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Initial efforts to improve retention should be focused on the areas where the State will derive the most benefit. Once improvements have been made in these areas, focus can shift to other areas. Areas that should be addressed initially include:

• Key positions
• Mission critical jobs
• Organizational units with unusually high turnover
• Jobs or occupations with high turnover that are subject to recruitment difficulties

Key positions are those that, if vacated, result in immediate impact on an agency or university's ability to meet its goals and objectives. These positions are often filled by employees with critical knowledge that is not present elsewhere in the organization.

Mission critical positions are those that perform work which is essential to an agency in meeting its goals and objectives. Examples include transportation engineers in the Department of Transportation and auditors in the State Auditor's Office. Agency mission statements, goals and objectives, as well as discussions with executive management, can help in identifying mission critical jobs.

An organizational unit with an unusually high overall turnover rate, in relation to other units may have a contributing cause. Identifying and eliminating this cause can be of great benefit to the organization. Jobs or occupations with high turnover and difficult recruitment should be addressed immediately, due to possibility of significantly reducing turnover costs.

In the past, the main source of information to identify and prioritize retention problem areas was Personnel Management Information System (PMIS). The State is currently converting to the Beacon system. Check back soon for more information on how to obtain retention data for your agency using Beacon. In the meantime, interviews can be conducted with management to identify less obvious turnover problems. At the completion of this step, you will have identified groups of jobs that need to be addressed initially when completing the process to improve retention.