The Action Plan:
- Formally establish customer steering committees where Washingtonians with lived experience, underserved customers, and community partners can provide input to leadership.
- Serve customers where they live, work, and play by increasing the number of mobile CSO units, and increasing presence in Washington communities through outreach, and increasing access virtual access points.
Success Measures:
- Increase the percentage of customers responding “always” or “usually” on the DSHS Client Survey question “Are you satisfied with program services?” to 85% by 2025.
- Increase the percentage of customers responding “always” or “usually” on the DSHS Client Survey question “Is it easy to get services from the program?” to 87% by 2025.
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Strategic Objective #2: Cultivate ESA leaders by clearly defining, communicating and expanding upon professional development and advancement opportunities; ensuring equitable access for all staff throughout the employee life-cycle.
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The Action Plan:
- Develop a program for supervisors and middle-managers on how to keep new recruits engaged and help them advance through the development process.
- Develop supervisory, peer and client coaching and communication skill building trainings to foster an administration-wide coaching culture that includes addressing bias, critical thought, and anti-racism.
- Create an intentional and integrated pipeline for internal employee development that leverages existing frameworks by developing a blueprint with training and skill sets for different levels of career progression at ESA.
Success Measures:
- 95% of ESA employees are aware of the training opportunities and skill sets identified in the career progression blueprint and feel they have the opportunity to participate and engage in those opportunities by 2025.
- 50% of supervisors who desire to participate the newly developed training program have had the opportunity by June 2025.
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Strategic Objective #3: Engage staff in the design and delivery of ESA employee programs, offerings and supports to achieve work-life balance and influence programs at the agency level.
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The Action Plan:
- Strengthen and continue to build workforce well-being initiatives with direct input from employees, including specific events to build well-being, promote resilience, and educate staff.
- Incorporate trauma-informed knowledge and practices into staff training and staff events.
Success Measures:
Improve positive employee responses to the Employee Engagement Survey questions “At my workplace, I feel valued for who I am as a person” and “I would recommend my agency as a great place to work” by 2025.
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Strategic Objective #4: Promote ESA as a partner of choice by welcoming new partners and identifying innovative ways to collaborate for mutual, supportive relationships that work towards positive outcomes for shared customers.
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The Action Plan:
- Strengthen communication and collaboration with WorkFirst Local Planning Areas to administer, deliver and share resources that are responsive to local needs.
- Advance Basic Food Employment Training (BFET) partnership to the Workforce Development Council (WDC).
- Expand the number of internal and external stakeholders participating in the DPI program integrity dashboard to increase both the success of the dashboard and public trust in our program integrity efforts.
- Increase community outreach and availability with Tribes by implementing plans developed in coordination with our Tribal partners.
Success Measure:
Secure state funding to continue and build upon the program integrity infrastructure established during the successful SNAP Fraud Framework grant period.
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Strategic Objective #5: Actively measure programs and projects designed to meet our organizational objectives through continuous improvement, quality control, and change management, with an EDI lens.
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The Action Plan:
- Train staff to implement and embed use of Multi-Dimensional Equity Assessment (MDEA) tool, used for analyzing inequities and disparate impacts of policies.
- Fully implement Disability Case Processing System (DCPS) and utilize new business intelligence features within the system.
- Continue implementing the ESA Incident Management Team project plan through training IMT members and conducting exercises.
Success Measure:
DDS decisional accuracy is 97% or above and DDS initial processing time is lower than the national average during the 2023-2025 biennium.
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Strategic Objective #6: Modernize the performance, reliability, and efficiency of our systems for employees and customers by migrating IT applications to newer platforms.
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The Action Plan:
- Design, test and implement ESA shared applications and processes in coordination with the Health and Human Services (HHS) Coalition integrated eligibility and enrollment initiative.
- Convert DCS forms to modern format for greater accessibility and enhance website functionality for customers.
- Modernize ESA programs such as ACES, eJAS, and Barcode, including activities to decouple programs from the mainframe and ensuring all software versions are current and supported.
- Build comprehensive project roadmap to migrate ESA platforms to Microsoft Azure.
- Collaborate with the Office of Financial Management and other state agencies to replace old platforms with a cloud-based solution for our finance, procurement, budget, HR, and payroll processes.
Success Measures:
- Measured by percentage of DCS forms converted to a modern format by June 2025.
- Measured by percentage of ESA platforms migrated to Microsoft Azure.
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Strategic Objective #7: Continue to improve on our modern, mobile work environment by optimizing telework options, supporting flexible work schedules, and minimizing office footprints.
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The Action Plan:
- Evaluate opportunities for staff to perform tasks while teleworking and evaluate current and future office needs for staff, contractors, and customers.
- Conduct a needs assessment to ensure work environment changes are still meeting the needs of the customers, ensuring underserved customers and demographics that have difficulties accessing services are identified.
- Identify and address equipment needs that are required to support a more mobile, flexible work environment; including laptops, cameras, and ergonomic equipment.
Success Measures:
- Decrease the amount of leased office space by 15% from SFY 2021 to SFY 2025.
- Increase the percent of employees responding positively to the employee survey questions “How satisfied are you with your mobility?” and “How satisfied are you with you flexibility?” by 2025.
- Increase in the percentage of staff positions with the availability to be mobile.
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Strategic Objective #8: Champion and uphold the values of equity, diversity, access and inclusion (EDAI) at all levels through concrete action and accountability, in alignment with the ESA EDI Declaration.
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The Action Plan:
- Include and embed EDAI best practices in new training content and communications created for staff.
- Create a mechanism for leaders to hold facilitated discussions about the EDAI declaration with employees, including the EDI Declaration's purpose, how it is reflected in our work, and understanding how to leverage the EDAI declaration to strengthen our future work.
- Conduct an in-depth analysis of the root causes of disparity in ESA provided services, and take ownership for addressing inequities by implementing policy and program changes to reduce or eliminate disparities.
Success Measure:
Percentage of staff engaged in EDAI training or events including the IDEA Community of Practice, facilitated discussions with leaders, and listening sessions.
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Strategic Objective #9: Use innovative recruitment strategies that reach all broad geographic and demographic communities to find the best qualified employees.
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The Action Plan:
- Use recruiting videos to share information about the work done at ESA and allow potential employees to see the work culture in our different programs.
- Conduct a comprehensive evaluation and overhaul of recruitment postings and position-required qualifications to ensure we are assessing potential employees for the required skills and abilities, and reducing or eliminating elements that cause disparities and inequities.
- Develop and strengthen relationships with Community-Based Organizations and Washington Business Resource Groups to leverage their capacity for sharing recruitment postings.
- Identify new methods to capitalize on the applicant pool for the best recruits to keep pace with changes in the job market and increase applications of diverse individuals.
- Assess the process of how class and compensation is decided and address issues in pay so they are competitive with the private sector and other public sectors.
Success Measures:
- Retention rate of employees in their first two months working for ESA.
- Reduce variance of the demographics of our applicants from the demographics of our employees.
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