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Strategies for Addressing Workforce Issues

Many strategies to address recruitment, retention and training challenges for direct support workers have been identified by previous research and practice. These include selection and recruitment changes, orientation and socialization practices, mentoring and training programs, enhancing the status of workers, training supervisors, and evaluating recruitment and retention outcomes. Strategies for addressing workforce issues are limited only by the creativity of the agency. The following are a few examples of creative strategies:

• Increase the use of inside recruitment sources. Inside recruitment sources give information about the job that only an “insider” could provide. These strategies are more effective than outside sources such as newspaper ads, employment agencies, and job boards because people who hear about the job from an inside source have a more realistic idea about the job. Inside sources include rehiring former employees, or hiring referrals from former and current workers and from family members and friends of staff and people being supported. Inside recruiting can be encouraged by offering workers bonuses for recruiting newcomers.
• Develop a regional consortium of providers to recruit and train workers. Combining efforts can maximize resources (time, money, personnel) and create effectiveness by reducing overlap of effort. Residential and vocational provider agencies, advocacy groups, and governmental agencies have joined forces in some communities to deliver coordinated training, to visit high schools and college classes and inform students about job opportunities, to meet job-seekers at job fairs, and to develop recruitment brochures. Regional consortiums share job postings among agencies so that applicants who are looking for changes in job hours, location, or conditions can be referred to another agency with an appropriate vacancy.
• Recruit and train new workers in anticipation of openings. To avoid openings and overtime expenses, some agencies find it useful to recruit and train personnel in anticipation of openings. Once an opening occurs a well-trained person is available to take the position. While awaiting a permanent position, these individuals receive training and fill in when staff are sick or on vacation.
• Develop a recruitment card or brochure. Some agencies have developed business cards or brochures to increase the visibility of job opportunities, and to increase the number of recruits. These are placed at state and local workforce centers, schools, and other places where potential employees may see them. Current employees are encouraged to distribute them to people they meet or know who might be interested in a job.
• Develop or use an existing realistic industry preview. Videotapes and other materials that describe the tasks of direct support workers across a variety of settings can be used to recruit in high schools and colleges, at job fairs, in senior resource centers, and at job centers. A major barrier to finding people to work in this industry is that they do not know a lot about it. Preview materials can provide information about different types of available positions.
• Provide hiring and retention bonuses. Use incentive programs that pay bonuses to new employees who finish a set number of months on the job. Since most turnover occurs during the first six months after hire, offering workers an incentive to stay 9 -12 months can be an effective way of retaining more new hires.
• Offer agency-specific realistic job previews. Realistic job previews (RJPs) are used to give potential employees a realistic impression of the job, allowing them to make a more informed decision about whether to take it. Components of RJPs include gathering information from new and long-term workers about the positive and negative characteristics of the job, summarizing information that recruits are unlikely to know or are likely to have unrealistic expectations about, and developing a strategy to present the information to recruits before they decide whether to take the job. RJPs could include inviting prospective employees to a meal or recreational activity at the home; showing videotaped interviews with consumers, parents and staff; showing a videotape of the typical household routines; or providing opportunities to meet the people living in the house and observe daily routines.
• Match new hires to service sites carefully. The skills and support needs of people receiving services vary considerably. One way to enhance the likelihood that a new worker will stay is to match their interests and skills with those of the people they will support.
• Foster coworker support. New direct support workers need coworker support to acclimate to their jobs. Agencies should encourage coworker support by (a) rewarding and encouraging coworkers who go out of their way to help new staff members adjust; (b) encouraging existing staff to advise, personally support, and guide new staff on how to do their jobs; (c) designing the role of direct support workers around groups versus individuals; and (d) communicating a personal and supportive interest to all new employees.
