Attract, Engage, Retain, Repeat

Why We Care About Recruiting and Retention

Within the human services space, we all know that recruiting and retention continues to be a top priority among organizations. Over the past five years of workforce management research from DATIS, we’ve seen recruiting and retention identified as either the number one or number two priority every single year. This is a fairly broad area of workforce management, with many complex dynamics at play, but it’s also essential to the continued success of your human services organization. As demand grows and requires your organization to scale, a strategic plan for attracting, engaging, and retaining top talent will ensure you’re able to rise to meet that demand for your services.

76% of CEOs at human services organizations identified recruiting and retention as one of their top priorities for 2021.

A Particular Challenge for Human Services Organizations

While recruiting and retention are important initiatives for any business, human services organizations face unique challenges in this area. Top among them are difficulties offering competitive pay and benefits and higher-than-average turnover rates due to the demanding nature of the work. For instance, we see 35% to 45% on average turnover nationwide among behavioral health direct care staff. Furthermore, the net loss of turnover is $6,000 per month for an open counselor position. The costs of turnover, low retention, and open positions that remain vacant are all very real and affect your organization on a daily basis.

Percentages and dollar amounts aside, turnover has a qualitative cost as well. As employees leave the organization, those who remain feel the added strain of an understaffed department. Stress levels go up, morale goes down, and the challenge of attracting new talent to the organization becomes that much harder. To break this cycle of constantly trying to catch up with recruiting and retention, it’s important to prioritize and invest in attracting, engaging, and retaining top talent. Understanding the specific challenges your organization faces and overcoming those obstacles with tech-enabled solutions will help your organization achieve better results with recruiting, engagement, and retention.

View the ebook to learn more. Explore the process of attracting, engaging, and retaining top talent on an ongoing basis at your organization - along with the digital tools that can enable your success.