The indicator staff length of service is defined as the percent of current full and part time public health unit staff who have been employed continuously by the public health unit, by length of service.

Length of staff service is a commonly used measure of staff retention and turnover. High staff turnover rates affect organizational stability and capacity, since it is recognized that an organization needs to retain staff in order to maintain stability in operations, transfer corporate knowledge, and support the orientation of new staff. On the other hand, an organization where the majority of staff have over 20 years of service may have less change in their organizational culture.

Board of health reporting on the length of service of their staff is summarized in the table below. The figures represent the percentage of the staff in a board of health that were reported to have been with the board of health for the designated period of time.

Across the province, about 9% of staff have been with their board of health for less than one year. In this category, the majority of boards (27) reported rates between 5% and 15%, with one board having double the average, with just over 20% of their staff in this category.

Data collected through the survey of public health units found that:

• in the "more than 1 year but less than 5 years" category, 20 boards reported this as their peak in staff length of service, with ranges from 19.2% to 43.0% of all staff.
• in the category "more than 5 but less than 10 years", 13 boards reported that the majority of their staff had a length of service that fit within this category, with rates ranging from 16.4% to 38.0%.

For the majority of public health units, the highest proportion of staff were in these two specific categories. This suggests that staff may be near the beginning of their careers or are moving between public health units every few years.

In a few cases, boards of health were unable to confirm whether all their staff had worked continuously for the public health unit or had spent some time working in other departments within the municipal or regional government. This will primarily impact the reporting on administrative and corporate support staff (such as IT, communications, HR), who have transferable skills. Given that these staff positions are a minority of all public health positions, the effect will be minor but it may have skewed the length of service upward for boards of health that are part of municipal or regional governments, since the reporting was on staff length of service with the same employer.

Definition:

Indicates the percentage of current full and part time public health unit staff who have been employed continuously by the public health unit by length of service in years.

Periods of time for employment include: up to 1 year; more than 1 year but less than 5 years; more than 5 years but less than 10 years; more than 10 years but less than 20 years; and more than 20 years.

Data Source(s):

Survey of boards of health, 2008

Formula:

Number of public health unit staff employed for specific periods of time Total number of public health unit staff

x 100

Notes:

• Staff length of service may be influenced by overall demographics of the local workforce or the presence of training programs (influenced by recruitment through placements)
• Regionally and municipally based boards of health will not be able to disaggregate the data on employment length of service for staff that have worked for the organization in different departments throughout their careers. This will affect primarily administrative and information management staff, however, the overall effect on total employee length of service will be small