TRAINING OFFICE
2004 Year in Review
While the Work First New Jersey program has matured into a more viable program serving the residents of Mercer County, the Mercer County Board of Social Services underwent major changes with a large group of high ranking and experienced employees taking advantage of the 2003 Early Retirement Incentive Program. As a result the Human Resource department’s training office focused on Human Resource Development in 2004.
With staff promotions to Administration and Supervision the objective has been to utilize prior participation and continued participation in various professional development programs. Along with the State of NJ Human Resource Development Institute’s Certified Public Manager and Support Specialist programs, staff participated in Rutgers University’s Public Purchasing program and the American Public Human Services Association’s Leadership for High Performance program during the past year.
The in-service supervisory training continues to help new supervisors with the critical shift from worker to supervisor and related topics on supervision. Also, attendance at work related workshops, seminars and conferences enhance basic skills and bring fresh or new ideas into our workplace operations to help maintain the challenges of administering the public assistance programs that help improve the quality of life for the low income populations we serve. In 2004 MCBOSS was able to send staff to 17 Regional/National conferences, and meeting conferences.
The MCBOSS Tuition Reimbursement and Educational Leave program continues to provide permanent employees an opportunity to matriculate in a specific degree program for future agency promotional opportunities. In 2004, MCBOSS helped 14 staff earn 120 undergraduate credits and 5 staff earns 59 graduate credits.
In support of the public assistance programs and operations the training staff was involved in a variety of projects in 2004. The N.J. Food Stamp Reinvestment Plan to achieve error reduction in New Jersey ended this year with the final Customer Service Workshops for Food Stamp Staff. Some of the more significant changes were, Social Services reorganization of their Emergency Assistance and Case Management services working in conjunction with the TANF units serving the same customers.
In addition, case management services statewide were consolidated from the Division of Family Development and the Department of Labor under the N.J. Department of Labor and Workforce Development thru the One Stop Career Centers. The Automated One Stop Operating System pilot was conducted in Mercer to achieve online work registration for the Food Stamp program. The Medical Assistance department also reorganized to begin data input into Unisys within the units when Medicaid case processing was completed.
With an increasing Spanish-speaking population seeking our services the training office arranged through Mercer County Community College for a 10 week 40 hour course titled “Workplace Spanish for a Social Service Organization” for eligibility staff to improve the quality of communications for this population. During the year this office also was instrumental helping staff with the program, policy and system changes that are part of the normal ongoing operations in the agency. Our community partners that serve the same people have also collaborated in many resource sharing training sessions to keep staff informed of other available programs and services.
Challenges and Goals for 2005
Our challenges for 2005 will again focus on communication, thereby keeping staff informed and competent. We will try to work smarter, to help bring more technology into the workplace to assist training and operations achieve more, at a time when funding for our programs will face budgetary constraints.
[ Table of Contents ]