As leaders, how do we fully equip and support our teams to create equitable pathways in partnership with our communities? Effective teamwork depends on staff feeling safe to speak up, even when their opinion is not shared or may be unpopular. Psychologically safe teams support candid feedback, identifying opportunities for learning and improvement, as well as approaches to treat errors as opportunities for growth, not punishment. This has real consequences for helping professionals. Psychologically safe professionals have:
- Higher retention rates
- Lower levels of emotional exhaustion
- Better teamwork skills
This internal change intentionally creates a team environment that will provoke external change, leading to equitable solutions that shift power to bold, strategic and well-informed communities. Attendees can expect to learn how this practice has led to innovative solutions to shift power from agency to community from several leaders in a fireside chat setting.
Learning Objectives
- Responsibility and impact of leaders and their organizations who create safe and respectful workplace
- Psychological safety is an essential component of collaboration, creation, and solutions
- Learn how psychological safety has led to innovative infusions that have shifted power from agency to communities
Presenters
Romero Davis
Senior Program Manager
Social Current
Dr. Michael Cull
Associate Professor in the Department of Health Management and Policy
University of Kentucky
Workplace health is tied to reduced turnover, increased productivity, and ultimately client outcomes. In the post-pandemic “Great Resignation” environment, the burden to build resilience and avoid burnout is placed on the already overwhelmed and overworked employee. Just as the proverbial canary cannot be responsible for fixing the toxic elements of the coal mine, employees cannot fix organizational obstacles to workplace happiness.
McKinsey reports that 52% of employees leave because they feel their supervisor does not value them. Meanwhile, supervisors, who often are overburdened by staff vacancies, are dancing as fast as they can in remote and hybrid environments, where it is increasingly difficult to assess employee needs or even their own needs. This workshop will provide tangible solutions for organizational champions who want to impact the current workforce crisis in human services and promote a culture of true wellness, resilience, and psychological safety.
Ultimately, by creating actionable data, organizations that check-in routinely can build a robust mosaic of baselines, success measures, and strategic planning initiatives to engage and retain talent. By doing this, organizational leaders will confidently be able to answer: How are my employees? How’s my team? How are certain subgroups of employees doing?
The canaries no longer need to be sent into the dangerous coal mine. Rather, the coal mine is automated with sensors and alarms to create a safe space for all.
Through an engaging and interactive format, participants will discuss:
- The value of checking in with staff
- Low-tech and high-tech methods for checking in
- How to equip supervisors to use data for targeted support
- Case examples of using check-in data at employee, team, and organization levels
- Opportunities to use check-in data to create and measure inclusion strategies
- How leaders can manage this changing work environment with curiosity and compassion
Learning Objectives
- The value of employees’ work health and the importance of equipping supervisors with actionable data
- How to create a rudimentary check-in system
- The benefits of using real-time data to improve work health and increase staff retention
Presenters
Gwen Koenig
Chief Growth Officer
SigBee
The “Great Resignation” is creating a burden on organizations nationwide, especially in meeting contractual deliverables, retaining skilled staff, and recruiting new staff. The Bureau of Labor and Statistics stated that COVID-19 contributed to one of the largest employee attrition rates, particularly in health care. Nonprofit management teams critically rely on strong leadership from within, and oftentimes, staff are promoted into management roles based on clinical excellence but are not provided a strong foundation related to leadership competencies like:
- Self-awareness
- Supervisory alliances
- Critical thinking as a supervisor
- Organizational management and administration
- Staff development
- Professional standards
- Program development
- Quality assurance related to performance evaluations
That is why every organization needs a “bench” of skilled players on their team. This workshop will discuss a Leadership Training Academy’s 12-month curriculum for new and emerging leaders that develops these competencies.
By examining behavioral health case studies, participants will learn about components of a successful organizational response to low staff morale and burnout. Participants will also learn about needs-based assessment processes aimed at identifying future leaders internally and gain practical tools to improve retention in their own organizations.
Learning Objectives
- How to maximize the “we” in our post-pandemic workplace by proactively ensuring staff retention and building positive team morale despite ongoing barriers and challenges
- How investing in your team by using systematic problem-based learning and self-reflection can result in higher employee retention rates, improved employee morale, and ultimately better client outcomes
- Real-world case studies related to the “Leadership Training Academy” that effectively demonstrate how employee investments can improve organizational performance outcomes and staff retention
Presenters
Erin Saylor
Managing Director of Behavioral Health Services
Child and Family Agency of Southeastern CT
Courtney Seely
Senior Director of Behavioral Health Services
Child and Family Agency of Southeastern CT
Deepening the understanding of stress, adversity and trauma is a burgeoning focus in community-based and human services organizations. As part of the understanding of equity and cultural competence within equity, diversity, and inclusion, it is important for organizations to also understand the trauma that exists for people from historically oppressed and marginalized groups. Understanding common language, and practical applications in approaches at the individual, program/organization, and system levels is important to implementing and sustaining transformation. An integrated trauma responsive and equity-focused approach can improve the experience, overall wellness, and long-term engagement, of the workforce and service recipients.
Learning Objectives
- About the intersection of trauma-responsive practices and equity-focused approaches
- At least one specific, practical action that can support and maintain a resilient workforce
Presenters
Kesha Carter
Chief Diversity Officer
CCSI
Elizabeth Meeker
Senior Director of Practice Transformation
CCSI
How do some professionals thrive in their careers, while others experience burnout from vicarious trauma? This is a question leaders are asking, as many agree staff retention is the number one challenge in organizations today. Vicarious trauma is an occupational hazard. It causes significant turnover and is costly to professionals, the clients receiving treatment, their organizations, and the broader profession.
In response to this ‘cost of caring,’ we have focused attention on vicarious trauma in attempts to mitigate the symptoms in employees through clinical supervision, work-life balance, and burnout prevention strategies. Even with this intensive knowledge and effort, the attrition data has not changed. We are missing something.
Vicarious resilience is the experience of witnessing healing in others, resulting in personal resilience development. Experiencing vicarious resilience is what can keep all of us healthy, strong, and excited about our work. There is a clear process of developing vicarious resilience through four specific phases of learning and growth. This four-phase developmental process is shaped through supportive leadership and management and supervision. This partnership between professionals and supportive leaders is the link to ensuring the development of vicarious resilience. Through expert use of emotional intelligence and supportive leadership models, the phenomenon of vicarious resilience brings renewed life to helping professionals and positively impacts both treatment and business outcomes.
In this session, learn about research around professionals who exhibited strong traits of vicarious resilience. Participants will gain a foundation in the literature on the history of children’s mental health and the elements of leadership. Understanding the process of how vicarious resilience is developed will allow you to bring this to your organization. With the tools given you can begin to shift the focus from trauma to resilience in your professionals and see the positive impact.
Learning Objectives
- Understand the phenomenon of vicarious resilience
- Identify the four phases in the development of vicarious resilience
- How to start bringing vicarious resilience into your workplace
Presenters
Leslie Chaplin
Founder
Solare Well-being, LLC