Recruiting and retaining the staff in social services

The main objective was to develop tools and resources that help answer a key question: How to recruit and retain the right staff for the social services sector? The project aimed to make a tangibl...

The main objective was to develop tools and resources that help answer a key question: How to recruit and retain the right staff for the social services sector? The project aimed to make a tangible impact by enhancing the (soft) skills of directors, HR managers, and recruiters, enabling them to create a more attractive and stable work environment. Through cross-country collaboration, the project sought to identify and document good practices, develop a vocational training programme, and produce digital tools to support HR professionals in social services.

To achieve its objectives, the project was structured into four key work packages: WP1: Project Management – Ensuring smooth coordination and implementation. WP2: Catalogue of good practices examples – Conducting four study visits across partner countries to identify and document effective recruitment and retention strategies. WP3: European Vocational Training Programme and its Testing – Developing a universal HR training curriculum and piloting it in Greece and the Czech Republic. WP4: Dissemination Events – Organizing events in partner countries to share project results with stakeholders. These activities involved a combination of research, knowledge exchange, training development, and dissemination efforts, ensuring that the outcomes were practical, widely applicable, and supported by real-world experience.

The project resulted in six key outputs: 1) Status reports on the inclusion of foreign workers, analyzing recruitment challenges and opportunities for employing foreign workers in social services. 2) A comprehensive Catalogue of good practices examples, summarizing successful recruitment and retention strategies identified during international study visits. 3) A series of 'How-to' videos, supporting HR professionals for improving workforce management. 4 + 5) European Vocational Training curriculum, forming the foundation for HR education in the sector. Based on this, two localized face-to-face training programmes (Greek and Czech) were developed and piloted. 6) Dissemination events in partner countries, ensuring that project findings reached a broad audience and could be applied beyond the partnership. These outputs provided HR managers and social service directors with valuable tools to improve recruitment strategies, reduce turnover, and create a more sustainable workforce environment.