Industrial and Organizational Psychology Commons^™

Frontline Job Redesign Louisiana - Final Summary, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

Other QIC-WD Products

The Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) Child Welfare Division (CWD) is a state-operated child welfare system. Louisiana has 64 parishes statewide organized into nine regions. The local parish offices provide child protective service (CPS), family services (FS), foster care (FC), and adoption services. CWD has approximately 1,500 employees including about 640 frontline caseworkers. In 2017, when Louisiana applied to become a QIC-WD site, CWD estimated its turnover rate across the state to be 24%, with one region having a turnover rate of 51%, while another had a turnover rate of only 8%.

This video discusses the challenges …

Frontline Job Redesign Louisiana - Prevention Worker Role Cards, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

Other QIC-WD Products

Lists the different tasks given to types of prevention workers. View the download file.

Frontline Job Redesign Louisiana - Permanency Worker Role Cards, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

Other QIC-WD Products

View the download file.

Organizational Change Process Milwaukee - Final Summary, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

Other QIC-WD Products

Organizational Change in Action

The Division of Milwaukee Child Protective Services (DMCPS) is a state-operated child welfare system and is the only county system in Wisconsin run by the state. The Division is housed under the Department of Children and Families and has just under 200 staff, including: administrative/managerial staff, initial assessment and access (hotline) frontline workers, and fiscal and operations support. In 2016, DMCPS had an external turnover rate of 37% and they applied to be a Quality Improvement Center for Workforce Development (QIC-WD) site, with the goal of strengthening their child welfare workforce.

When DMCPS started working with …

Organizational Change Process Milwaukee - Site Intervention Logic Model, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

Other QIC-WD Products

Each QIC-WD site developed a logic model to serve as a visual representation of their selected intervention. All logic models included four main components: inputs, activities, outputs, and outcomes. Collectively, these demonstrate the resource and actions required to implement the program, as well as the associated result of changes anticipated through implementation of the program. The hypothesized relationships are represented by the pathways connecting the listed activities and anticipated outcomes.

Organizational Change Process Milwaukee - Arc Principles Poster, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

Other QIC-WD Products

1. All staff and administrative actions and decisions should be guided by a clear focus on the wellbeing of the children and families served.
2. Measure success by how much child and family wellbeing improves and use this data to drive decision-making and improvement.
3. Continually seek to be more effective, to eliminate barriers, and to foster change to improve the wellbeing of children and families.
4. Focus on relationships/networks in your organization, stakeholders, and family networks to affect child and family outcomes.
5. Get those with a stake (front-line staff) involved in key program decisions, solutions, and improvement efforts.

Addressing Work-Related Traumatic Stress Nebraska - Final Summary, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

Other QIC-WD Products

Building a Resilient Workforce

Nebraska Division of Child and Family Services (DCFS) is a state-operated child welfare system. The Division is housed in the Department of Health and Human services and is divided into five service areas. DCFS has about 400 frontline child welfare workers (Child and Family Services Specialists or CFSS), 70 supervisors, and 15 field administrators. In 2017, DCFS had an annual turnover rate of about 30%. They applied to be a QIC-WD site with the goal of strengthening their child welfare workforce.

When DCFS started working with the Quality Improvement Center for Workforce Development (QIC-WD), an Implementation …

Supportive Supervision And Resiliency Ohio - Summary, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

Other QIC-WD Products

Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS) is a state-led, county-administered child welfare system. Ohio’s 83 single-county agencies and two multi-county agencies are responsible for the delivery of child protective services and ongoing case management in Ohio’s 88 counties. In 2017, ODJFS had an annual turnover rate of about 27%. They applied to be a Quality Improvement Center for Workforce Development (QIC-WD) site with the goal of strengthening their child welfare workforce. When ODJFS started working with the QICWD, a Workforce Implementation Team (WIT) was established to participate in a needs assessment process, determine an intervention, and support implementation. …

Supportive Supervision And Resiliency Ohio - Coaching To Support Resilience Chart, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

Other QIC-WD Products

➢ What makes you hopeful about participating in Resilience Alliance? ➢ What worries you? ➢ What is one thing you’d like to achieve as a result of attending Resilience Alliance? ➢ How will you manage competing demands to be able to fully participate? ➢ When you think about how the agency responds to stress now, what is one area you’d most like to see change? ➢ What opportunities do you see to participate in the change? ➢ What is one thing you that might prepare you for Resilience Alliance? ➢ How do you recognize emotional, physical, personal indicators? What triggers …

