Policy & Practice | Fall 2023

Leadership insights for acting on our shared aspirations for the human services workforce include:

How Do We OperationalizeThese Concepts? Dramatically improve employment conditions. n Increase pay commensurate with value of human services positions. n Support flexible work schedules (hours/remote). n Create clarity, structure, and support for people to succeed with manageable workloads. n Provide respite and other stress-relief opportunities. n Focus on providing a safe and supportive work environment, being clear about what investments are needed to do so. n Consider co-working space with other agencies. Provide career development opportunities. n Invest in clearly understood career tracks. n Develop cross-functional roles and competencies that bridge historically siloed programs. n Provide opportunities for peer-to-peer learning, including: • internally within the agency • at community tables with other organizations and • through national peer communities like those APHSA provides n Focus on succession planning for the next generation of leaders. Modernize hiring processes. n Engage your Human Resources HR) department in understanding pain points and opportunities; create opportunities for the HR team to build relationships across departments and be a part of finding solutions. n Build relationships with external partners (e.g., state departments of administration; governor’s cabinet) with the power to change practices that are within the discretion of the state. What “Big Plays” Could Accelerate Our Path Forward? Shift culture by hiring people with lived experience into service delivery and decision-making roles. n Create clear pathways for people with lived experience to move into agency roles. n Provide additional work support for staff who have lived experience. n Provide training to all staff to support an inclusive and trauma-informed environment. Partner with academia and industry to identify issues and potential solutions. n Understand specific pain points in hiring, training, and retention. n Be clear on what’s doable within the state’s current hiring rules. n Create STEM-like human services tracks in high schools.

What Do Leaders Need to Do Differently? Change the unproductive narrative around the human services workforce. n Honor the personal agency of the workforce at all levels. n Publicly recognize their service and celebrate successes with them. n Recognize the role of both public sector and community service organizations. n Be visible as a leader. Listen. Show vulnerability. Show up regularly–work shifts, seek feedback, and value input. n Engage the staff in collaborative problem solving, create opportunities to guide process improvements, and remove barriers. n Model and encourage self-care. Acknowledge the impact of secondary trauma on the workforce and make space for employees to grapple with it. Set expectations agency-wide for customer-focused and trauma-informed approaches in all aspects of the work. n Embed it in on-boarding experiences for all staff, including internal operations, not just for those who work on the front line. Where Should We Spend Our Collective Energies on Enabling the Conditions for Longer-Term System Level Change? Foster a supportive and accountable culture in the human services sector. n Shift the current “blame culture” to a continuous learning environment. n Listen to the human services workforce, including staff who live within the community being served. Act on and give credit to their insights and ideas. Paint the picture of why human services is important and rewarding as a career. n Share stories of the heroic and service-oriented workforce. Do this often. n Help the workforce understand their own positional power and ways to leverage it for good. Build support for major, systemic changes in public service hiring practices. n Advocate for direct hire authority and hire for talent, not just civil service rankings. n Work at the national level to draw more attention to these issues. n Bring to the table policymakers and practitioners who sit outside of human services and can support modernization from an outside-in approach. Remove the culture of blame and build a culture of safety and learning.

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