Policy and Practice August 2016

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Policy&Practice August 2016 30
technology speaks
By B.J. Walker and Tiffany Dovey Fishman
Transformational Human Services
Moving to a New Paradigm
Graphic courtesy of Deloitte University Press
Although its core mission is to
improve the trajectory of people’s
lives, human services has long been
more transactional than transforma-
tional. Success is defined primarily by
the timeliness and accuracy of transac-
tions rather than their results. This has
led to a model in which “outcomes” are
in fact merely outputs: Did we issue
food stamps in a timely fashion? Did
we respond to 95 percent of our hotline
calls within 24 hours?
But transactional measures alone
cannot effectively support the kind
of outcomes for which human service
systems were created. When human
service systems experience their worst
failures, where it matters the most, it
often becomes obvious that traditional
performance indicators do not guar-
antee meaningful, mission-critical
outcomes for the people who rely on
these services.
Moving beyond a strictly transac-
tional business model to one that is
also transformational requires action
on three fronts (see Figure 1).
Principle 1: Accelerating
the Value of Self-Service
Through Automation
Caseworkers are the front line,
and often the people best situated
to improve the trajectory of clients’
lives. Too often, however, they are
shackled by paperwork and kept from
the hands-on work that actually trans-
forms lives.
Thanks to technological advances,
agencies can dramatically reduce
the paperwork burden through more
robust self-service models that enable
caseworkers to redirect their time and
energy to the work that draws many to
social work to begin with.
Many states are pursuing "no-touch”
or “low-touch" eligibility systems that
automate medical-assistance applica-
tions and processing. The systems use
data exchanges and real-time verifica-
tions requiring minimal caseworker
intervention. The time and cost savings
from increased automation can be sig-
nificant. One state realized a time and
cost savings equivalent to a 230 full-
time equivalent staff workload.
As these systems expand to other
means-based programs, human service
agencies can benefit from additional
time savings accruing from automated
application processing and other time-
consuming tasks such as processing
renewals and re-verifications—time
that can be redirected to more trans-
formational work.
Principle 2: Redesigning
Programs to Serve Unique
Customer Segments
Rather than simply identifying
for which programs an individual or
family is eligible, agencies are begin-
ning to probe the circumstances that
bring individuals and families into the
Figure 1:Three Principles for Moving from a Transactional
Busines Model to aTransformational One