Breaking the Cycle: Addressing High RBT & BCBA Turnover in ABA
- Ashleigh
- Mar 28
- 5 min read
Turnover in helping professions, like ABA therapy, has long been a struggle for employers. However, many providers have experienced significantly higher turnover rates in the last few years. According to CentralReach’s 2025 Autism and IDD Care Market Report, in 2024, organizations averaged turnover rates between 77.4%-103.3%. Smaller organizations saw lower turnover (77.4%) compared to mid-size (89.3%) and enterprise (103.3%) organizations. Since 2021, turnover increased for each subsection, aside from a slight decrease in 2024 for small therapy providers (CentralReach, 2025). While this data suggests a concerning trend, there is a glimmer of hope—there are tried and true strategies ABA providers can implement to reduce turnover.
What is the Impact of Turnover in ABA?
Turnover can impact an entire organization, from the leadership team to the clients and the remaining staff. It has a pervasive effect that can harm many aspects of an organization, including:
Staff morale
Workplace culture
Quality of services
Client progress
Continuity of care
Operational costs
Client satisfaction
Organizational reputation
Scalability
Organizational financial stability
The ABA field currently has a staggering shortage of qualified professionals. By the end of 2024, there were just over 74,000 certified BCBAs. Yet in the same year, there were 103,150 BCBA job openings–that’s 30,000 more open positions than there are available BCBAs (Behavior Analyst Certification Board, 2025)! This imbalance makes it extremely difficult for employers to attract and hire BCBAs. With this in mind, it cannot be overstated how critical it is to focus efforts on retaining your team. The current market is incredibly competitive.
What are the Causes of Turnover?
Sometimes, RBT or BCBA turnover is unavoidable. For example, someone quits because they’re moving across the country. However, often there are preventable contributors. Turnover contributors typically include one or more of the following factors:
Burnout due to high caseloads, emotional exhaustion, navigating challenging behaviors, feeling ineffective, lack of support, and/or lack of work-life balance.
Low pay or a lack of benefits with a compensation package that doesn’t reflect their expertise and the demands of the job.
Lack of career growth or professional development opportunities.
Ineffective supervision or minimal support.
Administrative burdens, such as excessive paperwork, inefficient workflows, and documentation requirements.
Poor organizational culture due to high workplace stress, a lack of team cohesion, and poor management.
Unrealistic expectations without sufficient time, tools, or training.
Scheduling challenges, like long hours, last-minute cancellations, sessions that don’t match availability, long commutes, and a lack of flexibility.
A lack of recognition for one’s work.
Of course, not all turnover is bad. Sometimes turnover is necessary if a staff member isn’t the right fit for your practice. While that can’t always be avoided, being thorough in your hiring process can weed out those who aren’t a good match.
How Can ABA Companies Improve Retention?
Improving retention requires a multifaceted approach. The first thing organizations should do to target retention is analyze the data. What are the specific causes of turnover in your practice? This is critical information to inform retention efforts. Conduct exit interviews or exit surveys to gain data on this information. If you don’t have exit interview data, execute anonymous employee surveys with your current employees to understand what keeps them engaged and what challenges they experience. You can also read through employee reviews to gather information.
Consider the following five strategies to improve employee retention.
Implement a Comprehensive Onboarding and Training Program
A common trend within ABA providers is to quickly onboard new RBTs and BCBAs, skimping on training to get them up and running. This is problematic. Even for highly experienced BCBAs, there should be a robust onboarding program to help staff get acquainted with your organization. Cutting corners on training will likely only hurt you in the long run.
Spend time developing a comprehensive training program for each employee level to include:
A structured onboarding process, with a clear roadmap, established expectations, and an assigned mentor.
A shadowing experience for new hires to observe experienced staff.
Hands-on learning with opportunities for role-play and working directly with clients.
Training on administrative and clinical workflows.
Competency checks to ensure understanding and skill before working independently.
Technology training to ensure an understanding of how to utilize EHR, clinical data collection systems, or other tech your organization uses.
Reevaluate Pay & Benefit Packages
While pay isn’t everything, we have to be honest in the realization that it is a primary factor. This is becoming increasingly true as basic living expenses continue to rise. Pair that with the increased competition in the ABA field, especially for BCBAs, and the compensation package becomes a major factor in hiring and retention.
Do market research to ensure your salaries remain competitive with industry standards. Consider also offering performance bonuses for meeting organizational goals. Further, identify whether you can offer other unique benefits, like student loan assistance or gym membership discounts.
Offer Opportunities for Growth and Professional Development
Invest in career growth and professional development for your team. Create staff roadmaps for career progression, such as an RBT leveling program, where staff are promoted to higher levels, which come with increased pay and responsibilities.
Other ways you can invest in career growth include:
Offer BCBA fieldwork supervision for aspiring BCBAs (This is really important for growing BCBAs internally!).
Offer mentorship for newly certified behavior analysts.
Provide or reimburse continuing education for RBTs and BCBAs.
Foster a culture of feedback.
Create individualized employee development plans for those who want to grow in the field.
Match Expected Hours
Provide the number of hours the staff are promised upon hire. This sounds simple enough, but it’s something many ABA staff, especially RBTs, report a concern with. They’re told they’ll work 30 hours/week upon hire, but quickly realize the company only has 20 hours/week to give them. Or–they’re expecting 20 hours/week, but regularly have 5-10 hours of cancelled sessions each week.
Continuously matching the number of hours your staff request upon hire is a major way to retain staff. While cancellations are inevitable and changes arise that impact client hours (e.g., clients discharge, funding is stopped, etc), employers should make efforts to mitigate the impact that these factors have on the employee’s hours. For example, when clients cancel, you can offer administrative hours, where staff help out around the clinic, create materials, or do other non-billable tasks.
RBTs and BCBAs appreciate consistency and reliability. Consider whether you can offer either salary positions or a plan for guaranteed hours.
Side Note: Many companies offer employees a lower non-billable/administrative rate. While it is understandable that these hours don’t directly generate revenue, rate differentials are a practice you may want to reconsider, as all the work your staff do–whether or not you can bill for it–is equally valuable.
Boost Supervision & Support
A lack of support is a primary contributing factor to burnout and subsequent turnover. Take efforts to ensure your team feels well-supported (without feeling micromanaged). Ensure that RBTs and BTs receive a minimum of 5% high-quality supervision and that case oversight occurs at a minimum of 10% of the total hours. Additionally, foster open communication, encouraging bidirectional feedback.
Key Takeaways
In the increasingly competitive ABA field, we encourage employers to make genuine efforts to improve staff satisfaction and retention. Your staff are your greatest asset–don’t take them for granted!
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References
Behavior Analyst Certification Board. (2025). US employment demand for behavior analysts: 2010–2024. https://www.bacb.com/wp-content/us_employmentdemand_ba/
CentralReach. (2025). Autism and IDD care market report: March 2025. CentralReach. https://centralreach.com/resources/autism-idd-care-report/?utm_source=PressRelease&utm_medium=PressRelease&utm_campaign=market-report-mar25
Kazemi, Ellie & Shapiro, Marnie & Kavner, Alyssa. (2015). Predictors of intention to turnover in behavior technicians working with individuals with autism spectrum disorder. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders. 17. 106-115. 10.1016/j.rasd.2015.06.012.
Plantiveau, C., Dounavi, K., & Virués-Ortega, J. (2018). High levels of burnout among early-career board-certified behavior analysts with low collegial support in the work environment. European Journal of Behavior Analysis, 19(2), 195-207. https://doi.org/10.1080/15021149.2018.1438339
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