Abstract
This survey study interviewed social workers in rural communities to explore their perceptions of burnout, occupational stress, and agency support with the purpose of establishing best practices for increasing retention rates. Participants were current or past employees of a child welfare agency in El Dorado County. This agency was chosen to represent rural communities as it faces common rural challenges such as geographical isolation, limited resources, and unavoidable dual relationships. This agency has two office locations, each with drastically different retention rates. Although they are located in the same rural county, they have the same management and the same policies and procedures. Social workers in both offices shared their perceptions of burnout, occupational stress, and agency support with the goal of assessing what contributes to the difference in retention rates. The study findings showed that burnout and occupational stress were perceived similarly in both office locations. The social workers described a punitive management style, a lack of training and feelings of emotional exhaustion or ineffectiveness. However, the social workers in the office with the higher retention rate benefited from an emotionally supportive immediate supervisor and geographical distance from the management described as “punitive.” These protective factors significantly increased the retention rates in that office as it created a sense of value among the social workers and decreased their exposure to work related conflict. While a supportive work environment is a benefit to any agency whether in a rural or urban setting, this study shows that the unique challenges inherent in a rural community makes support provided within agencies more significant to the job satisfaction of the social workers, which will therefore increase retention rates. This study highlights the importance of a management style which honors social work values such as using strength based approaches in addressing organizational culture, change and valuing social workers.