A. BEST PRACTICES

Introduction:

It is important to continually survey literature and be current on new and developing trends to assure your program service quality. The following are not new concepts; but, require continual program review to maintain consumer focus and satisfaction.

SITUATIONAL ASSESSMENT

Why Not Traditional Vocational Evaluation?

Traditional methods of assessment focus on identifying skills an individual needs to improve or acquire before employment. This approach, when used for individuals with significant impairments, focuses on the person=s deficits rather than strengths. This leads to a conclusion that the individual with a severe disability is not ready for employment.

Many individuals with significant mental retardation do not read, thus paper and pencil tests are not valuable. Often individuals with severe disabilities do not have a work history on which to base work preferences. Traditional preference inventories using reading skills or picture cues do not accurately reflect occupational choices, particularly for persons with severe mental retardation.

Simulated work samples fail to take into consideration such things as social interactions with coworkers and supervisors, mobility in the community and at the work site, environmental conditions such as temperature and noise, endurance, and production. For example, if an individual scores low on a Valpar, s/he may be considered unemployable and be recommended for vocational training to improve work performance. A major problem with this interpretation is that the skills the standardized tests are measuring are not necessarily those that are required to perform a particular job. An individual who cannot sort shapes, discriminate sizes, or coordinate assembly tasks on the Valpar may be very good at dishwashing, janitorial, micrographics, or landscaping jobs, whose skill requirements are quite different.

What are the Advantages of Situational Assessments?

During the consumer assessment process, the abilities, preferences, and needs of a consumer are identified so that the characteristics of the individual can be matched to the skills requirements, social dynamics, and available supports of a specific job. The purpose of consumer assessment is to find out as much information about an individual as possible so that the job coach can assist him or her with choosing a job that will be most satisfying. Information is obtained concerning the individual=s vocational interests, adaptive behaviors, parent/family attitudes, transportation possibilities, work skills, social interests, and other relevant factors. Consumer assessment is not conducted to exclude individuals from supported employment opportunities. Rather, useful information is identified that will help the job coach best match an individual to a specific job.

Consumer assessment utilizes a functional or ecological approach that focuses on the individual, the job, and the ecology of the workplace. An individual=s functional work skills and support needs are interpreted in the context of real job demands rather than a pre-established score or criteria, as is typically done with standardized evaluations.

Rehabilitation Counselor Responsibilities

Situational assessments are carried out during the ADetermination of Needs,@ or Milestone 1. The number and length of assessments to be conducted with the consumer must be negotiated between the provider and the counselor. The assessments must be completed within 45 days of the consumer=s entry into the program, and reports of each assessment & a summary must be submitted to and approved by the counselor before payment of Milestone 1. With the results of the situational assessments, the consumer=s vocational goal should be identified, and the counselor should be prepared to write an IRP.

Situational assessments can help identify nonverbal signs of occupational choice such as refusal to do certain types of work, performing tasks to production standards, and completing some work tasks to quality standards but not others, even when all tasks have been learned.

Situational assessments can also provide information on how the individual will respond to factors in the real environment, such as noise, movement, objects, people, and amount of space. A person who has difficulty walking may not do well in a cluttered work environment. The individual may also have difficulty if a job requires that the work be done while walking but have no problem if the job allows for being stationary. Another person who is easily startled may find excessive movement and noise problematic. A situational assessment may also reveal how an individual responds to specific persons, supervisors, or coworkers.

Consumer assessment activities must be conducted at the same time as job development so that placement decisions can be based upon the requirements of local community businesses. The characteristics of an individual are documented and interpreted in objective terms that can be matched to real job characteristics. For example, a description that an individual works Atoo slowly to be competitively employed@ is difficult to interpret when making job matching decisions due to the variability in production standards across jobs. Consider the difference in speed requirements of a dishwashing job in a busy restaurant with a library book-shelving position that emphasizes quality over quantity. Additionally, production rates of different settings of the same type of job will vary, such as that for a fast-food restaurant versus a gourmet restaurant.

Moon, S; Inge, K.; Wehman, P; Brooke, V. and Barcus, M. (1990). Helping Persons With Severe Mental Retardation Get and Keep Employment. Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.

Wehman, P; Sale, P; Parent, W. (1992). Supported Employment: Strategies for Integration of Workers with Disabilities. Stoneham, Ma.: Butterworth-Heinemann.

NATURAL SUPPORTS

How are Natural Supports Different Than Traditional Supported Employment Practices?

Traditional supported employment methods emphasize the job coach as a major means of finding jobs, training the new employee, and providing ongoing services. However, by using this approach, many people with disabilities, while physically present on their jobs, remained socially separated from other employees.