• Provide worker-centered orientations. Agencies often gear orientation and training practices to meeting rules and regulations. The fact is that workers need to be welcomed to the organization and to get basic information about their job more than they need information about the rules and regulations. A worker-centered orientation will focus on (a) getting to know the people who receive their services (e.g., strengths, behaviors, skills); (b) describing specific job duties and routines; (c) providing organizational history, values, and goals; and (d) providing a balance of information during orientation and the during the first 90 days of employment so that individuals do not get overwhelmed.
• Develop mentoring programs. One of the most effective ways to support employee connections to their jobs is to assign mentors to new employees to help them through the first 3 to 12 months on the job. Successful mentoring programs have three components. First, they identify and match mentors carefully by selecting voluntary mentors based on fair, attainable, and known criteria. Secondly, they train both the mentors and the new employees about how mentoring programs work. In addition, mentors are trained on empathic listening, conflict resolution, providing feedback, leadership, and instructional techniques. And thirdly, they monitor, evaluate, and change the program as needed.
• Use competency-based training. Competency-based training identifies the organization’s mission; identifies the needs, desires and preferences of the individuals served by the agency; identifies the job-related skills and attitudes required of employees; assesses whether or not new (or existing) employees have the necessary knowledge, skills, and attitudes; provides training to employees for the knowledge, skills, and attitudes they do not already possess; assesses learning and the ability to apply their new learning to their actual job; supports uses of new knowledge, skills, and attitudes on the job; and provides feedback on performance related to each required job skill.
• Develop participatory management practices. Direct support staff members have a great deal to offer agencies. Unfortunately, they are often left out of agency decision-making. Employees should be involved in interdisciplinary teams, organizational committees and task forces, and in the development of policies and procedures. Participatory management practices give direct support staff opportunities for social interaction and networking with each other and management, and send a message that they are valued and respected within the organization.
• Establish partnerships with welfare-to-work initiatives. Agencies may find benefit in partnering with educational and workforce development programs designed to provide training and jobs for people receiving public assistance. These programs offer a new recruitment source, opportunities for realistic job previewing, work-based training, and often credited educational opportunities.
• Emphasize self-directed work teams. Some agencies have found success in moving toward self-directed work teams in residential and supported employment services. These teams provide opportunities for groups of direct support staff to manage their own work and create an environment that empowers employees to contribute to the improvement of services by giving them the ability to improve the work itself. This often results in more satisfying jobs.
• Support and train first-line supervisors. Supervisors have one of the most demanding jobs in our industry. Their effectiveness directly affects direct support worker job satisfaction and retention. Strategies to support and train supervisors include providing more and better training for supervisors, improving communication with supervisors, using fair and supportive agency management practices, providing staffing and recruitment support to supervisors, improving wages and benefits for workers and supervisors, and providing training on team building.
• Develop links with higher education. Many agencies and post-secondary educational programs across the country are beginning to partner to improve training practices, provide career pathways, develop incentives for increased pay, and identify potential new workers.
• Use high performance work practices. A variety of organizational strategies can be used to enhance employee skills and to build effective work teams. Some more promising strategies include providing a formal information sharing program (e.g., a newsletter); filling non-entry level jobs from within; administering attitude surveys regularly; involving workers in quality circles; providing access to company incentive plans and profit-sharing; providing access to a formal grievance procedure; and promoting workers based on merit or performance rather than seniority.

Each of these strategies has demonstrated effectiveness in improving recruitment and retention success for direct support workers. None of these suggestions, however, is a magic bullet, and certainly there are many additional strategies that could be employed. A thorough agency assessment is needed to identify the areas of difficulty to be addressed so that an appropriate strategy can be selected for each agency’s unique needs and circumstances.

– The Editors

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Resources: Web Sites Related to Direct Support Workforce Development

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Citation: Gaylord, V., Hewitt, A., & Larson, S. (1998). Impact: Feature Issue on Direct Support Workforce Development, 10(4) [online]. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, Institute on Community Integration. Available from http://ici.umn.edu/products/impact/104/.

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