Effective workload management in child welfare: Understanding the relationship between caseload and workload

Abstract

A common assumption in public social service organizations is that workload may be positively associated with caseload. However, few empirical studies have examined what specific characteristics of caseload affect caseworkers' workloads in the child welfare system. This study attempts to address this gap by identifying specific individual and regional factors that influence both subjective and objective dimensions of workloads. Survey data were collected from 1,244 caseworkers at one public child welfare agency in a Midwestern state in the United States. The data indicated that both perceptions of unmanageable workloads and self‐reported overtime work were significantly higher when caseworkers had a greater number of cases than the state caseload standard for the investigations units and worked with at least two different types of cases simultaneously (e.g., working with both investigation and ongoing service cases). Additionally, sufficient staffing numbers to meet caseload demands at the regional level significantly decreased the odds ratio of having to do overtime work. The major findings suggest that the objective and subjective dimensions of workload vary by individual‐ and regional‐level variables. Practice implications are discussed for effective and efficient workload management in the public child welfare system.

Organizational culture, diversity, and employees’ health in social/human services: A systematic review

“…Leaders' engagement and compassion towards staff are effective ways to develop a healthy organizational culture that is inclusive of diversity (Brimhall, 2019;Leigh & Melwani, 2019). Leaders and managers can facilitate inclusion by providing organizational supports including emotional, informational, instrumental, strategic, professional, and relational (Burke et al 2018;Kim et al 2019;Mallinger et al, 2017;Martinez et al, 2016). Healthy organizations prioritize their human resources (Quick et al, 2017) and have an inviting and affirming environment.…”

“…Hence, promoting safe and healthy workplaces in social/human service organizations is paramount to improving productivity and achieving organizational goals. An unhealthy and negative workplace environment can entail financial costs to organizations (Miller & Ngunjiri, 2015) due to increased employee absenteeism, lateness, resignations and turnover, or loss of productivity and service delivery because of tarnished organizational reputations (Cox et al, 2013;Quick et al, 2017;Kim et al 2019).…”

“…Organizational support refers to colleagues or managers that provide help or assistance to accomplish tasks (Drolet et al, 2014). It includes emotional, informational, instrumental, strategic, professional, and relational support (Martinez et al, 2016;Mallinger et al, 2017;Burke et al, 2018;Kim et al, 2019). Leaders can create a supportive environment through relationship building, rapport, and active listening skills.…”

“…This Racialized employees experience skepticism and devaluation, status incongruence, lack of decision making yet are considered as the "cultural experts." These employees use conformity, collaboration, and conflict to deal with feelings of powerlessness and exclusion Kim et al (2019). US.…”

“My genitals have nothing to do with my parenting”: A qualitative study of trans adoption

“…Similarly, 61% of caseworkers in the Midwest reported larger than recommended caseloads (Kim et al, 2019). Future research and policy evaluation may explore how these ideas can be successful and identify additional avenues to support caseworkers.…”