Strategic Goal: Restore the capability of disabled veterans to the greatest extent possible and improve their quality of life and that of their families. Maximize the ability of disabled veterans, special veteran populations, and their dependents and survivors to become full and productive members of society through a system of health care, compensation, vocational rehabilitation, life insurance, dependency and indemnity compensation, and dependents and survivors education.

Objective: Enable service-disabled veterans to become employable, and obtain and maintain suitable employment.

Performance Goal: At least 70 percent of all veteran participants who exit the vocational rehabilitation program will be rehabilitated.

The vocational rehabilitation and employment (VR&E) program assists veterans with service-connected disabilities to achieve functional independence in daily activities. It provides all services and assistance necessary to enable service-disabled veterans to become employable, and to obtain and maintain suitable employment. The outcome is the placement of service-disabled veterans in suitable employment or the achievement of independence in daily living, following a program of rehabilitation services.

For many service-disabled veterans, the VR&E program is the best opportunity they will ever have to establish themselves in suitable employment, or achieve the maximum level of functioning in daily living activities. While many circumstances exist which preclude the completion of the rehabilitation goal, such as worsening disability or personal hardship, VA is committed to helping veterans complete their rehabilitation programs successfully. The degree of success in achieving this outcome goal is measured by the percentage of veterans who exit the program through successful rehabilitation; that is, veterans who have obtained employment and remain employed.

We will pursue several initiatives during the fiscal year that will significantly improve the rehabilitation rate. The most important ones are briefly described below.

• Improve Staff Competencies – VA has developed a skills matrix which contains the key skills required for VR&E staff to properly do their jobs. The instrument is used to assess the current level of skills of each staff member and identify areas that need development. The results of the assessment are used to create individual and group training programs to overcome skill deficits.

• Employment Services Enhancements – This initiative will advance our progress in assisting service-disabled veterans to achieve suitable employment by providing VR&E staff with state-of-the-art training and tools that will help veterans achieve their employment goals more quickly and efficiently. It will help decrease the time between when the veteran is job ready and entry into suitable employment. The initiative involves training in employment services and the use of videotaping equipment to teach interview skills to veterans.

• Access – Through this initiative, VA will provide case managers with laptop computers and other supporting equipment necessary to accomplish their jobs without regard to their physical location. While visiting a veteran away from the office, a case manager will be able to access the systems and data files that he or she would normally use during the course of providing VR&E services. Under this initiative, the case manager will also be able to conduct network teleconferencing with veterans and other VR&E staff at regional offices, outbased locations, and selected access points.

VA partners with the Department of Labor (DOL) to conduct training on employment assistance and techniques using a new transferable skills inventory.

Oversight authorities such as Congress, the General Accounting Office (GAO), and the Veterans’ Advisory Committee on Rehabilitation have been critical of the effectiveness of the VR&E program. Some corrective measures were taken to respond to their criticisms. More recently, the final report of the Congressional Commission of Servicemembers and Veterans Transition Assistance has added concern about program focus and effectiveness. Some of the criticisms highlight valid, unresolved problems within the program, many of which have been addressed or are being addressed. Others of the criticisms can be tied back to the problems of customer service and attrition of program participants.

The VR&E leadership analyzed these criticisms to identify the fundamental, systemic issues that must be corrected or mitigated to create lasting improvements in the VR&E program. They are summarized into the seven major areas described below:

• Focus on employment. Despite recent success rate improvements in placing veterans in suitable employment, VR&E has not fully redirected its emphasis from training to employment. VR&E personnel need more expertise in employment markets and trends, and job placement strategies. Overcoming these shortcomings will require additional tools and training in the latest rehabilitation and employment services techniques. In addition, performance evaluation and incentive systems must be restructured to align VR&E employee behavior with the current focus of the program.

• Realign customer perceptions and expectations with the program’s intent. Many veterans, stakeholders, and partners view the VR&E program as an education program, rather than a program geared toward employment. As a result, many veterans have misconceptions when they apply for the program, leading to frustration and high attrition in the application and evaluation phases of the rehabilitation process. These misconceptions must be resolved to improve performance, service delivery, and customer satisfaction.

• Improve monitoring of outcomes and feedback to the program. VR&E personnel do not yet fully understand the reasons why the majority of program participants eventually drop out of the program. Feedback of this sort is crucial to reducing the attrition rate and improving customer satisfaction. Further, VR&E does not collect longitudinal data on the long-term success of participants from various rehabilitation tracks. Data of this sort would assist VR&E leadership in establishing program policies and directives that enable field personnel to better align veterans in rehabilitation programs with proven career paths.

• Improve IT support for the program. Many routine tasks and management functions that could be automated, such as scheduling and reporting, are either done manually or performed using inadequate technology. Besides generating more opportunities for data-related errors, additional clerical work increases the cost of VR&E services and detracts from providing value-added services to veterans. In addition, the current systems do not capture all of the necessary information to help manage the program. The integration of technological solutions to replace outdated and labor-intensive tasks provides the VR&E program with more opportunities to be the direct service-provider it aspires to be.

• Improve access for veterans. By its very nature, the VR&E program requires a close relationship between VR&E personnel and veterans. This relationship hinges on the veteran having easy access to VA personnel. However, veterans sometimes must travel great distances to see their case manager or counseling psychologist. Compounding this situation is the fact that some veterans may not have resources to contact VR&E staff through other methods such as telephone, facsimile, or electronic mail. Establishing flexible access paths will connect veterans with VA personnel. Greater personal interaction and information exchange will reduce frustration and dissatisfaction among veterans and employees and may even encourage more veterans to participate in the program.

• Foster coalitions with peer organizations and partners. VR&E has not capitalized on its linkage to other vocational rehabilitation organizations, training and educational facilities such as DOL, the Small Business Administration, the Department of Defense (DoD), VHA, and other VA business lines. Through more effective networking and partnerships, VR&E will enhance its ability to provide veterans with program information and services in order to help them successfully achieve their goals.

• Improve business process efficiencies. Presently, VR&E services are not delivered in the most timely and accurate fashion and are not cost effective. Reforming business practices and processes is critical to VR&E’s vision. The guiding principles and strategies for the future concentrate on improving personal contacts with veterans so that they are actively involved throughout their rehabilitation program. Proactive involvement of veterans and VR&E personnel will create greater opportunities to avoid time-consuming obstacles that many veterans encounter such as delayed delivery of services and payments. Additionally, streamlined business processing will reduce the number of handoffs involved with the veteran’s claim and will reduce the potential for errors. From the perspectives of veterans, stakeholders, and VR&E personnel, greater continuity of services enhances veterans’ successful completion of their rehabilitation plans.

Data are entered into the benefits delivery network case status system. Its accuracy is validated during semi-annual case reviews in Central Office.

(For additional information on this performance goal, refer to General Operating Expenses, Volume 4, Chapter 2E.)