Current through all regulations passed and filed through March 18, 2024
(A) The income maintenance random moment
sample (IMRMS), workforce random moment sample (WFRMS), social services random
moment sample (SSRMS), and child welfare random moment sample (CWRMS) time
studies are designed to measure activity regarding various programs. The child
support random moment sample (CSRMS) is described in rule
5101:9-7-23
of the Administrative Code.
(1) Data collected
from these time studies are used to calculate allocation statistics used to
distribute cost pool expenditures to the appropriate programs. The percentages
are used by the county family services agencies (CFSA) and
Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) local
areas to distribute administrative funds reported in accordance with rule
5101:9-7-29
of the Administrative Code.
(2) The
RMS sampling period offsets the financial reporting quarter by one month as
follows:
(a) First period: December, January,
February for the January through March reporting quarter;
(b) Second period: March, April, May for the
April through June reporting quarter;
(c) Third period: June, July, August for the
July through September reporting quarter; and
(d) Fourth period: September, October,
November for the October through December reporting quarter.
(B) Activities for each
study are identified as follows:
(1) The IMRMS
is designed to identify activities directly related to program functions
benefiting one or more income maintenance programs; e.g., medicaid, food
assistance, disability assistance. Additionally, social service and workforce
investment activities may be included in the IMRMS if staff perform a
combination of any two of those major program activities.
(2) The SSRMS is designed to identify
activities directly related to program functions benefiting one or more social
services programs; e.g., Title IV-E administration and training, Title XIX
related to children. Additionally, income maintenance and workforce investment
activities may be included in the SSRMS if staff perform a combination of any
two of those major program activities.
(3) The WFRMS is designed to identify
activities directly related to program functions benefiting one or more
workforce investment programs; e.g., adult, dislocated worker, and youth
programs.
(a) A WIOA stand alone local area shall
reference rule
5101:9-31-17
of the Administrative Code to determine the cost allocation requirements. "WIOA
stand alone local areas"
are defined
as workforce investment areas receiving only department of labor (DOL) funding
from the Ohio department of job and family services (ODJFS) to administer their
services. If the stand alone local area allocates costs by RMS, staff participate
in the WFRMS time study.
(b) A
combined CFSA having staff who work solely on workforce
development activities and have therefore established
a workforce development cost pool shall participate in the WFRMS,
rather than the IMRMS or SSRMS.
(4) Stand alone public children services
agencies (PCSA) are required to participate in the CWRMS time study. The CWRMS
is designed to identify activities directly related to program functions
benefiting one or more children's services programs; e.g., Title IV-E
administration and training.
(C) Employees engaged in directly related
program functions shall participate in the RMS time studies and cannot
participate in more than one type of time study; i.e., IMRMS, SSRMS, CWRMS, or
WFRMS.
Categories of positions generally excluded from the time study
are:
(1) Administrative.
(2) Supervisory.
CFSA or WIOA local area
may add a supervisor to the roster if the supervisor is providing direct
services more than fifty per cent of the time. The agency shall retain
documentation to support the inclusion of the position in the time study. The
documentation shall include a copy of the position description signed by the
current agency head. The agency is not required to maintain separate
documentation if the position description includes, at a minimum:
(a) The directly related program activities
or description of the direct services provided by the position; and
(b) The portion of time spent by the position
on the program activities.
(3) Administrative support.
CFSA or WIOA local area
may add an employee assigned to an administrative support position to the
roster if the administrative support position provides direct services more
than fifty per cent of the time. The agency shall retain documentation to
support the inclusion of the position in the time study. The documentation
shall include a copy of the position description signed by the current agency
head. The agency is not required to maintain separate documentation if the
position description includes, at a minimum:
(a) The directly related program activities
or description of the direct services provided by the position; and
(b) The portion of time spent by the position
on the program activities.
(D) Roster completion.
