Policy and Practice June 2017

interviewers; an experiential exercise; and a written exercise utilizing the agency’s current technology. By hiring based on competencies and real-world fit, organizations begin to understand the characteristics of staff that are well matched with the job and who stay in the organizational and work setting. Factor-based analytics can then be utilized to help leaders better under- stand any number of factors related to their workforce, allowing them to pro- actively recruit and prevent turnover. Utilizing stay interviews with new and current staff provides information and insight into what is going on in the organization in real time. Stay inter- views occur at the 30-, 60-, and 90-day and 6-month and 12-month mark. Stay interviews are done by supervisors, managers, administrators, and some- times directors, to solicit information that informs what the strengths of the organization are, push factors for that person, and ideas for solutions. This not only engages newer staff and indicates that leaders care about them beyond the point of hire, but allows them input on issues that directly affect their job when their fresh perspective is balanced by their emerging experiences.

not have to be high—staff recogni- tion and role clarity come to mind as examples. And many of the changes you might make are things you would want to improve anyway since they result in improving the performance and reputation of your agency. There are several ways that leaders can begin to change the trajectory of hiring and retaining their staff. First, engaging your workforce in a periodic organizational assessment—asking questions about the climate and culture, supervision, job satisfaction, agency support, and leadership reinforces a few of the steps outlined above. Leaders must be willing to accept this type of feedback, take on the challenges of improvement, and self-reflect on their own behaviors that might contribute to screening, interviewing, and hiring process can also help organizations select candidates who exhibit the com- petencies important to the organization and human services work. A multi- tiered process might include: a realistic job preview video or on-site experience (if possible); a scored competency- based interview that involves multiple the health of their organization. Utilizing a competency-based

CLOSING Each of our organizations has a “brand” that lives in the hearts and minds of our employees. Dilbert cartoons and websites like Glassdoor. com demonstrate that our brands, when left to their own devices, can be comical or worse. But the natural attri- butes of our industry may line up pretty well with the desires of our target talent, so it is a shame that we struggle with high, unwanted turnover or to attract the talent we need. The good news is that by “moving upstream” we can make significant improvements, with reasonable cost and effort, with a high payoff not only on staff retention but on our agencies overall. *APHSA has created a tool that defines each of these retention drivers, acces- sible by contacting Emily Campbell, Bryan Grove, or Jennifer Kerr at APHSA. Reference Note 1. Flower, C., McDonald, J. & Sumski, M. (2005). Review of turnover in Milwaukee county private agency child welfare ongoing case management staff. Retrieved from http://www.uh.edu/socialwork/_ docs/cwep/national-iv-e/turnoverstudy.pdf

June 2017   Policy&Practice 33