked if something could have been done to help them stay, 40% said yes, but nothing had
been done, and a number said that only limited efforts had been made to retain them. One-third
said they would still consider returning to the agency.
In-depth analysis by Sirota identified specific factors that influenced employees to leave the
agency. For example, 30% blamed poor management, and 15% said they were frustrated by
obstacles prevented them from performing their job well. Management issues included uneven
distribution of work, lack of recognition, poor communication and lack of interpersonal skills in
individual managers – all of which could have been resolved earlier. For Nurses, the three key
drivers of their willingness to return to the agency were whether they felt they were treated with
respect and dignity, teamwork in their unit, and whether they felt actions were taken on their
ideas and concerns.
Results/Outcome/Impact
As a result of the survey, the agency was able to immediately attract a number of former
employees back to the organization (the savings in recruiting and training new employees more
than covered the cost of the survey). The agency has also instituted an internal system for
surveying employees who leave voluntarily and, where possible, encourages them not to leave
or to return.