Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Having a workforce that is engaged, productive, and can adapt and innovateto meet the changing needs of families is of paramount importance to WIC. The University of Minnesota Extension will partner with USDA, WIC workforce, and partnering organizationsto identify effective WIC staffing models for diverse WIC contexts.The staffing models willinclude: necessary roles and responsbilities of all levels of WIC positions;the experiences, skills and competencies needed to successfully accomplish the roles and responsibilities;processes and strategiesfor supporting organizational change to adopt effective staffing strcutures;and provide learnings forleadersand supervisors to develop skills to monitor the impact of staffing change efforts. Impacts of change efforts will include staffs' ability to deliver effective WIC services to diverse communities, job satisfaction and morale, and lower turnover.As part of the work to develop an effective staffing model, importantlearning resources will be developed to support the growth of existing workforce to meet future needs of WIC. The efforts to understand effective WIC staffing models will help to identify critical skills and competencies that may need to to be improved or developed. Quarterly WIC-wide learning opportunities will provide a system for testing educational resources and models that can be used fordeveloping the WIC workforce into the future.
Animal Health Component
0%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
100%
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
1) Work with USDA, the National advisory committee, and WETAC to align the work to support the recommendation areas as well as establish an evaluation and reporting plan and common metrics.2) Conduct applied research to understand current staffing models across WIC and at all levels of WIC (e.g., State and local agencies).3) Conduct a job study to understand the work performed at all levels of WIC for optimal service delivery and staff retention.4) As part of the job study, identify critical competencies and skills (include soft skills) needed to effectively perform the work for all specialized/key roles.5) Once the job study is complete, conduct a compensation analysis to determine the market value of different WIC specialized/key roles.6) Develop a set of recommended staffing models with considerations for improving existing staffing models for optimal WIC service delivery and staff retention.7) Conduct quarterly learning opportunities for all WIC that will provide education around critical content (based on learning needs identified), model engagement techniques, embed processes where WIC staff can have a voice in the workforce development efforts, and gain buy-in for the workforce development actions for change.8) Developed content from the quarterly learning opportunities into educational resources that can be hosted in a variety of WIC learning platforms.9) Develop strategic, intentional feedback loops for improvement oriented processes that includes multi-layered advisory teams, online surveys, quarterly training and feedback sessions.
Project Methods
Applied research that includes conversations with all 89 state agency members and using a snowball technique idenfity representative sample of local agencies for conversations to understand current staffing strcutures and how decisions are made for staffing.Conduct a job study to understand roles and competencies that promote optimal service delivery and staff retention at all levels of WIC. Nomination of best practice states-local agencies, explore existing data on WIC reach and participant adoption of WIC benefits to idenfiy effecive WIC delivery sites, explore best practices from other relevant nutrition support programs that are also being implmented in WIC, learnings from the applied research of staffing strcuture and identify effective WIC programs. Develop site visit protocols to observe WIC practice and interview staff at all levels to identify optimal WIC practices. Based on these efforts, identify the work that must be performed, competencies and skills needed for all levels of the WIC workforceto developstaffing recommendations for diverse WIC contexts.Foster engagement of multi-layered Advisory Councils and build in intentional feedback loops through the quarterly learning opporunties for continous improvement for the staffing efforts as well as understand learning needs and relevant skills to design future learning opportunities and to develop educational resources that will support the WIC Workforce Development intiative needs into the future.