In collaboration with the Washington State Health Care Authority, the Behavioral Health Institute (BHI) created a Recruitment and Retention Toolkit for Behavioral Health Organizations.

The Recruitment and Retention Toolkit offers practical, easy-to-use resources to help organizations improve staff recruitment and retention. It was developed with the goal of bringing accessible tools to behavioral health organizations across the state, and we hope it will serve as a catalyst for ongoing collaboration among providers to address their workforce challenges. 

The toolkit is comprised of five sections:

1. Organizational Readiness and Capacity
2. Recruitment
3. Selection
4. Retention
5. An appendix with links to a variety of resources and tools

Each section of the toolkit includes an overview and important points to consider, followed by best practices and tools. Each section can be used independently or together with the other sections. 

In developing the toolkit, BHI gathered input from providers who serve both rural and urban communities across Washington. Of note, this toolkit is intended to support organizations in their efforts to enhance their recruitment and retention efforts; it is not intended to address the broader system-level considerations that are related to the statewide (and nationwide) behavioral health workforce shortage.

If you have questions about the Recruitment and Retention Toolkit for Behavioral Health Organizations, please contact Sheryl Schwartz at sheryls@uw.edu.