There is no quick fix to the breadth of workforce challenges we face.
But…through our partnerships with employers, workers, government, and educators we have identified a range of common sense, practical, and scalable solutions that can be applied to all parts of the social service sector.
Diversify who we recruit
By attracting and recruiting workers from under-represented communities and those with diverse life experiences, we will achieve two things:
- Increase the supply of potential workers and;
- Build a stronger and more adaptive workforce that better reflects the community members we support.
Provide more opportunities to earn while you learn
Increasingly, economic realities make it difficult for people to study full time or take significant pay cuts to train for a change in career. We need more opportunities for people to earn an income while they study and learn skills on the job.
Provide better supervision and support
Without skilled, comprehensive support and supervision, people are far more likely to drop out of training or leave their jobs early in their careers. Providing support is simple common-sense and significantly increases the likelihood of training success and job retention.
Understand core functions
Understanding the actual functions of jobs - and the skills needed to undertake these functions - is central to effective recruitment and retention. Consistent, realistic job descriptions attract the right people for the right jobs. We have led work in the Family Violence and Sexual Assault sectors to develop a Jobs Family Taxonomy that underpins a robust approach to role descriptions, selection criteria and the way we recruit and remunerate staff. This model can be replicated across the broader social service sector.
Good leaders create good organisations
Good leaders matter - they enhance staff attraction; the quality of service provision; and staff retention. Good leaders need support to find career pathways where they can maximise their impact and continue to grow and develop. Since 2018, we have supported skill development for hundreds of leaders working in the broader sector and led industry specific leadership programs for both the Family Violence and Disability sectors.
Collect and use meaningful workforce data
Timely data is essential to inform good policy decisions. But workforce data is often lacking or fragmented. WIDI has led a ‘first of its’ kind’ use of the Multi-Agency Data Integration Project (MADIP) to gain a better understanding of the Specialist Homelessness workforce, using an approach that can be replicated across sectors, and applying sector expertise to translating data into meaning.
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Training that meets the needs of students and employers
The training system has to ensure the way it trains, and what it trains people in, meets the needs of students, industry and - most importantly - service users. Contemporary curriculum, delivered creatively, using a flexible mix of classroom, work, and on-line learning is now a ‘must have’.
Constant evaluation is essential
Evaluation is at the heart of everything we do at WIDI. We use our findings to adapt what we have been doing and make it better. Set and forget pilots that get evaluated at the end of their funding are no longer appropriate.
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