Narrative: d. 2. I. ii.

A comprehensive and well-managed personnel development program is critical to ARS’ efforts to expand and enhance customer services, and to ensure consumers receive quality rehabilitation services from qualified professional personnel. ARS is strongly committed to providing training programs to all staff, especially those providing direct services to consumers. ARS maintains training records for all staff, updated annually, to reflect training requests and completions specifying the training source, name, credit hours, and attendance date. Professional qualifications for counselors are monitored to ensure current certification and to track educational progress for those achieving certification. The Human Resources (HR) department shapes ARS’s strategies by understanding workforce trends, identifying potential resource opportunities and gaps, and developing effective initiatives. HR takes the initiative and delivers results on strategic business issues, such as, new development, talent management, training, and mobility. To meet ARS’ goals, HR ensures successful recruitment, preparation, and retention of qualified personnel. HR maintains a working relationship with colleges, universities, and higher education programs within the state, partners in job fairs, maintains a positive relationship with the community and its representatives, and utilizes online recruitment efforts. In addition, ARS is involved with all major social media, newspapers, and industry driven communication. The Arkansas Legislature authorized special language to ARS for a waiver of the Continuing Professional Education policy prohibiting state agencies from providing college courses to employees. The special language allows ARS to provide college level coursework in degree programs designed to result in a Master’s in Rehabilitation Counseling (MRC) for eligible employees selected by the agency. The special language assists the agency in assuring qualified professional personnel are in place to provide quality rehabilitation services to Arkansans with disabilities. ARS has a goal for all rehabilitation counseling positions to meet the Master’s degree in Rehabilitation Counseling with Certified Rehabilitation Counselor (CRC) standard. The agency will attempt to hire MRC/CRC counselors as a first priority. In those situations, where ARS is unable to recruit and hire an MRC/CRC, the agency will have a minimum hiring standard of a master’s or doctoral degree in a field of study related to vocational rehabilitation counseling or a baccalaureate degree in a field of study reasonably related to vocational rehabilitation plus a minimum of one year of demonstrated work or service experience in a vocational rehabilitation setting. ARS will work to establish and maintain education experience requirements to ensure that personnel have a 21st Century understanding of the evolving labor force and the needs of individuals with disabilities. The Staff Development section reviews the current training levels of all personnel, and develops and monitors agency policy and procedure for training and retaining qualified personnel including ACTI staff to meet standards required by the Department of Education and other federal/state requirements. All ARS employees receive an annual personnel performance evaluation from their immediate supervisor, which is reviewed and approved by their respective senior manager. The evaluation considers the training each employee needs to fulfill job duties in providing services to our consumers. ARS works closely with the universities to provide internship and practicum opportunities for students, and notifies universities when job openings become available. Students are recruited from university and college rehabilitation programs within the state to seek employment with ARS upon graduation. ARS maintains staff liaisons with the university programs including the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville (UAF), the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR), the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (UAPB), and Arkansas Tech University (ATU). In addition, ARS meets quarterly with the universities to provide updates within the vocational rehabilitation field and ARS, to give practitioner input, and to receive first—hand information regarding graduates from the MRC programs. The agency actively recruits minorities and students with disabilities. Students, including minorities, are encouraged to join professional rehabilitation organizations such as the National Rehabilitation Association (NRA) and the National Association of Multicultural Rehabilitation Concerns (NAMRC). These rehabilitation professional organizations provide scholarship opportunities to individuals, including minorities, who major in the field of rehabilitation. ARS is currently working on revising VR Counselor job descriptions to update roles and responsibilities due to increasing duties, and also to assist with increasing salaries for ARS VR Counselors competitive to surrounding regions. Additionally, leadership is reviewing training and development opportunities to help with retention of counselors. ARS Leadership is working with the Arkansas Executive Branch to facilitate timely hiring freeze exceptions.