Policy & Practice | February 2022

Agencies Can Use a Three- Step, Data-Backed Strategy Research suggests that most employers—not just government agencies—are still guessing about what employees want and need, rather than truly working to understand the issues. Assuming we understand what employees need will not solve the retention issue, agencies need to approach this methodically and put together an evidence-based strategy for retaining and recruiting vital workers, one that is tailored to their specific geographic area, pressures, and community needs. Agencies can start creating a plan with a three-step approach. 1. Understand the current state. Investigate the employee needs base through robust data-gathering tech- niques and use sophisticated analysis to begin to understand what is driving them to leave and will help them to stay. Armed with that information, you can begin to make a plan.

some child welfare workers, but more can be done. While most states have robust employee assistance programs, employees may not take full advantage of them—out of worry about privacy issues, difficulty in accessing services, or simply forgetting they exist. And some of these programs may not offer the help that employees truly need. A challenge that state agencies face here is similar to one they face in many other areas—a lack of mean- ingful data and analysis to help them understand the employee experience, exactly what is driving employees to leave, and their concerns and their struggles. Money and benefits, while important, are clearly far from the whole story. As former Commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Human Services, I understand the challenges state agencies face to gather and synthesize the right data to put new, effective employee-focused programs into place. But I think we all agree that more must be done to relieve the stress on our child welfare workers.

2. Define the future state. Use that data to determine what the future can and should look like for child welfare workers, while being realistic about what agencies can achieve, given budget and civil code constraints. 3. Build long-term strategy and sustainability. Take current data and future state ideals and harmonize them into a long- term sustainable plan for recruiting, retaining, and addressing the impor- tant financial, emotional, and support needs of child welfare workers. By truly understanding how vicarious trauma affects child welfare workers, government agencies can begin to help those who work in this critical commu- nity support system stay professionally and emotionally engaged and better support children and families. Danielle Barnes is a Managing Director of Health and Human Services, Government and Public Sector, at Ernst &Young, LLP (EY). She can be reached at Danielle.Barnes1@ey.com.

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