Competency-Based Personnel Selection Oklahoma - Final Summary, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

Other QIC-WD Products

Oklahoma Department of Human Services (OKDHS) is a state-operated child welfare system, but hiring has always been done locally. The agency is divided into five field regions serving 27 districts and 77 counties. In 2017, OKDHS employed 1,780 Child Welfare Specialists (caseworkers) and 388 supervisors. That same year, the annual turnover rate was 25%. They applied to be a QIC-WD site with the goal of strengthening their child welfare workforce.

When OKDHS started working with the Quality Improvement Center for Workforce Development (QIC-WD), a steering committee was established to participate in a needs assessment process, determine an intervention, and support …

Turnover, Megan Paul, Sarah Stepanek

Umbrella Summaries

What is turnover?

The definition of turnover tends to somewhat vary in practice and research. The most common element is an employee leaving their job. Beyond that, turnover can be further defined as internal vs. external, voluntary vs. involuntary, functional vs. dysfunctional, and avoidable vs. unavoidable.

• Internal vs. external: Internal turnover means that the employee moves to a different job within the organization, whereas external means that the employee leaves the organization altogether. In child welfare, however, the “organization” may be defined as all of state or county government, which means that a lot of movement is considered internal.
• Voluntary …

Key Findings From The Qic-Wd At Various Stages Of The Employee Lifecycle, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development (Qic-Wd)

Other QIC-WD Products

Employee_Lifecycle_Additional_Resources.pdf

The Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development: Bridging The Research–Practice Gap In Child Welfare, Sarah Layman, Jen Harvel, Apryl Brodersen, Michelle Graef, Megan Paul, Robert Blagg

Other QIC-WD Products

The QIC-WD used research and best practices from Industrial-Organizational Psychology (I-O) to improve workforce outcomes across our partner child welfare agencies. This article shares our insights on how we were able to bridge the research-practice gap through the team’s work to develop and test workforce interventions, use organizational data to improve workforce outcomes, and share knowledge and resources from I-O to advance practice in child welfare organizations.

READ THE ARTICLE

Secondary Traumatic Stress: Definitions, Measures, Predictors, And Interventions, Anita Barbee, Lisa Purdy, Michael Cunningham

Other QIC-WD Products

Child welfare professionals are exposed to a lot of traumatic events. They may experience trauma first-hand witnessing the negative experiences of children and families on their caseload or it may be experienced second-hand through the stories shared by clients or co-workers, or information being read in a file. The research has a variety of terms for this phenomenon (as described in this brief) but the evidence is clear: child welfare workers experience trauma as an occupational hazard and that exposure can manifest itself in ways similar to post-traumatic stress disorder (e.g., disrupted sleep, difficulty concentrating). In fact, a survey of …

Findings From Seven Years Of Child Welfare Workforce Interventions, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development (Qic-Wd)

Other QIC-WD Products

The Quality Improvement Center for WorkforceDevelopment (QIC-WD) operated for seven years and worked with 57 distinct public and tribal child welfare jurisdictions to address workforce issues. We used agency data, an evidence-based management approach, and were supported by site teams that included human resources (HR) and child welfare professionals.

We engaged in in-depth, multi-year projects in eight of the sites, and highlights from those experiences are featured in this short video. A consistent approach to implementation was applied and rigorous evaluation methods were used in those workforce intervention sites, with the goals of improving worker performance, well-being, and retention. Interventions …

Experiences Of Professionals Of Color In The Child Welfare Workforce, Nina Williams-Mbengue, Anita Barbee

Other QIC-WD Products

“Entrenched disparities in our laws and public policies, and in our public and private institutions, have often denied that equal opportunity to individuals and communities. Our country faces converging economic, health, and climate crises that have exposed and exacerbated inequities, while a historic movement for justice has highlighted the unbearable human costs of systemic racism.”

- Executive Order on Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities through the Federal Government, January 20, 2021

Many Americans are currently engaged in a painful examination of the nation’s history of individual, interpersonal, institutional, and structural racism. Leaders within the child welfare system …

Meaningful Work, Sarah Stepanek, Megan Paul

Umbrella Summaries

What is meaningful work?

