PERSONNEL TURNOVER RATES Jack M. Wolfe Programming Specialists, Inc. Awad ( l ) reported recently that the average firm experiences a 30% to 40~ turnover in DP personnel because of voluntary resignations each year. We surveyed f i v e of our c l i e n t companies that use our Aptitude Assessment Battery: ProgrammingTest. One of these companies employs fewer than 50 programmers, two employ between 50 and lOO programmers, and the other two employ more than lO0 programmers. The voluntary resignations in these f i v e companies varied from a low of below one per cent to a high of 29%, with an average of less than 12%. Management sometimes appears to be unaware that the employment of a weak or inadequate programmer may have the e f f e c t of the company's losing one of i t s best programmers. In another study of 200 computer science majors i t was found that women constituted 24% of these applicants for t h e i r i n i t i a l employment in programming. In a study of 62 companies women cons t i t u t e d 22% of the job applicants with actual programming experience in other companies. There is no support of the claim sometimes made that women programmers are more l i k e l y tO change jobs than are men. Womenappear to change jobs in about the same proportion as they appear to be entering the f i e l d of programming. The factors of marriage, pregnancy and family obligations a f f e c t i n g women turnover rates appear to be outweighed, in the t o t a l picture of turnover in programming, by the other factors, p a r t i c u l a r ly higher salary offers and greater opportunity for advancement, which a f f e c t turnover rates for men more than for women. BIBLIOGRAPHY Awad, Elias M. Prediction of Satisfaction of Systems Analyst Programmers Data Management, Vol. 15, No. l , January 1977, pp. 12-18. The turnover rates due to inadequate c a p a b i l i t i e s for the work of programming in these companies varied from zero, in two of the companies, to a maximum of 5 with an overall average of less than % 2%. The turnover rates due to unfavorable behavioral c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s varied from zero to one per cent. The personnel managers in these f i v e companies cited the following reasons for the voluntary resignations: higher salary o f f e r greater opportunity for advancement desire to enter a d i f f e r e n t f i e l d of work return to school move out of region new work location closer to home time demand of the job c o n f l i c t i n g with personal times, marriage, pregnancy and family patterns to work in a smaller environment to work in consulting business. By far the most common reasons cited were the f i r s t two on the above l i s t . Although not reported in these companies' responses, this w r i t e r has found that some programmers resign because they find that they are doing t h e i r own work and a substantial part of the work or t r a i n i n g of a weak or inadequate programmer. The morale of a superior programmer suffers when he approaches his supervisor for f i n a n c i a l recognition of his superior work in comparison with the performance of other programmers in his group and is told that the pay scale c a l l s for the same pay for the same length of service. Nor w i l l the superior programmer be sati s f i e d when he is t o l d by his supervisor that the group must "average up," that is, that the better programmers in the group must make up for the belowaverage performance of the weaker members of the group. The lack of f l e x i b i l i t y given to the programming supervisor by higher management for suitable recognition of the highly superior programmer may well be the chief f a c t o r in programmers' leaving for the two principal reasons cited above, namely higher salary o f f e r and greater opportunity for advancement. ### A M 78 CALL F R PAPERS C O P a r t i c i p a t i o n of a l l computer professionals is s o l i c i t e d for the 1978 Annual Meeting of the Assoc i a t i o n for Computing Machinery to be held December 4, 5, 6, 1978, at the Sheraton Park Hotel, Washington, D.C. The program w i l l emphasizeadvances in a l l areas of computer science and computer applications and w i l l be constructed with the assistance of various A M SlGs and SlCs. In addition to the C technical program, a government program w i l l stress current issues and applications of computers in the Federal Government. Papers are s o l i c i t e d covering a l l aspects of computing. All submitted papers w i l l be refereed by individuals knowledgeable in the area. Proposals are welcomed for special sessions and panels. These proposals also w i l l be considered through a reviewing process to insure the appropriate level of q u a l i t y and balance in the program. Five copies of a l l papers and/or session proposals should be submitted by July l , 1978. General chairman is Richard H. Austing, Dept. o f Computer Science, U n i v e r s i t y o f Maryland, College Park, Md. 20742, and program co-chairmen are Gerald L. Engel, Dept. o f Mathematics & Computing Sciences, Old Dominion U n i v e r s i t y , N o r f o l k , Va. 23508, and Dennis M. Conti, Systems & Software Division, National Bureau of Standards, Washington, D. C. 20234.

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