At DSHS, our House of Health and Human Services priorities are the driving force behind our agency’s Strategic Plan goals. Each administration contributes to shaping our DSHS Strategic Plan.
A Human-Centered Future
This page showcases Economic Services Administration's specific goals, along with action plans and success measures. From expanding local access to services to modernizing IT systems, the future of reducing poverty for people and families in Washington state is bright.
Jump to other parts of the DSHS Strategic Plan: ALTSA | BHA | DDA | DVR | FFA | OS | IT
ESA Strategic Goals
In the strategic planning process, we identify three key components.
- The Strategic Goals: Sets the goal that we are striving to achieve.
- The Action Plan: Our action strategies to get there.
- The Success Measure: The outcome to achieve a goal.
Read in detail below about all of the components of ESA's strategic goals. ESA's Strategic Plan Metrics, coming soon.
Strategic plan index: Jump to a section of the plan by clicking the Strategic Goal (SG)
- Advance performance standards to provide a high-quality customer experience that meets the needs of the people of Washington.
- Be an employer of choice by valuing our employees, intentionally soliciting employee feedback, and incorporating employee insights to continually evolve and improve as an organization.
- Develop, expand and nurture strategic relationships with partners who serve shared customers.
- Ensure we are good stewards of entrusted state and federal resources and continuously improve fiscal management to create better outcomes for the people of Washington.
Strategic Goal #1: Advance performance standards to provide a high-quality customer experience that meets the needs of the people of Washington.
The Action Plan:
- Provide high-quality performance standards that meet the immediate needs of our customers by continuously improving the customer experience to ensure access to instant service delivery for the people of Washington.
- Develop more opportunities for customers to provide feedback, treat our customers with dignity and respect, and include their experience and input in the design and delivery of programs, and build awareness campaigns and explore other methods to receive customer experience feedback.
- Increase outward facing presence in communities to better serve and meet our customers where they live, work and play.
- Ensure equitable access with key demographic and geographic areas by implementing technology that modernizes and enhances the integration of eligibility and enrollment services for customers.
Success Measure:
1.1: Implement state-of-the-art technology enhancements and systems such as but not limited to AI virtual navigation for instant access to integrated public benefits eligibility.
1.2: Build awareness, embed customer service culture and develop a baseline quality assurance measure focused on the customer experience.
1.3: Measure quality assurance and customer satisfaction with surveys targeting at least a 30% response rate with 90% or higher for “yes” or “strong yes” to customer satisfaction questions.
1.4: Maintain a lower average processing time for Supplemental Security Income and Social Security Disability Insurance initial disability determinations than the national average.
1.5: Maintain less than 15% of total assigned Division of Disability Determination Services cases pending over 120 days.
Strategic Goal #2: Be an employer of choice by valuing our employees, intentionally soliciting employee feedback, and incorporating employee insights to continually evolve and improve as an organization.
The Action Plan:
- Engage staff in the design and delivery of ESA employee programs, training and supports to achieve work life balance, influence programs at the division, administration, and agency level and increase cross functional input from internal customers.
- 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 Declaration on Anti-Racism, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion.
- Provide improved physical and psychological safety guidance, resources, supports and notifications for staff in an evolving office and telework environment.
- Use innovative recruiting strategies that reach all Washington geographic and demographic communities to find the best qualified candidates and reduce the training timeline so that new employees can provide meaningful service to customers sooner.
- Cultivate leaders by clearly defining, communicating and expanding upon professional development and advancement opportunities, ensuring equitable access for all staff throughout the employee life cycle.
Success Measure:
2.1: 70% of ESA employees are aware of the training opportunities offered by ESA and feel they have the opportunity to participate and engage in those opportunities by June 30, 2025.
2.2: 100% of ESA recruitment postings for each job class have been reviewed and revised to include inclusive language by June 30th, 2027.
2.3: 100% of ESA supervisors have received training specific to implicit bias in the hiring process by June 30th, 2027. 100% of ESA supervisors hired from July 1, 2027 forward will receive this training within three months of their appointment.
2.4: Mentors and mentees will have at least an 80% positive response to the overall mentoring experience for each cohort completed.
2.5: Improve positive employee responses to the Employee Engagement Survey questions regarding opportunities for learning and development, belonging, and support through organizational change by 5% on the 2025 survey.
2.6: Increase the percentage of staff engaged in EDAI learning opportunities or events including the IDEA Community of Practice, facilitated discussions with leaders, and engagement sessions.
Strategic Goal #3: Develop, expand and nurture strategic relationships with partners who serve shared customers.
The Action Plan:
- Collaborate with other state agencies, the Economic Justice Alliance, the Health and Human Services Coalition, people with lived experience, local planning areas, the community organizations providing services, and Government-to-Government with Tribes to define, refine and implement initiatives to better serve our shared customers.
- Build more opportunities for partners to inform our policy and program development.
- Identify innovative ways to collaborate for mutual, supportive relationships that work towards shared outcomes for customers.
- Build emergency management capacity through the training and certification of incident management team members, support resiliency of vulnerable populations during disasters, and maintain the State Emergency Repatriation Plan.
- Collaborate with the Economic Justice Alliance and across the department to increase awareness and advocate establishing the self-sufficiency standard as the benchmark for poverty reduction.
Success Measure:
3.1: Coordinate Government-to-Government with tribes to establish Indian Nation Agreements to allow system access to the four new Tribal “local offices” that will process Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program applications as part of the Tribal SNAP Eligibility Determination Project by January 2025, with the target of promoting the offices in eligibility systems to begin accepting Basic Food applications by March 2026.
3.2: As federal approvals are received from the Administration for Children and Families, coordinate Government-to-Government negotiations with the Suquamish, Snoqualmie and Makah Tribes to meet the federal deadline of 30 days for Assistance Unit data in order to establish three new Tribal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families programs.
3.3: Establish baseline for positive responses from advocates participating in ESA groups to the survey questions “I had the opportunity to provide meaningful input” and “My input had a net positive effect on the group’s output for this evaluation cycle.”
3.4: Increase the number of ESA staff credentialed in at least one Incident Command System position from 1 to 4 by June 30th, 2025, and to 12 by June 30th, 2027.
Strategic Goal #4: Ensure we are good stewards of entrusted state and federal resources and continuously improve fiscal management to create better outcomes for the people of Washington.
The Action Plan:
- Ensure proper budget and accounting management to ensure agency goals are met through active fiscal stewardship, partnership with the central budget office and embracing internal audit reviews and consultations.
- Demonstrate to employees, customers, and the public the great work ESA, its partners, and customers accomplish through storytelling, good audit results, technology and community relations.
- Actively execute and measure programs and projects designed to meet our organizational objectives through continuous improvement, quality control, EDAI analysis, and change management.
- Prioritize technology applications through the customer experience program to improve the performance, reliability, and efficiency of our systems for employees and customers.
- Demonstrate responsible financial management of federal and state allocated funds, carry forward levels, allotments, grant management and projections for the benefit of the people of Washington.
Success Measure:
4.1: Exceed the monthly national average for performance accuracy for Supplemental Security Income and Social Security Disability Insurance initial disability determinations.
4.2: 90% of budget items have been identified to modernize the Division of Child Support case management system by June 30th, 2027.
4.3: Implement Insight Engine software solution for Community Services Division - Phase A by June 2024 and confirm data connection decisions for Phase B by October 2024.
4.4: Complete 100% of audit corrective action plan items within the times identified in the audit documentation.
4.5: Increase the accuracy of fiscal projections relative to actual spending from SFY 2024 to SFY 2025 by 10%.