Career Support Systems, Inc.

Organizational Barrier to Competitive Employment

During the summer of 1999, our organization was approached by a local Vocational Rehabilitation Manager in rural far Southwest Virginia and asked to consider attempting to absorb three local supported employment Group-Option contracts that provided employment for approximately 20 customers. The local public Mental Health/Mental Retardaton/Substance Abuse service provider had recently decided to discontinue its vocational services in favor of providing facility based Medicaid MR Waiver Funded Day Support. Each of workers earned sub-minimum wages at the time.

Organizational challenges/barriers included:

- No group option program in place

- No Group Option fee-for-service arrangement in place

- No DOL 14-c Certificate in place

- State VR Regulations requiring 14c certificates for participation in State’s Economic Development Fund

- No experience with, or desire to pay, sub-minimum wage

- No prior cost basis on which to project actual labor costs

- No funding for start-up (equipment / supplies / vehicles)

- Little time to assess worker production rates

- Little time for bidding /contract re-negotiation process

Strategy to Address Barrier

CSS proceeded with bids to each of the host companies and subsequently established contracts with each. While we did not feel comfortable paying our workers sub-minimum wage, we had no true cost data on which to build a budget. We decided to proceed with our application for DOL 14-c Certificate. During the first six months we performed time studies, wage surveys, and kept all required DOL documentation. We quickly learned that while many of our workers did not work at 100%, many were able to make large gains in productivity. We experimented with alternative job duties and instructional techniques and we were also able match some slower workers with work tasks that were less production-oriented. We also learned that our staff spent an inordinate amount of time meeting all of the DOL documentation requirements. This was time spent that could be redirected toward the provision of employment supports. We decided within the first year to increase the wage rate of every worker to the federal minimum wage level and eliminate the administrative burden associated with 14-c compliance.

Case Example of Organization Change Strategy

Our group-option employment staff workers were relieved of all duties associated with DOL requirements and documentation, which allowed them to focus more of their energies on supporting workers with disabilities. Several additional organizational benefits were realized including:

- Streamlined payroll processes

- Reduced administrative time spend in DOL monitoring and compliance

- Reduced DOL related staff training time

- Improved worker morale and wages

Strategies to address barriers: Organizational | Individual

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The Arc of Stanly County, Inc.
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Career Support Systems, Inc.
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Via of Lehigh Valley