Forging Ahead:
The Workforce Planning One-Stop

People who work in child and family welfare, juvenile justice and other human services fields have – at best – difficult jobs. High incidences of employee burnout, sick leave and turnover are common. The services, however, are often essential to the well-being, if not the survival, of some of the most vulnerable individuals in society. A workforce that is equipped for the task is critical. In December 2007, Cornerstones for Kids (C4K) announced the launch of its Workforce Planning Portal, a tool that agencies can use to help tackle the challenge.

C4K was formed in 2004 to manage Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Human Services Workforce Initiative, which develops strategies to address the human services workforce crisis. Although the portal was originally created for human service agencies, its usefulness can be adapted to any public, private or non-profit agency.

WFP provides easy-to-use, interactive tools to any individual interested in workforce development. As Sharon Edwards, Co-Director of C4K said, “WFP is a valuable resource for all organizations. Most people find something to start a conversation about their workforce from it.” In fact, as of mid-March the average number of hits per day was well over 1,600, and the average number of bytes transferred was 44.6 MB per day. 

The portal is organized around a workforce planning model comprised of five steps:

• Strategy assessment
• Data collection
• Data analysis
• Implementation
• Evaluation

While the portal is not designed to answer definitively any and all workforce questions, using these discrete steps or tools will allow an agency to answer specific workforce-related questions – such as how to calculate the cost of employee turnover or how to create an exit interview. Also, it will address specific workforce issues like identifying competencies for jobs in an organization. Completing all five steps will provide a comprehensive picture of the state of the organization’s workforce and how to make improvements.

Edwards is understandably pleased with the WFP. “It has definitely increased the level of attention on this issue,” she said. “More human service agencies are talking about workforce planning as a central, rather than ancillary, function.”  While no agency can solve all of its challenges with a single strategy, the Workforce Planning Portal, in one convenient website, provides many tools to begin the process.

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