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

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

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,