P&P August 2016

technology speaks By B.J. Walker and Tiffany Dovey Fishman

Transformational Human Services Moving to a New Paradigm

A lthough its core mission is to improve the trajectory of people’s lives, human services has long been more transactional than transforma- tional. Success is defined primarily by the timeliness and accuracy of transac- tions rather than their results. This has led to a model in which “outcomes” are in fact merely outputs: Did we issue food stamps in a timely fashion? Did we respond to 95 percent of our hotline calls within 24 hours? But transactional measures alone cannot effectively support the kind of outcomes for which human service systems were created. When human service systems experience their worst failures, where it matters the most, it often becomes obvious that traditional performance indicators do not guar- antee meaningful, mission-critical outcomes for the people who rely on these services. Moving beyond a strictly transac- tional business model to one that is also transformational requires action on three fronts (see Figure 1). Principle 1: Accelerating the Value of Self-Service Through Automation Caseworkers are the front line, and often the people best situated to improve the trajectory of clients’ lives. Too often, however, they are shackled by paperwork and kept from the hands-on work that actually trans- forms lives. Thanks to technological advances, agencies can dramatically reduce the paperwork burden through more robust self-service models that enable caseworkers to redirect their time and

Figure 1:Three Principles for Moving from a Transactional Busines Model to aTransformational One

time savings accruing from automated application processing and other time- consuming tasks such as processing renewals and re-verifications—time that can be redirected to more trans- formational work. Principle 2: Redesigning Programs to Serve Unique Customer Segments Rather than simply identifying for which programs an individual or family is eligible, agencies are begin- ning to probe the circumstances that bring individuals and families into the

energy to the work that draws many to social work to begin with. Many states are pursuing "no-touch” or “low-touch" eligibility systems that automate medical-assistance applica- tions and processing. The systems use data exchanges and real-time verifica- tions requiring minimal caseworker intervention. The time and cost savings from increased automation can be sig- nificant. One state realized a time and cost savings equivalent to a 230 full- time equivalent staff workload. As these systems expand to other means-based programs, human service agencies can benefit from additional

Graphic courtesy of Deloitte University Press

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