Introduction to Career Development

Career Development at Accend is a partnership. We are committed to helping all of our employees achieve their career goals through an employee-centered career planning process and training. Just as we value being person-centered in the services we provide to the people we serve, we value being employee-centered in career development.

Your role in this partnership is to take ownership of your own career plan. Identify your career goals and objectives and discuss these with your supervisor. Ask for the supports and resources you need to pursue them. Track your own progress.

You will develop your first Career Plan as you reach the end of your training period (your first 90 days). That plan might include goals and objectives related to parts of the job that you and your supervisor have identified still need improvement. Your orientation checklist will serve as a guide for identifying in which areas you may need to improve before moving on to other career advancement opportunities.

Core Competencies

Core Competencies include (as applicable to position):

• Working assigned/desired FTE, or taking PTO when absent (ALL)
• Meeting productivity standards for assigned position (ALL DIRECT SERVICE POSITIONS)
• Keeping up-to-date with Due Items (Assessments and Plans (ALL POSITIONS WHERE THIS IS AN ASSIGNED DUTY)
• Documenting concurrently and accurately (ALL)
• Complying with applicable policies and procedures as defined in our Guide for your position and the services you provide (ALL)

Elements of Career Advancement

Wages/salaries and benefits for each position at Accend are determined using some or all of the following factors:

• Job duties: depending on the position, assigned job duties are considered in hourly rates.
• Credentials: where and when credentials for the position affect billing rates, pay is adjusted.
• Work performance: employees who meet basic work expectations are eligible for further enhancements through, training and competency.
• Competencies: demonstrated competencies achieved through training and return demonstration. For more information about competency-based pay, read on.

Career Plans

Each employee is responsible to develop a career plan in consultation with direct supervisors and the Training Development Manager. Types of Career Plans are described in the Administrative and Clinical Supervision Guide, here.

Competency-Based Pay

Accend uses a system of pay increases that earned through demonstrated competencies in using:

• Selected evidence-based and best practices
• Approved treatment resources and modalities
• Enhanced skills in assessment and treatment planning, engagement, and service delivery
• Delivery of new services

Meeting expectations in Core Competencies is required for Competency-Based Pay Increases.

Current Base Pay Rates

Tap in the table and scroll to find your position. If you are currently earning above the base for your position, calculate your annual salary thusly:

Current Wage X 2080 X FTE

Caculate your take-home pay each payday by dividing your salary by 26.

Where your position is salaried but "NA" apppears in this chart in the 0.8 FTE, column, if you are currently making at least $21.38/hour, you will be eligible for salary.

How Competency-Based Pay Works

Competency-based pay replaces annual wage/salary increases, and makes it possible for employees to potentially receive increases more frequently than annually by identifying skills they need or want to develop, completing training, and then demonstrating use of those skills, or competencies, in their work. The process is as follows:

• Team member demonstrates a performance level of at least "Meets Basic Expectations" in the core competencies that have been defined for his or her role.
• Team member achieves a minimum productivity rate defined for his or her position.
• Team member meets with his or her supervisor(s) and develops a career plan that identifies new skills he or she would like to develop, with target dates. These skills may be selected from an approved best practice or resource, or the Team Member may propose a new modality or resource for approval.
• Team member and supervisors identify potential sources of training for the identified competencies (internal or external).
• Team member attends training.
• After the training, the team member demonstrates the skills as observed by an approved trainer/supervisor.
• For each 25 new competencies demonstrated, the employee is eligible to request a Career Plan review and receive a $0.25 increase in hourly wage, up to four times per year. (The increase is not limited to $0.25, rather it is defined as $0.25 per 25 new competencies demonstrated at the time of the review.) To be eligible for this increase, the employee must be continuing to meet basic job and minimum productivity expectations, and not have an open performance intervention regarding basic expectations.

Performance Evaluation and Pay Flow Chart

Tap here for the full flowchart on a single page..

Minimum and Maximum Training

Continuing education and skill development is required at Accend for all positions. Minimum training and specific topcis are defined for specific types of direct service positions and are never less than 15 training per year. Team Members may complete training at any pace they wish. Paid training time is limited to 8 hours per calendar quarter, with exceptions where Accend authorizes a lengthy training.

Wage/Salary Caps

The realities of funding mean that there are wage/salary caps for each position. We have built into the potential career path for each team member, a way to continue to increase pay by taking on other duties, such as becoming a trainer/coach/mentor for certain services, resources, and modalities. Pursuing this path is optional, and at the discretion of the individual's supervisor. It means training for and demonstrating advanced competencies in training, coaching, mentoring, and evaluating others.