This occurred, in part, because the job coaches= practices impeded the development of naturally occurring relationships between employees with disabilities and their co-workers. For example, a new employee could become socially isolated because staff developed a singular, self-contained job that was not duplicated within the company, required little or no interactions with others besides the job coach, and was performed apart from other employees.

Natural Supports are any assistance, relationship and interactions that:

Oallow a person to secure, maintain, and advance in a community job of their choosing;

Ocorrespond to the typical work routines and social actions of other employees.

OEnhance an individual=s work and non-work social life among their co-workers and other members of the community.

In some situations, the job coach was the conduit for co-worker communications, questions, suggestions, and observations that should have been addressed directly to the supported employee. Individuals were sometimes left out of social conversations and activities because co-workers assumed that they should not or could not participate.

It became obvious that job coaches had to change the way they developed and designed jobs, how the introduced people with disabilities and themselves to employers and co-workers, and how they defined and carried out their on and off-site activities. In addition, job coaches had to find unobtrusive, effective ways of involving supervisors and co-workers in the task-related and social activities of employees with disabilities.

What are Important Things to Know About Natural Supports?

...Get to know people and their support networks

With a natural supports approach, job coaches go beyond functional individual assessment and observations to include an emphasis on each individual=s support needs, resources, experiences, and social preferences. Coaches also examine types and levels of support individuals have used in other settings, and the capacity of family, friends and other contacts to provide such support in relation to work.

GETTING TO KNOW DOUG

When the coach first met Doug, she observed a rather quiet young man of 22 who lived at home with his elderly grandmother and had few social contacts. Doug had a history of mental illness and had been diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic. He expressed an interest in working, indicating that he preferred carpentry type work, but he had little carpentry experience.

Doug said he was open to most jobs but did not want to work in janitorial or kitchen positions. He lived in an area of the city that was not readily accessible to public transportation. He did not drive but wanted to get a driver=s license.

His grandmother was his one consistent source of family support. She cooked his meals, cleaned his clothes, advised him financially, and offered him emotional support. However, she opposed Doug working, fearing that he would lose his Social Security income, upon which they both depended financially. She was also very concerned about Doug=s jeopardizing his medical benefits, which covered his medications.

Other than his grandmother, Doug had few consistent social contacts. He expressed suspicion and distrust of individuals he knew, such as teachers, social workers, and former classmates, and he did not want to ask them for job leads.

Observed at home and in numerous other social situations with friends and professionals, Doug was shy and uneasy. He likely would need some encouragement and support to become comfortable and involved in social interactions at work.

Doug seemed to enjoy being included in joking and light teasing and liked people who interacted with him in that way. Despite his shyness, Doug expressed a preference for working around others, since he enjoyed the socializing of others around him.

.Developing job leads and contacting employers

Natural supports are equally important when developing job leads and contacting employers as they are when getting to know a person. In addition to work tasks, the coach should carefully examine the social climate or work culture of potential job sites in order to address the social and support needs of each supported employee. Specifically, the coach should assess a work setting=s general capacity to provide a supportive atmosphere and look for individuals within the setting who would be interested and able to offer assistance, friendship, and support.

The personal networks of the job seeker should be tapped. Individuals, family members, friends and associates should not be left out of the process. This approach can personalize the job search process and expand opportunities for finding the right job. Instead of finding jobs for people, find jobs with people by involving them in the job search.

The coach should assess a work setting=s general capacity to provide a supportive atmosphere and look for individuals within the setting who would be interested and able to offer assistance, friendship and support.

Not all job seekers have personal networks. In addition to assisting to expand people=s connections, employment consultants can use their own contacts or use employer references. In the absence of a personal connection or company insider to serve as a reference or source of support at a particular business, employment consultants must find effective alternatives. Other employers with whom the agency has worked successfully can be meaningful references or contacts for prospective employers.

...Adopting a consultant role

When seeking jobs, coaches should introduce themselves to prospective employers as consultants who will assist the employer and co-workers, as needed, to train and support the new employee, not as primary providers of job training and on-site supports. Rather than do it for employers, coaches should work with job personnel in a supportive role. This does not imply that a coach will never provide direct instruction or support, or not remain on-site for periods of time. However, in these instances, the consultant should always be working on pulling in co-workers and being a discreet presence.

Natural supports emphasize the importance of social inclusion and assisting new employees to become an integral part of the workplace. Unless people feel comfortable, accepted and supported at their place of employment, it is unlikely that they will achieve maximum work performance, satisfaction, and longevity. Coaches consider not only the person-task match, but also the level of person-setting compatibility (the extent to which the job=s social culture will be inclusive and supportive of the person being served and compatible with the preferences and characteristics of the new employee).

Given the importance of on-site, long-term supports to many supported employees, job leads should be analyzed in terms of workforce stability and characteristics such as:

OHow and to what extent are current workers similar to the prospective employee in age, gender, education, dress, interests, etc?

