****Work Solutions*****Only
^v ^
^• .M
L' i^
jw iŴ
SW W
iii ffw
g* ■
N
By A nita Light, Brian Howells, and C harm aine B rittain
A ny leader of a forward-thinking
■ and progressive business or organization would naturally identify a set of knowledge and skills necessary for an employee to advance a product line or deliver a service. And that same leader would also be intentional in the use of valuable resources to onboard, develop, and train that employee in order to build capacity within the organization to support its value proposition. Leaders in human services are no different! As we think about what is needed in a modern human-serving workforce in order to understand and meet the complex needs of children and adults, it makes sense for leaders to adopt best and current practices when recruiting, hiring, developing, and sustaining the workforce for the future.
April 2015 P o lic y & P r a c tic e 2 1
APHSA’s National Workgroup on Integration (NWI) Workforce Subcommittee will provide guidance on this task in 2015 and their efforts began with a survey of human service leaders on their perceptions of the workforce of the future. In order to realize the vision for a transformed health and human services system— one that is modern, integrated, accountable for results, data driven, exemplifies strong community partner ships, and is focused on outcomes—the human-serving workforce must be prepared to serve consumers using a practice model based on evidence
Anita Light is the director of the National Workgroup on Integration.
Brian Howells is the associate manager at Public Consulting Group and co-chair of the Workforce Subcommittee for NWI.
Charmaine Brittain is the director of organizational development at the Butler Institute for Families at the University of Denver.
and to do so within a system capable of adopting modern human resource strategies and constant technology advances, by managing generational workforce transitions, and by deliv ering services through a program integration lens.
Leaders of human services must position their organizations to accom plish these while, at the same time, facing the fact that a large segment of their workforce is now, or will soon be, eligible for retirement. Leaders will need to keep cognizant of skill gaps among all staff, provide an engaging workplace for younger workers, and develop retention strategies aimed at holding on to top talent. “In order to stem the tide of turn-over and per petual training of the next generation’s workforce, we must work to make a career in human services as attractive as any other field,” said Tamila Lay, division director of Employment and Training in Pennsylvania.
A S S E S S I N G THE W O R K F O R C E L A N D S C A P E
As an initial effort to assess the thinking of human service leaders on what skills and environment are needed in the future, the Workforce subcommittee sent a survey to more than 100 leaders of state and county human service agencies in addition to the program leaders of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Child Care, Child Welfare, and Child Care agencies requesting them to: > Identify the skills and characteristics
they viewed as most critical for their workforce to succeed in the next three to five years,
> Evaluate their agency’s readiness to address a variety of critical work force areas such as recruitment, education and professional prepara tion, performance management, professional development and training, working conditions, and supervision; and
> Assess their staff’s ability to adapt to developing technologies and indicate additional supports to assist with this adoption.
"In order to stem the tide of turnover and perpetual training of the next generation's workforce, we must work to make a career in human services as attractive as any other field." - T A M I L A L A Y , D I V I S I O N D I R E C T O R
F O R E M P L O Y M E N T A N D T R A I N I N G
I N P E N N S Y L V A N I A
THE S U R V E Y R E S U L TS A total of 107 people responded to
the survey representing a variety of human service agencies, including SNAP (35%), TANF (27%), Child Welfare (13%), and Child Care (12%). Respondents were asked to rank the top five skills most critical for a suc cessful human service workforce of the future. They selected: 1. critical thinking skills 2. customer service orientation 3. communication skills 4. policy knowledge 5. resource/services knowledge
The top three listed fall into the category of soft skills as being the most important for the future, while specific program and policy area knowledge was viewed as also being important. The shifting demand toward soft skills was also demonstrated as traditional
2 2 P olicy& P ractice April 2015
hard skills—oral communication, writing, quantitative analysis, and team-building—were not endorsed as critical in the survey response.
Participants were also asked to rank their agencies’ readiness to address critical organizational workforce components that would enable leaders to create and maintain a thriving workforce, including assessment of recruitment and selection strategies, workforce education and prepara tion, training and development, performance management, supervi sion, and culture. These components were based, in part, on work con ducted by the National Child Welfare Workforce Institute. Their Workforce Development Framework1 suggests that there are key components of a workforce development strategy that must be addressed and implemented if an organization is to build the capacity of their workforce in response to the changing needs of those being served.
technology. Respondents noted a general lack of training and genera tional gaps in how workers approached the incorporation of technology. Multiple participants said older workers are less “tech savvy” and more resistant to technological advance ments while younger workers bring those tech skills to the work environ ment. Legacy systems also challenge workers due to their complexity and lack of intuitiveness and adaptability. Outdated skills and technology make it more challenging for agencies and their workers to stay up to date.
I M P L I C A T I O N S The findings suggest a great oppor
tunity for human service leaders and managers to: > Develop onboarding tools and pro
cesses that meet a dual purpose of training new employees to do the job, but also to orient the entire workforce to understand greater trends in human services. Effective
onboarding can build commitment to operating effectively in an increas ingly integrated system.
> Maximize the impact of multiple generations in the workforce to utilize the full range of talents, skills, and expertise present in both younger and older workers, and everyone in between.
> Develop strong hiring pipelines capable of delivering top talent by partnering and sharing information with institutions responsible for workforce preparation.
> Recognize that soft skills training is as critical as training on hard skills and develop targeted curricula to expand opportunities for learning in both areas.
> Support the integration of and training for using technology within the workplace.
THE W O R K A H E A D Creating and sustaining a modern
workforce in such a demanding field of work is daunting at best. The NWI Workforce Subcommittee plans to create awareness of the various skills and competencies needed in the health and human service workforce; provide information on change management strategies for leaders that enable them to advance their workforce; and issue guidance on how to effectively address cultural issues within the health and human service workforce. Employment and Training Division Director Lay also suggested that considerations for modernization must include salary equality, continued intellectual devel opment, and development of current data systems that allow for real-time interfaces to which the next generation of workers is accustomed. Additionally, the subcommittee will capture infor mation on where innovations and demonstrations are taking place and share these with the human-serving community.
For more information, please contact Anita Light, director of the National Workgroup on Integration, at alight@ aphsa.org. 9
R eference Note 1. http://ncw w i.org/index.
php/resource-library-search/ workforce-development-framework
On a scale of 1-5 (5 being the most prepared), respondents rated each individual component in the middle of the scale, indicating that most people think their agencies are neither very prepared nor not at all prepared to address the issue within a workforce development strategy, thus responses fell in the center of the scale.
By perception of preparation, the / components were ranked, in orders
** *
C o m p o n e n ts / R ating P ro fe s s io n a l D e v e lo p m e n t & / T ra in in g / 3 .3 7
0
P e rfo rm a n c e M a n a g e m e n t/ 3 .3 5 t
R e c r u itm e n t j 3 .2 4 f
S u p e rv is io n / 3 .2 4 $
E d u c a tio n a l & < f
P ro fe s s io n a l P re p a ra tio n 3 .1 5 #
W o r k in g C o n d itio n s > 2 .9 7 9 9
Results indicate the opportunity for growth in all these'.areas so that agencies do, in fact, feel prepared related to these essential workforce components. \
We also wanted to understand more about the workforce’s current challenges with using aqd navigating
Respondents noted a general lack of training and generational gaps in how workers approached the incorporation of technology.
April 2015 P o licy& P ractice 2 3
Copyright of Policy & Practice (19426828) is the property of American Public Human Services Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.