Factors contributing to the attrition of supported employment job coaches.

Integrating individuals with disabilities into community life has become a major focus of rehabilitation facilities (Whitehead, 1979). One component of the integration process, supported employment, has received considerable attention in the last five years (Bellamy, Rhodes, & Albin, 1986; Wehman & Kregel, 1985). Supported employmnet is community-based employment that provides fair and equitable pay for valued work which is conducted in integrated settings and sustained by ongoing supports for individuals with severe disabilities (Powell, Pancsofar, Steere, Butterworth, Rainforth, & Itzkowitz, 1991).

Recently, researchers have demonstrated that workers with severe disabilities can attain substantial financial benefit from supported employment. For example, Wehman, Hill, Wood, and Parent (1987) found that workers with severe disabilities in Virginia received as much as $6,000 annually in wages from their supported employment. Thus, money spent to provide employment supports for workers with severe disabilities produces positive financial outcomes for those individuals.

The job coach who provides the on-the-job support to the worker is a central figure in most supported employment programs. The ability to retain effective staff in these roles is critical to the success of supported employment programs. Clearly, if job coaches are not retained over reasonable periods of time, the employment of workers with severe disabilities who depend on them will be in jeopardy. Moreover, newly hired job coaches cannot quickly take over for departing ones because job training skills are complex and require extensive time to learn. Further, the rapport between the job coach and the workers' employer and coworkers is lost and takes substantial time to rebuild.

Another important aspect of job coach turnover is the cost to the rehabilitation facility. Indeed, the cost of recruiting and training new job coaches makes it managerially prudent to keep turnover rates as low as possible. In Connecticut, for example, most job coaches receive a minimum of 12 hours of specific job

                          Table 1
 Cost Analysis of Hiring Job Coaches for One Rehabilitation
                          Facility
                             Total
Item                         Hours    Cost/Hour    Total Cost
Advertising                                            $375.00
Interviews and Orientation      14        20.00        $280.00
Inhouse Training                40      10.24(*)       $410.00
Department of Mental
  Retardation Training          30      10.24(*)   $307.00(**)
Total                                                $1,372.00
(*)Figure reflects $8.54/hour wage and $1.70/hour in benefits.
(**)Does not include the DMR costs for provision of this training.

coach training in addition to other training provided by the facility to all new employees. Beyond the specific training, job coaches require months of experience on the job to become proficient at providing support to workers with disabilities and to become acquainted with the business community. One rehabilitation facility analyzed their cost for recruiting and training job coaches at $1,372.00 per coach hired (See Table 1). when the cost of recruitment and training for job coaches is added to lost work time for individuals with disabilities, the expense is considerable.

Because of the importance of retaining job coaches, factors that contribute to job coach turnover merits examination. The purpose of this article is to present findings of an analysis conducted by one community-based rehabilitation facility as to why job coaches left their employment.

Method

Facility

The analysis was conducted in a community-based rehabilitation facility located in an urban area of New England. It serves approximately 500 individuals with disabilities who are referred from the State Departments of Mental Retardation, Mental Health, and Rehabilitative Services. In addition to a large, centrally located sheltered workshop, four satellite programs are located in outlying areas of the geographic catchment area, and the facility offices for community-based services are located in a downtown office building.

Job Coaches

The 13 jobs coaches who took part in this analysis were all of the job coaches employed by the rehabilitation facility during the eight-month period from October 1987 through May 1988. The job coaches provide support for approximately 60 workers with disabilities at 16 different supported employment sites. Except for one floating substitute, each job coach was responsible for 1-3 job sites. At the end of the analysis, seven job coaches were employed and six had left their positions. Four voluntarily resigned and two were fired.

Information Collected

Personnel records were examined and personal interviews were conducted with nine of the participants. Four of the job coaches who were no longer employed had moved from the area and were unavailable for interviews. Interviews were conducted by the first author who, at that time, was an independent consultant to the rehabilitation facility.

For each job coach, the following information was gathered: length of time employed as a job coach, level of education, type of work conducted at the workers' job site, and the reason(s) for terminating their employment as a job coach.

Results

The results of the analysis are displayed in Table 2. Eleven of 13 job coaches had high school diplomas, five had up to two years of college, and two had college degrees with majors in human service fields.

The time employed as a job coach ranged from 1-21 months. Of those who terminated employment, the longest tenure on the job was seven months. Conversely, five of the job coaches who retained their employment had been in that position for 14 months or more. The two job coaches on the job for less than 14 months had been hired as replacements for individuals who had left their employment.

The job sites in which the job coaches provided support for workers with disabilities varied. Three fast food restaurants employed nine workers with disabilities; each restaurant hired three individuals. The largest number of workers was hired by a mail room operation and by two manufacturers (eight workers each). Manufacturing sites accounted for the most supported employees with a total of 21 workers employed by three different firms. The grocery store where two job coaches provided support services hired only one worker with disabilities. The job coach designated as the floater (No. 3) was the substitute job coach for all the sites. He had the responsibility of knowing all the workers at each job site as well as knowing the job requisites from each job site.

