Forensic Workforce Survey
The world’s population is both growing and aging: By 2050, one in six people will be over age 65, resulting in one billion more retirees than today. The shifting demographics will leave us with a significant deficit of older, experienced leaders — soon to be compounded by a shortage of younger individuals with the skills to excel in Forensic Science and the connections developed by organizational leaders.
Creating a workplace that attracts and retains staff continues to be a challenge, but with the upheaval of the last few years, a strong workplace culture is even more important. According to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace: 2022 Report, only 21% of employees are engaged in their daily work, and this statistic can greatly impact team effectiveness. Enthusiastic employees are better suited to support the organization’s mission.
In forensics, the stress of ever-present workload,1 physical and mental stresses, and vicarious trauma have been discussed and documented previously. A connection between why a person chose a job in forensics and why they’ve stayed appears to be absent from past surveys and is an opportunity to provide insights into the impacts of workforce culture and spatial resources.
I am blessed to have the most creative, brilliant and hardworking colleagues and staff in the country. And now we have an award winning facility in which to showcase our talents. Almost 10 years ago, I was told that it was but a pipe dream and would never materialize. Thank you for helping us shine and bringing attention to our little corner of the universe. The people of Hamilton County have a facility that is the crème de la crème.
Lakshmi Kode Sammarco, M.D.
Hamilton County Coroner
To better prepare for this era of talent scarcity and explore strategies to compete for talent, jurisdictions must consider factors that are impacting today's workforce across multiple industries, including disruptors, multigenerational preferences and demands, changing work cycles, education's impact on workforce readiness, and the impact of physical space for the User Experience (UX).
The goal of surveying current forensic scientists across a range of age groups, levels of experience, and discipline focus is to arm organizational leadership across the country with strategies, trends, and best practices to support an engaged and collaborative culture for the profession.
If you have an interest in greater detail on the results of the survey, please check back in May of 2023 when analysis of the data has been completed. Thank you for your participation, and if you believe others in your organization would be interested in completing the forensic workforce survey, please forward this link. Responses are important and will remain confidential.
[1] Almazrouei et al. (2020). Organizational and Human Factors Affecting Forensic Decision-Making: Workplace Stress and Feedback. Journal of Forensic Sciences. Pages 1968-1977. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1556-4029.14542