Creating a Workforce Analytics Team

The QIC-WD recommends that when agencies start exploring or implementing workforce analytics, they convene an interdisciplinary team with varied skills and roles. A workforce analytics team should be composed of individuals who represent key decision-making and operations functions within the child welfare and the agency’s human resources (HR) departments.

As agencies consider implementing a workforce analytic component into the agency, it is important to ensure the commitment and buy-in from leaders who control the agency’s budget and policies. It’s also important to focus on building an interdisciplinary team that is representative of areas such as HR, IT, data management, agency leadership, child welfare programs, and others as needed. When doing this, it’s helpful to focus on identifying people who have the specific skills and capacities needed to engage in workforce analytics, rather than focusing on specific roles or titles.

In addition, agencies should consider who will need to be involved to launch a successful workforce analytics partnership by determining:

• The champions among HR and child welfare staff who can and will facilitate partnership conversations
• The key personnel in HR and child welfare who will need to access, manipulate, and analyze the data
• The key personnel in HR and/or child welfare who can present findings to stakeholders in relevant/actionable ways
• The primary staff in HR and child welfare who will need to see, use, and understand the data

In this video, Maggie Thompson, QIC-WD Workforce Specialist, discusses the skills needed by the interdisciplinary team, as well as resources available to increase the knowledge and skills of the team.

See Creating a Workforce Analytics Team to learn more about the key personnel and skills needed, as well as links to resources to help teams improve their data skills.

The content contained in this blog post was developed as part of the QIC-WD’s Child Welfare Workforce Analytics Institute. The Institute was designed to facilitate growth and collaboration between leaders in child welfare and human resources in their awareness, knowledge, and use of data analytics.