Transformational Change Module 6: Providing Training, Technical Assistance, and Workforce Development

Recommendations

• Provide leadership and supervisors training on team building and how to create cohesive teams that encourages engagement with staff and recognizes that half of the power of a good team comes from the dynamics of the staff members themselves and the other half must come from the leadership of the team.
• Senior leaders must support leadership and supervisors on building an organizational culture that supports the organizational values. 
• Leaders must be able to encourage the sharing of different perspectives and ensure the need for diversity within their teams.
• Leaders and supervisors need to find ways to partner with staff when trying to find ways to resolve issues like productivity, documentation, and accountability while at the same time building a team culture.
• Senior leaders must evaluate leadership’s decisions based upon the impact they will have on staff and employee well-being and involve staff at various levels of the organization in these decisions.
• Leaders and supervisors must recognize that staff will treat those they work with as they are treated by the organization
• Leadership must fully engage with staff around those issues that relate directly to their personal health, safety, and well-being as this will send many messages about respect, compassion, concern, and partnership, which are the messages that will keep staff appreciating and respecting their organization.
• Create listening sessions throughout the organization with staff to engage them in discussions that create opportunities for true interaction and partnership with leaders, recognizing the “star performers” amongst the staff often want a chance to be more involved and to form a full partnership with their leaders.
• Follow up on input learned from the listening sessions and act upon those recommendations whenever possible.

Hiring

• Use initial screening phone calls to determine potential applicants’ general communication skills, attitude, and timeliness which can typically be done by the HR Department
• After the HR screening the next interview should be immediately set up, HR staff should have access to the schedule of the next interviewer.
• The interview process needs to move quickly or candidates who are looking at multiple opportunities will move on to another offer.
• To speed the hiring process when you have multiple openings invite a group of potential applicants to a group interview process / informational meeting with selected supervisors and employees present, who can then identify candidates who should either be immediately interviewed or invited back.
• Interviewers should use a structured interview process with all potential employees (with 10 to 15 questions at the most and do not ask ANY follow-up questions).
• Always have two interviewers present and organizations must find ways to incorporate youth and family in the hiring process 
• Rate each answer on a scale of 1-5 and for each question have an example of the best possible and worst possible answers to help your rating of applicants
• One interview question should be: “Tell me a story in your life that connects with the purpose of this organization”
• Have a specific interview question to help evaluate the fit between your organizational values and the valises of the potential candidate
• One interview question to assess a candidate’s empathy around families and the difficulties of raising a youth should be “Tell me what you would do the same as your family did in raising you and what would you do differently and why”
• Interviewers should listen more than they talk
• Find ways to give candidates you are interested in a realistic perspective of the work they will be doing, e.g., showing a video “a day in the life of a worker”; offering a face-to-face meeting with other employees in the role capacity they are applying for to talk about the position; shadowing a worker
• Provide observation of staff in real work situations (videos are ok) and opportunities to interact with youth if in a residential setting
• Background checks should be conducted in accordance with licensing and best practice guidelines and include vaccination status
• The organization needs to determine how it will process exemptions, within its state’s guidelines, when minor criminal convictions appear, especially for parent partner positions.
• Put all job offers in writing

Onboarding

• Provide a robust onboarding and agency culture overview led by the CEO, senior leadership, and key staff before beginning the work assignment, if possible, but no later than the first 30 days.
• Orientation should include re-stating the values of the organization and include discussion with current employees about how their values mesh
• Supervisors need to know how to build self-confidence, offer encouragement, and promote inclusivity with their staff.
• Request feedback from new employees on the onboarding process

Mentoring

• Develop a mentoring system that pairs current staff with new employees during the first 90 days since that is the typical time period in which an employee decides to stay or leave
• The mentor should be in addition to the employee’s supervisor
• Ensure there is a formal job evaluation within the first month of hire done by both the mentor and supervisor

Recommendations (a number of these recommendations come from “A Checklist for Success” presentation by Bruce Anderson)

Recruiting

• Recognize traditional patterns of recruitment, hiring, training and support aren’t addressing current workforce needs and new practices need to be developed
• Ensure your website’s home page has a link for “perspective new hires” that targets the information behind that button to a social justice marketing platform and allow easy access to complete an on-line application
• Conduct salary surveys in your local community and state to determine if your salaries are competitive with other similar organizations 
• Explore offering telework and work from home opportunities to staff whose positions allow for such flexibility and develop policies to support these practices
• Clearly articulate upfront your vaccination policies to potential employees
• Consider offering retention bonuses to employees to reduce costly turnover
• Consider offering recruitment Incentives to current employees to help recruit new staff with an increased incentive when the employee is a returning employee

Recommendations

• If a Mission is to be effective, it must be the Mission for everyone in the organization, the Board’s, the CEO’s, the Senior Leadership Team’s, and staff
• Invite staff members to help to figure out the best ways for the organization to advance its Mission.
• Develop a process to review your organizational mission during all major strategic planning activities and the process should involve input from individuals at all levels within the organization, i.e., staff, leadership, board, parents, youth, etc.
• Design your organization to facilitate teaching and learning to help staff feel calmer and less anxious about the work
• Help staff handle their mistakes, deal with any embarrassment, and move on with the work

Recommendations

• The immediate supervisor is potentially the single most important person in improving staff retention and the quality of the relationship is very important. Supervisors need to motivate, encourage, challenge, teach and provide emotional support to staff, especially in times of crisis. 
• Retention depends upon supportive supervision and leadership’s ability to maximize job satisfiers and minimize dissatisfiers.
• Retention can be enhanced when staff see the work as more of a career than a job.
• Stay interviews should be conducted during the first 90 days that ask the questions: “what will it take for you to be here for 1 year of more?”; “what should stay the same”; “what should change”.
• The direct supervisor should do stay interviews, not management or leadership.
• Build celebrations into your organizational culture and connecting those celebrations to your Mission to help to improve retention.
• Ensure equity in advancement and address DEI issues in making these decisions.
• Maximize the IT capacity within your organizations to find efficiencies and strategies that support staff in their work.
• Resolve any issues related to work/life balance, flexibility, and supervision for staff.
• Create more inclusive work environments that permit perspectives to be freely shared including executive accountability.

Recommendations

• Assure that your leaders and supervisors have received the same training that the organization is offering to your new staff
• Effective supervisors have a “share-vision” where both sides can sometimes take the lead and both sides offer perspectives that are considered.
• Supervisors need to be well-trained, self-confident, and self-aware before they can begin to share responsibility and authority with their staff and teams.
• Leadership needs to recognize the differences between supervisors who focus exclusively on management issues and supervisors who balance management needs with the application of leadership skills; the exclusive focus on management issues, can lead to high levels of frustration while the balanced approach can lead to higher levels of job satisfaction. 
• Leaders and supervisors must create a consistent pattern of expressing appreciation to staff for the work they do; if that pattern can be installed within the culture of organizations, it will, in all probability, eventually have a positive impact on staff retention.
• Conduct exit interviews prior to the last day of work and again 60 days after the last day of work and ask for highlights of benefits of working for your organization
• Develop leaving rituals for departing staff and find ways to positively acknowledge employees departing for cause