Recruitment and Selection Processes

The goal of the recruitment process is to generate the largest pool of the most highly qualified candidates possible, where “highly qualified” means not just knowledgeable and skilled but also possessing attitudes conducive to enhancing child safety. At a minimum, a sound recruitment process would, at the least, spread widely news of staff/volunteer (hereafter, for simplicity, just “staff”) openings so as to assure an ample supply of candidates who are skilled at and committed to the protection of children, as opposed to sole mastery of a narrow skill set related to the YSO’s mission (e.g., soccer training or math instruction). At a maximum, it would convey to candidates specifically and concretely aspects of the YSO that would allow applicants to self-select into/out of the applicant pool on the basis of candidate/YSO fit along the dimension of attitudes towards child safety. For example, advertisements of openings should include information about the YSO’s overarching commitment to child safety, its adherence to the latest accepted guidelines for ensuring child safety (e.g., in the case of a sports YSO, its adherence to SafeSport guidelines), and its resolve to cooperate with governing body and law enforcement agencies in the investigation and prosecution of misconduct.

The goal of the selection process is to bypass applicants who are risk of child abuse and to bring on board applicants who possess knowledge, skills, and attitudes that are likely to enhance the organization’s ability to ensure child safety.

What are now standard selection procedures should be followed: criminal background checks, in-person interviews, letters of recommendation, and direct contact with recommenders. Notably, there may be a strong deterrent value of communicating to potential applicants the organization’s strong commitment to a culture of child safety, its well-developed policies and practices designed to identify and address at-risk behaviors, and its unwavering commitment to reporting and prosecuting CSA and other forms of abuse.

The recruitment and selection process should focus on candidate attitudes towards behaviors that might be considered emotional or physical abuse of children, as well as attitudes related to the sexual abuse of children. Research is clear on the link between emotional, physical, and sexual abuse of children. Candidates are unlikely to exhibit attitudes indicative of a predilection for or a tolerance of CSA, because of the widespread social taboos associated with this type of abuse. But they are more likely to evidence attitudes towards emotional and physical abuse, because social taboos associated with them are less widespread. For example, sports-related YSOs should pay close attention to candidate attitudes regarding the physical and emotional rigors of training.

Finally, as indicated earlier in the Desk Guide, the attention to developing a robust recruitment process and rigorous selection process goes some way towards conveying the cultural assumption to YSO members that child safety is a priority of the organization.

Socialization Processes

Practice #2 discusses the importance of training for the development of knowledge and skills and for the enhancement of attitudes related to child safety, where training is characterized as the sharing of information (e.g., regarding the prevalence and consequences of CSA). But a large body of psychological research indicates that the sharing of information is insufficient to change attitudes. Based partly on this research, organization theorists distinguish between “training,” which is geared toward imparting technical knowledge and skills, and “socialization,” which is geared toward changing attitudes. Organization theorists maintain that most successful socialization processes consist of three phases: unfreezing (in which the employee is separated from old attitudes considered inappropriate for their organizational context), change (in which the employee is introduced to and encouraged to adopt new attitudes considered appropriate for their organizational context), and refreezing (in which the employee is placed in a social context that reinforces his/her new attitudes).

Time and space constraints prohibit a thorough systematic elaboration of how YSOs might “socialize” their staff members. But it is possible to briefly suggest a few mechanisms through which socialization of staff members might be achieved. In what follows, “desired attitudes” refers to attitudes that are antithetical to CSA and “old attitudes” refers to attitudes that might be directly or indirectly conducive to or tolerant of it. The unfreezing of old attitudes might be facilitated by conducting onboarding activities off-site, in groups of staff members with whom the target staff member is not familiar. This would make it more difficult for the target staff member to seek out other likeminded people to reinforce their old attitudes during the onboarding process. The imparting of desired attitudes might be facilitated during onboarding activities in two ways. First, through an assignment to a “big brother” or “big sister” who has already embraced the desired attitudes, staff members could be provided with role models that exemplify the desired attitude change. Second, by participating in scenarios and role plays related to child safety incidents, staff members could be provided with leeway to develop their own unique path towards attitude change (facilitating internalization of the attitudes). Finally, the refreezing of desired attitudes could be facilitated by ensuring that employees are placed in regular contact with other YSO staff who embrace the desired attitudes.

Supervision

Supervisors should meet with staff members at regular intervals, at which time they should set staff member goals and determine measurable (although not necessarily quantitative) indicators of goal attainment. Specifically, the paramount goal of ensuring the safety of children in a staff member’s care should be delineated, and indicators of child safety goal achievement should be developed. The elaboration of indicators of child safety goal achievement should be developed collaboratively, to enhance staff buy-in. Finally, assessment of child safety goal attainment should be accomplished by the supervisor’s direct observation, staff member peer input, and the staff member’s self-evaluation.

Supervisors should also monitor and provide feedback on staff member behavior related to child safety on a periodic real-time basis. Feedback should be both confirming/corrective and praising/ admonishing, depending on the staff member’s behavior.

Confirming and corrective feedback provides staff members with information about the appropriateness of their behavior. Praising or admonishing feedback provides staff members with fine-grained rewards and punishments.; praise should be administered in pubic, while admonishments should be administered in private. Research suggests that periodic monitoring and feedback in the form of substantive input and social approval/disapproval can be as important in guiding employee behavior as are regular performance evaluation meetings.

Staffing

To the extent possible, YSO leaders should create specialized roles responsible for the suppression of CSA, the detection of abuse that occurs, and the response to CSA that is detected. Further, they should assign staff to these roles on the basis of their possession of knowledge, skills, and attitudes related to child abuse.

High Commitment Human Resource Management Strategies

Many organization theorists believe that “high commitment” human resource management (HRM) practices are conducive to high organizational performance. High commitment HRM practices include robust and rigorous recruitment and selection processes (discussed above), employment security, filling of leadership positions from within, involvement of employees in the sharing of information and formulation of organizational practices, teamwork, merit-based promotion, and minimization of status differentials. Some organizational theorists believe that the utility of the above practices depends on an organization’s internal and external environment (as determined, for example, by its industry or mission).

It is possible that some of the high commitment HMR practices will be useful in ensuring child safety in YSOs. For example,

it seems likely that staff who are hired on a temporary basis or hired on a permanent basis but without the possibility of advancement will be less vigilant protectors of children than will staff who are hired on a permanent basis and have realistic chances of advancement.

Similarly, it seems that staff who are instructed to conform to child safety policies and procedures created by leadership will be less vigilant protectors of children than will staff who are invited to participate in the assessment of their organization’s child safety risks and the formulation of practices to address them.

Does My Organization Have a System to Address Human Resource and Management Issues?

This table identifies critical questions that are central to achieving good practice in human resource and management. Leaders can use these questions and suggested strategies to create their organization’s approach to human resource and management to enhance child safety.