Operations

Meeting Professional Standards

Technical competence among administrative staff at all levels should be a non-negotiable requirement for continued employment. While professional development should be expected and provided, basic technical skills appropriate to the level of role should be expected. When administrative staff members are technically competent, they serve an invaluable role in helping leadership to effectively lead in the present and strategize for the future.

An effective learning environment for all administrative staff is essential if tactical competence is to be maintained, as best practices in all professions evolve and develop. A learning environment for administrative staff must be part of an overall agency commitment to learning. There must be the expectation that continuous learning is required and supported at all levels and in all functions.

Education not only advances best practices but also keeps staff energized and renewed in their commitment to the agency mission. Frontline administrative staff members as well as administrative supervisors need this type of learning expectation and support. Too often, front line and supervisory administrative staff observe support for learning as a high priority for service staff and a low priority for themselves.

• Administrative leaders must make training available for administrative staff and provide funding for registration, travel and/or the time necessary to participate.
• The focus of training for administrative staff should be in the development of technical expertise as well as updated learning related to the field of public child welfare.
• Mentor relationships are an effective means for promoting a continuous learning environment. Administrative mentors for line staff should be chosen carefully and not simply for their technical expertise.
• In contexts where career ladders can be established that are tied to greater levels of technical expertise, greater agency responsibility and commitment, such career ladders can provide powerful incentive and reward for continuous learning.

Understanding and Respect for Daily Realities

Demands on all fronts are often tremendous and the ability of any staff person to respond in a timely manner or with the needed accuracy can sometimes be compromised. An effective agency finds the right level of tolerance for these realities while still maintaining a high level of excellence in administrative practices. In addition, while client service is paramount, administrative processes do take time and those timeframes and the daily demands of administrative staff should be respected.

Creating a Predictable and Nimble Administration

When there is a change in executive leadership, staff can expect the introduction of new mandates, policies and procedures. Many of these changes will affect administrative practices. It can be daunting for administrative managers and leaders, who do not arrive and depart with the top political appointment or executive hire, to sustain support of solid administrative practices and philosophies through the changes in leadership.

A key challenge for these middle managers is to honor and support new initiatives while serving as guardian to the solid principles that have sustained the agency over time. The response of managers to mandated changes should never be “here we go again.” Such a response subverts the effective action needed, which is to negotiate to preserve what is important and implement the non-negotiable changes in a way that best supports the mission.

The general principles below should guide administrative managers and leaders when responding to a change in Executive Leadership:

• Administrative practices must always support the people who are served by being focused not only on internal effectiveness but also on facilitating desired client outcomes.
• Administrative practice changes, whenever possible, should reduce barriers for staff in all areas, especially those delivering services.
• Administrative practice changes must be well thought out in terms of impact on workers’ efficiency and impact on families.
• When new processes are mandated, administrative leaders and staff must collaborate with program staff to determine the best methods of implementation to reach desired client outcomes.
• New administrative procedures will be better executed by all staff if the context and rationale are positively communicated, training is offered and the new processes or expectations are well documented.
• All new procedures should include early and ongoing feedback loops to ensure continuous quality improvement.

While preservation of what works is important, so is a willingness and skills for change. Administrative processes can and do outlive their usefulness or effectiveness at times due to the change in services or service demand. Feedback loops and good change management practices are essential if administrative functions are to remain most relevant and receive the necessary compliance from program staff. Too often, the “official procedure” becomes outdated and is handled by variations of “unofficial procedures” devised by staff involved rather than by thoughtful and deliberate change or adjustment.

Sometimes the impetus for staff to create these “unofficial procedures” is the degree of complexity or level of burden that are inherent in a process. It is important that the agency and its entire staff have a commitment to simplify work processes. Steps in processes that do not add value can often be eliminated. Value Stream Mapping, Lean and other process simplification methods have been developed and can be applied.


Within the agency, administrative responsiveness includes the proactive development of resources that support and enable improved outcomes. Program staff and supervisors are often not aware of technological advances or other tools that can increase their daily efficiency and effectiveness. Administrative responsiveness is displayed in timely response to requests and feedback but also by proactively suggesting improvements as a result of being “in tune” with service delivery challenges.


Creating a method to track response time both to public inquiries and to internal feedback is necessary to establish and reinforce the importance of responsiveness. Tracking mechanisms need not be onerous or complex. Technology has the potential to make tracking systems routine. An effective tracking system does, however, require the designation of responsible parties and regularly scheduled feedback to leadership.

Increasing Shared Ownership

In order for any organization to work well, there must be a low incidence of guarding “turf” and responding to need with an “it’s not my job” mentality. When “it’s not my job” is prominent among administrative functions, it can become difficult to execute daily tasks and staff outside of these particular administrative areas can become confused about how to operate. Turf battles between functions such as budget and human resources are notorious in many organizations, not just public child welfare. And those involved in functions that may have overlapping responsibilities, both leaders and line staff, must develop a mindset of shared ownership to anticipate and resolve these potential conflicts. While joint planning or attendance at meetings across functions may initially seem like a poor use of time, often these are the forums necessary to increase shared ownership and can save time and confusion in the long run. Administrative leadership within an agency has the responsibility to due diligence around having the right people at the table, internal or external to the agency, when issues are addressed or planning occurs.

Evaluating Operational Effectiveness

The quality of administrative practices should be rigorously evaluated just as the quality of service delivery is. The following benchmarks are suggested for this evaluation:

Timely
Is the function consistently delivered in a timely fashion? Are the functions streamlined sufficiently so that unnecessary steps that cause delays are eliminated?

Accurate
Is the function done accurately? This involves not only basic accuracy, but also accurate interpretation. For example, if data are involved, are they collected in a way that accurately reflects what they claim to measure?

Cost Effective
Is the balance of cost-benefit (including the cost of time as well as dollars) appropriate in regards to this function?

User Friendly
Is this function implemented in such a way that end users can easily understand and follow necessary steps. Does the function assist more than it causes burden?

Well Aligned
Is this function well aligned with the agency’s current goals? Since strategy and goals shift as needs change, administrative practices may need to change accordingly.

Well Integrated
Is this function well integrated with other administrative functions? That is, are the competing needs of administrative functions such as budget and human resources worked out within the administrative division so that requirements and instructions to end users are not competing or contradictory?

Administrative functions should also be continuously evaluated on the degree to which they support the practice model.