In meeting with ple’s human resources director, ms. burke also discovered a concern about the high rate of turnover in its field service staff. senior managers have suggested that the department look closer at its recruiting policies, particularly to try to identify the characteristics of individuals that lead to greater retention. however, in a recent staff meeting, hr managers could not agree on these characteristics. some argued that years of education and grade point averages were good predictors. others argued that hiring more mature applicants would lead to greater retention. to study these factors, the staff agreed to conduct a statistical study to determine the effect that years of education, college grade point average, and age when hired have on retention. a sample of 40 field service engineers hired ten years ago was selected to determine the influence of these variables on how long each individual stayed with the company. data are compiled in the employee retention worksheet.