State and county public child welfare agencies (from both state-administered and state supervised, county-administered child welfare systems) and tribes that are currently receiving Title IV-B grant funds administered by the Children’s Bureau are eligible to apply.
Selected agencies will need to have 5 years of experience with collecting and managing child welfare workforce data (i.e., human resources data such as recruiting, hiring, performance, turnover, demographics) in an electronic format (i.e., in a spreadsheet, database, or other HR software).
Selected agencies will need a statement of support from agency leadership (e.g., Child Welfare Director, Human Resources Director) for building agency capacity to analyze workforce data for organizational improvement.
Additional preferred characteristics of an agency well suited to this opportunity:
- The agency is of sufficient size to allow for statistical subgroup analyses. We suggest a minimum of 130 child welfare employees
- The agency has articulated a preliminary statement of the workforce question(s) or problem(s) it would like to address through its work in The Institute
- The agency has available existing data that may serve as measures of the key factors involved in the articulated question(s). Examples of the types of data that may be desirable to have in the agency’s electronic records for each individual employee:
- Recruiting sources, decisions, and dates
- Hiring decisions, scores, and dates
- Demographic data
- Educational attainment and training records
- Performance indicators
- Employee identifiers that allow HR data to be connected with child welfare administrative data
Establish a Workforce Analytics Team. Applicants are asked to assign a contingent of 4 individuals to this initiative, each representing a key function or role in child welfare or HR:
- Child welfare leadership, such as the child welfare agency’s director, executive director, secretary, chief executive officer, chief operating officer, deputy director, assistant director, deputy executive director, assistant secretary, or chief of staff
- HR leadership, such as chief human resources officer, director of human resources, human resources coordinator, human capital director, director of human resources operations, human resources administrator, assistant director of human resources, or human resources manager
- Child welfare personnel practices (e.g., recruiting, hiring, onboarding, performance management, retention); individual could work in human resources or in child welfare, with a range of potential titles such as human resources specialist, human resources program manager, or child welfare field manager
- HR data, data systems, and analytics, such as human resources data analyst, human resources systems analyst, human resources business analyst, human resources reporting analyst, or HRIS or HRMS analyst
Participate in a Community of Learning. Selected participants will have multiple opportunities to come together as a community, including:
- April 2020: conference call with the assigned QIC-WD representative to answer questions and discuss institute activities and expectations
- May 2020: 1-hour foundational webinar on workforce analytics
- June 2020: conference call with the assigned QIC-WD representative to discuss preparation for in-person meeting
- July 2020: 1-hour foundational webinar on workforce analytics
- August 2020: in-person meeting in Washington, D.C.
- October 2020: conference call with the assigned QIC-WD representative to discuss progress on action plan implementation
- November 2020: 2-hour follow-up webinar for participants to share action plan progress, including successes, barriers, needs, and next steps
- January 2021: conference call with the assigned QIC-WD representative to discuss progress on action plan implementation
- February 2021: 2-hour follow-up webinar for participants to share action plan progress, including successes, barriers, needs, and next steps
Develop and Implement an Action Plan to Improve Agency Workforce Analytics Practice. Selected participants will be expected to develop and begin implementing an action plan to improve an aspect of their workforce data analytics capacity and/or practice. With structured guidance from The Institute, the agency team will develop the initial plan during the in-person meeting. Individualized support will be provided by an assigned QIC-WD representative during and after the in-person meeting. To refine and implement the plan, participants will need to perform independent work in their agencies, involving key stakeholders as needed.
Share Experiences and Lessons Learned. To help make The Institute maximally beneficial, participants will be asked provide feedback (e.g., regarding webinars, coaching, meeting activities) throughout the process. To help advance national use of child welfare workforce analytics, participants will be asked to share their experiences and lessons learned, to be disseminated through potential outlets such as reports, briefs, blogs, newsletters, social media, videos, conferences, or journal articles.
The benefits to participating in The Institute include the opportunity to:
- Build or strengthen the partnership between child welfare and HR in your agency
- Discuss your agency’s workforce challenges and explore what workforce data are available or could be collected to understand and address those challenges
- Learn about a variety of workforce metrics and analytics (e.g., recruitment, hiring, retention) and how they can be effectively communicated to key stakeholders (e.g., through data visualization) so they can make more informed workforce decisions and monitor impact
- Assess your agency’s readiness, strengths, and needs related to leveraging workforce data
- Develop and begin to implement an action plan to increase your agency’s use of workforce data
- Engage with other agencies to share common and unique challenges, successes, and ideas
- Through strategic use of workforce data, address workforce challenges and improve workforce outcomes
The QIC-WD will cover expenses for travel, lodging, and meals for the in-person workshop (3 days/2 nights, for up to 4 people per agency). No monetary awards will be made.