Staff Resource & Workload Analysis
A workload analysis of probation officers or other correctional systems personnel allows agencies to determine any of the following:
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Whether workload or caseload responsibilities are evenly distributed between workers of comparable levels of pay and service,
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What disparities exist between various officers’ number, length, and quality of contacts with the offenders on their caseloads,
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Whether staff time is being utilized optimally,
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How much time various required functions take for specific staff and on average,
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Whether time allocation corresponds to agency standards and priorities,
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Whether adequate time is spent in activities that reduce recidivism according to recent research,
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Whether time allocation follows the Evidence-Based risk principle that the most time should be spent with high risk offenders, the next with medium, and the least with low risk offenders,
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Whether job descriptions are too specific or not specific enough to allow for efficient task completion and communication between staff working with the same offenders.
Our Experience in Workload Analysis
J-SAT has conducted workload analyses for both the Montana Probation Board and the Connecticut Judicial Branch CSSD Adult and Juvenile Probation and Provider Network. Since 1997, J-SAT has been using the innovative combination of the following measures to assess staff workloads:
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Case file samples—documentation of the date, person, method, place, function, and type of contact with select numbers of high, medium, and low-risk and new clients (N≈14) for 5 weeks,
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Officer day reporting—for three days, officers document their tasks in 15-minute time increments,
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Timed direct observation of staff performing various work functions,
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Probationer appointment sign-in longs.
By combining these approaches, J-SAT can cross-check time reports for both case and non-case related tasks, guaranteeing an extra degree of assurance to customers. In our experience, these types of studies yield considerable pay-offs for agencies contemplating significant organizational change. Considering their cost-effective nature, these studies are considerably under utilized.
Setting Up a Workload Analysis
Before you contact us about setting up an outcome analysis for your agency, you may want to think through some of the following questions, as we will need this kind of information from you to tailor our services to your needs:
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Which of the above objectives will be the focus of your agency’s workload analysis?
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Which level of staff will be analyzed: line staff, managers, supervisors?
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What is the list of tasks that these workers perform?
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Does each worker perform all of these tasks or are some confined to different departments?
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How does your agency measure client risk levels?
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What are your agency’s standards, policies, and priorities?
Services That Can Accompany Workload Analysis
Quality Assurance Structure Analysis—assesses agency goals, documents current quality assurance procedures, and recommends revisions or additions to QA practices that optimize goal achievement.
System Flow Analysis—identifies the sequences that combine to make up agency processes and event cycles, visually represents those processes to make them easily understandable, and offers recommendations for increased system efficiency and accountability.
Dashboard Agency Measures—an automated application tailored to your agency’s quality assurance goals, providing allowing for quick, objective measurement of current progress toward agency goal completion.
Outcome Analysis—allows your agency to see which processes or treatment strategies show the greatest reductions in recidivism over time.
Automated Case Planning Software—streamlines the assessment-to-treatment-matching process for juvenile offenders, ensuring that case planning strategies follow Evidence-Based Practices15.
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