We do, at times, receive rate increases. As we have always done in the past, these rate increases would be used to enhance pay at all levels, or to raise wage/salary caps in positions providing the services where the rate increases apply.

FTE Adjustments

• If the hourly employee has not worked his or her full FTE and has not taken PTO for the difference in the previous three (3) full pay periods (6 weeks), FTE may be adjusted downward.
• If the employee has consistently worked a higher FTE for the previous six (6) full pay periods (12 weeks), and is seeking to increase FTE, FTE may be adjusted upward.
• When a Salaried employee is seeking to increase FTE, the employee informs his or her supervisor, takes additional referrals, and moves to hourly pay during the adjustment period. If after 12 weeks the employee works the desired FTE and meets his or her minimum productivity target, he or she will be converted to the higher FTE at that time.
• These adjustments would typically be done during a full calendar quarter (requested at the start of the quarter and reviewed at the end of the quarter.)

Salaried Positions

Effective for the pay period beginning on March 29, 2020 (this change was delayed due to COVID until Jan 3, 2021) several additional positions at FTEs at 0.8 and over and who earn at least $35,568 annually will be paid on a salary basis rather than hourly. Salaried staff are not paid overtime pay in weeks worked over 40 hours, however, salary positions offer the following benefits to employees:

• Flexible work schedules: If you have a high number of cancellation in a given week and nothing else to do, you may flex your hours, working less in that week and more in subsequent weeks within the quarter.
• Flex (comp) time in lieu of PTO: When you work extra hours in a given week, these hours may be flexed to other weeks, and may be used as comp time for shorter weeks worked earlier or later in the quarter, or to reduce the amount of Paid Time Off that you must use in a quarter even when you take time off intentionally.
• A steady paycheck, regardless of hours worked.

What Positions Will Be Salaried?

The following positions shall be salary positions at 0.8 FTE and higher (if their total annual earnings will equal $35,568 or more):

• ARMHS and CTSS Full Practitioners (not applicable to Associates)
• All full Case Managers and System Navigators (not applicable to CMGT Associates and BHH Health Home Specialists)
• Certain EIDBI Leads at Level I and Level II
• Licensed Psychotherapists
• Level I Advanced and Level II Clinical Trainees
• Clinical and Administrative Supervisors in all departments
• Some other Technical and Managerial roles

To be eligible for salary-based pay, your current hourly wage must be:

At 1.0 - $17.10 or higher

At 0.9 - $19.00 or higher

At 0.8 - $21.38 or higher

Salary will begin only after completion of the training period for positions other than top administrative and leadership.

Legal Definitions for Salaried Employees

Learned Professional Exemption

For Direct Applicable Direct Service roles Accend uses the Fair Labor Standards Act (FSLA) Definition of "Learned Professional." as follows:

To qualify for the learned professional employee exemption, all of the following tests must be met:

• The employee must be compensated on a salary or fee basis (as defined in the regulations) at a rate not less than $684* per week;
• The employee’s primary duty must be the performance of work requiring advanced knowledge, defined as work which is predominantly intellectual in character and which includes work requiring the consistent exercise of discretion and judgment;
• The advanced knowledge must be in a field of science or learning; and
• The advanced knowledge must be customarily acquired by a prolonged course of specialized intellectual instruction.
• “Work requiring advanced knowledge” means work which is predominantly intellectual in character, and which includes work requiring the consistent exercise of discretion and judgment. Professional work is therefore distinguished from work involving routine mental, manual, mechanical or physical work. A professional employee generally uses the advanced knowledge to analyze, interpret or make deductions from varying facts or circumstances.

Mental Health Professionals (Licensed Clincians and Clinical Trainees) fit this definition by virtue of the requirement of a degree for their positioms.

Even though some Mental Health Practioners and Case Managers my qualify for their roles through experience, the customary method of qualification is a degree + experience. From the FLSA guidance on Learned Professionals:

The learned professional exemption is restricted to professions where specialized academic training is a standard prerequisite for entrance into the profession. The best evidence of meeting this requirement is having the appropriate academic degree. However, the word “customarily” means the exemption may be available to employees in such professions who have substantially the same knowledge level and perform substantially the same work as the degreed employees, but who attained the advanced knowledge through a combination of work experience and intellectual instruction.

Administrative Positions

For Administrators and Managers, Accend follows the FSLA Guidance for Administrative Employees.

