• 11 Aug 2020 12:42 PM

Strategies to Enhance Employee Resilience and Engagement within Survivor-Serving Organizations

Description: This 1.5 hour-long American webinar (transcript included) from May 2020 features representatives from three organisations who share strategies that they use to increase employee engagement, mitigate burnout, build strength and collective resilience, and improve services for survivors. The facilitators also discussed strategies their organisations use to help staff adapt during COVID-19. 

"After this webinar, participants will be better able to:

• Examine your organization’s strengths and areas for improvement as to its ability to attract and support staff;
• Identify strategies to attract, support and continue to engage employees within organizations that serve survivors of violence and trauma;
• Utilize tools and resources to attract and continue to engage employees; and
• Discuss tips to address the needs of employees during the current health crisis." (Futures Without Violence, 2020)

Strategies shared by the panellists and webinar participants include, but are not limited to:

• Encouraging staff input in the way the organisation moves forward; encouraging collaboration and innovation
  
• Purchasing laptops for every staff member working from home (via grant funding)
• Creating remote support groups for staff members working from home
• Supervisors' role descriptions including educating staff members on the impact on trauma exposure and mitigating these impacts via supervision
• Creating a Resiliency Committee, co-facilitated by the Health Services Coordinator and open to all staff
• Providing quarterly training on trauma prevention 
• Requiring staff members to complete a resiliency self-assessment when they join the organisation, and at regular intervals throughout their employment
• Increasing leave time (including extra earned leave time if staff participate in a quarterly wellness challenge) and enabling flexible work schedules

What's the evidence base for this resource: This resource primarily draws on the practice experience of the panellists. 

Potential uses and limitations: This webinar is aimed at Executive Directors, Program Directors/Managers/Coordinators, Supervisors, and Team Leaders. There is particular emphasis on how employees are coping during COVID-19, with many staff members working from home. While the webinar is framed as being about "staff retention", there is a focus on reducing or mitigating burnout, which is related to vicarious trauma.

Where it comes from: This webinar was facilitated by Jennifer White and Monica Arenas from Futures Without Violence, supported by a grant awarded by the Office on Violence Against Women within the U.S. Department of Justice.

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