We promise to invest in our teammates to retain, develop, and attract mission-driven talent.

How we’re doing it

This year, we turned our focus to addressing turnover, wages, and diversity with multiple initiatives throughout the year.

One of the continued challenges we face is the Direct Support Professional Workforce Crisis, where qualified, dedicated DSPs are leaving the field due to rate standardization set by Missouri Legislators. We aimed to decrease our turnover rate to 38% or less annually and 9.4% per quarter. We ended FY22 with a turnover rate of 46%, with the final quarter at 11.7%. To alleviate the turnover rate, we implemented a new supervisor structure in our Community Living Services to provide additional support to our DSPs. We’re happy to report this structure has now been fully implemented. We also implemented a new face-to-face onboarding process to reduce new hire separations under 90 days.

We’re happy to report that we achieved our goal of raising DSP wages by an average of 10%. Also, thanks to the work of the Missouri General Assembly and Governor Mike Parson, we were able to increase starting wages for all DSPs to $15 - $22.50 per hour in July, a 37% increase in the average DSP wage. And all eligible DSPs received a merit-based pay increase in January 2022.

We are continuing to work on the diversity of our leadership in the organization, with a diversity, inclusion, equity, and access audit currently in progress.

How can I help?

You can always help our team members when you assist our advocacy team by taking action and contacting your legislators when requested. We need to get our rates for services to a level that allows us to raise our staff wages. Do you want to make profound, positive difference in people’s lives every day? We are always looking for great people to join our team and referrals are always welcome. 

See our current openings at www.joineasterseals.com