Meaningful work is defined as “work experienced as particularly significant and holding more positive meaning for individuals” (Rosso et al., 2010, p. 95). In general, meaningful work is considered to be work and work accomplishments that are viewed as valuable, worthwhile, and aligning with one’s values (Allan et al., 2018). Current theory suggests that meaningful work tends to result from self-actualization or from working towards a higher purpose (Lepisto & Pratt, 2016). More specifically, meaningful work may come from feeling a sense of unity with other people, serving others, from developing oneself, or from working towards …

Meaningful Work, Sarah Stepanek, Megan Paul, Danielle Crawford

Umbrella Summaries

What is meaningful work?

Meaningful work is defined as “work experienced as particularly significant and holding more positive meaning for individuals” (Rosso et al., 2010, p. 95). In general, meaningful work is considered to be work and work accomplishments that are viewed as valuable, worthwhile, and aligning with one’s values (Allan et al., 2018). Current theory suggests that meaningful work tends to result from self-actualization or from working towards a higher purpose (Lepisto & Pratt, 2016). More specifically, meaningful work may come from feeling a sense of unity with other people, serving others, from developing oneself, or from working towards …

Competency-Based Personnel Selection Oklahoma - Key Findings, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

Other QIC-WD Products

Background

The QIC-WD began working with Oklahoma Human Services (OKDHS) in 2017. At that time OKDHS had an average turnover rate of 25% among Child Welfare Specialist (CWS) I and IIs. Agency leaders expressed a desire to better understand turnover rates with an eye toward increasing the retention of more competent performers. A thorough needs assessment led to the decision to design and implement a competency-based personnel selection intervention to address inconsistencies in hiring and better identify candidates with the desired competencies to be hired as a CWS. The evaluation was designed to include an implementation evaluation; a validation …

Addressing Work-Related Traumatic Stress Nebraska - Key Findings, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

Other QIC-WD Products

Background

Nebraska’s Department of Child and Family Services (DCFS) started working with the QIC-WD in 2017 to better understand its turnover problem and found that, among workers who left the agency in 2017, it typically happened within the first two years and the turnover rate in 2017 was about 30%. The team examined many contributing factors through a needs assessment and designed CFS Strong to improve employee retention by addressing work-related traumatic stress among the child welfare workforce.

According to the Secondary Traumatic Stress (STS) scale administered in December 2017, the overall presence of STS symptoms in DCFS staff was …

Frontline Job Redesign Louisiana - Key Findings, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

Other QIC-WD Products

Background

In 2017, the QIC-WD began working with the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS). At that time DCFS had an average turnover rate of 24% across the state with one region having a rate of 51% and another with a low of 8%. A thorough needs assessment identified that high caseloads and a large number of administrative tasks were barriers to caseworkers’ ability to effectively engage in the clinical aspects of their work and led to the decision to redesign the frontline caseworker job.

The intervention created a new job, the Child Welfare Team Specialist (CWTS), …

Supportive Supervision And Resiliency Ohio - Key Findings, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

Other QIC-WD Products

Background The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS) started working with the QIC-WD in October 2017 to better understand its turnover problem. Eight counties volunteered to be part of the entire study. They participated in a thorough needs assessment process which led to creation of Coach Ohio, a multi-level blend of two interventions that addressed key needs across the counties regarding work-related traumatic stress and supportive supervision. Four counties and half of the largest county participated in the intervention while three counties and the other half of the largest county participated as comparison counties. Among these counties the …

Organizational Change Process Milwaukee - Key Findings, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

Other QIC-WD Products

Background

The QIC-WD team engaged with the Department of Milwaukee Child Protective Services (DMCPS) in 2017 to conduct a thorough needs assessment to understand the root causes underlying a high turnover rate among Initial Assessment Specialists. In 2016, the overall turnover rate, including both external turnover and internal movement, was just under 49%, with a little over 11% due to internal movement and 37% due external turnover. The Organizational Social Context (OSC) baseline survey showed that there were several aspects of both culture and climate that were in need of improvement, including: 1) a hierarchical decision-making structure, 2) high …