To qualify for the administrative employee exemption, all of the following tests must be met:

• The employee must be compensated on a salary or fee basis (as defined in the regulations) at a rate not less than $684* per week;
• The employee’s primary duty must be the performance of office or non-manual work directly related to the management or general business operations of the employer or the employer’s customers; and
• The employee’s primary duty includes the exercise of discretion and independent judgment with respect to matters of significance.

How Does PTO Work for Salaried Employees?

Salaried employees must request PTO when taking time off for personal reasons. However, this PTO will not be debited immediately from the salaried employee's accrued PTO. Instead, we will calculate hours worked at the end of each quarter and settle up at that time. Even if a salaried employee has taken time off during the quarter, if that employee has worked more hours at other times during the quarter, the PTO debited against accrued PTO may be less than requested. Consider this example:

When quarter is 12 weeks long, a full-time employee working exactly 40 hours per week will work 480 total hours.

An employee takes a week off in the middle of the quarter and requests 40 hours of PTO. However, in order to meet the needs of clients, that employee works 45 hours in the weeks before and after the vacation. During the other 9 weeks of the quarter, the employee averages 40 hours/week

In this example, the employee worked 450 hours and requested 40 hours of PTO. But when PTO is settled at the end of the quarter, only 30 hours of PTO will be debited against accrued PTO (480-450=30).

In the reverse, if an employee works fewer hours than what is expected for FTE in a given quarter and has not requested time off, that employee will see PTO debited for the shortfall.

Don't-Dos For Salaried Employees

• Don't work off-the-clock. Working off-the-clock may rob you of well-deserved comp time.
• Don't choose a lower FTE with the intention of working more hours above your FTE to improve your productivity.
• Don't work when you don't have billable work because of cancellations or other essential non-billable work to do. Instead, take a well-deserved break, and make up the time in subsequent weeks.
• Don't work hours short of your FTE for repeated weeks without monitoring your average work time and your PTO accrual. This could result in a PTO deficit and an FTE reduction if you come up short or work time without sufficient PTO to cover it during or at the end of the quarter.

Performance Problems and Competency-Based Pay

Employees are not eligible for competency-based increases:

• when they are not meeting core competencies for their position,
• when they have an open performance intervention for a serious work performance problem.

The two most common core violations include:

• lack of concurrent documentation, and
• lack of compliance with deadlines for assessment and planning for engaged clients.

We want to give you a raise! One that recognizes improved skills. Please work hard on these, and other core competencies. They are accomplished by developing disciplined work habits, planning ahead, and time management.

Procedures for handling these situations follow.

Core Competencies

Initial Training Period

An new employee must demonstrate core competencies for his or her position before completing the probationary/training period and becoming eligible for competency-based performance increases. Between 60 and 90 days from the date of hire, each new employee will be evaluated for core competencies with one of the following outcomes:

• The employee has demonstrated core competencies and develops a Career Plan prioritizing future training and competencies.
• The employee has not demonstrated core competencies but shows potential. A Performance Improvement Plans identifes the areas where additional growth is neded and the probationary/training period is extended. A new evaluation target date is set.
• The employee has demonstrated that he or she cannot acheive the core competencies for the position for which he or she has been hired, and the employee is re-assigned or terminated.

Ongoing Demonstration of the Core

An employee must continue to demonstrate performance of the core competencies for his or her position. If a problem arises that indicates he or she is not still meeting core compentencies we will develop a performance improvement plan identifying the specific core competencies that need improvement, how they will be demonstrated and measured, and target dates. The employee is not eligible to participate in paid competency-based intermediate/advanced training, and is or her current career plan and potential competency-based performance pay increases will be placed on hold until the problem is resolved.

Performance Interventions for More Serious Problems

Similarly, if a problem arises that merits a performance intervention, a similar plan shall be developed. The difference between a Performance Improvement and Performance Intervention Plan is the seriousness of the problem. Performance Interventions are typically problems that represent potential misconduct that unresolved may result in termination. Performance Interventions might include failure to achieve goals and objectives in a Performance Improvement Plan when the individual has received all necessary training, supports and resources to resolve the problem.

