Research As Policy Advocacy Tool: What Incentivizes Employees to Continue Serving the Public Child Welfare System?

Background/Purpose: A research project funded by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) examined ways to retain workforce through employee incentives and compensations. This assessment served as a research tool to recommend strategies for improving child protection service (CPS) worker retention outcomes.

Significance: Financial incentives are proven to contribute to lower transfer rates within the agency and increase worker retention. Salary competitiveness directly impacts the children and families that DFPS is striving to serve. On December 6, 2016, the researchers presented findings to support salary increases of $12K/year per DFPS employee, starting retrospectively December 2016. This presentation will illustrate the use of research outcomes as a policy advocacy tool.

Methods: Multiple research findings were summarized to mobilize policy change with five data sources: 1) DFPS Employees Data, 2) DFPS County Data, 3) e-Survey data from current (n=5,723) and former (n=75) DFPS employees, 4) Focus group data from 37 focus groups, 5) DFPS Annual Databooks. Research questions were: (1) What incentives have been effective in DFPS staff retention? and (2) What factors influence staff turnover at DFPS as an agency, and in each DFPS division?

Results: Findings showed the average competitive salary for similar positions of workers and supervisors was on average of $55,642/year based on 2016 data, but the average DFPS salary in 2016 was only an average of $43,834/year. Predictive statistics also showed Merit Increases can elevate an employee’s likelihood of staying by 76.9%; Comp Time Taken can increase an employee’s likelihood of staying by 34.5%; Over Time Taken can increase an employee’s likelihood of staying by 35.9%; CPS Investigator Stipend can increase an employee’s likelihood of staying by 19.4%; Merit Increases can reduce termination likelihood by 80.2%. Comparing these longitudinal data via the use of Tableau data visualization, it was found the likelihood of termination was reduced in 2016 compared to the annual data of 2000-2015.

Implications: The most impactful recommendation was the salary increase scenario. It made a suggestion to DFPS to offer an $11,808 annual base salary increase to all workers, supervisors, and mangers based on the salary on September 1, 2016 to provide a competitive market value salary so that the average annual salary will total $55,642 in 2017. These data concurred with the Texas Senate Finance Committee’s recommendation to approve $75.3 million for the $12K raises on CPS worker annual salary (Texas Tribune, November 7, 2016). These data sources also supported the use of One-time Merit, Comp Time Taken, and Pay Down of Overtime Hours from 240 to 140 hours measured by Overtime Paid.

Conclusions: Multiple research methods were used to persuade legislators to adopt new strategies for CPS workforce retention. Beyond the $12K raises, additional results from comp time increases must be reported so that they would not be negatively accompanied by large caseloads, work schedule, and policies regarding leave time. New strategies should be developed with feasibility studies with direct employee input. Data visualization will continue to show on DFPS website longitudinal comparisons to support additional workforce strategies.