Onboarding Program Eastern Band Of Cherokee Indians - Key Findings, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

Other QIC-WD Products

Background

The QIC-WD worked with the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) Family Safety Program (FSP) to address workforce challenges. FSP is a relatively new agency, established in 2015, and when they began working with the QIC-WD in 2017, FSP employed approximately 20 social workers, who provided direct service to children and families. Persistent vacancies were of greater concern than turnover. The QIC-WD partnered with FSP to conduct a needs assessment and identify areas of need that could be addressed through a workforce intervention. Three areas of need were identified as offering the strongest opportunities for intervention through the QIC-WD …

Spotlight On Innovative Recruitment Strategies: Northwest Ohio Fellowship Program, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development (Qic-Wd)

Other QIC-WD Products

Ohio is a county-administered children services (formerly known as child welfare) system. Like many other states, Ohio is experiencing a shortage of child protective services (CPS) workers. County leaders report that this is due to high rates of turnover compounded by rising wages and competition from outside employers. Traditional recruitment techniques and programs, including traditional partnerships with universities with social work programs, are not adequate to meet the current level of need for new children services workers. Although social work majors come to children service agencies with a training set that allows faster onboarding, social work majors make up less …

Home-Office During Covid-19 Pandemic In Brazil: Perceived Influences On Performance And Competency Management, Yuri Enes, Mariana Borges Nunes Vieira, Francisco Antonio Coelho Junior Dr., Delciene Pereira, Érica Rodrigues Zanon

The Qualitative Report

There has never been so much flexibility and organizational capacity to adjust to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on work. This article examines beliefs and perceptions related to new arrangements imposed by compulsory telework on skills and performance management practices, as well as identifying related advantages and disadvantages associated. This paper draws on 17 in-depth interviews using the collaborative interactive action research method. The authors study how leaders acted in multiple ways, aiming to reduce the negative effects on workers and work design and provide greater balance of actions. The perspective of multiple levels of action was adopted, considering …

The Impact Of Leadership Turnover On Child Welfare Workforce Initiatives, Courtney Harrison, Megan Paul

QIC-Takes

Turnover among public child welfare leaders is prevalent. Across the eight QIC-WD intervention sites, leadership turnover was one of the most common implementation challenges observed by the QIC-WD team. Leadership changes can disrupt the implementation of a workforce initiative by shifting agency-level priorities, the organizational climate, or key staff.

Child welfare leaders may be appointed or hired in many different ways in different jurisdictions. In some states, the Governor appoints a cabinet-level child welfare director who oversees a stand-alone agency. This means that child welfare leadership changes follow the political election cycle with new governors appointing new agency leaders every …

Measuring Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

Workforce Analytics Resources

What is Diversity?

Diversity refers to the degree of differences in the composition of the workforce in terms of such constructs as race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, religion, disability, age, national origin, language, or other social identities. Though there are certainly other types of employee differences worth assessing (e.g., acquired diversity characteristics, such as education, skills, personality, preferences, attitudes), the focus here is on inherent social identities, especially those that are related to differences in representation, power, and privilege. Note that diversity is a characteristic of a group, not an individual.

How is Diversity Measured?

To …

Job Posting, Megan Paul, Nina Williams-Mbengue, Courtney Harrison

QIC-Tips

A job posting must be informative, clear, transparent, and appealing to potential child welfare job candidates. It should also be candidate-centric and answer questions candidates often ask, especially any key information that has turned out to be a dealbreaker for people later in the process. This QIC-Tip is designed to highlight actionable strategies to create a good job posting. Please note that the information presented is not meant to override or supersede local, state, or federal legal civil service or human resources guidance.

Think of the job posting as a marketing opportunity for your agency and highlight the positive aspects …

Measuring Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion In The Child Welfare Workforce, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

QIC-Tips

Some child welfare professionals have stated that there is a critical need for systemic changes to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion, but where do child welfare agencies begin? Although change is never easy, the starting place on the journey to have a diverse, equitable, and inclusive (DEI) workforce is relatively simple. It starts with you—a child welfare supervisor, manager, or administrator. Start by considering what you think you know. Is your knowledge based on perception or data? What experiences shape your perceptions? What tools do you have to measure your workforce? Administrative data sets and surveys that gather both qualitative …