Challenges in Retaining Child Welfare Social Workers

Introduction
A career in social work is one of the most difficult and emotionally strenuous professions in the human service industry. Social workers are vital to their communities and play a critical role in supporting families and children while ensuring safety, wellbeing, and permanency. Social worker retention has been a primary problem for child welfare agencies and is a complex issue that requires multi-dimensional solutions. The typical time span of employment for a child welfare social worker is less than two years (Johnco, 2014) and it is common for the Department of Children and Families (DCF) to have a fifty percent turnover rate per year across the United States (Murray, 2014).
There are several factors that contribute to social

worker turnover which must be considered. This paper will explore how fatigue, burnout, self-care, compensation, extended caseloads, low social work morale, and secondary trauma affect turnover rates in the Department of Children and Families (DCF) setting and discuss recommendations on how to improve the longevity of social work careers.
Problem Description and Identification
Social workers are devoted to the safeguard and empowerment of at-risk families. Social workers assist vulnerable families in maintaining physical and emotional welfare despite societal and economic challenges (Barford, S., & Whelton, W. 2010). In doing so, social workers are often under significant stress as they are tasked with predicting human behavior in a complicated world in which connections decompensate, feelings run high, and personal requests go unmet (Hamama, L, 2012).

Social workers deliver support and supervision to clients in an assortment of demanding work situations. They are charged with assessing the well-being of clients and asking personal questions that can illicit traumatic and disturbing responses. As a result and in spite of the importance of self-care, social workers are increasingly vulnerable to social worker fatigue and secondary trauma. Expanded caseloads and a deficiency of funding for services further amplify the need for concrete and well-vetted strategies to address the social worker’s needs and morale.
Secondary trauma can be defined as the secondhand experience of a traumatic event which impacts the social worker by listening to client stories of their personal trauma. A social worker is often trained to be empathetic and a good listener. However, overtime the secondary trauma and exposure to graphic details of abuse and neglect to families and children can have an adverse effect on the social worker’s mental health and own well-being. The aforementioned can be defined as social worker burnout. Research indicates that burnout is not due to one specific incident. Instead, it is the result of compounded experiences overtime. Although social workers are taught the importance of empathy, they must also realize that being overly empathetic can lead to increased depression, anxiety, and stress levels especially if the worker is unequipped to handle their emotions and concentrate on the client. Trainings should be closely monitored to determine the effectiveness of the empathetic approach on the client and on the long-term well-being social workers (Wagaman, Geiger, Shockley, & Segal, 2015).
Implications to Social Work
The implications of consistent turnover are significant for DCF. In addition to the negative impact on clients and families, the inability to retain social workers also has a far reaching impact on the financial resources of the agencies. As an example, in the State of Massachusetts, each new social worker hire costs DCF an estimated fifty thousand to hire and properly train. Social worker turnover is a difficult issue for social work management as it directly disturbs the quality, dependability, and permanency of client services (Kim, H., & Stoner, M., 2008).
Moreover, the inability to retain social workers leads to increased caseloads for other social workers. Ideally, a single social worker should handle approximately a dozen cases at any given time. In Massachusetts, the 2014 average was 20 cases per worker (Sampson, 2014). However, in some areas, social workers are dealing with up to forty open cases at once (ABC NEWS, 2016). Consequently, the quality of social work for families is diminished and the likelihood of social worker fatigue and burnout is increased. In these instances, social workers are so overloaded with cases that they have to prioritize their responsibilities to be as effective as possible. As a result, social workers may not be as responsive or as engaged as required by the profession. In addition, social worker turnover means that families will have to retell their story, redevelop trust and familiarity, and essentially start over with a new worker. These breaks in continuity and trust interrupt the flow and progress of the case and can delay much needed services for the families involved.
Recommendations
There is not one sole solution to address social worker turnover.

Recommendations to alleviate some of the barriers to retention include robust hiring processes, increased support during the onboarding process, fair compensation, ongoing trauma services, and self-care awareness initiatives. I would recommend expanding the interview process for social workers in an effort to ensure that candidates are compatible for the position from the onset. DCF should adopt more of a business model in relation to their hiring practices and candidates should be screened for more than just functional capability. Potential hires should be evaluated on how well they can connect to other people, their emotional intelligence, their ability to shape DCF policies, and their aptitude to lead others in behaviors that can naturally increase morale and job satisfaction. As an example, Bielaszka-DuVernay (2008) states that emotional intelligence, depending on the job function, can account for 24% to 69% of performance success. The research suggests that during the interview process, questions should be geared towards understanding the candidate’s self-awareness and self-regulation, ability to read others and recognize the impact of his/her behavior on others, and the aptitude to learn from mistakes. In doing so, the hiring manager can gage the emotional intelligence of the potential hire which would be a key factor in the social work

