Utah Projects
Utah
Tax Commissioner Palmer DePaulis, who serves as Chair of the ADR Council,
said the conflict survey gave the Council a snapshot of the nature and
location of disputes across government. Tensions were especially prevalent
between citizens and government in some of the regulatory agencies, between
some agencies with overlapping or interrelated mandates, and in the form
of grievance complaints between employees and supervisors.
Targeting those conflict areas, the ADR Council has designed a number of pilot projects, and recently launched three of them:
Career Service Review Board – The Review Board’s purpose is to hear and resolve grievances brought by state employees. Formal complaints are filed through a five-step (or ‘levels of increasing accountability’) process. In an effort to improve the quality and timeliness of that process, the ADR Council has inserted an option for grievance filers to choose mediation to resolve their disputes. Mediators listed on the Council’s newly created roster of qualified neutrals are now available to aggrieved employees who choose that option.
At the launch of the program several months ago, few filers were opting for mediation. DePaulis said the ADR Council saw immediately that the program was lacking a marketing strategy to spread the word about its availability. “We didn’t have anything that talked about mediation, what it is and why it’s a viable option,” he said. So the Council worked to redesign the materials that people get when they file their case. Flyers, notes and newsletters now advertise the option to mediate, and cases are beginning to fill the Board’s schedule.
Department of Workforce Services (DWS) – DWS provides employment and support services aimed at improving economic opportunities throughout the state. The Department has fully consolidated all of the state’s employment related functions into a comprehensive service delivery system, enabling job seekers and employers to access services without having to go through multiple agencies.
With the full consolidation of services came an arduous workload for the DWS’ Division of Adjudication—which hears and decides appeals arising from decisions about unemployment insurance, public assistance, and training services. DePaulis said there currently are fewer than 10 ALJs doing thousands of hearings each year. To help alleviate their overwhelming caseload, the ADR Council assisted DWS in establishing pilot projects in three of their 30-plus statewide Employment Centers. Although mediations have not yet begun, a lengthy process to set up the pilots was recently completed. According to DePaulis, ALJs who are hearing the cases were fearful of about the mediation process. After six months of work to design the projects, allay fears, and gain buy-in, DWS has agreed to begin mediations in October.
Office of Licensing in Human Services – As the state’s licenser for programs such as adoption agencies, domestic violence shelters, foster care providers and treatment programs, the Licensing Office establishes guidelines for licensees and conducts background screenings for all applicants. Disqualifications and communication issues have been a significant source of conflict between applicants and the Office, so the ADR Council established a program to provide employees with DR skills training and introduce them to mediation as an option.
Remarkably, DePaulis says, once staff began learning basic mediation and negotiation skills, they have been re-thinking—and re-designing—the way they work with the public. The Office re-wrote its letter informing applicants of disqualification and has generally re-organized the way communication is handled on denials. “Just by learning the skills, they were becoming better at communicating, and they reduced the need for mediation,” DePaulis explained. Although the Office has had no formal mediations, conflicts are getting resolved at lower levels, via telephone, through minor negotiations with a supervisor, or by sending better letters to applicants.
The dramatic reduction in licensing hearings and conflicts gave the ADR Council impetus to design a training in basic ADR skills and effective communication. Someone in every department in state government will attend the training, then bring the curriculum back to the office to deliver it department wide. “We realized that if we do a lot more training in ADR skills,” DePaulis said, “we can improve communications and get more people excited about solving people’s problems more productively.”
For more information on the ADR Council and its activities, contact DePaulis.