College Sustainability

Employee Turnover

Indicator Rationale: Being aware of and managing employee retention involves strategic actions by COCC to keep employees motivated and focused so they elect to remain employed and fully productive for the benefit of the College. A comprehensive employee retention program can play a vital role in both attracting and retaining key employees, as well as in reducing turnover and its related costs. By tracking employee retention, the College can continue to make our organization attractive to new and existing employees.

Indicator Definition: Employee turnover rate is determined by taking the number of employees who left the College in a given fiscal year and dividing it by the average number of employees during that same time period. The average number of employees is determined by adding the number of employees at year start (July) and number of employees at year end (June) and dividing by two.

Target Rationale: The annual targets are modest as we are growing our retention efforts and programs and our history shows we struggle with retention. Increasing our employee retention can reduce lost knowledge, talent, continuity, hiring expenses, and mission fulfillment. Retention amplifies employee contributions, allowing the College to capitalize on our talented workforce. Time will be required to see how our retention efforts (increased salaries, continued excellent benefits, more wellness options, improved recruitment and marketing efforts, including DEI, play out). Additionally, we live in a place where costs are so high that retaining employees is even a greater challenge.

Peer Institutions: Oregon peer community colleges (Linn-Benton, Lane, Chemeketa, Clackamas, Rogue and Umpqua).

 

Employee Awards, Recognitions and Professional Development

Indicator Rationale: Employee responses to the 2021 Great Colleges to Work For (GCTWF) survey rated “employee awards and recognitions” indicated that the College needs to review its programs for acknowledging and honoring its employees. Research consistently shows that employee engagement, retention, and workplace culture are linked to personal recognition of employee contributions and performance and that employees who receive positive recognition are twenty times as likely to be engaged as employees who receive poor recognition. In order to help the College reach its goal regarding College Sustainability, intentional work on employee awards, recognitions, celebration and professional development is warranted.

Indicator Definition: Percentage of benefitted employees responding positively to the Great Colleges to Work For (GCTWF) survey question, “Our recognition and awards programs are meaningful to me.”

Target Rationale: The 2021 GCTWF survey results had only 37% of responding employees feeling positive about the statement which was acutely low. At that time, the College began reviewing programs for acknowledging and honoring employees and adapting. The 2024 GCTWF survey results had 47% of responding employees feeling positive about the statement which was an improvement and still warrants attention, which the current strategic plan is providing. Further improving the positive response rate to 55% by 2027 is the ultimate target.

Peer Institutions: COCC uses the comparator institution data provided by Modern Think, the organization that coordinates the GCTWF survey. This data is aggregated from other, similarly sized community colleges who administered the survey, providing an average score across all participating institutions.

 

President's Climate Leadership Commitment

Indicator Rationale: COCC will work with climate action plan specialists to conduct a climate action plan study in fall 2024 in support of the College’s sustainability goal. This study will give the College a long-range plan to achieve carbon neutrality, with recommendations on specific actions to achieve this goal. The PCLC strategic plan action team will prioritize the activities based on capacity, personnel, budget and other resources. With this information, the College can then set future targets for its carbon emissions.

Indicator Definition: Greenhouse gas emissions (GhG) include a combination of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O) gases emitted from electricity (44%), natural gas (25%), commuting (24%), refrigerant (5%), with the remainder from sources such as waste, fertilizer and purchased goods. Data is collected in therms, kilowatts, miles, and gallons, then converted into one standardized unit, MT CO2e (Metric Tons of Carbon Dioxide equivalent, MT CO2e).

Target Rationale: Target is to be determined based on a climate study conducted in fall 2024.

Peer Institutions: Peer institution data is not readily available given the significant variance of the age of other institutional buildings, construction parameters, institutional and community infrastructure supporting carbon neutrality and related conditions.