We are about 21 months from CalSAWS go-live in our county, and it is natural to wonder how training will be accomplished. Those of you were around for CalWIN go-live will remember trailers set up with banks of computers, assigned training classes, many unanswered questions about business processes, and the huge perspective shift. I personally remember being in class with someone who wept the entire time (and pretty quickly after that, retired). What will our experience be like this time? Let me share what I know. Read on to learn more!
Business Processes
In March of this year, we worked with the CalWIN Implementation Support Services vendor, Deloitte, to map our “as-is” business processes. This process helped us understand where we need to focus on standardizing our business processes, and gave Deloitte the information they needed about our county to assess where the major changes in business processes will occur to successfully migrate to CalSAWS. In October 2021, we will work with Deloitte again to map our “to-be” business processes, with special focus on a process change inventory outlining the key changes needed in our existing business processes. Having our “to-be” processes mapped out will prepare our trainers to address the business process questions that will arise when technical training in CalSAWS occurs. Our CalSAWS Core Project Team will also be able to incorporate business process answers into their demos and Q&A sessions.
Opportunities for CalSAWS Familiarization
The CalSAWS Core Project Team is already fulfilling requests for demos of CalSAWS functionality. Our Team continues to build expertise in the CalSAWS Sandbox (similar to a Training Environment) and will happily entertain invitations to join unit and team meetings to demonstrate functionality. We plan to offer learning labs starting in early 2022 where staff can sign up to experience the CalSAWS Sandbox environment for themselves, guided by Core Team staff.
Formal Training
The CalSAWS training approach will be role-based and include a combination of web-based training modules, classroom training to incorporate business processes, and practice labs. Train-the-Trainer sessions (for Staff Development) will happen in December 2022, and Early Training will occur in January 2023 for selected staff (such as DBS and selected Change Champions). Training for all staff will begin 9 weeks prior to go-live, beginning at the end of February 2023.
The graphic below (click to enlarge) depicts an example of a training plan for a CalWORKs EW. Keep in mind that our training roles and plan will be specific to our county.
The table below (click to enlarge) is an example of specified roles—training will be tailored to the needs of each role and some staff may receive training in more than one role. Specific roles will be established for our county.
Following is a sample schedule (click to enlarge) of web-based training for a CalWORKs EW. Web-based trainings must be completed before scheduled classroom training. This is an example only—training course schedules will be customized for our county needs.
Finally, the graphic below (click to enlarge) illustrates the criteria that will guide our training effort. Trainers will be a combination of Deloitte staff and our own training team.
As you can see, a very robust training plan is very much in the works, and will be presented in a way that ensures a successful adaptation to the CalSAWS environment. We hope you found this sneak peek informative!