Recruiting staff that meet established qualifications for specific job functions. With changes in demographics and competition for qualified staff, rethinking the skills and attributes needed in the community corrections field while balancing rehabilitation through supporting behavior change and community safety objectives are critical to operating an effective and humane corrections organization. Without question, the COVID-19 pandemic has added an additional layer of complexity to the recruitment and retention of staff.

What determines an ideal caseload size is a question that continues to vex corrections managers and supervisors. Caseload size is informed by numerous variables that may include geography (ex: informs travel time to meet with persons under supervision), the population of the region (urban or rural), types of offenses and risk levels, court orders, political environment, available resources to include staff, and roles and responsibilities of staff. In addition, work studies identify the functions of staff positions, determine the time required to carry out functions compared to time available, and identify redundancies or tasks that are no longer required, all toward gaining a better understanding of the work and contributing to identifying caseload size for different groups of persons under supervisions.

Staff safety in the 'field' is often overlooked, with the focus, more often, directed toward institutional settings. Community corrections staff routinely work independently, without backup, when making home visits or other collateral contacts. The possibility of harm to staff, physical and emotional, is ever present while performing duties in community settings.

A broad term that encompasses the physical and emotional health of staff working with persons under supervision.

Training includes teaching and transferring knowledge and skills required for performing particular activities. Within a community corrections context, training can be delivered using a variety of methods, such as on-the-job training and shadowing, classroom or virtual delivery and the practical application of skills.

Also referred to as remote training or e-learning, virtual training is commonly used in community corrections. Virtual training provides a wide range of opportunities for staff to gain relevant knowledge, enhance current proficiencies, and interact with peers and supervisors, without the time and expense of travel. Virtual training can be delivered in real-time via teleconferencing or live webinars and at the learner's convenience through e-learning courses and podcasts. Within the rapidly changing learning environments, community corrections agencies are converting in person training to virtual training, capturing new audiences, and expanding training capacity.

Employee retention strategies are practices an organization follows to retain its staff (e.g. through compensation, policies, benefits, office perks, etc.).  The agency’s main intent when planning those strategies is to minimize employee turnover.

Critical events can and do happen in community corrections. "Responding to a critical incident requires a complex and multi-faceted approach - the way in which the event is handled can quickly determine whether it evolves into a crisis situation." In addition, what unfolds after a critical event can have a long-lasting effect on an organization and its staff. Elements of an after-action process examine whether the response protocol was effectively implemented, what worked or didn't, and what revisions need to occur to eliminate or mitigate the effects of future critical events.

An active, practical application to enhance the transference of skills taught in training. In field training, staff shadow or work alongside experienced corrections professionals to sharpen skills and gain practical experience, and are coached to identify and reach personal goals and work toward achieving professional milestones.