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.
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.
Core Competencies Include
- Productivity at rates determined by role
- Concurrent Documentation 80% of days
- Due Items submitted by deadlines 80% of opportunities
Accend uses a system of annual reviews and pay increases earned through:
- Completion of 15 hours of training annually
- Demonstration of three core competencies
Methods
- Meeting minimum productivity defined for the role/position is mandatory for any increase.
- Increases of 3% are awarded for meeting all three core competencies.
- Meeting minimum productivity and at least 70% in both other (Concurrent Documentation or Due Items) will result in a 2% increase.
- If none of the above are true, the team member is not eligible for an annual increase.
These competencies will be measured as averages for the time period reviewed (past year).
For employees receiving their first annual review measurement of data will include only the time period since the end of the training/probationary period.
For individuals in roles not requiring assessment and planning, that competency will not be considered.
Competencies Explained
Productivity
Productivity is defined by achieving (on average for the time period reviewed) minimmum target time for each role/position. These include:
- ARMHS, CTSS, Psychotherapy
- ARMHS and CTSS Practitioners, Psychotherapy: 75%
- ARMHS Workers or Associates: 80%
- Peer Specialists
- Level I: 80%
- Level II: 75%
Housing Stabilization Services: 80%
Integrated Care Managers
- 0.8 = 23 insured and eligible clients seen per month on average
- 0.9 = 26 insured and eligible clients seen per month on average
- 1.0 = 28 insured and eligible clients seen per month on average
Concurrent Documentation
Concurrent documentation at 80% means that notes for each work day are submitted for approval by noon the next working day. Our most successful team members draft their notes in session with clients where possible or shortly after the session and submit their time at the end of the day.
Due Items
Due Items include required assesssment for the service provided, Treatment Plans every 6 months, and for some services eligiblity determinations and updates. These will be measured during Treatment Supervision as follows, using the following add-ons to the supervision note:
- Disengaged: Overdue assessments for clients resulting from disengagement in services will be excluded from data. Supervision should take place to explore disengagement.
- Ready for Supervision: The provider has documents ready for review at the time of planned Treatment Supervision. Documents are ready for review if the provider has drafted them but has questions and needs help before submitting them as complete.
- Not Ready for Supervision: the provider is not prepared for Treatment Supervision. Supervision may be postponed.
- Rescheduled for Due Items: This add-on is used for a follow-up session when supervision is cancelled for Due Items. It does not contribute to the data. If the rescheduled session is again postponed for due items. Use that again.
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.
| Role/Position |
Base Rate |
Max Pay |
| ARMHS/CTSS Practitioner |
Hourly: $23.00
Piece Rate: TBD |
Hourly:TBD
Piece Rate: TBD |
| ARMHS Worker or CTSS-Only Pracitioner
|
Hourly: $18.00
Piece Rate: TBD |
Hourly: TBD
Piece Rate: TBD |
| Housing Support Specialist |
Hourly: $22.00
Piece Rate: TBD |
Hourly: TBD
Piece Rate:TBD |
| Peer Specialist 2 |
Hourly: $23.00
Piece Rate:TBD |
Hourly:TBD
Piece Rate: TBD |
| Peer Specialist 1 |
Hourly: $18.00
Piece Rate: TBD
| Hourly: TBD
Piece Rate: TBD |
| Integrated Care Manager |
Hourly: $24.00
Piece Rate: NA
| Hourly: TBD
Piece Rate: NA |
| Clinical Trainee or Intern |
Piece Rate: $30.00 |
Piece Rate: $40.00 |
FTE Changes
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.
An employee must strive to demonstrate performance of the core competencies for his or her position. If a problem arises that indicates a serious problem, 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 recieve annual increases if the the problem is not resolved at the time of the annual review.
Performance Interventions for More Serious Problems
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:
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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
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
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.
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
February 9, 2025:
Major rewrite of pay increase strategies and deletion of all references to competency-based pay deleted. This change is based on feedback from staff in the staff survey and a focus group held to develop this policy.
Calendar Quarters Reference deleted as no longer applicable to this chapter.
