Home Workforce Key Processes Performance Management Performance Expectations

Performance Expectations

There are various models for acclimatizing new workers across the states, but the most important aspect in any model is the ability of new workers to see experienced staff perform the work.  Combinations of training and on-the-ground work are common, with the didactic classroom training of the past giving way to competency-based training and experiential learning curricula.

Workers should not assume case management responsibility without careful oversight by seasoned supervisors.  Often, training units provide both supervisory support as well as a peer environment that encourages safe exploration of the caseworker role.

Mentoring, training and supporting workers is the agency’s task in creating a viable workforce.  Much of that work is facilitated by careful selection of workers in the first instance, and then providing training and mentoring.  There are several overarching themes that pervade job expectation and function, and agencies must make sure that elements of these are infused into the fabric of training and workforce development.

Job Descriptions
Written job descriptions are indispensable performance management tools for recruitment and performance expectations.  They are essential for making it clear to job applicants what the position entails and for setting measurable expectations for new employees.  Well constructed job descriptions match skills, abilities and education to the tasks the position requires and should be written and reviewed with staff members in the early stages of their employment and during performance appraisal processes.

Disparities and Disproportionality
Public child welfare is required to establish policies and procedures and make available the tools that workers need in order to work successfully with all the families they serve.  These include translation services, affirmative minority hiring practices and competent supervision, among others.  The key to offering quality services is that the workforce be aware of, trained to understand and provide equitable treatment and services to all populations that its workers will encounter.

Trauma-Informed Practice
Trauma is a topic of particular concern for public workers as so many of the children and families they work with are, in fact, victims of or witnesses to significant violence.  Additionally, the public agency workforce is highly susceptible to the negative effects of secondary trauma from repeated exposure to these cases and the stress of the work they are asked to do. 

Over time, repeated trauma will have a significant impact on workers.  The most damaging part of secondary trauma is its corrosive impact on the worker’s sense of competence, trust, worth and hope.  Agencies must be sensitive to this issue and provide supportive services that workers can access confidentially and without concern that their competency or ability to continue to work will be called into question.  On the other hand, agencies should be prepared to counsel those who may not be suitable for the work into other employment.

Evidence-Informed Practice
The focus of public agency work over the last decade has been to sharpen its practice and to use the power of research to guide development of child welfare work and to underscore that workers need to look for empirical evidence of their impact on clients and communities.  Workers at every level of the public child welfare agency must develop an appreciation of the value of using evidence to guide and improve services to children and families.

Critical Thinking
The higher-level information that workers now receive through evidence-informed practice and research-based assessments makes it more important than ever that the workforce be taught to challenge and connect what the worker knows from experience to the research available to guide their practice. 

Public child welfare practice requires the use of critical thinking techniques at all levels of the agency to gather and evaluate information regarding the children and families served in order to make competent decisions regarding safety and effective intervention.  Critical thinking is also employed in the continual assessment of the impact of interventions on the family in order to enable appropriate adjustment.

Supervisors and managers must be able to facilitate critical thinking while at the same time use systemic thinking that aligns existing case practice with the agency’s predominant philosophical approach, practice model and organizational priorities.  Management commitment to the development of critical thinking skills among both workers and supervisors must be evidenced by willingness to direct valuable resources of time and funding to the mastery of this skill.

Performance Appraisals

Mechanisms need to be in place to support both formal and informal constructive and contextual feedback to workers.  These discussions should include the chance for workers to discuss their accomplishments.  Self-correction becomes a powerful tool for practice improvement.  Discussions should periodically include formal written performance appraisals that are based on written job descriptions and clear behavioral expectations.

Performance appraisals should include or be attached to developmental plans for continuous improvement.  Employees should be involved in their own development.  This should be an individualized, proactive skill enhancement opportunity agreed upon by the worker and supervisor that aligns with agency resources and leads to creating a well-prepared workforce invested in achieving the agency mission.

Staff needs should be clearly assessed, written down and used as the point of access to on-going skill development.  Training should be available to address worker deficiencies identified in this process as well as opportunity for individual capacity building.

Staff Development

All three are based on supervisory feedback, jointly agreed upon and directed to focus on the worker’s needs and interests as well as building the agency’s capacity to achieve its mission.  All developmental plans should challenge the worker to reach for higher levels of performance whether in their current job or by taking on a new endeavor.  A good staff development process improves worker morale, improves retention rates and most importantly, improves service delivery to families.  Resources must be available to keep worker competency at the level needed to perform the duties required of the agency.

