5101:9-7-20. Income maintenance, workforce, social services, and child welfare random moment sample (RMS) time studies

(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 percent 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 percent 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.

Effective: 1/18/2020
Promulgated Under: 111.15
Statutory Authority: 5101.02
Rule Amplifies: 329.04, 5101.02
Prior Effective Dates: 01/18/1980, 04/01/1980, 02/01/1984, 12/11/1984 (Emer.), 03/06/1985 (Emer.), 04/01/1985, 01/01/1986 (Emer.), 04/01/1986, 08/22/1986, 01/01/1987 (Emer.), 04/01/1987, 08/06/1987, 03/28/1988, 06/13/1988 (Emer.), 07/11/1988, 09/01/1988, 12/24/1988, 06/01/1989, 12/30/1989, 03/12/1990, 05/11/1990, 06/04/1990, 01/01/1991, 05/20/1993, 09/30/1993, 07/08/1994, 10/30/1994, 10/15/1995, 06/23/1996, 06/15/1997, 10/04/2002, 10/01/2003, 12/01/2006, 01/06/2007, 10/01/2007, 02/01/2008, 04/09/2010, 06/02/2011, 06/11/2012, 04/12/2015