RTC Online Publications & Products

Edited as a reference for the DISTSS Recruitment & Retention Community of Practice Group – members should refer to the RTC website (http://rtc.umn.edu/main/) for full information and list of publications & products, and to order any materials.

The Research and Training Center on Community Living (RTC)
© 2005 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota

Below is a list of publications and products related to RTC work that are available online. You can also view a list of offline publications.

 

Books/Books Chapters

Staff Recruitment, Retention, & Training Strategies for Community Human Services Organizations (book flier) (PDF) - A newly published guidebook to help with the three most challenging issues facing community human services organizations. (2005); File Size: 2.08 MB

 

Film/Multimedia

Direct Support: A Realistic Job Preview (RJP) (brochure) (PDF) - An RJP is a recruitment strategy used to give potential employees detailed and balanced information about job expectations, the employer, and the worksite, so they can make an informed decision about accepting a job offer from the employer. This professionally produced 22-minute video illustrates the real, everyday work of direct support professionals.; File Size: 44 KB

 

 

Periodicals

  • Frontline Initiative - Newsletter for the National Alliance for Direct Support Professionals (NADSP).
  • Issue on Workforce Development (PDF) - Volume 7, Number 1 (2006); File Size: 1.72 MB

 

 

Reports

CMS Direct Service Workforce Demonstration Promising Practices in Marketing, Recruitment and Selection Interventions (PDF) - The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) initiated a demonstration project to improve the Direct Service Community Workforce to test the effectiveness of different workforce interventions on the retention and recruitment of Direct Service Workers (DSWs). This report identifies promising practices in direct service worker marketing, recruitment, and selection across the CMS grantees. Under a contract to provide technical assistance to the DSW grantees in collaboration with The Lewin Group (Lewin), the Research and Training Center developed this report. (2006); File Size: 401 KB

Final Report - Kansans Mobilizing for Direct Support Workforce Change: A statewide workforce development initiative to resolve the direct support workforce crisis (PDF) - This is the final report for the project: Kansans Mobilizing for Direct Support Workforce Change: A statewide workforce development initiative to resolve the direct support workforce crisis. It provides information on participant’s accomplishments, improvements in quality services for individuals in Kansas receiving supportive services, and strategies and tools that can continue to be built upon to improve the workforce situation throughout Kansas. (2005); File Size: 5.2 MB

It’s How You Look At Your Work That Makes the Difference”: Direct Support Workers Consider the Meaning of Their Jobs (PDF) - by John O’Brien is based on discussions with direct support workers from the South Central Division of Creative Community Living Services (CCLS), an agency that provides residential services in Wisconsin, on ways to build competence, continuity and commitment to positive values in the developmental disabilities services workforce that involves building a deeper understanding of the ways direct service workers make their jobs meaningful and satisfying. (2004); File Size: 274 KB

Issues in the Direct Support Workforce and their Connections to the Growth, Sustainability and Quality of Community Supports (PDF) - Difficulties in assuring adequate direct support staff recruitment, retention and competence are widely reported as the single biggest barrier to the growth, sustainability, and quality of community services for people with developmental disabilities. This paper explores the complexity of the direct support workforce crisis, the effects of this crisis on various stakeholder groups and potential strategies to address them. (2001); File Size: 62 KB

Recruitment Issues for Minnesota Agencies Serving People with Developmental Disabilities or Severe and Persistent Mental Illness: Final Report Executive Summary - This study describes recruitment challenges faced by 144 randomly selected residential, vocational, in-home support, and mental health agencies in Minnesota (of 488 eligible agencies). (1997)

Personnel Initiative '97: A Comprehensive Workforce Development Plan for Human Service Workers - This document identifies specific short and long-term strategies to address challenges in the human service direct support workforce and makes recommendations regarding legislative action that would be necessary to carry out these solutions. (1997)

 

Surveys, Assessments & Other Tools

Direct Support Professional Recruitment Toolkit (brochure) (PDF) - The Direct Support Professional Recruitment Toolkit arms individuals, families, consortiums, and organizations with the marketing tools they need to attract and recruit quality staff into direct support roles. Traditional sources for employee recruitment including newspaper ads, brochures, and flyers, have frequently been generic and flat. This tool changes that approach into a dynamic and targeted recruitment campaign for human service agencies and those who direct their own supports.

Target Marketing Target marketing is essential to attract the quality staff you desire. Although many employers are aware of what target marketing is, they find it difficult and time consuming to create a different marketing campaign for the different groups of people they wish to attract for employment. The targeted groups include: stay at home moms/dads, college students, Gen-Yers, seniors, faith-based communities, Spanish-speaking communities, and displaced workers.

