Professional development refers to continuing education and career training after a person has entered the workforce in order to help them develop new skills, stay up-to-date on current trends, and advance their career.  Employees want meaningful growth opportunities -- and they need them to stay productive in their roles. The purpose of professional development is to give professionals the opportunity to learn and apply new knowledge and skills that can help them in their job and further their career. Benefits of professional development include:

Employee Services Agency plays a critical role in retaining the County's workforce by collaborating with departments on staff engagement, diversity, and inclusion initiatives. The Employee Services Agency measures the County's annual employee retention rate.  The annual retention rate is calculated by dividing the number of coded employees who remained employed throughout the entire measurement period by the total number of coded employees at the beginning of that measurement period.

Since 2019, the Social Services Agency has been administering an annual survey to understand staff perceptions of engagement and well-being. Engagement is measured by an index that includes questions about feeling valued, enthusiasm about one’s job, intention to stay, agency effectiveness, and whether staff would recommend others work at SSA.

Data gathered from the survey are used to inform strategies that are meant to improve engagement over time. Longitudinal data suggests that engagement rates have improved since 2019 when baseline data was gathered.