Read more about Performance Improvement and Intervention Plans here:

Internships for Current Employees

Accend provides but does not guarantee internships to current employees based on the rules of their particular educational institutions (when they are allowed). Internships must be approved with the following chronological steps:

1. The potential intern gathers information from the college or univesity about requirements, applies for the potential internship to the team member's Program Manager and Clinical Supervisor using the Current Employee Internship Application.
• The Program Manager reviews core competencies. The Team Member must be meeting core in order to be eligible for an internship.
• The Clinical Supervisor examines capacity for meeting the supervision requirements of the internship, or can refer the internship applicant to another qualified intership supervisor.
• The selected supervisor agrees to take on the intern, the Program Manager provisionally endorses the application.
• The application is forwarded to the Executive Director for final provisional approval.
2. The Internship Applicant determines what agreements and documents must be completed for the internship and provides the necessary documents to the appropriate persons at Accend. These might include, for example:
• A Memorandum of Understanding, Affliation Agreement, Placement Agreement or other official document establishing the partnership between the educational instituation and Accend. These documents often cover all internships for a period of time with a specific school, and must be signed by the Accend Executive Director. It is the Internship Applicant's responsibility to confirm that an agreement has been signed, or to obtain a copy from the educational instituation for signature.
• A Supervision Agreement, or Supervision Plan, signed by the Accend Internship supervisor. If the practice of the placing school is that this document is not provided before the internship starts, the intern must communicate this to Accend.
• The Internship is not finally approved until these documents are completed and signed.
3. The Intern provides a copy of the Learning Agreement if required by the school, or a specific plan for the internship developed with the Program Manager and Clincal Supervisor. In either case, the plan, developed as a career plan, describe all internship and learning activities including:
• What direct client services will be included in the internship, and the payrate for these activities.
• What other required or planned project or learning activities are required or included in the internship and expectations for documenting these activities (example outside of paid work time as Internship In and Out).
• Whether or not the Intern will need a status change during the Internship.

Internship Documentation - Employee Interns

Employee interns should separate time spent doing activites associated with their jobs and activities that are exclusive to their internship. These activities should be documentaed off the Accend clock (during Internship In and Out time) Examples are:

• Internal internship supervision beyond what is required for the intern's regular (non-intership) work. (This includes client-specific supervision related to the services that the intern is providing as a part of the internship. Use the note type "Internship Client Specific Supervision".)
• Internship supervision by supervisors outside of Accend.
• Training time for learning activities specific to the internship. (This includes, but is not limited to: observing Diagnostic Assessments or Psychotherapy, meeting with supervisors/trainers on how to write assessments or notes related to internship activities, etc.
• Meetings with Accend and school/program internship liasons or professors.
• Other projects and activities required by the internship and that not part of the employee's assigned tasks.

Termination of Employment

The ending of your employment with us is sad for us, in every case. There are two types of ways your employment might end:

Voluntary: your choice.

Involuntary: our choice

Voluntary resignation is your choice. You may be moving on to the next best opportunity, or may feel that the job you have taking with us is not a good fit for you. We ask that before you take another job, you tell us your reasons for leaving and give us an opportunity to respond (either to the new job offer or to the other reasons you may be considering leaving).

Involuntary Termination

There are two reasons for involuntary termination, as explained below:

Inability

Terminations for inability to do the job are rare, and most often take place in the firt 90 days of employment. As per our management and supervision values we will always look first at whether or not we have supported/trained you adequately to meet job perefomance expectations for the job for which you have been hired.

Termination of employment forinability may occur beyond the training period. This is most often likely to occur when job expectations are changes, most often by outside sources (rule/statute changes for exampl) but also including internal policy/procedure changes.

If policy/procedure changes affect your ability to meet expectations, we will first examine all options, including reasonable acommodations, to help you meet the new requirements before nmaking the termination decision.

Misconduct

Termination for misconduct shall take place in any of the following circumstances and others (not a comprehensive list):

• -Intentional or negligent violations of child/vulnerable adult matreatment polcies, including failure to report maltreatment in some circumstances
• -Failure to report to work as defined by policy
• -Faiure to return to work following requested leave (without requesting additional leave) as defined by policy
• -Insubordination as defined by failing to follow reasonable direct orders/instructions of supervisors
• -Intentional or negligent violations of any policy/procedure in the policy/procedure guide

Calendar Quarters Reference 2024

Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4
Dec 31, 2023 - March 23, 2024	March 24, 2024 - June 15, 2024	June 16, 2024 - Sept 21, 2024	Sept 22, 2024 - Dec 28, 2024

Feedback or Questions about this Chapter

This guide is a living document. We want to improve it with your help. Do you have questions? Found a typo? Find yourself wanting more information? Please send us your thoughts about anything in this chapter by tapping on the link below.

Updates to this Chapter

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November 16, 2022: Termination of Employment section added.

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December 29, 2022: Core Competencies defined.

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March 1, 2023: Updated quarterly dates for 2023.

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May 7, 2023: Links updated.

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January 11, 2024: Updated quarterly dates for 2024.