The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2021

AFSA NEWS survey, a robust 20 percent response rate. More than two-thirds (68 percent) of the active-duty respondents reported that they would definitely or prob- ably stay in the Foreign Ser- vice, while 952 respondents (32 percent) said they were seriously considering leaving and exploring their options. The reasons people said they might leave—and why they think others might leave—varied depending on demographics. But in aggre- gate, the top five drivers center on family concerns, assignments, promotions, leadership and bias, in that order. Black members and American Indian active-duty members mentioned bias as the second-most important driver for why they thought someone would leave the Foreign Service. Bias ranked fourth for Hispanic members. For Foreign Service mem- bers who had made the deci- sion to leave and who had departed the Foreign Service earlier than anticipated, fam- ily concerns were cited most frequently as the cause of their departures. We learned from the 2020 AFSA bias survey (see October 2020 FSJ , p. 68) that there are substantial differences among Foreign Service members in various demographic groups in how they have experienced or have not experienced bias in the workplace. The reten- tion survey’s data appear to confirm these differences. For specialists, family and promotions tied for top spot, and assignments, leadership, opportunities and compen- sation followed. When the subset of respondents who were seri- ously considering leaving (the 32 percent mentioned above) were asked why, they pointed to leadership, assignments, promotions, family concerns and bias as top reasons. For this group of respondents, leadership was the number-one reason in all demographic subsets. Note: We believe that the timing of the survey, coming at the end of the last admin- istration, could have skewed the reasons why this group would choose leadership instead of the more perma- nent, structural issues identi- fied by the majority of survey respondents. Significantly, for Black FS members who were seriously considering departure, bias was second. Lastly, when asked to choose the top advocacy priorities for Foreign Service agencies in promoting Foreign Service retention, survey respondents wanted to see the agencies pur- sue measures to make the assignment process fairer and more transparent, better address the needs of Foreign Service families, increase compensation, accelerate the rate of pro- motions, combat bias and improve training and profes- sional opportunities. When all respondents were asked to rank their preferred AFSA advocacy priorities, they chose assign- ments, promotions, family issues, bias and training as their top issues. AFSA used the reten- tion survey’s results as well as information obtained through consultations with affinity groups to formulate its recommendations on retention, diversity, equity and inclusion (see article on p. 57). We have shared the recommendations with agency management and with AFSA supporters on Capitol Hill. For those of you who completed the survey, many thanks. For all our members, please let us know your thoughts at member@afsa. org. n Retention Survey Continued from page 55 56 JULY-AUGUST 2021 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL AFSARETENTIONSURVEY