Quality Improvement Center on Workforce Analytics

In recognition of the significant impact of workforce issues on agencies, staff, and children and families, the Children’s Bureau identified addressing the needs of the child welfare workforce as one of its strategic plan goals. The Quality Improvement Center on Workforce Analytics (QIC) will emphasize development and analysis of workforce analytics to inform worker recruitment, performance and well-being strategies that support workforce innovation and retention; while also undertaking an array of activities to increase recruitment and decrease the turnover of child welfare staff from the frontline workers to top leadership. It will build knowledge in evidence-based workforce decision making practices and contribute to research on evidence based/informed workforce strategies that can support agencies’ effective recruitment and retention strategies, appropriate employee selection protocols, exploring new and innovative non-traditional pathways to expand agency recruitment pools, and ability to organize their staff to effectively get their work done. The QIC will partner with selected states, tribes and/or territories interested in the development of workforce analytics to help address the current workforce crisis. Through a data driven systematic approach, the QIC will provide leadership to identify and assess workforce needs and develop strategic plans to engage and support a child welfare workforce that is responsive to the continuum of child welfare needs from prevention to permanency. The QIC will examine existing data and reporting structures to identify and establish core workforce metrics that guide worker recruitment, promote worker well-being and performance, and guide workforce innovation. Core components will include contributing to a national understanding of workforce metrics; collecting, developing, and disseminating evidence-based or evidence-informed strategies related to workforce development; supporting jurisdictions to pilot identified interventions to better support child welfare leaders; providing technical assistance support for implementation of best practices; evaluating the effectiveness of these interventions. Success will be measured by increased data informed decision-making capacity; improvements in recruitment capacity, retention rates, worker satisfaction, and intention to stay; and improved agency culture and climate that supports worker recruitment and retention. The anticipated funding level for this award is $1,270,000 for the first year and $2,100,000 for years 2 - 5.