Child welfare supervision has gained increased recognition as a key
organizational factor in workforce retention. In 2003, the U.S. Children’s
Bureau funded a group of eight demonstration projects to develop,
implement and evaluate organizational initiatives to improve recruitment
and retention in public child welfare; all eight projects had some focus on
supervision as one of the key interventions.
A substantial body of research has identified supervision as key to
worker retention (Mor Barak, Travis, Pyun, & Xie, 2009). In fact a recent
review of the literature (Landsman, in press) identifies supervision as a
predictor of child welfare workforce outcomes across many studies,
explaining workers’ job satisfaction (Barth, Lloyd, Christ, Chapman, &
Dickenson, 2008; Strand & Dore, 2009) and employee attachment as
measured by organizational commitment and/or intention to stay or leave
(Landsman, 2001; 2008; Smith, 2005; Weaver, Chang, Clark, & Rhee,
2007). Supervision is also recognized as critical to the successful
implementation of child welfare practice models to support positive
outcomes for children and families (Frey et al., 2012).