Interventions to improve retention of social workers: a scoping review

The burdens of social work are complex and many, and can lead to social worker turnover. Turnover not only negatively affects their workplaces but also their client-facing work. Supporting retention, however, is a complex endeavour, and the literature on interventions targeting social workers is fragmented. Therefore, this scoping review aims to: a) bolster knowledge on interventions targeting social worker retention, and b) investigate potential gaps in research. Following the Arksey and O’Malley scoping review framework, we conduct a search of three databases, yielding n = 1,903 studies, and, after screening, resulting in the inclusion of n = 22 studies comprising n = 20 distinct interventions. We categorize included studies at different levels: ‘individual’, ‘organisational’, ‘administrative’, or ‘client-facing’, with some studies categorized into more than one level. We identify a gap within the literature to be the dearth of studies employing interventions at the client-level to improve social worker retention. Although most of the included interventions are aimed at social workers, many interventions are based on general components, e.g. supervision, with few employing components focusing on the unique work challenges of social workers. The results buoy and expand upon findings from previous review studies, as well as highlight the importance of further research on interventions targeting social workers through bolstering their work with clients.