Policy & Practice | February 2022

Diagram 1

The Impact of Self- Created Workload Recovering organizational capacity to meet this increased demand requires that agencies clearly understand the practices in service delivery that erode valuable staff time. Our work in 25 state agencies illus- trates the general customer experience that occurs in a capacity-drained agency: a family initiates a request and around 15 to 20 days later the agency decides to either approve and continue services or deny the request. Certainly, some customers get a decision sooner, but others will wait for a decision for perhaps 30 or 45 days. Another common observation that we see in many states is that, on average, from the time the customer submits an initial request until a decision is made, agencies spend about two hours of staff time, collectively, on a single case. What in the process turned two hours of work into a 20-day wait for our customers? This is such an important question because the longer work remains “unfinished” in our systems, the greater the likelihood of the customer interacting with the agency multiple times as they seek to understand the status.

The daunting task of re-engaging customers to ensure those who meet eligibility guidelines continue to maintain services—many of whom may have not updated their contact information for more than two years—will significantly impact and hamper agencies as they work to help families in need. Customers will potentially lose important benefits and agencies’ workload will increase. This workload growth will be larger than the number of customers requiring renewal services. In many states today, for every one customer contacting the agency to access services, four customers are navigating the process— pursuing answers to questions such

as “What is the status of my case? May I reschedule an appointment? I sub- mitted my verification, so when will I get my benefits?” Churn will also be a factor. When customers realize they have lost benefits, agencies will face even more work by responding to calls about the status of benefits, resending requests for information, and pro- cessing new applications for customers who could have remained eligible in the first place. Is it any wonder that human services agencies feel as if they are being tasked with building a plane while it is already in the air? Without a solid plan to increase capacity, this unique set of circumstances will lead to a capacity crisis in all work areas; there simply won’t be sufficient staff bandwidth to handle the increased demand. The influx of customer visits and calls will overwhelm even the best operated service delivery systems in the country.

Leo Ribas is Senior Vice President for Change & Innovation Agency (C!A®), a Vimo® Company.

Michael Jones is Medicaid, SNAP and Safety Net Practice Lead—US for Change & Innovation Agency (C!A®), a Vimo® Company.

Reality Check To get a good indication of the potential opportunity to eliminate self- created workload in your agency, compare the number of applications and renewals in any given month against the volume of calls and office visits your agency receives. Usually, it’s not even close. For every single customer contacting you to initiate a service, four more customers are navigating the process, asking for a status update, rescheduling an appointment, or calling to make sure verification was received.

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Policy&Practice February 2022