Understand social workers’ concerns to fix job crunch

The moves by the Government “to attract and retain talent in a sector that is facing a labour crunch” are laudable (Slew of initiatives to attract, retain talent in social service sector; April 13).

A good second step to build on this would be to engage social workers or social work professionals more actively, to understand their concerns about retention or advancement within the sector.

Besides present employees, the perspectives of those who have moved between charities or who have left the non-profit and philanthropy sector altogether must be sought, as they are likely to be more candid about the deficiencies they have observed or experienced.

Moreover, these insights can be brought to bear on quantitative indicators, especially turnover rates over time, across sectors and compared between socio-demographic traits.

In the long term, the effectiveness of these government initiatives must be benchmarked against past figures in terms of the overall recruitment and retention numbers.

This emphasis on the social workers is important because similar campaigns to staff the sector have thus far focused disproportionately on the “demand” side, or the charities, and not as much on the “supply” side: The workers.

As a result, the message is often about making the sector attractive, debunking misconceptions and helping workers improve their skills, instead of addressing the concerns or expectations of prospective and present social workers.

Pay has improved already; in 2013, the Singapore Association of Social Workers lobbied for a common pay scale, and fresh graduates earn higher wages now, which means more attention must be paid to other aspects.

Different research approaches can complement these government initiatives. The first would be to highlight non-profit organisations or charities with good human resource policies, through interviews with managers and their subordinates. Historical turnover rates would be a good gauge of this.

Second, focus groups or interviews with prospective social workers, across entry levels and job responsibilities, would allow organisations to better understand the factors that attract or repel potential candidates.

Third, to improve recruitment, retention, advancement as well as the management, accountability for implementing policies should be fostered through more precise targets.

Data analytics and 360-degree evaluations, for example, should be helpful.