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Center for the Study of Social Policy

Working to Create Opportunities for America's Children and Families and their Communities
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Resources
Human Resource Management Innovation in Selected Jurisdictions
Improving the Quality of Human Services Through Results Oriented Human Resource Management
(72 pgs, 456 kb, 4/05)


Improving the Quality of Human Services Appendix A
(14 pgs, 171 kb, 5/05)


Improving the Quality of Human Services Appendix B
(24 pgs, 144 kb, 5/05)


Human Resources Management
(88 pgs, 447 kb, 6/02)

Hired For Good
Hired for Good
(16 pgs, 958 kb, 12/02)

Hired For Good
Hired for Good
(8 pgs, 105 kb, 6/04)

Hired For Good
Hired for Good
(8 pgs, 116 kb, 12/06)
Resources
Human Resources

Project Description


Public human services are losing veteran staff to retirement and second careers in the private sector. In addition, high job stress, low salaries, difficult work environment and a currently competitive job market have contributed to increased turnover among less experienced staff. Finally, recruitment has not kept pace with the vacancies. This workforce crisis makes life difficult not only for administrators but for families and children as well.

Human service agencies that seek partnerships with neighborhoods and communities experience additional challenges, such as rethinking supervision in the context of decentralized neighborhood settings, finding staff that fit well with community-based practice, and recruiting staff from the community.

At the Center for the Study of Social Policy, we believe there must be more intentional, aggressive, results-oriented, and visible Human Resource Management (HRM) efforts in human services. To that end, we are working to assist public human service managers to become more familiar with available HRM strategies.

CSSP Role


Work on results-oriented human resource management (HRM) is not new. As early as 1995, the National Academy of Public Administration proposed federal HRM operations form strategic partnerships with the program units they serve, arguing, "HRM work must be connected to an organization's mission and operational needs."

In conducting this work, CSSP has enlisted the help of a select group of leaders from both the fields of public human service delivery and human resource management. They come from state and local government agencies in Arizona, California, Colorado, the District of Columbia, New York, North and South Carolina, Virginia, and Wisconsin. These leaders have provided us with greater insight into workforce issues, possible solutions, and insight into what is needed for both human services and human resource management to form a strategic partnership. Our goal is to create a useful body of work that bridges the two disciplines of human resource management and human services administration.

We plan to test our ideas further and increase our knowledge by providing technical assistance to several jurisdictions. This technical assistance will take the form of expert consultation, peer learning exchanges, new tools for self-help, and dissemination of our learning.

Partners and Funders


The Center for the Study of Social Policy is supported by a grant from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, which also sponsors a related effort called the Human Services Workforce Improvement Project (www.aecf.org).

Other organizations that are participating with the Center in exploring these issues include CPS Human Resource Services (CPS) (www.cps.ca.gov) and the International Personnel Management Association (IPMA) (www.ipma-hr.org). CPS is a governmental agency committed to improving human resources in the public sector. IPMA is an organization representing the interests of over 5,000 human resource professionals at the Federal, State and Local levels of government.

For More Information, Contact:

Project Manager: Sarah A. Morrison, Senior Associate, sarah.morrison@cssp.org