| During the past 30 years, the population of the state of Utah has grown dramatically. The number of Extension agents employed in Utah has not kept pace with the growth in the population. Consequently, the workload of the existing Extension agents may be increasing as agents try to serve the expanding population. The purpose of this project was to design a method to measure the current workload of the agents and determine whether current workload levels are appropriate.; Focus groups and individual interviews with Extension administrators and agents were used to identify and list the activities being completed by the agents. This list of activities was then placed in survey format and sent to the agents, allowing them to self-assess the number of activities they completed during a one-year period. Using the data from the surveys, the total number of activities completed by each agent was determined.; In conjunction with the Extension administration, the groups likely to be most affected by the findings of the studying were identified and judges chosen from these groups. Using standard-setting methodologies, numeric values were established for each of the activities. These values reflected the amount of time and effort required to complete each activity. The judges also established an overall cutscore indicating the level at which an agent begins to experience work overload. Based on the cutscore established by the judges, 82.5% of the agents were experiencing work overload. The study offers several suggestions to reduce the workload, improve the effectiveness of the current agent activities, and focus on the activities that best fulfill the mission of Extension. |