Customization The Direct Support Professional Recruitment Toolkit is designed to be customized to reflect you or your organization's mission, vision,and values as well as your logo, and contact information for interested applicants. The Direct Support Professional Recruitment Toolkit includes brochures, flyers, newspaper ads, and recruitment cards for each of the seven target marketing groups. Materials are provided to you on a CD-rom in both Microsoft Word™ and Adobe PageMaker™ formats. (2004); File Size: 127 KB

Assessing Retention Outcomes (PDF) - This document and form will help you to determine your turnover and vacancy rates to choose strategies for retention, identify reasons your agency experiences turnover, and provide a benchmark for how well current interventions are working. (2000); File Size: 14 KB

Workforce Status and Outcomes Assessment (PDF) - Helps to determine your success in recruitment and retention efforts. (2000); File Size: 10 KB

Structured Interview Questions (PDF) - Sample questions for personnel reviews based on the Community Support Skill Standards.; File Size: 23 KB

Cost Per Hire Worksheet (PDF) - This worksheet will help you to estimate the real cost of hiring new employees.; File Size: 17 KB

Checklist of Effective Recruitment Strategies (PDF) - This chart can be used to assess how many creative strategies this organization is using now, the extent to which those strategies are working, and whether the organization would like to start using the strategy in the future.; File Size: 10 KB

Effectiveness of Recruitment and Hiring Bonuses (PDF) - This chart can be used to calculate whether people who received a bonus were more likely to stay than people who did not receive a bonus.; File Size: 7 KB

Effect of Recruitment Sources on Retention (PDF) - This chart can be used to determine which recruitment sources yielded the greatest percentage of new hires who stayed in the organization for at least a year.; File Size: 9 KB

Recruitment Source Effectiveness (PDF) - This chart can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of recruitment strategies. Use this form to calculate which recruitment source yielded the highest percentage of actual hires.; File Size: 8 KB

Market Analysis Survey (PDF) - This survey can be used to learn about the demographic and work characteristics of employees in an organization, county, or state. It was devleoped for use in Ohio for a recruitment campaign.; File Size: 22 KB

Exit Survey (PDF) - This is an adaptation of the staff satisfaction survey specifically designed to learn the opinions of staff who are leaving. Because the questions are parallel, scores can be compared to those for staff who are current employees.; File Size: 12 KB

Staff Satisfaction Survey (PDF) - The first page of this survey is a general satisfaction survey for staff. Items on which fewer than 80% of the respondents say the organization is good or excellent are areas where changes may be needed. The second page of this survey summarizes opinions about the best aspect of organizations, what organizations can do differently to help people in their jobs, factors that make people want to leave and factors that make employees want to stay at the organization. The response choices were developed based on open ended responses to these questions from several hundred direct support professionals in several studies.; File Size: 12 KB

New Staff Survey (PDF) - This survey assesses the extent to which a new employee's experiences matched his or her expectations. Averages scores of less than 4 on the five point scales identify areas in which better information should be provided during the hiring process.; File Size: 8 KB

 

Training Resources, Guides & Curricula

Removing the Revolving Door: Strategies to Address Recruitment and Retention Challenges - A curriculum targeting frontline supervisors and managers regarding the use of effective recruitment, retention, and training strategies. (2001)

The Power of Diversity: Supporting the Immigrant Workforce - A curriculum to assist supervisors and other agency staff find, support, and retain immigrant workers which includes a Facilitator Guide and a Learner Guide. (2001)

 

Websites

College of Frontline Supervision and Management - The College of Frontline Supervision (CFS) is an online multimedia training resource focusing on the topics of how to recruit, train, and retain high quality direct support professionals.

The National Training Institute For Frontline Supervisors and Technical Assistance Project (NTIFFS)-Project Web Site - Web site for a three year grant program designed to improve recruitment and retention across the country of Direct Support Professionals, who are competent and confident in the skills needed to provide quality supports and services to individuals with developmental and other disabilities.

The Illinois Direct Support Professional Workforce Initiative-Project Web Site - Web site for a three year workforce systems change initiative funded by The Illinois Council on Developmental Disabilities (ICDD) that is designed to improve recruitment and retention of Direct Support Professionals in Illinois, who are competent and confident in the skills needed to provide quality supports and services to individuals with developmental disabilities.

NADSP.org - Web site for the National Alliance for Direct Support Professionals

LifePages.org - An interactive web site designed to help people with developmental disabilities to connect to area recreation and leisure opportunities and with other individuals with similar interests.

Quality Mall - Quality Mall is a web site that gathers and disseminates information related to or useful in promoting the quality of life for persons with developmental disabilities. It especially focuses on promising person-centered practices and innovations.

 


 

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