this left some CHA staff members confused about both the goals of the program and their roles in it. On the issue of professional staff turnover, most of those interviewed suggested that it had little negative impact on CHA operations. Interviewees generally considered the CHA to be an efficiently managed organization, where staff members know their responsibilities and can fill in for absent co-workers for short periods of time. Some interviewees went so far as to say that non-senior staff turnover had been helpful, as it weeded out those individuals who were not comfortable with the CHA’s new directions, opening up opportunities for employees committed to the MF program. For their part, several case managers expressed problems with turnover in case management staff. Overall, most MF case managers indicated that the average case load of 25 was manageable but several had struggled to meet client needs during times of case management vacancies. Because case management is assigned by development, when a case manager leaves, the other case manager assigned to that development must either assume responsibility for the residents whose case manager left or leave their former clients without a case manager. Most case managers interviewed had taken on more clients, creating a strain until a replacement could be hired and trained. Database Challenges CHA staff expressed frustration over the Yardi software system’s inflexibility. Although the Yardi staff has continued to customize the system to address the MF initiatives, that process has been time consuming and it has slowed the implementation of the program. Others suggested that the problem was a lack of training in how to create Yardi reports, while others linked these problems to understaffing in the information technology department. Case managers have also experienced frustration with the database management system used to track the activities of case managers and client activities and progress toward self-sufficiency. Case managers maintain paper files for their clients but are required to enter data into an Excel-based spreadsheet for CHA administrators. This spreadsheet contains information on activities associated with work and case
this left some CHA staff members confused about both the goals of the program and their roles in it. On the issue of professional staff turnover, most of those interviewed suggested that it had little negative impact on CHA operations. Interviewees generally considered the CHA to be an efficiently managed organization, where staff members know their responsibilities and can fill in for absent co-workers for short periods of time. Some interviewees went so far as to say that non-senior staff turnover had been helpful, as it weeded out those individuals who were not comfortable with the CHA’s new directions, opening up opportunities for employees committed to the MF program. For their part, several case managers expressed problems with turnover in case management staff. Overall, most MF case managers indicated that the average case load of 25 was manageable but several had struggled to meet client needs during times of case management vacancies. Because case management is assigned by development, when a case manager leaves, the other case manager assigned to that development must either assume responsibility for the residents whose case manager left or leave their former clients without a case manager. Most case managers interviewed had taken on more clients, creating a strain until a replacement could be hired and trained. Database Challenges CHA staff expressed frustration over the Yardi software system’s inflexibility. Although the Yardi staff has continued to customize the system to address the MF initiatives, that process has been time consuming and it has slowed the implementation of the program. Others suggested that the problem was a lack of training in how to create Yardi reports, while others linked these problems to understaffing in the information technology department. Case managers have also experienced frustration with the database management system used to track the activities of case managers and client activities and progress toward self-sufficiency. Case managers maintain paper files for their clients but are required to enter data into an Excel-based spreadsheet for CHA administrators. This spreadsheet contains information on activities associated with work and case
Interim_report_12-1.docx