Predicting Civilian Engineer Turnover by Organization Environmental Factors in the US Federal Governmen

The engineering workforce in the US Federal Government is increasingly reaching retirement eligibility. As these engineers leave the workforce they take with them knowledge they accumulated throughout their career, threatening the ability of their agency to continue its mission. This study examined workforce demographic data from the Office of Personnel Management FedScope and responses to the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey for association with engineering turnover and as compared to non-engineering turnover. Using Pearson's correlation and Hierarchical Multiple Regression on data from 28 federal agencies, differences were discovered between turnover of engineers and non-engineers. Demographic variables were shown to impact engineer turnover, with age, education level and salary all sowing a positive association with engineer turnover. Non-engineer turnover was found to have a negative association with demographic variables length of service and salary. Satisfaction overall, as well as satisfaction with training & development and with knowledge management (KM) programs, demonstrated a negative association with non-engineer turnover. Gender had an impact on engineer turnover, with male engineer turnover negatively associated with KM rating and female engineer turnover negatively associated with both overall satisfaction and KM rating. These results can be used by engineering management to predict and reduce engineering turnover. Agencies can plan for the transfer of valuable knowledge before it is permanently lost, having a negative impact on the agency's ability to solve the problems confronting them now and into the future.