field.
Additionally, DCF’s current hiring process lacks rigor in the sense that the potential hire will interview only once with a pair of two supervisors. In many other businesses, potential hires have several interviews in an effort to fully vet the candidate and to ensure an understanding of the open position. Interviews should have multiple layers and potential candidates should meet with various cross-functional folks within the organization. The recommendation would be for DCF to develop a three tier interview system in which the applicant would meet with the hiring supervisor and a cross-functional supervisor for an initial screening. If the applicant meets the standards, the next step in the process would be to meet with one or two veteran social workers to discuss the front line issues of being a social worker in an effort to gain exposure to the stress, trauma, and overall demands of the day to day job. Lastly, in order for DCF to gather insight on how the candidate would react in certain risk situations, the potential hire should meet with the area director/clinical manager for a case study analysis. This process would give DCF the needed information to make better educated decisions on potential hires and would also give candidates a far better indication of the intricacies of being a social worker so they too can make an informed decision about their career path.
Education is also a key consideration during the interview process. Social workers with a college degree are more likely to have extended social work careers. Dickinson and Perry (1998) conducted a five year longitudinal study in Texas, and found that 67% of social workers with a Bachelor’s degree remained in the social work discipline during the five year span. In addition, if the degree was in social work and the individual had a placement internship at the agency prior to full-time employment; the study found that 87% of the participants remained in the protective service field. Social workers that were previously interns and/or had a college-level social work education have a clearer understanding of what the job entails and will transition easier into the full-time work environment. This supports the recommendation for DCF to establish dynamic internship programs, develop strong ties to the academia field, and to greatly consider a candidate’s educational background during the hiring process (Dickinson & Perry, 1998).
When a new social worker arrives, the worker is assigned cases that in many instances are transferred from other workers. New workers need onboarding support from managers to ensure that veteran workers are not taking advantage of the opportunity to distribute work. Ideally, cases assigned should not be overly complex until the worker is acclimated and up to speed with all of the DCF policies. Veteran social workers often transfer high stress cases to new workers as a form of self-preservation. This practice was essentially done to the veteran worker when they arrived. As a result, new workers are in a vulnerable position at the onset of their career and may not realize the severity of their case load until months later. If DCF wants to retain new workers, management needs to add additional structure when redistributing the caseloads to account for a new hires. DCF managers should differentiate between a workable family and a family that is high stress and liability to ensure an equal distribution between workers, not only in count but also complexity.
Social workers must be diligent about incorporating self-care practices into their daily routines in order to offset the emotional toll that is inherited overtime as a DCF worker. Although DCF offers trainings and reminders about the importance of self-preservation, the department falls short at creating a work environment that supports self-care. DCF facilities are usually very minimal and do not offer accommodations to assist workers in self-care and healthy living. As an example, most buildings do not have a lunch room or cafeteria to accommodate staff which requires staff to frequently eat out for lunch. If on-site meals were available, staff could make healthier food choices and eat on a regular schedule which could make staff more productive. Another suggestion would be to incorporate a wellness or fitness center for staff. In cases where a center would be impractical for a particular site, DCF could do more to incentive staff to live healthier lifestyles, such as offer discounts to local gyms, weight loss programs, and community supported agriculture. They could also host employee field days or fitness challenges.
Secondhand Trauma must also be addressed in order to increase social worker retention rates.

Research in the value of humor in human services fields has increased. Historically, humor has been a main coping mechanism for those dealing with chronic illness. However, the use of humor is now being utilized in individual and group settings for clients with various treatment needs. Despite the evidence and positive feedback, this research has not been brought to the forefront and utilized to its maximum potential. Having a sense of humor can be a tremendous asset and protective factor to minimize social worker burnout. Well-timed humor can be used to deescalate clients and improve overall morale for clients and social workers. Within co-workers, appropriate humor can be used to calm down a colleague or break the tension and lighten the mood of an intense moment. These interactions could be utilized as protective factors to social worker fatigue (Moran & Hughes,

2006).
Conclusion: Personal Reflection

As a social worker for last eight years for DCF, I have seen firsthand how dramatic the turnover rates are. Within my own unit, there has been sixty percent turnover for consecutive years. Workers are just burnout or do not realize what they signed up for in a social work career. Case load levels are often unmanageable and most cannot cope with the stress long term. DCF can be very demanding and families can be very uncooperative to work think. However, there is something uniquely satisfying about being a DCF social worker. I do not think as an organization that DCF does enough to recognize and appreciate the good and market the positive effects that social workers have on the community. Social workers often enter the office into a world of negativity and forget that there are very rewarding opportunities within the line of work. DCF management should promote the benefits and exploit positive synergies from successful and gratifying experiences.
In closing, there are several recommendations that I feel if implemented can have a positive impact on the retention rates for social workers at DCF. I feel that intensifying the interview process should be the first priority. It is important to attract the best resources possible. In addition, creating a robust internship process by aligning with area colleges and universities would be in the best interest of the department. Management should fight for better working environments with standard accommodations for staff and families. Compensation should be highly competitive with opportunities to advance. Staff should work as a team and develop trusting bonds and supervisors should assist in this team building process.