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Economics and Workplace PAS > Promising Practices > Social Security Administration

Promising Practice in Workplace PAS:

Pool Program of Full-time Equivalent Holds (FTE holds)

Employer: Social Security Administration

Joan Ripple
Lewis Kraus M.P.H., M.C.P.
Lita Jans Ph.D.
Susan Stoddard Ph.D.
2008.

Center for Personal Assistance Service
InfoUse
2560 Ninth Street, Suite 320
Berkeley, CA 94710-2566

Key features of the promising practice

• FTE holds are a pool of job slots that are paid by a central office, but managed locally.
• FTE holds serve as personal assistants, interpreters, or reader assistants, and may be shared by more than one employee with a disability.
• FTE holds have renewable, time-limited appointments with benefits.
• Work related tasks and some personal care PAS are provided.
• 233 assistants are employed to assist 363 employees with severe disabilities.

• Federal Government - Social Insurance Program
• 65,000 employees
• 1,400 field offices in 1,700 locations
• 2.3% of the workforce with severe disabilities

Background

The Social Security Administration (SSA), a Federal Government agency, has 1,400 field offices in 1,700 locations around the country. It employs 65,000 people, including more than 1,500 employees with severe disabilities.

In 1991, SSA created a pool of positions called full-time equivalent holds (FTE holds). When needed and requested by field offices, these job slots are assigned to the local field offices to hire and provide workplace personal assistance services (WPAS) to their staff. The FTE hold job slots do not affect the total number of staff positions originally assigned to the field offices. The SSA central office evaluates, allocates, and pays for the FTE hold positions, but the field offices locally manage the positions.

Description of practice

The SSA has developed three job descriptions for FTE holds – Personal Assistant (GS-5), Interpreter (GS-1001-7), and Reader Assistant (GS-303-5). As of 2006, the SSA employs 156 readers for employees who are blind or have low vision, 66 personal assistants for employees with severe mobility impairments, and 11 sign language interpreters for employees who are deaf or hearing impaired, to assist a total of 363 employees with severe disabilities. The annual cost (including overhead) of providing these services is close to $8 million. The SSA aggressively advertises its reasonable accommodation program and provides information on the Web, training, and training kits for supervisors.

An employee typically makes a request for a reasonable accommodation, either verbally or in writing, to the immediate supervisor or manager, the Disability Services team, or the Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) officer. A third party (such as a family member, health professional, or other representative) also may make a request for accommodation. The official receiving a third party request confirms with the employee whether or not the accommodation is needed before taking any action on the request. Prior to requesting an FTE hold, the official must explore other alternatives such as assistance from other office staff or special program employees, including summer aides or work-study students. The accommodation, if approved, is generally achieved within 30 calendar days. If it cannot be arranged within this time frame, the employee must be informed of the status of the request. SSA has developed a detailed manual, Procedures for Providing Reasonable Accommodation for Persons with Disabilities, which outlines the total approach to handling requests for accommodations.

Reasonable accommodations, which include both FTE hold positions and assistive technology, are decided on a case-by-case basis. If an employee becomes disabled on the job, the employee and the manager usually figure out the needed accommodations together. If a manager notices that an employee is having difficulty performing the job, he or she might suggest that the employee ask for an assistant.

Managers are encouraged to customize job descriptions and to arrange for employees to share the services of an FTE hold assistant. If there is more than one person who needs a reader in a field office, one FTE hold position is typically hired and shared, especially given that employees rarely need full-time readers. A shared FTE hold might also perform a number of tasks such as providing mobility training in new locations, assisting a mobility-impaired employee to put on a coat, or folding and loading a wheelchair. The FTE holds are always allowed to assist with certain personal care tasks such as eating and drinking, and managers are encouraged to let the candidate for the FTE hold position know in the interview about the duties of assisting with eating and drinking personal care tasks. If employees routinely need assistance with more elaborate personal care tasks, such as toileting or cleaning of tracheostomies, they may bring their own personal assistants to assist, and employees generally pay for those services themselves. When not being used by an employee with a disability, the FTE hold assistant is allowed to do general office work.

Interpreters are hired only when there are several employees who are deaf or hard or hearing in one location. Generally, sign language interpreting is contracted to outside agencies.

When an employee with a disability travels on business, SSA will pay for travel and per diem for a friend or relative (if available) or hire a personal assistant at the travel location from an agency to provide personal care services. At times, an FTE hold assistant might also accompany the employee on the trip and assist with work-related tasks. The FTE holds receive renewable time-limited appointments (more than one year but less than or equal to two years), along with health insurance and retirement benefits.
The FTE holds

• are non-competitive jobs and need no advertising or announcement;
• are entry-level jobs;
• require employee’s input for selection as well as performance appraisals;
• perform nonessential job duties;
• have same rights as regular employees;
• may have flexible hours to accommodate the schedule of the employee who uses services;
• may provide some personal care assistance;
• cannot be dismissed by the employee;
• and are supervised by the employee’s manager.

Many FTE holds progress to becoming career employees in other positions; the FTE hold positions are capped at Grade 5. Interpreters may advance to Grade 9 or 11. Assistive technology is provided out of central office funds. A list of adaptive equipment is available and includes devices for people with low vision, blindness, deafness, and mobility impairment.

Benefits and challenges

The practice of centrally funded, locally managed FTE holds helps to overcome one important barrier to PAS, that of perceived costs. The centralized accommodation budget allows local field offices to hire a needed FTE hold position without exceeding their normal number of allocated positions. The practice of sharing an FTE hold position among a number of employees with disabilities also helps to reduce costs. In addition, the clear policies and process for hiring the FTE holds helps to reduce the barrier of extensive waiting times for accommodations. The clear definition of PAS roles also helps to reduce confusion about what services may be performed, another identified barrier to workplace personal assistance services (WPAS).

When WPAS have been unsuccessful, it has sometimes been due to a lack of communication between the FTE hold and the management. Another noted problem was the perception of some employees with disabilities that their managers considered the FTE holds to be free floating employees who could be used for general office work rather than personal assistance. A major challenge the field offices face is when the managers require the employees with disabilities and the FTE holds to work overtime or on weekends. In those cases, the costs must be covered by the local office budget and are not part of the centrally budgeted position.

Coworker and supervisor attitudes toward employees with disabilities have been generally positive within the SSA. One interviewee attributed the success to “people at the top being knowledgeable about disabilities and what people with disabilities can do with some support.”

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