Introduction
This report provides findings on the recruitment, hiring, and promotion practices of child welfare agencies using nationally representative data from the third cohort of the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW III) Child Welfare Workforce Study. The report explores caseworker recruitment practices used by child welfare agencies, qualifications agencies look for in hiring new caseworkers, and information about the backgrounds of supervisors and agency directors who were promoted from within their child welfare agencies. The report provides an overview of the existing child welfare literature on recruitment, hiring, and promotion; offers a synopsis of the NSCAW III Child Welfare Workforce Study; presents the study findings; and discusses the considerations for child welfare research.
This report is part of a series that provides analysis of data collected from caseworkers, supervisors, and agency directors in participating child welfare agencies during the follow-up wave of NSCAW III. Workplace data collection began in January 2021 and was completed in June 2022.
The Child Welfare Workforce Study is part of NSCAW III and was conducted by RTI International through a contract from the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families (ACF), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in collaboration with ACF’s Children’s Bureau. The study is currently authorized by Social Security Act § 429 [42 U.S.C. 628b].
Data from the NSCAW III Child Welfare Workforce Study will be made available at the National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect (NDACAN) .
Purpose
Using data from the NSCAW III Child Welfare Workforce Study, this report provides the first nationally representative data on the processes used to recruit and hire child welfare caseworkers, as well as information about the backgrounds of supervisors and agency directors who were promoted from within their child welfare agencies. The report explores recruitment practices used by child welfare agencies; hiring qualifications agencies look for in new caseworkers; and the qualifications, knowledge, and skills sought in new caseworkers and possessed by caseworkers who were promoted into supervisor or agency director positions from within their agencies.
Key Findings and Highlights
Nationally representative data from NSCAW III showed an array of recruitment, hiring, and promotion practices used by child welfare agencies, including (but not limited to):
Agency websites, internship programs, and social media were commonly used by child welfare agencies for recruiting caseworkers (88.6%, 60.9%, and 54.1%, respectively).
There was notable variation in the hiring strategies and practices used by child welfare agencies, and agencies have considerable room for growth in adopting evidence-based hiring tools (e.g., competency-based assessments; skills assessments; or psychological, ability, personality, or honesty testing) that enhance staff fit, performance, and retention.
The majority of agencies (81.3%) did not require social work degrees for new caseworkers.
The vast majority of supervisors and agency directors surveyed were promoted from within their agencies (96.5% and 89.9%, respectively).
Methods
The sample for the child welfare workforce data collection followed a nested design that was derived from the 61 nationally representative child welfare agencies participating in NSCAW III. Directors who agreed to participate in the workforce survey identified agency supervisors. Then, participating agency supervisors identified caseworker supervisees. The study collected information from 48 agency directors, 126 supervisors, and 183 caseworkers during the follow-up wave of NSCAW III from January 2021 to June 2022. The study sample is intended to be representative of public child welfare agencies that were able to participate in NSCAW III. Due to state confidentiality statues and agency refusals, the sample is representative of about 74.0% of child welfare agencies/agency directors, 77.0% of child welfare supervisors, and 82.0% of caseworkers in the United States.
Unique but complementary surveys were created for agency directors, supervisors, and caseworkers. Caseworker and supervisor surveys were collected primarily via web and telephone. Agency director surveys were completed via phone and, more rarely, in person.
This report summarizes the results of descriptive analyses related to the recruitment, hiring, and promotion practices of public child welfare agencies included in the NSCAW III Child Welfare Workforce Study sample. All analyses used agency director, supervisor, or caseworker weights.