Human service agencies’ organizational stress naturally affects the employees who work for the agencies, oftentimes causing more stress to the employees already working in high stress environments. Though many human service agency employees choose the work they do because it gives them purpose and meaning, often that is not enough to prevent added workplace stress or to ameliorate the effects of that stress. Organizational stress is going to happen, but agencies can continue to hire and maintain quality employees even if the agency is affected by high turnover rates. Also, agencies can reduce the effects of the organizational and work stress for employees with intentional practical steps implemented within the workplace.
Though there is a lot of focus on offering competitive pay and benefits to attract employees and offering meaningful raises to keep current employees at the organization, agencies must invest in their staff in other ways to help them manage their work stress. While reducing financial burdens helps employees overall, typically it does not go far in helping them to manage their everyday work stress, especially in high stress organizations or environments. Agencies must combine competitive pay rates and benefit packages with good management, and an overall supportive work culture or environment. Often overlooked strategies that help reduce work stress in human services fields and help build a probative workplace include ensuring that employees have adequate training upon hire and opportunities for professional growth and career advancement. Training should be meaningful, ongoing, and applicable to the current work being undertaken. Staff must understand how their training relates to the work they are doing and be able to apply their training back to their everyday tasks. Advancement opportunities are also important for staff. Unfortunately, the structure in many human services agencies is such that career advancement may be minimal, especially in the short-term. Agencies benefit from working with staff to decide their career goals and how the agency can help encourage progress toward those goals by intentionally engaging in professional development that to helps their staff develop their skills in specifically identified and agreed upon areas. Focus on skill development can help staff see progress in their career even if they are not able to move up the work ladder at their agency. Also, recognizing and rewarding employees for their work on a regular basis—not only at their annual review time—is another way to alleviate some stress on workers.
The agency culture affects employee stress levels and their work performance. If the work culture is negative and punitive, staff are going to be more stressed, feel unsupported and be less productive. Human services agencies that intentionally emphasize teamwork experience better employee engagement and promote higher overall team performance. Creating an agency culture that is respectful, diverse, and appropriately democratic, increases employee satisfaction and decreases employee stress. Further, ensuring clear, transparent, and consistent communication between staff and managers has been shown to reduce stress and overall burnout, as it helps everyone to feel heard and understood. Naturally, agencies that provide Employee Assistance Programs and other wellness-oriented policies and benefits while ensuring that staff know about and can access those resources easily have effective tools for their staff These tools serve to mitigate the extreme stress experienced in human services workforces. This goes together with policies that encourage staff to take adequate time off. A safe workplace culture that encourages staff to be open and honest about their struggles with no fear of judgment or reprisal, and with managers offering specific individualized supports further aids staff in managing their work and life stressors.
Recruiting, engaging, training, and maintaining human services workforces in the face of the levels of collective stress and trauma that organizations and employees have experienced recently is a challenge, but one that can be met with intentional organizational strategies!
References (n.d.). 15 Effective Employee Retention Strategies. Https://www.Forbes.com/Advisor...etention-Strategies/
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