Union Cites High Turnover:
Say Child Protective Jobs a Tough Sell

By MEREDITH KOLODNER

With the average tenure of a Child Protective Specialist less than two years, the Bloomberg administration has launched a $900,000 ad campaign to augment recruitment, but the workers' union says better public relations will not change the hostile work environment that is driving employees away.

CHARLES ENSLEY: Come back, Nick Scoppetta.

"I've never seen it this bad," said 30-year agency veteran Charles Ensley, who heads Local 371 of District Council 37. "The previous commissioner and I didn't have the best relationship as he reorganized the agency, but the current administration is so bad, I wish I had Scoppetta back, and that's saying something."

Can Hire, Can't Retain

Union and Administration for Children's Services officials agree that recruitment alone is not the issue. ACS hires about 50 to 75 CPSs every six weeks - it is retention that is failing.

Those Caseworkers are assigned to families where child neglect is suspected. They must assess the problem, perform home visits in some of the city's most crime-ravaged neighborhoods and figure out whether a family can be assisted or whether a child needs to be removed from the home.

ACS photo CAN YOU HANDLE THE TRUTH?: Administration for Children's Services Commissioner John B. Mattingly (center) hopes that new Child Protective Specialists like Latoi Luter (left) and Shawnae Hyde will help stem the agency's retention problem. In an effort to attract the right kind of people, the agency is spending $900,000 on subway ads that ask potential applicants if they're 'tough enough' to handle the job.

ACS Commissioner John B. Mattingly hopes that the ad blitz, which will last for three months in city subways and some print-media outlets, will attract not only more applicants, but those who will go the distance.

The publicity campaign is the culmination of a year-long look by the agency at its hiring practices. The ads, which feature large photos of individual Caseworkers and a quote on the challenges and rewards of the job, ask whether a potential employee is "tough enough," "brave enough," "real enough," and "smart enough."

Perseverance Key

"We looked at what are the areas of strength and competency that tend to be things that make a good CPS, even before they get trained," said ACS spokeswoman Sharman Stein. "We are looking for someone who will stick with what everyone knows to be a really difficult job; it has to be more than loving children."

Currently the attrition rate within the first year is 17 percent, down from 18 percent last year, but the agency is hoping to get that number into the single digits.

First Day

In addition to the print ads, there are on-line videos featuring current Caseworkers on the agency's Web site.

One CPS tells a harrowing story of her first day on the job. She went to the apartment of a child whose school had reported he had missed 120 days of school. The door was ajar when she and a more-experienced Caseworker arrived, and they decided to call the police. A child was inside in one of the bedrooms, bruised from head to toe. His body was covered with welts from electrical cords and ropes.

"When I got home after that case," the Caseworker says, "I cried my eyes out. And I thought, what happens if the school didn't call this report in? What happens if I didn't get there? What really could have occurred? If it wasn't for CPS, that kid could be dead today."

A Love for the Job

But she also tells viewers that she loves her job. "You're the person going into that home and saying, you know what, kid, you deserve better," she says. "Or you're going to turn around and say to that family, 'You know what, you've been dealt a pretty crappy hand of cards, but now you have a choice not to play those cards out.'''

But Mr. Ensley did not buy the agency's logic that a different crop of recruits would significantly fix the retention problem. He said the root of the problem was a harsh disciplinary procedure that outmatched all the other agencies where he represented workers. "Employees need to know that they have the support of management and the Commissioner. Our workers don't know that," he argued. "If something goes wrong on these caseloads, they know they're going to be scapegoated and disciplined."

The union president believes that the solution to the retention problem is mostly an internal one. "If they want to spend $900,000 of taxpayers' money this way, we won't oppose it," he said, "but if you're going to be fair, you have to not only ask are they tough enough to go into the community, but are they strong enough to face disciplinary action and see their names plastered across the newspaper if something goes wrong?"

Redefining Right Stuff

ACS officials, however, said focus groups and interviews with dozens of employees are what led to the ads, which were crafted by the Manhattan-based firm Lotas Patton New York. They are convinced that finding applicants with better communication and organizational skills, who know how to pull and assess information from a variety of sources, can build trust with others, and crucially, know what they are getting into, will help them turn the corner on retention.

While there are numbers of long-term employees, the agency runs through hundreds of workers each year, forcing it to constantly train new workers, which drives up costs.

"It's the kind of work you get better at with experience," said Ms. Stein. "After a period of time, you can become a manager. We want people who will grow and stay with us."

Meanwhile, union officials say they will continue to cooperate with the agency on training and qualification enhancement, while also fighting to protect their members from what they see as a scapegoating mentality internally. But they believe that the press coverage of horrifying cases such as the 2006 murder of seven-year-old Nixzmary Brown and the 1995 murder of six-year-old Elisa Izquierdo has already alerted people to the challenges of the job.

"With all of the cases, Elisa, Nixzmary," Mr. Ensley said, "you cannot live in New York City over the last 10 or 15 or 20 years without knowing how difficult that job is. That's insane."

Prospective applicants can find more information about the qualifications and job requirements at www.nyc.gov/acs or by calling 311.