(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 per cent 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 per cent
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.
