In recent years, some homeless services providers have been testing promising new approaches to workforce recruitment and retention. Their goal is to boost employee job satisfaction in ways that translate into improved client outcomes. These efforts respond to ongoing workforce challenges, including staff turnover, vacancies, and burnout.
Recent research from the National Alliance to End Homelessness and academia has linked these pressures to low pay, stressful working conditions, and limited organizational supports.
The Alliance seeks to understand promising practices at different organizations throughout the country. We begin with an analysis of Purpose. Dignity. Action. (PDA), a service provider in Washington state.
PDA has been experimenting with workforce policies that include living wages, expansive benefits, and various work supports. This evaluation of their approach reveals that PDA employees have high job satisfaction compared to other nonprofit workers. 89 percent say they want to stay in their job for at least one year. Clients say they benefit from low staff turnover. Such stability among direct services staff is key in this field where outcomes are driven by quality staff/ client relationships. Such efforts could turn the tide on prevalent homeless services workforce challenges, including high turnover and unfilled positions.
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