Example: A worker has a workload established through a valid, reliable workload estimation technique that is equitable to those managed by other staff in the same role at the same level.  However, he/she is unable to complete the necessary paperwork.  This worker may benefit from writing or time management training to enhance language or organizational skills.  Whether either or both would be helpful should be mutually determined by the worker and the supervisor.

It must be emphasized that remedial plans are not disciplinary in nature but are directly tied to enhancing the worker’s performance.  Employees should be notified when actions other than remedial are contemplated.  Workers who are unable to meet expectations may be counseled into other jobs within the agency or other employment.  However, employees who are unable or unwilling to meet job expectation should be removed from the workforce.

Developmental plan with workers that meet job expectations should clearly identify what is needed to maintain current functioning and identify areas for development that enable the employee to reach a high level of performance in the current job or qualify for a career track for promotional opportunity that will meet agency needs.

Developmental plan with workers that exceed job expectations should clearly identify what is needed to continue to excel in the current job, take the current job to another level, qualify for promotion and what areas for professional growth will meet agency needs.  Agencies must look critically at how they manage their own talent to ensure the retention and development of the most talented workers.  These plans may include:

Public child welfare work requires that fully qualified workers be promoted based on performance and skill.  Many states have civil service systems that reward longevity, but that should not be an impediment to the advancement of qualified staff.  Successful engagement of unions and other worker representatives is both possible and highly constructive in development of promotion policies.

Succession Planning: This is the agency process to identify talented staff and prepare them to fill critical roles when jobs become vacant. Such planning is essential and can be used by agencies to insulate themselves from the negative effects of cyclical or unexpected changes in leadership at all levels across the agency. Succession plans are also excellent vehicles for grooming staff to perform higher-level tasks and provide a means for continuity when change occurs.

Training and individualized development plans are required for the development of staff at all levels

Research demonstrates that the success and organizational tenure of the worker is to a great degree determined by the level and quality of supervision received.  This must be widely considered when assessing the performance of supervisors.  Although, organizationally, supervisors are not full-fledged members of the management team, supervisors should be included in decision-making processes and serve as the disseminators of management policy and information.  Supervisors need coaching or mentoring designed to ensure their full participation in the achievement of organizational goals.

Supervisors and managers must also tend to their own professional growth in order to cultivate a cadre of future agency leaders.  Attention and funding must be devoted to the development and training of supervisors and managers.  Every supervisor should be receiving regular supervision or consultation from an agency administrator or manager, a peer or a group of peers.  This process may connect newer supervisors to more experienced mentors or coaches.

The organization should require developmental plans for all supervisors.  Management must show support of these plans by actively participating in structured learning events, lending their expertise to development of desired competencies, and devising strategies to “free” supervisors to participate in learning activities despite caseload/workload management challenges.  Supervisors’ developmental plans should include:

• Administrative and managerial aspects of supervision of a work unit, including monitoring the functioning of the organizational unit, the assignment and management of workload and guiding the work of the supervisees.
• Evaluation and management of staff performance, including ongoing assessment of staff skills and fulfillment of work responsibilities, formal performance appraisal, developing and monitoring corrective action plans, and progressive discipline methods that are consistent with agency regulations.  Human Resources should provide supervisory tools for use in this process to promote consistency across work units.
• Leadership skills such as aligning front-line practice with organizational goals and priorities, inspiring staff to do their best work and to recognize their role in the greater agency, serve a communication function.  Community leadership skills are also required as the supervisor serves as a representative of the agency, its policies and its philosophy within their locality.  Public child welfare agencies are typically in a constant state of change, so supervisors must have skills in leading teams through change.  Supervisors should be considered ambassadors, advocates and advisors to front-line staff and to the community, as these functions relate to the mission and purpose of the agency.  For that reason, their role in the agency planning and implementation of priority projects is essential.
• Clinical supervision that is related to the professional development of front-line workers as well as the promotion of competent practice with families.  Skills associated with this role involve the promotion of self-reflective practice and critical thinking and the interpretation of the agency’s practice model with individual families.  Supervisors should receive ongoing clinical training.
• Training in the value and management of diversity in the workforce, as well as promoting culturally-sensitive practice. This includes strategies for avoiding racial disproportionality and other issues appropriate to the specific geographic region.
• Organizational management skills. The supervisor role is a critical link between the front-line and the administration.  System thinking is required to connect practice to organizational priorities and the elements of strategic planning.

Disciplinary Action