7y
I’m sorry you feel as though your experience with KVC is so frustrating. Thank you for taking the time to share your insights. There are, without question, numerous challenges KVC and similar organizations face with regard to managing child welfare and behavioral healthcare services, not the least of which is a foster care crisis of epic proportions. Many agencies nationwide have been set back on their heels in terms of recruiting enough foster families and employees to meet the growing need brought on by the opioid epidemic and other causes. And while it may appear, as you mentioned, that upper management is ignoring employee feedback, I can assure you that is not the case. Steps ARE being taken. In any large organization, changes take a bit of time to implement. It’s the difference between teaching one or two people a new dance move versus teaching an entire ballroom full of people the same move.
I can share with you some of those “dance moves” that KVC is currently rolling out to improve the experience of working here and the quality of the services we provide to the children and families in our care. For starters, to reduce the amount of “responsibilities added to the plates” of our valued employees, we have good news. We advocated for and secured a change in Kansas that allows people with degrees related to social work to do certain child welfare jobs, as is common in other states. This will greatly increase the number of employees we can hire into vital frontline positions, reducing caseloads and burnout.
And you’re right, we do publish a lot of content about “happy adoption stories.” We also publish a lot of stories about positive outcomes within our prevention and family reunification programs. These are part of a comprehensive marketing approach designed to educate the public and invite people to get involved. We must attract foster/adoptive parents, volunteers, and other partners, which will lessen the stress and sense of overload our frontline employees feel. I’m happy to report this approach has already increased foster parenting leads!
Another strategy is adding an internal communications manager dedicated to improving our employees’ experience. That would be me – my name is Jan. My purpose is to open communication between employees and leaders, advocate for employee needs, strengthen the sense of community within the KVC family, and to ensure that our motto, “people matter,” authentically applies to our own KVC people. You do “deserve to be respected and appreciated by your employer” and it is our mission to make that a reality for every KVC employee.
In regard to your valid concerns about some (not all) supervisors with poor management skills, I want you to know we have made changes to address this. We added new resources and expertise in our HR team so they have more capacity to support leaders at all levels. They are getting ready to offer in-depth management training to ensure that every supervisor is highly skilled at supporting their teams. It’s a skill set and it can be learned. If they prove unable to learn that skill, they may need to be moved into a position where they can be more successful with the strengths they do possess. We value every employee at KVC and are endeavoring to increase training and vital support across all business units, thus enhancing the total KVC employee experience.
I hope this addressed most of your concerns. I’d love to chat further – please message me at jchapman@kvc.org. Have a wonderful day.
