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Introduction to Career Development

What You Will Learn

What are Accend's values about my personal career development?

How do I advance my own career as an employee at Accend?

What is competency-based pay and what are the benefits to me?

What does competency-based pay mean to me, as a long-term team member?

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):

Elements of Career Advancement

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

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:

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

How Competency-Based Pay Works

Competency-based pay replaces annual wage 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:

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 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

Some benefits are based on FTE. These include the employer match on health and dental benefits and hourly PTO accrual rates. At Accend, direct service employees may choose their FTE. Guidelines for this are:

Decreases

Voluntary permanent decrease: Employees wishing to decrease their FTE may do so at any time, providing sufficient notice to meet the needs of current clients.

Voluntary temporary decrease: Employees experiencing illness, injury or family emergency may request a partial leave follow the procedures in the Paid Time Off and Leaves of Absence policy.

Involuntary decrease: Employees who are consistently not working their assigned (requested) FTE where work is available may receive an involutary decrease in their assigned FTE. This will happen with a warning after three consecutive pay periods and a remediation plan. If the employee is still not working their assigned FTE after three additional pay periods, or making substantial progress, the employee's FTE will be adjusted downward to reflect actual hours worked.

Employees are discouraged from using PTO repeatedly for cancellations to maintain their FTE. Instead they should request a meeting to discuss the problem and consider accepting additional referrals.

Increases

Employees wishing to increase their FTE may do so by requesting referrals and immediately beginning to work at a higher FTE as these referrals engage. Once the employee has worked the new FTE for three consecutive pay periods, and is meeting productivity targets, their FTE will be adjusted upward to the new desired FTE.

Salaried Positions

Effective December 29, 2024 due to changes in federal labor laws, only Department and Program Manager, Directors and Treatment Supervisor positions will be paid on a salary basis.

Performance Problems and Competency-Based Pay

Employees are not eligible for competency-based increases:

The two most common core violations include:

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:

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:

Administrative Supervision Guide.

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.
  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:
  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:

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:

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):

Calendar Quarters Reference 2024

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
Dec 31, 2023 - March 23, 2024 March 24, 2024 - June 29, 2024 June 30, 2024 - Sept 21, 2024 Sept 22, 2024 - Dec 28, 2024

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Updates to this Chapter



June 5, 2024: References to salary for direct service positions modified in preparation for the change to hourly pay for these roles. Language on FTE adjustments modified to reflect new procedures associated with this change. Salary table for direct service positions deleted.



November 16, 2022: Termination of Employment section added.



December 29, 2022: Core Competencies defined.



March 1, 2023: Updated quarterly dates for 2023.



January 11, 2024: Updated quarterly dates for 2024.



May 7, 2023: Links updated.



June 21, 2023: Calendar Quarters Reference 2024 corrected