(A) The child
support random moment sample (CSRMS) time study is designed to measure the
activity of county child support enforcement agency (CSEA) staff related to
child support program activities.
(1) Data
collected from the time study are used to calculate allocation statistics used
to distribute cost pool expenditures to the appropriate programs. The
percentages are used by the CSEA to distribute administrative funds reported in
accordance with rule
5101:9-7-29
of the Administrative Code.
(2) The
CSRMS 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) For purposes of
this rule, CSEA shall be defined as any county CSEA organizational structure
outlined in rule
5101:9-1-16
of the Administrative Code. The income maintenance, workforce, social services,
and child welfare random moment sample (RMS) time studies are described in rule
5101:9-7-20
of the Administrative Code.
(C)
Employees engaged in directly related CSEA functions shall participate in the
CSRMS time study and cannot participate in more than one type of time study,
i.e., income maintenance, workforce, social services, or child welfare random
moment sample.
Categories of positions generally excluded from the time study
are:
(1) Administrative.
(2) Supervisory.
A CSEA may add a supervisor to the roster if the supervisor is
providing direct services more than fifty per cent of the time. The CSEA 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 CSEA head. The CSEA 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.
A CSEA 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 CSEA 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 CSEA head. The CSEA 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.
A CSRMS coordinator must be assigned to administer the time
study. The CSEA must also select at least one alternate to complete the CSRMS
process in the coordinator's absence. Additional alternates may be needed based
on the location of the sample population, the sample size, available staff
time, and/or other pertinent factors. The CSRMS coordinator may also be the
coordinator for the random moment time studies detailed in rule
5101:9-7-20
of the Administrative Code.
(1)
Coordinator and alternate(s) responsibilities include reviewing and maintaining
the CSRMS 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 CSRMS.
(b) Employee name: the person filling the
position.
(c) Position title: the
CSEA 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 CSRMS coordinator shall not include
vacant positions on the CSRMS roster. If the vacancy is expected to remain
unfilled through the majority of the next CSRMS observation period, the CSRMS
coordinator shall remove the position from the CSRMS roster. Once the vacancy
has been filled, the position shall be added back to the CSRMS roster by the
CSRMS coordinator.
(3) CSRMS
coordinators shall complete all rosters in webRMS no later than five business
days before the CSRMS sampling period begins.
(4) The Ohio department of job and family
services (ODJFS) approves the sample for the period by using the sample set
submitted by the CSRMS coordinator in webRMS.
(E) Observation completion.
(1) Roster members (employees) will receive
an e-mail from webRMS with a link to the random moment sample 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 must demonstrate that the 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 must include a case number or other unique identifier establishing
case/client identity.
(ii) An
employee not working on a case enters comments. The employee must 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 must
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 must indicate the
position was idle.
(3) An employee receiving an observation
moment will have
twenty-four
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
two
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 CSRMS coordinator
eighteen
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
twenty-four-hour
forty-eight-hour period, the observation moment will
expire and webRMS will not permit the employee to respond.
(4) The CSRMS 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
twenty-four-hour
forty-eight-hour observation period. The CSRMS
coordinator shall note the reason for the substitution and on behalf of the
employee document the response in the comments section.
(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 the 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
twenty-four-hour
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 CSRMS coordinator shall review and approve by accepting all
observation moment responses within
forty-eight
seventy-two hours.
(G) Number of observations.
(1) For each CSEA with more than ten
participating positions, the sample size per reporting period is a minimum of
three hundred fifty-four total observations.
(2) A CSEA with ten or fewer participating
positions must complete a minimum of thirty-three observations per
participating position.
(3) The
CSEA conducting the CSRMS may opt to produce more than the minimum observations
per employee, to a maximum of five thousand total observations. A CSEA 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.
(H) Quality assurance.
To assure sampling accuracy and quality control,
no less than four
for each sampling period, ten per cent of all CSRMS
samples are selected as a control group. WebRMS will
flag the observation moment and send an e-mail notification to the supervisor.
The supervisor may appoint a designee to complete this function. The
supervisor's designee shall have sufficient knowledge of the programs and
activities performed by the employee to determine the accuracy of the response.
The supervisor/supervisor designee shall be responsible for validating the
observation moment response. The supervisor/supervisor designee must validate
the response within the same twenty-four-hour response period that is available
to the employee. By validating the response, the supervisor/supervisor designee
is verifying that the appropriate program and activity was selected by the
employee. Once approved by the supervisor/supervisor designee, the response
must be accepted by the CSRMS coordinator
observations are systematically selected from the total RMS
observations and are known as control observations.
Supervisors will 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)
To have
sufficient knowledge of the programs and activities performed by the
employee(s) to determine the accuracy of the response.
(2)
The
supervisor is 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
CSRMS time study:
(a) A position is idle due
to an absence when the employee assigned to that 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 CSEA.
(2) If a position is idle due to
an absence or vacancy, the CSRMS coordinator may:
(a) Assign the position's duties to another
employee or supervisor not currently in the time study. The CSRMS coordinator
shall reassign the position to the new name and e-mail address of the employee
or supervisor. 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 CSRMS
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 CSRMS coordinator must approve the CSRMS for the reporting period in webRMS
within five working days after the last moment has expired.
(K) The CSEA 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 webRMS and on the ODJFS
website.
Notes
Ohio Admin. Code 5101:9-7-23
Effective:
3/23/2020
Five Year Review (FYR) Dates:
1/7/2020 and
03/23/2025
Promulgated
Under: 119.03
Statutory
Authority: 3125.25
Rule
Amplifies: 3125.25
Prior
Effective Dates: 12/01/1987, 06/10/1988, 09/01/1988, 06/09/1989, 09/01/1989,
06/01/1990, 04/01/1992, 01/01/1993, 07/01/1993, 06/21/1996, 07/01/1996,
01/01/1998, 09/01/1998, 02/01/1999, 03/19/2007, 04/11/2008, 06/17/2010,
08/29/2011, 12/29/2011, 10/31/2016
