(Photo: San Diego Union Tribune)
Turnover rates among Veterans Affairs staffers have risen slightly in recent years, and officials worry that could increase dramatically if Congress doesn’t help ease the burden of bringing new candidates into the department’s workforce.
“We are continuing to see a bit of concern,” said Jessica Bonjorni, chief of the Veterans Health Administration’s human capital management office, during a hearing on department staffing issues before the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee on March 17.
“Normally at this time in the fiscal year we would have seen growth in our workforce of about 1.5 to 2%. But right now, we’re flat. And so we are trending behind because it’s becoming more difficult to find people out there for certain occupations.”
The department employs more than 400,000 employees across its health care, benefits and memorial services operations. In a typical year, about 9.6% of that workforce — around 40,000 individuals — leaves due to retirement, firings or leaving for new jobs elsewhere.
Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic that figure has risen slightly, putting several thousand more positions in flux, VA management officials said. While officials emphasized to lawmakers that the issue isn’t a major problem yet, they also said they want to find fixes before it becomes one.
Bonjorni said some of the problems stem not from any VA-specific issues but instead from shortages across the U.S. for in-demand specialties.
“Nursing turnover is one area … where we’re seeing increasing turnover,” she told lawmakers. “Medical technologists and health techs, we’re having some challenges there too.”
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Author: Military Times
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