Employee retention and employee burnout were primary issues associated with the second overall top challenge, professional development. The 1994s indicate a challenge to provide onboarding for new employees while the 1862 and 1890 Land-grants express concern about how to provide professional development across all career stages. From the demographic data, we note that one of the areas where the 1994 Land-grants are much different than the 1862 and 1890’s relates to the years of service. With almost 30 years of Land-grant status, the absence of employees with greater than thirty years of service is understandable. But what does this mean in terms of their unique needs for training and support? Institutional support was the top ranked challenge for the 1994 Land-grants. Are there ways to help Extension professionals in the 1994 Land-grants explain their role and value throughout their institutions? And looking at employee’s position in the organization through their assessment of their career stage is useful in taking into consideration people coming into Extension with previous experience or who may not be advancing throughout their career as desired. The data collected in this survey suggests both of these scenarios exist. The maximum years of tenure for the early or entry stage of the 1862’s is 14, suggesting some people are remaining in this stage for long periods of time. Yet people with one to two years are coming in across all institutions and in the later career stages, possibly bringing experience from other roles that help them to move quickly into the later stages. Further study of career stage in Extension and implications for recruitment, hiring, and professional development may be beneficial in addressing the concerns associated with employee retention and recruitment as well as supervisory skills. The third overall challenge, institutional support, was an emergent challenge from the early interviews that ranked as the first ranked challenge for 1994s and third ranked for 1862 and 1890 Land-grants. Challenges in this area beyond limited staff and funding include organizational trust and linkages across Extension and the other Land-grant missions. People cite political fear associated with science-based policies as well as needing to do more to educate others in their institution about the Land-grant mission, difficulty retaining or supporting Extension faculty, sometimes at the expense of research or academic faculty. This challenge provides an opportunity for the development of a strong, national curriculum that could be used in faculty onboarding across Land-grants to provide internal education about what a Land-grant does and how the parts of the mission can work successfully together to meet societal needs and increase university recognition and support in local communities.
75
Powered by FlippingBook