P&P April Issue 2018

counties modified their hiring require- ments to accommodate the dwindling pool of eligible professionals while others sought to make their county more attractive through salary incen- tives and workplace supports. In the end, a statewide intervention designed to support the counties in high-quality hiring practices was needed. Other jurisdictions and field-based research have found great success in using video-based realistic views of the work in child welfare as a screening and hiring tool. Realistic Job Previews (RJP) serve to screen in the right candidates by making sure that professionals have a thorough understanding of the job— the good and the challenging. RJPs also serve to screen out other candi- dates, helping them recognize that this may not be a good career fit. While it may seem to defer the number of can- didates moving forward in the process, it reduces unnecessary and expensive turnover, which ultimately harms children and families being served. We created the new Minnesota RJP, 1 in partnership with state and county partners across rural, suburban, and metropolitan areas. County agencies have been incredibly pleased with this new tool and the accompanying strat- egies for its implementation in their hiring practices. WORKFORCE STUDY In 2015, state and county agencies and the University of Minnesota’s Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare partnered to conduct a workforce study to understand the well-being and stability of the current workforce. The study examined child welfare professionals’ intent to stay in their current positions, move to dif- ferent child welfare positions, or leave the field altogether. It also looked at the impact of reform efforts as associated factors in staying, moving, or leaving. E-mail surveys resulted in a state- wide response rate of 44 percent. Analysis showed that 83 percent of respondents experienced secondary traumatic stress, 53 percent actively sought employment outside of their current position in the past year, and 67 percent reported being over- whelmed with their current job duties.

The Minnesota Department of Human Services was charged with leading the engagement of multi- system partners and stakeholders in what has been three years of rigorous and rapid reform to Minnesota’s child welfare system, extending beyond just child protection. To improve child and family outcomes, reform efforts have been targeted toward three primary child welfare system practice domains: child maltreatment report intake and screening, critical incident review of child fatalities and near fatalities, and child welfare workforce development, stability, and wellness. As anticipated, increased media attention and reform efforts in intake and screening have resulted in more children and families entering Minnesota’s child welfare system, further exacerbating an already taxed system and workforce. As we enter our fourth year of child welfare reform in Minnesota and reflect upon the lessons learned, sus- tainable collaborative partnerships have emerged as a primary con- tiguous thread driving our successes. Leveraging both structural and rela- tional frameworks to merge expertise and resources is redefining who we are as a child welfare system and creating new possibilities for the development and ongoing support of our workforce, which ultimately drive improved outcomes for children and families. For the purposes of this article, we will describe four specific initia- tives used to ignite the potential for improvements in the workforce: Development and use of a realistic job preview, execution of a workforce sta- bility study, study and implementation of a new training academy (structure and content), and the implementation of the Collaborative Safety Model. Each initiative incorporated key input from multiple partners, with alternating leadership roles, using an implementation science framework. REALISTIC JOB PREVIEW With increasing rates of turnover, pending retirements in a senior work- force, and mounting caseloads due to the reform-induced influx of referrals, Minnesota experienced a child welfare caseworker hiring frenzy. Some

Igniting the Potential is a recurring theme for 2018. In each article, we introduce our readers to various efforts underway in the H/HS workforce. If your organization has a compelling story to share about how you are supporting and advancing the H/HS workforce, we would love to hear from you. Contact Jessica Garon at jgaron@aphsa.org. Igniting the Potential

Jamie Sorenson is the Director of Child Safety and Permanency Division at the Minnesota Department of Human Services

and President of the Executive Advisory Committee of the National Association of Public ChildWelfare Administrators.

Traci LaLiberte is the Executive Director of the Center for Advanced Studies in ChildWelfare in the School of Social Work at the University of Minnesota.

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Policy&Practice April 2018