An RMS coordinator and alternate coordinator(s) must
be assigned to administer each time study. Additional alternates may be needed
based on the location of the sample population, the sample size, available
staff time, and/or other pertinent factors. CFSA and WIOA local area
must select at least one alternate to complete the RMS process in the
coordinator's absence. The RMS coordinator may also be the coordinator for the
random moment time study detailed in rule
5101:9-7-23
of the Administrative Code.
(1)
Coordinator and alternate(s) responsibilities include reviewing and maintaining
the RMS roster in the webRMS system. The employee roster shall include, at a
minimum:
(a) Position number: a unique
identifier for each position to be used in the RMS.
(b) Employee name: the person filling the
position.
(c) Position title: the
county agency or WIOA stand alone
local area
has the option of including the classification title or position
title.
(d) Staff work schedule: the
actual employee work schedule is used.
(e) E-mail addresses: the e-mail address of
the employee and the employee's supervisor.
(2) The RMS coordinator shall not include
vacant positions on the RMS roster. If the vacancy is expected to remain
unfilled through the majority of the next RMS observation period, the RMS
coordinator shall remove the position from the RMS roster. Once the vacancy has
been filled, the position shall be added back to the RMS roster by the RMS
coordinator.
(3) RMS coordinators
shall complete all rosters in webRMS no later than five business days before
the RMS sampling period begins.
(4)
ODJFS approves the sample for the period by using the sample set submitted by
the RMS coordinator in webRMS.
(E) Observation completion.
(1) Roster members (employees) will receive
an e-mail with a link to webRMS at the time of the observation
moment.
(2) The employee clicks on
the webRMS link included in the e-mail to access the observation moment.
(a) The employee selects the appropriate
program and activity code.
(b) The
employee is required to complete the comment section. Comments shall
demonstrate that the selected program and activity codes support the work being
performed by the assigned position at the time of the observation.
(i) An employee working on a case shall
include a case number or other unique identifier establishing case/client
identity.
(ii) An employee not
working on a case enters comments. The employee shall ensure that adequate
backup documentation is available to verify the activity being
performed.
(iii) An employee
attending a meeting or training at the time of the observation moment shall
enter the title/subject, location, and facilitator.
(iv) An employee on break, at lunch, on leave
or on personal business at the time of the observation shall indicate the
position was idle.
(3) An employee receiving an observation
moment will have forty-eight hours to respond, not including weekends
or holidays.
(a) WebRMS generates a reminder
e-mail notice to the employee and the employee's supervisor
twelve
hours after the moment has passed if the employee has not responded to the
moment.
(b) WebRMS generates an
additional reminder e-mail notice to the employee, the employee's supervisor,
and RMS coordinator thirty-six hours after the moment has passed if the
employee has not responded to the moment.
(c) If an employee fails to respond within
the forty-eight-hour period, the observation moment will
expire and webRMS will not permit the employee to respond.
(4) The RMS coordinator may select an
alternate response option upon notification by the employee or the employee's
supervisor that the employee is unable to respond to the observation moment via
e-mail within the forty-eight-hour observation period. The RMS
coordinator shall note the reason for the substitution and shall document the
response in the comments section on behalf of the employee.
(F) Observation moment expiration.
(1) An observation moment expires when there
is no response. Expired moments may occur for the following:
(a) A position currently in a time study is
idle due to a short-term absence when the observation moment occurs and the
position is not reassigned to an employee who is not currently in the time
study;
(b) A position is idle due
to a vacancy and the position is not reassigned to an employee not currently in
the time study; or
(c) An employee
fails to respond to an observation moment within the forty-eight-hour response period.
(2) Once a moment expires, it becomes an
invalid response and costs associated with that moment are distributed by the
statistics derived from the valid responses.
(3) In accordance with federally accepted
timelines, the RMS coordinator shall review and approve by accepting all
observation moment responses within seventy-two hours.
(G) Number of observations.
The CFSA or WIOA local area may opt to produce more than the
minimum observations per employee, to a maximum of five thousand total
observations. A CFSA or WIOA local area
electing to sample more than the minimum number of observations per period must
request the desired number of samples in webRMS. Once the extra moments are
approved by ODJFS, they must be completed for that period.
