Improving Child Welfare Social Worker’s with their Daily Struggles
Having a bad day at work is something that many people can relate to, being stressed out constantly and multitasking can take a toll on anybody. However, many current day employers do not have to struggle with the same level of work and stress that Social Workers go through on an everyday basis.
Child Welfare Social Worker’s face a struggle that many people actually don’t realize. The current turnover rate for this position from the past 15 years is set from 20 to 40%. This article from Casey Family Programs goes on to mention that these turnover rates are increasing due to the demand that comes from this job. High turnover rates are not healthy for a workplace since there are constantly new people needing to be trained and brought through the signup process, getting familiarized, and then leaving in a short amount of time. For child welfare social workers, this makes a bigger impact since it is more workloads not being worked on and relationships being lost with those children and families.
Designing a solution for these social workers is the need, and I believe that a possible one can be done through the means of technology. My current major is Information Technology here at #FSU, and I am a part of #DFA (Design for America) where we are currently trying to find a human-centered design solution to the social worker's problems.
My proposal for their problems is to incorporate smart products into their workflow. Having something like an Amazon Alexa enabled device in their office can make multitasking and office work easier. Saying out loud what is needed, like for example “Hey Alexa, remind me to head out of the office before 5” can let the workers continue whatever work they are doing. Having smart devices connected can help and the best way for this is to have devices connected to the same brands and getting them all paired up.
The use of smart devices can greatly increase child welfare social worker's workflow and has many great benefits. Making full use of the potential from sart devices can make things like note-taking not necessary when the worker can just use their phone and convert the speech to text and have it all ready typed up. Families that speak different languages, you can actually get Google Pixel Buds that translate in real-time. Overall, the use of smart-enabled devices will greatly help these social workers and should make a huge impact on motivation and work for them.