OWill these factors influence the comfort and support of the potential employee?

OHow stable is the workforce in terms of turnover? The lower the attrition rate, the more permanent and stable the sources of support are likely to be. Too often employers are targeted because of their high turnover.

DISCOVERING THE RIGHT WORK SITUATION FOR DOUG

Doug thought he would enjoy almost any job that involved physical labor, though he had not experience with work he liked. He said he would like to work with people around his own age. A job in a low-key environment where social relations were informal and the emphasis was on cooperative tasks rather than individual production quotas seemed ideal. Doug agreed that he did not like, and wasn=t very good at, doing Afast@ work.

Since transportation was likely to be troublesome because of where Doug lived, the coach and Doug spent considerable time looking for possible jobs within a few miles of his home. Eventually, they found an opening in a local furniture construction and repair store. Doug could walk or bike to work, or arrange for someone to pick him up or take him home in bad weather.

He was hired to do upholstery stripping, general store cleaning and maintenance. It was a small company with about ten other employees, and people often did jobs together. The atmosphere was informal and friendly, and the workers were mostly young men about his age. On the surface, it seemed to be a good job and social match.

But a problem arose immediately because the other employees swore and teased each other in sexually explicit ways that made Doug uncomfortable. He felt they didn=t like him and were trying to upset him. Although both the supervisor and the coach tried to reassure him this was not the case, Doug remained unconvinced and began to withdraw from the others. This elicited ridiculing, led to Doug to dislike his job and co-workers, and finally Doug quit his job.

DOUG GETS A JOB

After his initial unsuccessful job, Doug proclaimed that he would no longer work with people, only with animals. After a brief search, a job was found in a veterinary hospital where Doug would care for the animals and clean up the animal and office areas.

Doug still had to work around other people as he carried out his tasks, but the social atmosphere

was more subdued than in his previous job. There was minimal swearing and needling. Whatever teasing occurred was gentle and not threatening. In retrospect, perhaps Doug=s reference to his grandmother as his identified friend should have been more seriously considered when selecting a work setting.

...Job Carving and Work Adaptations

Job carving can prove extremely helpful for individuals with significant disabilities who typically do not fill all the stated requirements of formal job descriptions. For employers, productivity and cost effectiveness often determine whether job carving is advantageous. Such modifications usually entail replacing tasks that a person cannot do with equally important tasks that the person can do.

Individualized adaptations are an integral part of supported employment. The primary intent of adaptations is to increase an individual=s work quality, rate, capacity, and independence. Within a natural supports framework, adaptations can minimize the need for outside intervention by job coaches.

An important consideration in the development of individual adaptations is to involve both the supported employee and work-site personnel. By doing so, the coach ensures that:

OThe adaptation meets the requirements of the person and job;

OThe accepted change reduces the expectation that the coach will act as sole Aexpert@ for the supported employee.

OThe adaptation taps the expertise and creativity of others.

...Negotiating Supports

In some situations, the employer or supported employee may not want to follow the training and support methods typically used by the employer. For example, one or both parties may prefer that the employment consultant provide the job orientation and training. In those situations, the coach, employer, and supported employee must clarify the situation and negotiate a solution that addresses the needs of each party.

Coaches also develop strategies for including other employees in the work and social routines of the supported worker. In emulating training methods and routines of a given work site, the coach, as much as possible, uses the same people and resources to carry out the training and orientation as typically would be the case.

This collaborative approach does not preclude the coach from participating in job training. It does presume the supervisor and co-workers are the instructors of first choice.

In establishing and facilitating workplace training and supports, the coach must respect the expressed preferences and needs of the supported employee. In some instances, a person may have specific preferences for how training is offered, what type of adaptive equipment is provided, and what kind of supports are included and who offers them.

DOUG LEARNS THE JOB

At the veterinary clinic, Doug, his employer and coach felt confident he could learn his job tasks directly from his supervisor, just like other new employees in that position.

Doug and the coach decided for the first day of work, the coach would be on site but would remain in the break room. The supervisor agreed, and assumed full responsibility for training.

Doug quickly picked up on the tasks, and from then on all supervision and support were completely furnished by his employer and co-workers. The coach=s role focused on bi-monthly off-site visits or calls with Doug, some initial, regular calls to his supervisor, and decreasing assistance with transportation arrangements.

...Developing Ongoing Supports

In traditional supported employment, Aongoing supports@ are defined as those services provided when new employees have Astabilized@ on the jobBthat is, when they are performing the required job tasks consistently and satisfactorily with less intensive support. Ongoing supports also include ancillary supports, which are those services not directly related to task performance that a person might need in order to successfully function in a given employment situation. They include such services as transportation and personal care.

