The largest federal employee union has warned that the VA is not doing enough to recruit and retain the workforce needed to keep up with the VA’s medical and benefits demands.
The Federation of American Civil Servants (AFGE) released a report Tuesday detailing the results of a survey sent to employees in the negotiation department.
AFGE’s National VA Council and the Veterans Healthcare Policy Institute (VHPI) have sent out a survey questionnaire for Spring 2022…
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The largest federal employee union has warned that the VA is not doing enough to recruit and retain the workforce needed to keep up with the VA’s medical and benefits demands.
Federation of American Civil Servants (AFGE) Report released on Tuesday Finding details sent to employees in the Negotiations department.
AFGE’s National VA Council and Veterans Healthcare Policy Institute (VHPI) sent out a survey questionnaire in spring 2022 to 90,000 VA employees represented by AFGE. About 2,000 employees responded to the survey.
Almost all survey respondents who work at the Veterans Health Administration said they agreed their facilities needed more frontline clinical staff, and 77% of VHA respondents said they needed more administrative staff. said to be necessary.
About 77% of respondents said they have vacancies that are not being filled.
AFGE is releasing its findings as the VA reports record employment rates across its healthcare and benefits workforce.
VHA’s total headcount increased by 9,590 in the first five months of fiscal 2023 — an increase of 2.5%. This is the agency’s highest growth rate in over 20 years. The VHA has also cut its decline rate by almost half compared to 2022.
Meanwhile, the Veterans Benefits Administration’s total workforce increased by 1,369 employees, or more than 5%, in the first four months of fiscal 2023. This is the highest rate of increase in the last 20 years.
Both VHA and VBA expect to meet, if not exceed, their 2023 recruitment targets.
VA spokesman Terrence Hayes said the VA under the PACT Act has added more than 10 new agencies to help with hiring and retention. These include higher student loan repayment limits. Hiring, relocation and retention incentives. Eliminate statutory restrictions on rewards and bonuses.
The VA is already moving forward with some of the PACT Act’s incentives, such as expanding student loan repayment powers, but Hayes said the VA plans to implement some of the remaining PACT Act powers later this spring. I said yes.
These efforts build on additional efforts from last year, including pay increases for nearly 10,000 VA nurses under the RAISE Act.
“Despite this progress, much remains to be done. The resources needed to provide veterans, their families, caregivers and survivors with the support and world-class care and benefits they need. VA will not rest until every VA employee has a
“Often it’s just limited resources.”
The PACT Act would allow the VA to offer recruitment and retention incentives to high-demand healthcare workers, but AFGE officials say the VA has not fully utilized those powers.
The PACT Act also allows VAs to offer hiring, retention and relocation incentives worth up to 50% of an employee’s salary, and the Act allows VAs to pay these incentives in full up front. is allowed.
However, Linda Ward-Smith, president of AFGE Local 1224 in Las Vegas, said in some cases the VA has not paid out promised sign-up bonuses to new hires.
“If veterans don’t pay what they promised to pay them when they got in, they’ll definitely leave. They make promises, but many providers don’t keep them,” Ward-Smith said. said. “They offer sign-on bonuses, but the VA is allowed not to pay those bonuses due to crazy laws affecting doctors and nurses.”
Ward-Smith said the VA needs to offer higher salaries than it is offering to fill more than 1,000 vacancies in her area.
“Salaries are not competitive in our market where we can sustain them. [VA] Employees for the amount of stuff we put on them because of the staffing levels we don’t have,” she said.
The law-based VA now allows employees to provide student loan repayments of up to $100,000 over the course of their career, or up to $40,000 annually.
But Barbara Gallé, president of AFGE Local 3669 in Minneapolis, said the local VA’s administrators “probably have too much leeway” in how bonuses are paid out.
“What you see in the Northwest is, ‘OK, you have $40,000 in student loans, and the VA is going to give you a check, but we’re going to tax that $40,000. $40,000. You said you would give me a full refund,” Galle said.
VHPI Senior Policy Analyst Suzanne Gordon said that while the VA is focused on offering PACT Act incentives for hiring new employees, it’s important to offer retention incentives to current VA employees. He said he didn’t put much emphasis on
“Often resources are limited,” she said.
Gordon added that the VA was still offering unapproved retention benefits before the PACT Act was enacted in August 2022.
“They were offering a lump sum on the front end, but they couldn’t do that until the PACT law passed… when you got burned, [they] Say, “This is a deal.” No, this isn’t a deal — it’s really a deal,” Gordon said. “Looks like a gimmick and they can walk out the door.”
The VBA is also hiring more, but AFGE officials said the agency has not prepared new hires and current employees to handle PACT law claims.
More than 60% of survey respondents working in VBA said they were considering leaving their jobs in the next few years due to staffing shortages and unrealistic work metrics.
David Bump, vice president of AFGE Local 2157 in Portland, Oregon, said the VBA has not provided its employees with the training necessary to process PACT law claims.
“I can’t say enough good things about the training we got on the PACT method.
VBA employees were initially given some slides on the agency’s talent management system as initial training for handling PACT Act complaints, Bump said. He said the VBA later released his 80-page document outlining standard operating procedures for his PACT Act claims.
“I spoke with several counterparts in offices around the country whose employees were given two hours to read it and were expected to know every little aspect of it,” he said.
Bump says the training problem is even more acute for new VBA adopters.
“We may be hiring at record levels, but it takes a long time to learn how to do this job. It’s very complicated,” he said. “When I was hired, they said it would take him four years before he was comfortable doing the job. Well, now they say it’s two years for him.”
VA Hiring Time Keeps New Hires Away
Half of the survey respondents said VA’s Human Resources Modernization Initiative, The effort, which began under the Trump administration, has contributed to recruitment and retention challenges.
Over 90% of respondents said HR delays deterred interested candidates.
“When we put out an ad, hundreds of people apply, but by the time they make the offer, they’re gone,” Ward-Smith says.
February is the first month of the fiscal year in which the VHA accelerated its time to hire. VA Commissioner Denis McDonough said last fall that agencies spend 90 to 100 days recruiting candidates selected to fill positions.
More than half of VHA survey respondents say they spend less time providing direct patient care and support services than they did four years ago.
“What you’re seeing is people coming in and saying, ‘I’ve seen patients, and sometimes they didn’t follow up until like three or four weeks. [later]said Mary-Jean Burke, first executive vice president of AFGE’s National VA Council.
Gordon said the VA may be hiring, but said some staff have moved away from frontline patient care to handle referrals to community care outside the VA. rice field.
According to the report, community health care budgets increased 116% from 2017 to 2021, while in-house veterans care budgets increased 32% over the same period.
“If you separate two psychologists who provide care to patients, you’re missing 60 to 90 appointments a week. These things have to go hand in hand,” Gordon said. I was.
