Narrative: d. 1.

Through a comprehensive strategic planning process in 2021-2022, DVR identified the following priorities, focused on the people DVR services, DVR staff, and DVR partners:

• People We Serve: DVR innovates with intention to improve individualized and person-centered services and supports that lead to increased prosperity through a dual customer approach.
• Staff: DVR’s leaders support and equip DVR staff to be agile and able to integrate positive change, proactively providing staff strategies to foster flexible, efficient service delivery.
• Partners: DVR adapts processes, technologies, and disciplines that helps staff create and enhance relationships with our communities, vendors, employer partners, stakeholders, and the people we serve.

Aligned with these priorities, DVR identified the following goals: 

• DVR will work with partners and stakeholders to reduce the prosperity gap for people with disabilities by increasing quality employment outcomes for individuals with disabilities.

Progress: Reducing the prosperity gap is a long term goal and will continue into the next several program years. DVR has noted a strong correlation between the number of hours worked each week and an individual’s earnings. DVR is currently engaged in additional analysis to determine how to best engage individuals to increase hours worked and plans to identify a goal and associated strategies in the future.

• DVR will increase the IPE rate to 54.8% by June 30, 2023.

Progress:  The goal represented DVR’s Wildly Important Goal while implementing Franklin Covey’s  4 Disciplines of Execution.  The timeframe to achieve the goal was extended by one month to align with the department’s performance management system and the goal was met - with 54.8% of individuals who had applied for VR services reaching a signed plan for employment. While reducing attrition will not remain a specific goal moving forward, the strategies utilized will remain in place. Related strategies included targeting the most common areas impacting the customer experience like  timeliness of service, communication, and ease of processes.  

• DVR will retain 90% of staff for 24 months or longer by June 30, 2023. 

Progress: DVR developed a strategic staffing model, identifying appropriate roles and responsibilities within the vocational rehabilitation process to ensure efficiency and promote a team approach to ensure continuity of services. Within the strategic staffing model, Rehabilitation Technicians complete initial engagement with individuals applying for services and prepare the documentation for eligibility, which is then reviewed by a Rehabilitation Counselor for the eligibility determination. While the approach is not fully implemented in all areas of the state, it is carefully considered by field leadership when there are counselor vacancies. The staffing strategy has allowed DVR flexibility in hiring individuals who may not be fully qualified to work as a rehabilitation counselor, expanding the pool of qualified candidates and leading to more successful recruitment. The strategic staffing model allows field leadership to better balance staff resources, with the hope that this supports retention and customer service for people receiving services. 

DVR’s Professional Learning and Development team has also begun reviewing onboarding and training processes across all staff classifications to promote retention, professional development, and continuous improvement. Within the last year, an “Administration Academy” was held for non-field staff so they might better understand the work of the field and connect more directly with the mission and purpose of the VR program. overall.  Similarly,  a Field Leadership Summit was recently held to better connect field leaders and certain administration leaders to connect more closely to the work of counselors. 

DVR also has a strategic project related to staff retention. This group has gathered information through a survey and the Assistant Director of Field Services regularly completes stay interviews with employees, focusing attention first on employees in their first two years to learn what would motivate them to stay with DVR and now shifting her focus to employees who have been with DVR for three to five years. These interviews help to build relationships with these employees and also provide an opportunity for the Assistant Director of Field Services to gain insights into workplace culture that she might not otherwise observe, providing opportunities for leadership to then respond to create a more welcoming and supportive work environment. Common challenges include burdensome documentation requirements, inefficiencies within the electronic case management system, and caseload sizes when covering vacancies contributing to overwhelm. While some work has started to address these concerns, more time is needed to truly address and correct these issues.  Over the last two years, DVR has not seen a substantial or sustained improvement in staff retention. DVR will maintain a goal to ensure adequate staffing. 

• DVR will increase the number of successful closures and the average wages of individuals closed successfully, annually.

Progress: To support this goal, DVR has continued to place attention on continuing to  improve counseling & guidance efforts and other opportunities, such as Registered Apprenticeships, Skills-Based Hiring, Career Pathways, and Work-Based Learning, to develop IPE goals that will lead to quality employment outcomes in key industries. DVR’s Business Relations Unit (BRU) works closely with Apprenticeship Colorado to improve the apprenticeship opportunities that are accessible to people with disabilities. The BRU team provides Skills-Based Hiring training to community employers with the goal of shifting hiring practices away from a heavy reliance on formal credentials and toward more inclusive hiring practices considering an individual's actual employment skills. In PY 21 and PY 22, saw an increase in both the number of successful closures and the average wages over the prior year: 

While DVR consistently places attention on increasing employment outcomes and wages, this will not be retained as a specific goal in the State Plan, as strategic planning activities and data analysis have identified other areas of focus to improve outcomes for the people receiving services.

• DVR will meet or exceed negotiated targets for WIOA Common Performance Measures.

Progress: Outcomes for the performance accountability measures are described below in (2).