Publications

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Workforce Analysis: Why Quality Jobs Matter Advocacy Strategies State-Based Initiatives Worker-Owned Cooperatives Teaching Tools

Recruitment & Retention Recruitment Training and Education Peer Mentoring Supervision Workplace Culture and Caregiving Practices Wages and Benefits

Recruitment and Retention
	Health Insurance Vital to Job Retention Health Care for Health Care Workers, October 2007. This fact sheet reports on a growing number of studies that show a strong, positive link between health insurance benefits for direct-care workers and worker retention. Studies find that health insurance may be more important than wages in reducing turnover and increasing the supply of direct-care workers.
	The Guaranteed Hours Program: Ensuring Stable, Full-Time, Direct-Care Employment PHI, July 2007. This workforce strategies bulletin highlights one strategy home care agencies can use to ensure a stable workforce--a guaranteed hours program. As an example, the bulletin details the development and implementation of one such program at the Cooperative Home Care Associates (CHCA), begun over 15 years ago. CHCA provides eligible employees with 30 guaranteed hours, provided they meet set requirements, including a commitment to accept all assignments and to be on call every other weekend.
	Recruitment and Retention of Paraprofessionals By Steven Dawson, June 2007. This presentation to the Institute of Medicine's Committee on the Future Health Care Workforce for Older Americans argues that the supply of caregivers is not keeping pace with demand for care. It further contends that the long-term industry must offer competitively attractive jobs to recruit and retain a stable direct-care workforce. Evidence-based research included in the report finds that nine elements of a quality job can help to recruit and retain direct-care workers.
	Respectful Relationships: The Heart of Better Jobs Better Care By Ingrid McDonald. Better Jobs Better Care Issue Brief #7, April 2007. (16 pgs.) This bulletin highlights factors that undermine direct-care workers and contribute to high turnover rates. The impact of racism, cultural misunderstandings, class prejudices, and the medical hierarchy is discussed and new supervisory models that ''invest in respect'' are presented. Examples are given of nursing homes in which educational and career advancement opportunities, employee involvement in establishing guidelines for a respectful working environment, and changes in organizational culture successfully empowered direct-care workers.
	Bridging The Gaps: State and Local Strategies for Ensuring Backup Personal Care Services By Dorie Seavey and Vera Salter, October 2006, AARP Public Policy Institute. This report examines the efforts by states and local communities to provide back-up coverage for people receiving Medicaid personal care services. The authors describe the main types of state and local practices and initiatives. They also explore key issues and implications for states to consider as they work to ensure that authorized services are actually delivered.
	Engaging the Public Workforce Development System: Strategies for Investing in the Direct Care Workforce By Dorie Seavey. Better Jobs Better Care Issue Brief #6, January 2006. (16 pgs.). Developing an adequate, well-supported long-term care paraprofessional workforce is not only a growing business and quality issue for providers but also an economic development issue for communities and their local and state governments. Long-term care is one of the fastest-growing fields in the economy and, as such, is a powerful job engine for direct care occupations as well as an important entry point into licensed health-related occupations. However, public workforce investment systems often shy away from investing in these jobs, because of low wages and other job quality issues. Long-term care providers and employers, for their part, often don't know about or are skeptical of the value of engaging with government workforce development initiatives. This Issue Brief examines this reluctance to invest and engage and highlights five examples of successful partnerships between employers and workforce development networks. These partnerships are seeking to change business as usual in order to improve the quality of care, increase the supply of direct care workers and promote greater workforce stability through higher retention and lower turnover.
	The Cost of Frontline Turnover in Long-Term Care By Dorie Seavey. Better Jobs Better Care Practice and Policy Report. Institute for the Future of Aging Services, October 2004. (33 pgs.). Arguing that the cost of frontline turnover is higher than many realize, Seavey makes a case for developing more accurate measures. The direct cost of turnover is a least $2,500 per frontline worker, which adds up to nearly $2.5 billion per year in extra costs for taxpayers.
	Finding and Keeping Direct Care Staff By the Catholic Health Association and the Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute. Catholic Health Association, 2003. (48 pgs.) $8.00, plus shipping & handling. This guide provides employers with immediate, concrete suggestions on how to find and keep direct-care staff, suggests long-term strategies for addressing direct-care workforce shortages, and includes a resource guide to human service and government agencies that can provide support to employers and employees.
	Welfare to Work: An Employer's Dispatch from the Front By the Cooperative Healthcare Network. January 1998. (10 pgs.) Key lessons for policymakers and practitioners concerning how to successfully employ and retain workers transitioning from welfare.