Housing Counseling Process Evaluation and Design of ... - HUD User

Exhibit 8-11. Extent to Which Staff Expertise or Training is a Problem
Staff Expertise/Training Staff Retention
Extremely significant 17% 16%
Moderately significant 22% 18%
Slightly significant 28% 26%
Not at all significant 33% 40%
Source: Abt Associates survey of HUD-approved counseling agencies.
Note: Based on survey responses of 1,063 agencies.
Exhibit 8-12 shows the percentage of agencies identifying staff expertise or training as a moderately
or extremely significant problem, organized by agency mission type, counseling specialization, and
annual client volume (as a proxy of agency size). Comparing the different agency mission types, staff
expertise or training is most often a significant problem for consumer credit counseling agencies.
Overall, more than half of agencies whose primary mission is consumer credit counseling identify
staff/expertise as an extremely significant or moderately significant issue.
Looking by counseling specialization, we find that staff expertise or training is most often significant
for agencies that mainly serve rental or homeless counseling clients and agencies that serve a mix of
client types (“no specialization”).
Interestingly, among agencies of different sizes, agencies with the largest client volumes (more than
5,000 clients per year) are most likely to identify staff expertise or training as a moderately or
extremely significant problem. This may be because largest agencies have the most staff to train or
because they experience a higher degree of staff turnover than smaller agencies. As discussed below,
agencies with the largest client volumes are also more likely to report staff retention as a significant
problem.
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Chapter 8. Characteristics of Housing Counselors