DSHS Strategic Plan-Economic Services Strategic Goals

At DSHS, our House of Health and Human Services priorities drive our agency’s Strategic Plan goals. This page highlights DSHS – Economic Services strategic goals, action plans and success measures.

Jump to other parts of the DSHS Strategic Plan: BHH – FTA – HCL – IT – OOS – VR 

DSHS - Economic Services Strategic Goals

1. The Strategic Goal: Sets the goal that we are striving to achieve. 
2. The Action Plan: Our action strategies to get there. 
3. The Success Measure: The outcome to achieve a goal. 

Read below about all of the components of DSHS - Economic Services’ strategic goals. Strategic Plan Metrics notebook coming soon.  

Strategic plan index: Jump to a section of the plan by clicking the Strategic Goal (SG) 

1. Deliver a customer experience that meets the needs of Washington residents.
2. Strive to be a place where employees are attracted to work and want to stay.  
3. Partner to improve access and services for communities. 
4. Strengthen operations through responsible resource management and continuous improvement. 

Strategic Goal #1: Deliver a customer experience that meets the needs of Washington residents.  

The Action Plan: 

• Provide opportunities for customers to share feedback.  
• Communicate how we use customer input in the design and delivery of our programs and services.  
• Continue to prioritize a person-centered approach for the customer experience.  
• Identify available resources and capacity to continue improving the customer experience. 
• Support equitable access with key demographic and geographic areas by implementing technology that modernizes and enhances services for customers.  

Success Measure: 

• 1.1: Increase the percentage of positive responses in the ESA Customer and Partner Engagement Survey to the statement “I believe the workgroup’s output has a positive impact on the ESA customer experience” from 81% in June 2025 to 84% by June 2026.  
• 1.2: Increase the percentage of positive responses to the Client Satisfaction Survey question about awareness of available services from 67% in 2025 to 69% in 2027.  
• 1.3: Increase the percentage of positive responses to the Client Satisfaction Survey question about satisfaction with services from 79% in 2025 to 81% in 2027.  
• 1.4: Increase the percentage of projects in the ESA enterprise portfolio that include the voice of the customer by June 30, 2027.  

Strategic Goal #2: Strive to be a place where employees are attracted to work and want to stay.  

The Action Plan: 

• Maintain our commitment to supporting employee development opportunities and including input from employees.  
• Provide opportunities and tools for employees to more easily learn about changes within the organization.  
• Champion and uphold the values of fairness, access, participation and belonging at all levels through concrete action and accountability.  
• Maintain the reduced training timeline for Public Benefits Specialists so new employees can be provided with a path to meaningful service sooner. 

Success Measure: 

• 2.1: Improve scores on the three DSHS directed questions on the employee survey in March 2026 based on the developed action plans.  
• 2.2: Increase the percentage of ESA employees that are aware of the professional growth opportunities provided for all ESA employees from 67% to 70% by June 30, 2027.  
• 2.3: Increase the percentage of positive responses to the survey question “If I wanted to, I feel that I am able to participate in professional growth opportunities offered by ESA” from 52% to 57% by June 30, 2027.  
• 2.4: Maintain a satisfaction rate for mentees and mentors at or above 4.4 out of 5 for the ESA Mentorship Program.  

Strategic Goal #3: Partner to improve access and services for communities.  

The Action Plan: 

• Collaborate with partners to define, refine and implement initiatives to better serve shared customers.  
• Cultivate 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.  
• Collaborate with the Economic Justice Alliance and partners to increase awareness of the self-sufficiency standard and identify metrics that impact economic well-being outcomes.  

Success Measure: 

• 3.1: Increase the percentage of positive responses in the ESA Customer and Partner Engagement Survey to the statement “I believe ESA’s leaders use the workgroup’s output when making decisions that impact the ESA customer experience” from 60% in June 2025 to 65% by June 2026.  
• 3.2: Increase the number of employees who complete position specific training for key Incident Command System command and general staff positions to two by June 30, 2027.  

Strategic Goal #4: Strengthen operations through responsible resource management and continuous improvement.  

The Action Plan: 

• Ensure proper budget and accounting management of federal and state allocated funds to ensure agency goals are met.  
• Demonstrate 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.  
• Prioritize and maintain technology applications through the customer experience program to improve the performance, reliability, and efficiency of our systems.  
• Increase cross-functional input from internal customers in order to improve processes and collaborate between divisions.  

Success Measure: 

• 4.1: Maintain 100% audit corrective action plan timeliness compliance through June 30, 2027.  
• 4.2: Maintain or increase outreach through venues for information sharing with the public, including social media platforms and newsletters, as measured by the total audience reached and number of stories shared through June 30, 2027.