INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION

Employee turnover in Extension has many consequences, including a loss of institutional knowledge, suffered community relationships, decreased or inconsistent programming, additional strain on remaining staff, and increased costs to the organization to find and train replacement employees (Ensle, 2005; Strong & Harder, 2009). As of 2017, UF/IFAS Florida Extension agents had a turnover rate of 8.7%, more than double the national labor turnover rate at the time (Benge & Harder, 2017). A possible cause of Florida Extension agent turnover problem is low work engagement. Work engagement refers to an employee’s psychological connection with his or her work (Bakker & Leiter, 2010). While work engagement is important for quality and quantity of work, reports suggest that only 44% of private sector employees and 38% of public sector employees are engaged in their work (Lavigna, 2017).

Most Americans spend approximately one-third of their waking hours at work (Saks, 2006). It is estimated that across all professions, more than 28% of workers will voluntarily leave their employment each year—but of this percentage, 77% could have been retained by their employers under different circumstances (Work Institute, 2018). Relevant literature has identified several factors which are linked to employee turnover. These include stress, burnout, gender, tenure, job satisfaction, low organizational commitment, and low work engagement (Bakker et al., 2008; Chong & Monroe, 2013). Since the 1990s, work engagement has become increasingly prominent in popular literature and research regarding employee (Schaufeli, 2013). Engaged employees produce higher quality and quantity of work, and consequently, their organizations can incur lower operating costs (Risher, 2018). Fortunately, work engagement is malleable and can be intentionally increased (Bakker et al., 2008).

Very few studies have investigated work engagement among Extension agents (Abbott, 2017; Martin, 2013; Weyhrauch et al., 2010). Russell et al.’s (2019) literature review of Extension burnout and work engagement research identified this notable gap in the research and suggested that more investigation of work engagement within Extension could help administrators design more supportive environments for professionals. This study focused on assessing the work engagement levels of UF/IFAS Extension agents. It is imperative that Florida Extension understand the self-perceived work engagement levels of employees.

INTRODUCTION

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