Reducing Turnover
New Web-based Toolkit Addressing Behavioral Healthcare Professionals' Staff Retention
More than half of behavioral healthcare professionals surveyed by the learning website Strategic Education Inc. in July 2025 planned to search for a new job within the next year, citing factors such as low pay and sparse benefits, burnout, and a lack of professional development.
Statewide surveys conducted by the Jane Addams College of Social Work’s Illinois Behavioral Health Workforce Center (BHWC) echo similar factors, with more than half of providers reporting that low pay and job stress contribute to their risk for turnover. Additionally, lack of professional development opportunities, feeling underappreciated, and an unsupportive agency culture were frequently cited as reasons for leaving positions.
A new web-based toolkit developed by the BHWC will provide vital information on how behavioral healthcare organizations can address these issues and retain their staff.
“We developed the website to provide agencies with effective tools to better support their staff and reduce turnover,” said Sonya Leathers, PhD, JACSW professor who serves as director of the BHWC at the University of Illinois Chicago. “Supporting staff retention is incredibly important because staff turnover is very disruptive to clients and agencies. Services are less effective, and agencies lose weeks of training time that it takes to onboard new staff.”
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Sonya Leathers
Launched in December 2025, the toolkit is designed for organizational leaders, supervisors, and human resources staff seeking to improve workforce stability through strategies shown to be effective in reducing staff burnout and turnover. According to the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), the behavioral healthcare workforce is growing, but significant shortages remain due to increasing demands. More than 122 million Americans live in Mental Health Professional Shortage Areas, and by 2037 HRSA projects deficiencies of nearly 88,000 mental health counselors and 114,000 addiction specialists. Increasing the number of staff who remain in the behavioral health field is essential to address the workforce shortage.
To reduce the critical shortage of behavioral health care providers, the Illinois Behavioral Health Workforce Center was initiated in 2023 as a joint initiative of the state’s Division of Behavioral Health and Recovery in the Department of Human Services and the Illinois Board of Higher Education. Southern Illinois University School of Medicine (SIU SOM) serves as the primary administrative hub in Springfield, coordinating and supporting efforts to build the behavioral health workforce pipeline and increase entry into the field. UIC serves as the second hub, providing training and curriculum enhancement for students and staff, retention support, and data collection to understand providers’ needs across the state.
The BHWC toolkit is divided into four chapters. The first, “Build Your Workforce,” offers practical strategies, examples and tools to help organizations reach new talent, create clear and welcoming hiring processes, and turn early experiences such as internships into lasting careers. The website notes that growing a strong behavioral health workforce begins with intentional, people-centered hiring. Candidates seek purpose, balance, and belonging. By rethinking how they recruit, hire, and onboard, agencies can attract the right people and set them up to thrive.
Pull quote
Understanding the needs of clinical and non-clinical staff [is needed] to prevent burnout and high turnover – no need to buy new buildings and create new positions – instead focus on the needs of current positions and create support for positions that are already in existence.
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How to develop a retention plan that supports and sustains staff is part of the second chapter, as are designing ways to prevent burnout and secondary trauma; offering growth opportunities to boost retention and morale; providing flexible scheduling; reducing administrative burdens to provide staff more time for meaningful work; and implementing strategies to retain workers through smart compensation.
“Behavioral health positions can be very stressful, so having strong supervision, coworker support, and supportive agency policies is essential,” Leathers said. The third chapter of the toolkit addresses these needs with strategies to strengthen belonging, lead with vision and care, recognize the importance of lived expertise, and instill trauma-informed principles across the organization. Added together, the strategies help create workplaces where everyone is a meaningful contributor that has the capacity to grow within the organization over time.
As outlined in the toolkit, retention isn’t just about policies – it’s about people, Leathers said. When staff feel cared for, heard, and encouraged to learn, they’re more likely to stay and thrive. The fourth and final chapter details how organizations can be strengthened by investing in people who hold key roles.
The toolkit will be introduced on Feb. 10 at the in-person event “Retention in Action” to be held at UIC’s Student Center East. The event will feature speakers from Illinois organizations who are utilizing these retention strategies in their agencies. A second event will be held April 7 at SIU’s Memorial Learning Center in Springfield. A virtual event will be held later in April.
“We recognize that high turnover has devastating impacts on organizations. Our goal is for this toolkit and event series to serve as a practical resource that supports leaders and teams in strengthening engagement, improving retention, and creating more sustainable workplaces,” said Meredith Lee, a BHWC initiative coordinator organizing the retention event. “We hope the toolkit will provide organizations with actionable strategies, tools, and real-world examples they can apply immediately to better support staff and improve retention.”