Supporting and Retaining Staff: Promoting Consistency in the Lives of Families

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Supporting and Retaining Staff Promoting
Consistency in the Lives of Families
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Welcome and Overview

• Dan McDougall-Treacy, MSW
• Valley Cities Counseling Consultation
• dmcdouga_at_valleycities.org
• Whos Here?
• Where are we going?

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Creating and Sustaining Relationships
Supporting and Retaining Staff

• The Benefits of Teamwork
• How the service model benefits the family
• What the team approach can bring
• Individual worker - effectiveness

• Leadership Practices
• Team composition and dynamics
• Communication in all directions
• Staff Development and Morale
• Facing challenges

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Our Clientele

• Homeless Family
• Multiple problems and barriers
• Let down by many systems of care
• Little reason to trust or hope

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Values in service planning and delivery

• Client voice and choice
• Strengths based
• Flexibility, persistence and patience
• See www.paperboat.com for info regarding
  Wraparound methods and practice

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Family benefits from the program design and team
approach

• Low caseload and high service intensity
• Range of personal and professional skills and
  expertise
• Mutual support
• Close communication
• Multiple sources of support and availability

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Individual Staff Skills Set

• On paper training, knowledge and experience
• Additional skills, qualities, interests
• Effectiveness three ways of dancing
• Engagement
• Cultural competence
• Advocacy

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Effective Engagement Skills The Dance

• Simple, patient, respectful beginning
• Develops only at the clients pace
• Must balance client/admin. demands

• Depth and quality measured only by clients
  actions, not by worker assessment

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Effective Cultural CompetenceThe Dance

• Organizational responsibility
• At minimum, cultural curiosity.
• Celebration of differences
• Acceptance of contradiction
• Risk taking and sharing
• Our jargon, the boundary thing, etc.

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Effective Advocacy The Dance

• Clients own efforts are exhausted or met by
  systems barriers.
• What can worker bring to bear?
• Inside knowledge
• Professional relationship or reputation
• Agency affiliation
• Class advantage
• Above all, tactfulness toward all.
• Worker empowered by supervisor and agency

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Supporting and Retaining StaffManagement/Leaders
hip

• Team composition and dynamics
• Communication in all directions
• Staff Development and Morale
• Facing challenges

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Team Composition

• Good hiring recruiting, networking, and the HR
  thing
• Range of skills and interests including those
  not related to work.
• Chemistry Diversity
• Achieved at multiple levels

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Teamwork Operations

• Culture of respect toward clients, teammates and
  community partners.
• Can-do atmosphere
• Tolerance for ambiguity
• Collaboration and communication you/we cant do
  it alone.
• Boundary-spanning skills (dont stay in your
  box).
• All team members capable of leadership.

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Teamwork a culture of wellness

• Self-care and mutual reliance / support
• Knowing our limits and honoring the autonomy of
  others
• Patience, flexibility, creativity, humor
• Make time for team breathing
• Check-ins, special team events, retreat,
  impromptu dance parties, down time, personal
  sharing, etc.

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Supervision

• Be an example ethics,excellence, self-care,
  personal and professional growth
• Consistent and clear communications up, down,
  outward big picture and tiny picture
• Comfort in multiple roles
• Reliable support and oversight of staff
  performance and learning
• High expectations confidence

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When the team is facing crisis or challenge

• Got credibility?
• Got support?
• Team
• Organization
• Community
• Personal

• Reprise
• Team wellness
• Clear communication
• Zen, flexibility, humor
• Always envision the future