Job coaches gradually Afade@ their presence from sites as supported employees perform the jobs and related tasks independently or with an allowable amount of ongoing support.

From a natural supports perspective, Afading@ should begin at the outset of employment and is not considered an end in itself, unless accompanied by naturally occurring job-site supports and social inclusion. If fading implies merely the absence of job coach support, it is inadequate and incomplete.

Key indicators of stability of supports in a specific situation are satisfaction of a new employee, the level of social inclusion on the job, and the employer=s and co-workers= satisfaction with the person=s total involvement.

Murphy, S. & Rogan, P. (1994). Developing Natural Supports in the Workplace: A Practitioner=s Guide, Training Resource Network, Inc.

Always introduce an individual=s support needs in the context of work performance. A disability is best described in terms of additional supports or modifications needed for a person to function successfully on the job.

JOB CARVING

The idea of Ajob carving@ addresses some employer=s tendencies to be Aboxed in@ by traditional job descriptions or role functions of existing employees. Many job duties exist more by tradition than from specific planning. Others are created on an Aad hoc@ basis. Or there may be an expectation that everyone simply does whatever needs to be done. Employers with such businesses have difficulty envisioning how an individual, who perhaps does not have wide-ranging generalist skills, could offer what they need.

Job carving maximizes productivity by realigning workers’ tasks. It involves matching what needs to be done:

E to those best capable of getting it done.

E to those who are motivated to get it done.

E in such a way as to cost-effectively maximize their contributions.

E In a way that satisfies the employer.

But many workers are not strong generalists. They may have exceptional skills in certain areas, but not others. When an employer is limited to having labor do a rigid set of assigned functions, then some employees will likely not have jobs that make the most of their unique talents. The business also loses the capabilities of a more diverse workforce, since it will reject people who don=t fit preconceived job descriptions.

It may not make sense, for example, to have a highly paid professional spend 45 minutes each day opening mail and forwarding it. If this task could be combined with weekly filing and copying, there could be a part-time clerical position for someone to fill, thus allowing the professional to be more productive.

To determine if job carving will be useful, begin by working with the employer to conduct an analysis of the work duties that need to be performed. After considering the competencies and aptitudes of the existing labor force, as well as new staff that may be needed, identify and reorganized specific tasks into an efficient package for each person. A set of duties could be assigned to an employee with skills that match the needs of those tasks. Or you may design a collection of tasks that someone is highly motivated to perform.

This type of job creation can also help you secure employment for individuals who may not prefer to work full time. They can perform a slice of what is normally a full position, which in turn, could be further divided among other employees.

JOB CARVING PLANNING PROCESS

EDetermine applicant’s skills, needs & interests.

EResearch & approach targeted businesses

E Inventory activities of workers performing tasks.

E Research corporate culture & employee work preferences.

E Analyze duties & determine skills/support needs.

E Develop potential work task groupings & schedules that match labor capabilities & interests & enhance workplace productivity.

E Discuss & negotiate results with employer.

E Develop workplace supports & relationships to incorporate new position.

E Maintain a consultative role with employer.

One word of caution: When jobs are reorganized, care must be taken not to create jobs that devalue people by physically separating them from other workers or by having them perform tasks considered boring, bothersome or dangerous by others.

Every workplace is different, requiring careful observation and frequent employer contact. To ensure a good employer/employee fit, the job match process must include job site research based on employee desire and employer need.

Through job carving analysis, job developers can serve as diagnosticians to potential employers, determining their needs and offering them solutions to productivity challenges.

B. Use of Management Reports

The management reports, which come from the Osemis software program, can assist you in tracking and measuring your quality. You can keep track of the number of placements and closures, look at cost per closure. The program also produces reports that track average wages, benefits, type of jobs, and length of time between assessments and placements.

You will find the reports generated from this software program a tremendous help in tracking vital information, as well as easy to use. The reports generated give you information on a monthly feedback as to how you are doing. By retrieving monthly reports, you can set goals and guide the staff and the program to your desired results.

It is not enough to just run or manage a program, and make placements. There are many characteristics to quality. As you manage your program think about the following indicators, and strive to meet them.

· Number of placements

· Type of work, a variety of different jobs available

· High wages and benefits

· Length of the placement retention

· Length of time to placement

· Assessments in a timely manner

· Number of placements a client has until closure

· Number of 26 (DRS) Closures

· Correct identification of the most appropriate service i.e., highly challenged vs. non-highly challenged

· Sufficient supports in place to support and maintain the placement

· Well trained staff

· Long term staff

· Supportive agency

· Adequate supplies to get the job done

· Good management staff

· Measurement of productivity for job coaches

· Money management

· Low cost per closure

· Consumer satisfaction

· Employer satisfaction

· Employment Specialist satisfaction

· Efficient utilization of contract money