(1) IMRMS.
(a) For the ten county agencies with the
largest amount of IM cost pool expenditures: two thousand three hundred total
observations.
(b) For the other
county agencies: three hundred fifty-four total observations.
(2) WFRMS.
(a) For each WIOA stand alone local area or in a
combined CFSA that has established a workforce cost pool with more than ten
participating positions, the sample size per reporting period is a minimum of
three hundred fifty-four total observations.
(b) For each WIOA stand alone local area or in a
combined CFSA that has established a workforce cost pool with ten or less
participating positions, the sample size per reporting period is a minimum of
thirty-three observations per participating position.
(3) SSRMS and CWRMS.
(a) For county agencies with one to ten
participating positions: thirty-three observations per position.
(b) For county agencies with eleven to
seventy-four participating positions: three hundred fifty-four total
observations.
(c) For county
agencies with seventy-five or more participating positions: two thousand four
hundred total observations.
(H) Quality assurance.
To assure sampling accuracy and quality control,
for each sampling period,
ten percent of all IMRMS, WFRMS, SSRMS, and CWRMS
observations are systematically selected from the total RMS
observations, and are known as control observations.
Supervisors must validate at least
forty percent of the control observations for each sampling
period.
(1)
For the purposes of the RMS time study, a supervisor
is:
(a)
Identified for each roster position as stated in paragraph
(D)(1)(e) of this rule, and;
(b)
Shall have
sufficient knowledge of the programs and activities performed by the
employee(s) to determine the accuracy of the response.
(2)
The
supervisor shall be responsible for validation of responses within the same
forty-eight-hour response period that is available to the
employee.
(3)
By approving the response, the supervisor is verifying
that the appropriate program and activity was selected.
(4)
After the
supervisor approves the response, the RMS coordinator will accept the response
within the time frame allotted as stated in paragraph (F)(3) of this
rule.
(I) Absences
and vacancies.
(1) For the purposes of the RMS
time study:
(a) A position is idle due to an
absence when the employee assigned to the position is on paid or unpaid leave
but intends to return to work in the future.
(b) A position is idle due to a vacancy when
the employee assigned to the position has left the position and does not intend
to return. This includes situations in which an employee is promoted, demoted,
transferred to another position or is separated from the agency.
(2) If a position is idle due to
an absence or vacancy, the RMS coordinator may:
(a) Assign the position's duties to another
employee or supervisor not currently in the time study. The RMS coordinator
shall reassign the position to the new name and e-mail address of the employee
or supervisor in webRMS. The newly assigned employee or supervisor will receive
the remaining notifications for the observation moments for the position in the
sample quarter.
(b) Assign the
position's duties to an employee currently in the time study and the employee
is also fulfilling his or her originally assigned duties. The position is still
idle. The employee will only receive and respond to observation moments for his
or her originally assigned position.
(c) Assign the position's duties to another
employee currently in the time study but the employee is no longer fulfilling
his or her originally assigned duties. The employee will begin to receive and
complete the observation moments assigned to the new position. The RMS
coordinator will remove the employee's name and e-mail address from the
employee's former position in webRMS creating a vacancy in the employee's
former position.
(d) Under no
circumstances may an employee complete an observation moment for more than one
position.
(J)
The RMS coordinator must approve the RMS for the reporting period in webRMS
within five working days after the last moment has expired.
(K) The CFSA or WIOA stand alone local area shall
retain documentation in accordance with the records retention requirements in
rule
5101:9-9-21
of the Administrative Code.
(L)
ODJFS maintains RMS coding information in the webRMS system and on the ODJFS
website.
(M) All CFSAs or combined
WIOA local
areas shall allocate their costs in accordance with this rule unless
ODJFS has approved an alternate cost allocation method. All cost allocation
must be in accordance with
45 C.F.R.
75.420,
45 C.F.R
75.430, and be approved by
ODJFS.