Implementing Washington’s paid leave program

When a baby is born, a child is adopted, or a family member takes ill, employees are often stretched thin to provide financially for their families while also caring and bonding with family members during challenging times. Paid Family Medical Leave programs across the country allow private and public employees to take extended sick leave under these circumstances to support families.

Thirteen states and in the country and the District of Columbia have enacted Paid Family Medical Leave programs. In 2020, 20 more had proposed such programs. As a response to COVID-19, several states enacted emergency and limited paid leave for employees with the virus.

Only the fifth program of its kind in the nation at the time, the Washington State Employment Security Department (ESD) blazed a trail for other states. The journey began in 2017, with a mission to “provide an easily accessible benefit that helps employers and employees maintain economic stability and peace of mind in challenging times.” Starting in 2020, the new benefit allows employees in Washington state to take up to 12 weeks of paid leave to bond with a new child, care for an ill or ailing family member, spend time with a family member preparing for military service overseas, or care for themselves when they experience a serious health condition preventing them from working.

Implementing any new program requires a great deal of effort and commitment. Implementing a Paid Family Medical Leave program means coordination with federal, state and private enterprises. Key to the success for Washington state was the persistent and committed focus on culture, respect for people, innovation, and relentless improvement. Faced with an aggressive timeline, the team:

• created a culture of change,

• adopted the Scrum framework following Agile principles; and

• remained laser-focused on a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) with subsequent iterative improvements.

ESD implemented all aspects of the Paid Family and Medical Leave (Paid Leave) Program from scratch, which included:

• setting up a new division,

• developing and determining how to implement new rules,

• creating standard operating procedures,

• creating a world-class customer care operation, and

• implementing tools to support the new program.

A key component of the project was the procurement, development and implementation of a new technology platform for employers to pay for the program and employees to receive the benefit.

Treinen’s Role

ESD selected Treinen Associates, Inc. to provide expert-level project management, technical project management and project coordination services to plan, design and implement two IT vendor’s products and the associated business infrastructure, operational support and technology. Treinen consultants were engaged as a trusted partner to do what we have done for decades: deliver the highest quality services to ensure our customers achieve their objectives.

Adjusting to the changing needs of the program, our team of consultants led and partnered with executive leadership and staff to guide the success of the program and project implementation. This was a result of assessing which strategies and expertise would suit the customer’s goals and devising methods to achieve the desired results. Our expert-level project leadership ensured consistency for workstream alignment and program governance at all levels.

We ensured cohesion between detailed team plans and the overarching program goals and direction. We employed best practices in organizational development with the program Change Manager. To ensure delivery of MVP, we utilized technical project management skills to develop a Product Release Plan which focused the development team on the highest priority work. Our measures using burndown charts provided insight and confirmation that the resource leveling could deliver the committed scope. Throughout the course of the project, consistent communication to all stakeholders, ad-hoc mentorship for project leaders and key team members, and collaboration on multiple process improvement initiatives to mature the organization’s use of Agile at the program level, ensured team success.

Key Success Factors

There were several key areas which the Treinen Project Management Team focused on to effectively deliver this project.

Leadership and Communication

Active engagement of project sponsorship and governance was managed through proactive facilitation of Executive Steering and Advisory Committees, and reporting to the governor’s office. A significant focus on communication transparency and expectation management, even when messages conveyed project challenges, ensured a high level of credibility and sponsor support.

The team regularly took a pulse of project leadership and staff to assess where communication could improve. Based upon the inputs, we adjusted our approach to ensure the team received what was needed to accomplish the work. This included implementing several visual management tools customized for the team.

The Treinen consultants were embedded with the project teams which allowed us to provide timely guidance and adjustments, as well as keep the staff well-informed. This also gave us insights in order to validate that project plans and schedules could be met as we directly observed team progress.

Aggressive Timeline Management

The project scope represented one of the largest initiatives in Washington state government history. It included developing the organization and systems to allow employers to begin collecting premiums, remitting those premiums to the state on a quarterly schedule, and accepting applications for benefits. The magnitude of the effort, coupled with the aggressive milestone schedule, required innovative approaches in order to meet the legislative mandate.

Meeting the schedule required ruthless prioritization and focus on the MVP for iterative development. Using a data driven decision model with a disposition to fail fast, provided an environment where the team could deliver on time.

The Treinen team developed additional project schedule monitoring tools which represented the scope and progress toward milestones in a simple, yet measurable way. These charts were a valuable tool for both executives and the teams in aligning effort with requirements.

Process Improvement Mindset

The pioneering nature of the work required an innovative mindset. An iterative and persistent focus on improvement allowed for adjustments to keep progress aligned toward the mission.

The team’s willingness to re-evaluate, make gaps visible and address them resulted in opportunities rather than threats to success. Frequent reflection to identify and address root causes resulted in a better quality product and process.

The Treinen team regularly led initiatives to facilitate adjustments needed by the project in order to remain focused on achieving desired outcomes. The project formally sought customer feedback as additional input to guide in ensuring the delivered product, working software, met the business need and helped the client and end user customers accomplish their goals.

Outcomes

As a result of the project management approach, the culture of trust and innovation and continuous process improvement, the project was a success on all fronts: scope, schedule, budget, and perhaps most importantly, customer experience and use.   

Key project milestones met: 

• Employers collecting premium payments (on-time)

• Employers submitting premium payments to ESD (soft launch April 2019)

• Loan repayment with interest (ahead of schedule)

• Customers able to submit benefit applications (3 days early)

In addition, ESD was the recipient of the National Association of State Workforce Agencies’ 2020 Merrill Baumgardner Excellence in Information Technology award.

Washington’s journey has been a model for others across the nation as they look to this program’s successes as an example for building and launching a Paid Leave program.