‘Creating a stable and supportive team environment increases employee retention’

Building a positive team environment where employees can flourish and excel in their roles is crucial in any sector, but particularly in a high-pressured profession like social work.

Creating a sense of community amongst peers can help to improve morale, boost staff engagement and enhance learning. Ultimately, a strong, supportive team environment will have a tremendous impact on both employees and the service to the user.

This article is part of Community Care’s Stand up for Social Work campaign. We’re standing up for social work by being honest, offering support and providing inspiration.

Recruit people with shared values

From the outset, it is important for anyone making recruitment decisions to understand the values of an organisation and ensure that new team members share these. Outline your organisation’s ethos clearly in a job description and make sure interviewers are well versed in company culture.

Form peer support structures

In a busy environment with heavy caseloads and pressures, buddy systems offer an outlet for social workers to gain support from their peers. Formal supervision meetings are crucial, but strong peer support can provide stability and stop social workers from feeling isolated in difficult, pressured, environments. This helps keeps morale high and can lead to social workers staying for longer periods in a role.

Support new and relocating employees

Creating a stable and supportive team environment can increase permanent employee retention. If a social worker is relocating to work in your organisation, it’s a good idea to consider all aspects of their new life to encourage them to stay in the role. Starting the process of getting a social worker settled before they start the job, by helping them get to know their new working area, office environment and colleagues, can encourage them to stay.

Encourage peer-to-peer learning

Offering work-based learning and development is also essential to fostering a positive and stable team environment. Although professional qualifications and training are mandatory for qualified social workers, there are still many lessons to be learned from peers. In addition to this, meetings where peers share best practice on complex cases open a dialogue within teams to share advice and support one another.

Nurturing an individual’s career progression within social work means professionals who have worked through the system can share their knowledge with newly qualified members of staff help them grow as part of the team.

A stable team environment can not only enhance employee morale, promote peer-to-peer learning and lead to increased retention of staff, but most importantly contribute positively to the quality and consistency of service that a social worker can deliver.

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