The reasons job coaches terminated employment fell into three broad categories. Three job coaches left their jobs for personal reasons. Two job coaches left when thei spouses took jobs in different towns. Job coach No. 6 was unavailable for a personal interview; however, participant No. 4 indicated that she was disappointed that she could not continued working with "her" workers. She further indicated that her husband was the primary wage earner and, as such, she was obligated to accompany him. Job coach No. 3 resigned after being warned that his work performance was unacceptable. He was unavailable for a personal interview. Job coach No.2 left because of a lack of specific behavior management skills. She found a different job when she became frightened of the worker for whom she was providing the ongoing supports. The worker completed his tasks appropriately, but he would tell his coach that he was going to kill her and would become physically aggressive toward her. The job coach did not know how to weaken these behaviors. During the interview, job coach No.2 indicated that had she known how to respond to the aggressive behaviors, she would have continued to be a job coach. No. 1 was fired because he would not teach workers the skills needed at the work site. He believed that the workers with disabilities should have had the requisite skills for the job before they were placed, and that his role was supervisory only. No. 2 was discharged because he would not work without intensive supervision, and frequently left the work site and the workers with disabilities unattended.

Discussion

The data reported in this analysis are clearly too limited to infer representative outcomes. However, within the small sample, the amount of education did not appear to be related to longevity of employment. Of two job coaches with college degrees, one remained employed for only four months while the other was still on the job after 16 months. Likewise, almost equal numbers of job coaches with high school diplomas and with some post-high school education were among those who were terminated and who were retained.

It is important to note that the typical high school curricula offers little training relevant to job coaching, nor does most college curricula. Thus, rehabilitation facilities must teach job coaches the skills they need to be effective at the work site. For example, participant No. 2 was not trained to manage difficult behaviors exhibited by the worker she was supporting. This job coach indicated during the interview that, had she been adequately prepared to deal with challenging behavior, she would have remained on the job.

It is interesting that the job coaches who were terminated or who resigned, did so within seven months of employment. Perhaps there is some critical employment threshold after which longer term retention becomes more probable. Additional resources will be needed to address that issue. In the interim, it may

[TABULAR DATA OMITTED]

be prudent for rehabilitation facilities to provide special support to job coaches during the early period of their employment.

One message from the personal interviews was almost universal. Almost without exception, job coaches reported that they had little supervisor or peer support while working in the community. There are two potential solutions to this problem. First, job coaches should be able to call upon their supervisors for support at the job site. Second, facilities should ensure that job coaches return to their home base frequently to interact with their peers. Thus, supervisors should be at the job sites frequently where they can observe job coaches' performance and provide feedback and reinforcement. Concurrently, job coaches need to interact with their peers, and engage in group problem solving.

The reasons job coaches reported that they left their employment fell into three categories. First, there were personal or family reasons. Little can be done to maintain the longevity of job coaches when individuals filling those positions are not the primary wage earner for the family. Job coaches are typically on the low end of the wage scale in rehabilitation agencies (Powell et al., 1991). The wages seldom provide sufficient income to support individuals, much less families. Thus, job coaches are vulnerable to economic pressures. It should be noted that all of the job coaches mentioned that the wages were low (approximately $17,000/year in the state with the highest per capita income in the country), yet none reported that they quit their jobs specifically on that account.

Second, inadequate training may contribute to job coach turnover. For example, job coach No. 2 did not have the skills necessary to assist her workers. Likewise, Nos. 1 and 5 may have had more success if they had received more intensive training. Clearly, job coaches need extensive training to be effective and, since they are not likely to have many relevant skills when they are hired, the training must be provided quickly.

Finally, job coaches reported that they sometimes felt unable to fill the demands of the role and needed additional onsite support. To some extent, this is an inherent problem of the job coach position. The skills needed to be an effective job coach are not clearly understood at the time. Nor is it clear that all individuals with disabilities can succeed in community jobs, even with the support of an experienced job coaches. However, it is also true that hob coaches are hired with few credentials as trainers (Moore, McCuller, & Salzberg, 1988) and receive inadequate supervision at the job site to support their efforts, sharpen their skills, or make feel comfortable with the high level of responsibility they must assume for the life and well-being of other human beings.

The sample size of this analysis is insufficient for conclusive inferences about factors related to the longevity of job coaches. Indeed, this sample relates only to one rehabilitation facility. However, several potential questions have been posed. This analysis must be replicated with a larger and more representative sample for conclusive findings to be collected. Finally, we would encourage other rehabilitation facilities to systematically analyze theor own programs and identify solutions to their own unique situations. If information provided by national research can be bolstered with information systematically gathered within individual agencies, service for workers with disabilities will be greatly enhanced.

References

Bellamy, G.T., Rhodes, L.E., & Albin, J.M. (1986). Supported employment. In W.E. Kiernan & J.A. Stark (Eds.), Pathways to employment for adults with developmental disabilities. Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes.

Moore, S.C., McCuller, G.L., & Salzberg, C.L. (1988). Professional skill levels of sheltered workshop staff: Selection criteria and post-employment training. Journal of Rehabilitation, 54, 67-70.

Powell, T.H., Pancsofar, E.L., Steere, D.E., Butterworth, J., Rainforth, B., & Itzkowitz, J.S. (1991). Supported employment in Connecticut: Developing integrated employment opportunities for persons with disabilities. New York: Longman.

Wehman, P., Hill, J.W., Wood, W., & Parent, W. (1987). A report on competitive employment histories of persons labeled severely mentally retarded. Journal of the Association for Persons with Severe Handicaps, 12, 11-17.

Wehman, P., & Kregel, J. (1985). A supported work approach to competitive employment of persons with moderate and severe handicaps. Journal of the Association for Persons with Severe Handicaps, 10, 3-9.

Whitehead, C. (1979). Sheltered workshops in the decade ahead: Work and wages or welfare. In G.T. Bellamy, G. O'Connon, & O. Karan (Eds.), Vocational rehabilitation of severely handicapped persons. Baltimore: University Park Press.

STEPHEN C. MOORE, Department of Special Education and Reasing, Eastern Montana College, 1500 North 30th Street, Billings, Montana 59101-0298.