EXF 2023 Professional Development Needs Assessment Report

Professional Development In the survey, professional development was listed as including the subcategories of distributed leadership; diversity, equity, and inclusion; employee burnout and retention; finding and maintaining professional development programs (DEI); globalization impacts in communities; leadership development; onboarding; professional development across career stages; remote work environments; succession planning; and volunteer development and management. Professional development was listed as the second greatest challenge for 1862 and 1890 and as fifth for 1994 Land-grants. Table 11 indicates how the various subcategories of professional development were ranked within this category by institution.

Table 11 Challenges ranked from greatest to least based on percent responses associated with professional development provided by Land-grant institution type.

Institutional Rank from Highest to Lowest

Professional Development Subcategories

All Institutions

1862

1890

1994

Employee Retention

1 - 12.90

1 - 12.92

1 - 13.24

2 - 13.51

2 - 11.76 

Employee Burnout

2 - 12.85

2 - 12.82

1 - 16.22

Professional Development Across Career Stages

2 - 11.76 

5 - 5.41 

3 - 9.71

3 - 9.64

Onboarding

4 - 8.89

4 - 8.94

5 - 8.09

3 - 10.81

4 - 8.11 

Leadership Development

5 - 7.89

6 - 7.70

3 - 11.03

5 - 5.41 

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)

6 - 7.47

5 - 7.75

9 - 3.68

4 - 8.11 

Succession Planning

7 - 7.29

7 - 7.10

4 - 8.82

7 - 5.88 

5 - 5.41 

Volunteer Development

8 - 6.11

8 - 6.16

10 - 2.94 

5 - 5.41 

Volunteer Management Maintaining Professional Development Programs

9 - 5.42

9 - 5.56

4 - 8.11 

10 - 5.10

10 - 5.07

8 - 5.15

6 - 2.70 

Remote Work Environments

11 - 4.83

11 - 4.77

6 - 6.62

7 - 5.88 

6 - 2.70 

Distributed Leadership

12 - 4.56

12 - 4.52

Finding Professional Development Programs

10 - 2.94 

5 - 5.41 

13 - 4.38

13 - 4.42

Globalization Impacts in Communities

6 - 2.70 

14 - 2.28

14 - 2.29

11 - 2.21

Other Responses

15 - 0.32

15 - 0.35 No Responses No Responses

Number of Question Responses

2194

2013

136

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 Items are tied for second within this group.  Items are tied for fourth within this group.  Items are tied for fifth within this group.  Items are tied for sixth within this group.  Items are tied for seventh within this group.  Items are tied for tenth within this group.

These responses indicate a high level of interest in using professional development to increase employee retention and decrease employee burnout. This appears to be connected with considering how we provide professional development for employees working across the career stage. Onboarding also appears as a critical need for the 1994s. Professional development related to leadership development and succession planning are expressed as needs for 1890 Land-grants. A small number of “other” comments were provided by respondents from the 1862 Land-grants. These indicated need for funding to support professional development. Concerns related to onboarding included not providing training and then blaming employees for failure to meet, sometimes elevated, expectations. A need for volunteer

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