So our ask of you:
- Please take a look at the explanation for this effort below.
- Please send Emily Kiriakos at kiriakem@co.larimer.co.us the names and contact information of your staff who you would like to be able to participate in this program (be hired by other counties after hours). Please note that we want to ensure director approval, so please only have directors send this information to Emily. The parameters for participation are below.
- This is a work in progress, so if you have suggestions for how we implement this, please let us know.
The Inter-County Workforce Initiative would formalize a long-standing practice by creating a group/pool of highly productive, high performing county eligibility staff that are interested in working additional hours (outside of their current county position) to process applications for public assistance for counties that are experiencing a backlog in application processing, increased workload, etc.
The ICWI program would allow each county to identify their staff that are highly productive and have low error rates to enter into the pool of staff available for any county to contract with at a wage agreed to by both parties. By only allowing the most productive staff into the pool, counties can be assured of very timely and accurate work being done. This approach also allows counties to ramp up their capacity without having to account for the time it takes to hire and train new employees.
ICWI would benefit participating counties and staff alike. Eligibility staff regularly hold part-time, lower-paying jobs in addition to their full-time county job. A staff member could potentially earn twice as much (or more) working in the ICWI program as compared to working at a part-time job in addition to their full-time county job. This approach is also cost-efficient given that counties can avoid (when they choose) paying overtime (at time and a half) to existing staff who may not be their highest performers. Counties mandating overtime often see increased costs and decreased efficiencies with the current model. The program would be strictly voluntary—any county can join the program.
While this model would help counties respond to the increase in applications and work we anticipate in processing impending redeterminations, this program is one that could and will assist counties who face a range of challenges in the future, be it natural disasters, workforce challenges, or other unforeseen backlogs. CHSDA is working with CDHS and HCPF to ensure that we can provide eligibility workers access to CBMS for multiple counties.
Ideally, eligibility staff selected to participate would meet the following performance metrics: 1) Less than a 3% Payment Error Rate; 2) Less than a 9% Case Error Rate; 3) and less than a 22% CAPERS – Negative Action Rate. However, we recognize that these rates are not often good indicators of performance in small counties. So directors, please use your discretion and we’re happy to include workers who might not meet these metrics in small counties but who are known to be high performers.
We hope you all will find this useful. We know you’re being asked to do more with less and we’re committed to finding creative ways to help you serve your communities.
Here the list of county staff participating in the CHSDA Inter-County Workforce. Directors are able to use this list to contact individuals when there is a need.
