The Effect of Existence, Relatedness, and Growth Needs On Workforce Retention in Public Child Welfare

Background and Purpose: Existing studies suggest that high workload and low payment are the most substantive factors for turnover in public child welfare. Considering the inflexibility of worker salaries, it is meaningful to examine what other motivations can sustain first-line workers' intention to stay in child welfare. The purpose of this study is to empirically investigate the dynamics of human needs in organizational settings and their impact on workforce retention. Alderfer's (1969) framework of human needs of existence, relatedness, and growth (E.R.G. Theory) is adopted, which assumes one need can be supplementary to another. Given the fact that few studies have used theoretical models to explore retention issues, this study adds a new way to think about the implications of human needs to workforce retention in public child welfare. Methods: This study analyzes a secondary database employing a path analysis with the three categories of human needs and their effect on workforce retention. The survey data was collected from twelve counties with high turnover rate in one Northeastern state in 2004. The sample is limited to caseworkers (N=289) for the present study. Caseworkers' intention to leave as the dependent variable is measured by the number of actions taken, such as thinking of leaving, talking to spouse about leaving, or having job interviews. Independent variables are: 1) existence need referring to payment and benefits; 2) relatedness need of relationship inside and outside workplace as well as in personal life; and 3) growth need of self-fulfillment and professional accomplishments. Each scale of the variables is developed with factor analysis and suggests good reliability (alpha>0.6). Path analysis is used to explore if either relatedness need or growth need acts as a mediator between existence need and intention to leave, and quantify the total effect of each need on intention to leave. Results: The result of path analysis shows existence, relatedness, and growth needs have effect on intention to leave in a structural path. Existence need (p<.05) and growth need (p<.01) have direct effect on intention to leave, whereas relatedness need exerts strong indirect effect via growth need (p<.05). The total effect of each need indicates that existence need is what caseworkers value most (beta=-0.318) and relatedness need is the least (beta=-0.115). Noticeably, the results demonstrate that growth need acts as the mediator of existence need. That is, feeling fulfilled at work would compensate the negative impact of dissatisfying payment and thus sustain workers' intention to stay in child welfare. Conclusions and Implications: The E.R.G. theory offers meaningful insight to understand the pathway between human needs and workforce retention. The study findings suggest that caseworkers' growth need can counteract the negative impact of low payment and contribute to workforce retention in public child welfare. Administrators, supervisors and policy makers in child welfare may provide more targeted programs and resources to fulfill workers' growth needs and improve systems for career development, performance rewards, and promotional opportunities.