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== 7.  What efforts have your state made to retain Agents and/or reduce turnover? ==

'''Oklahoma'''

A Career Ladder system is in its 3rd year in Oklahoma.  It is a peer reviewed process and has been successful at rewarding good performance and tenure within the system.  Level II Educators receive a $1500 increase in base salary.  Level III Educators receive a $2000 increase to base salary.  We awarded the first Distinguished Educator Awards this past year.  This award carries a $3000 dollar increase to base salary.  The award is determined by the Exension Administrative Group.

We also implemented a Secretary Retention program that provides a $100 dollar increase to annual salary for each year worked beyond 5 years.  This is in addition to any merit salary increases.

We are increasing the CED pay by $40 per month effective Jan. 1, 2009.
We also believe the mentoring program will be of assistance in retention of Educators.


'''Arkansas'''

A within county promotion system that has been in place has helped retain staff in rural areas. Agent II's get $3500 and Agent III get $4500 if reccomended for promotion through a peer committee process.


'''Virginia'''

With much of the reason for retention and turnover problems being related to issues beyond the control of the organization such as relocation of family, or salary issues, there has been little that is done in this area other than working more diligently on the hiring side to place employees who are a good fit for Extension Work.


'''Florida'''<br>
Mentoring program that provides new agents with a more experienced colleague to help guide them through the system.

A promotion system is in place for Agents (County Faculty) that mirrors State Faculty promotion.  County Faculty are eligible for promotion every five years to advance from Agent I through Agent IV. A 9% raise is associated with each promotion. A Special Pay Plan is also in place for Agent IV every seven years with a 9% raise associated.


'''North Carolina'''

Much of what we have done is for early career agents. These employees with less than 5 years experience have the greatest turnover in the organization. Our new orientation process is more clearly defining organizational expectations while providing the training resources to be successful. Agents during their first few months are assisted by their County and District Directors to develop a learning network of agents and specialists. This has replaced the traditional mentoring system for our state. 

We are actively listening to our agents needs and trying to address them. One of these relate to reporting. Agents had concerns about time and duplication of entries of information. Another concern related to the performance instrument we used. In order to address these we have initiated a One Stop Shop (OSS) electronic reporting system. The system's development is on-going. To date we have released a new performance instrument, county plan of work and individual plan of work components. These components are customized so each agent can access only their information through a personal portal. 

We have also initiated an Extension peer promotion review committee. This committee of 10 people review and make promotion recommendations to administration. The committee consists of 6 full agents, two from each program area. Three of the remaining slots have representatives from the state program offices and the remaining slot is a district director.


'''Georgia'''

Each district was allocated a sum of salary dollars by the University to use in addressing salary compression issues with classified employees. We have a number of these employees in the 4-8 year range who have been adversely affected by increases in the starting salaries for these employees.

Our Public Service Career ladder continues to be popular with our early and mid career employees. This peer reviewed 4 tiered system allows Agents to earn significant raises ( total of $10,000) and develop reputations for subject matter expertise based on the quality and quantity of their work.

As mentioned earlier, all new Agents are assigned an experienced Agent as a program area mentor and all new County Coordinators are assigned an experienced CEC as a CEC mentor.


'''Kentucky'''

We implemented a career ladder to help with retention. It has been most successful with out mid career agents to provide the incentive to stay with Extension. We also have the minority network which connects individuals into a support system.


'''Alabama'''

No formal efforts have been made to retain Agents and/or reduce turnover.  However, the majority of our turnover in ACES does not occur at the professional level that includes Agents.  We experience turnover primarily in the non-exempt, paraprofessional classifications of employees.

The respective universities have done a better job in marketing the total rewards of employment and this is a way to educate employees on the numerous benefits that we have.  In particular, Auburn completed a major classification study for all AP and US jobs and a brochure was distributed as a part of this process that fully attempts to review the total rewards package.  This can be found at:  http://www.auburn.edu/administration/human_resources/compensation/ccp/brochure.pdf

'''Texas AgriLife Extension '''

Completed comprehensive review and made specific adjustments to all On-Boarding processes within Texas AgriLife Extension Service to help ensure these activities are addressing the most critical needs of new incoming employees.  

Urban Professional Development Opportunity has been extended for county Extension agents interested in working in an urban/suburban county.  

'''LSU AgCenter'''

Increased starting salaries and merit raises to keep competitive with educational systems.
Salary increases for MS & PhD's
Specialization programs - Five graduate courses beyond Master's. $1500 to complete five courses, Extension pays for first and fifth class.
Another $1000 for added program area responsibilities resulting from specialization.

'''Tennessee Extension'''

Have plan for increasing salaries and have submitted plan to Board of Trustees and State Legislature.

[[SRPLN 2008 MM State Report | Return to 2008 State Report]]