We conducted a survey of former employees who exited State employment from 1995-1999 in the four occupations studied:  DOC correctional officers; DFS caseworkers; DOT Highway Patrol Officers; and information technology workers in the 14 cabinet agencies.  The purpose of the survey was to gain perspectives on why individuals chose to end employment with Wyoming State Government in the four occupations. 

We obtained addresses from the State Auditor’s Office data files.  Prior to 1997, WYDOT used its own accounting system, so for 1995 and 1996 we used supplementary data from WYDOT for its IT workers and highway patrol officers.

We grouped possible reasons former employees left employment with the State into three categories:  wage-related; working conditions; and personal reasons.  We elected to send surveys only to former employees who voluntarily terminated, since retired, deceased, or dismissed employees were outside of the purview of the three categories.  Further, only those former employees who terminated employment altogether with Wyoming State Government were sent surveys, so those who may have transferred to another job with the state were not included.

Table 1 below shows the number of surveys sent to former employees in the four occupations, the number of surveys that were actually completed and returned, and the response rates.  Many surveys were returned unopened since forwarding addresses were no longer available for those individuals. 

Table 1:  LSO Surveys Sent to Former Employees of Four State Occupations

 

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[1] We sent surveys to 32 former employees in the four occupations who, we learned subsequently, should not have been included in the survey:  29 Department of Health correctional officers who had been included in SAO’s data; and three whose SAO termination codes were inaccurate.

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