About Half of Veterans Seeking Employment Are Successful, Although Program Participants Face Many Challenges

		About Half of Veterans Find Suitable Jobs, but Time Frames Can Be Lengthy

About half of the veterans who entered the VR&E program in fiscal year  2003 and received employment-related services have obtained suitable  jobs. Many others—4,841—had discontinued  (stopped participating) and not yet re-applied. A Variety of Challenges May Result in Many Veterans Not Completing the Program

While veterans may discontinue for a variety of reasons, analysis of  administrative data, results from a VA customer satisfaction survey, and  our interviews with VR&E staff and participants point to several key  challenges that may affect veterans at any stage of the rehabilitation  process. VA Has Made Limited Progress in Improving VR&E Performance Management, Workload Management, and Training

		VA Faces Challenges with Measuring Employment Outcomes and Veteran Satisfaction

			VR&E Outcome Measurement Presents a Challenge for VA

VA has identified limitations with its primary measure of VR&E success— the rehabilitation rate—and is considering replacing it with a numeric  target for positive outcomes. Some VRCs noted that this can occur when a veteran has a  serious mental health condition, for example. In some cases veterans may work with multiple VRCs even if an office does not take a  specialization approach. VA Is Addressing Redundancy and Most Gaps in VR&E Staff Training

In the course of our work, we found evidence that staff had experienced  redundancy and critical gaps in their training; however, VA had taken  recent steps to address the redundancy and most, but not all of the  training gaps. Workplace accommodations help ensure veterans with disabilities can  successfully perform on the job and maintain their employment. Conclusions

VA has taken steps to improve its management of the VR&E program— ultimately with the goal of helping more veterans with disabilities attain  suitable employment—but its ongoing efforts may not sufficiently address  certain key management issues. In revisiting VA’s formula for allocating VR&E staff among the regional  offices, (a) assess the inclusion of factors related to regional office  performance and if warranted remove them from the formula, and (b)  assess the exclusion of any factor related to the number of  educational counseling cases in each regional office and If warranted  add such a factor. Specifically, VA concurred with 5 of our 6 recommendations, and noted  steps it plans to take to address them, as follows. With regard to our recommendation to assess regional offices’  workload management approaches, VA said it plans to collect and  analyze data on the various approaches and inform the regions  about best practices. GAO staff members who made key  contributions to this report are listed in appendix V.

Appendix I: Objectives, Scope, and Methodology

The objectives of this report were to examine (1) the outcomes for  veterans seeking employment through the Vocational Rehabilitation and  Employment (VR&E) program, and (2) the progress the Department of  Veterans Affairs (VA) has made in addressing critical management  issues. To address these objectives, we reviewed relevant federal laws,  regulations, and guidance, as well as VA documentation related to the  VR&E program and recent management initiatives. We reviewed various criteria for  effective program management, including in the areas of performance  management and staff training. We analyzed VA administrative data on  VR&E participants who applied to the program between fiscal years 2003  and 2012 (see below for more information on our efforts to analyze and  ensure the reliability of these data), and interviewed VA central office staff  responsible for the VR&E program, VR&E managers and staff in VA  regional benefits offices (see below for details on office selection), and  representatives of the Disabled American Veterans and the Paralyzed  Veterans of America. Finally, veterans could have been diagnosed with one or more disabilities,  such as mental health conditions, ear disorders, and/or cardiovascular  disorders. Appendix III: Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor Training Gaps Identified by VA in 2010 and the Agency’s Efforts to Address

Training gaps     New VRCs  How to provide services to veterans recently  discharged from the military  How to provide services to veterans with severe  disabilities  How to determine when extended evaluation is  necessary and conduct subsequent individualized  extended evaluation plan development  How to closeout cases for different veteran outcomes  (e.g., for veterans who achieved suitable employment  or maximum rehabilitation gain)
For new and experienced VRCs   How to provide services to veterans with traumatic  brain injuries (TBI)
How to provide services to veterans with post- traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
How to conduct a preliminary and/or comprehensive IL  assessment  How to input benefit awards into the computer system   (e.g., inputting the decision to provide a veteran a  subsistence allowance)
2-hour course on VR&E fiscal accuracy and integrity Two 1-hour courses on VR&E processing of  subsistence allowance awards 1-hour course on employment adjustment allowances VA added this course to the fiscal year 2013 curriculum to address changes to its guidance for  independent living and delivered the training in September, 2013.
Why GAO Did This Study

Veterans with disabilities face special challenges to finding employment-- resulting, for example, from the veterans' physical or mental health, or negative attitudes or stereotypes on the part of some employers. VA's VR&E program aims to help veterans with disabilities obtain and maintain suitable employment--compatible with their disabilities--through services such as training and job search assistance. The VOW to Hire Heroes Act of 2011 directed GAO to review the program. GAO examined (1) the outcomes for veterans seeking employment through the program, and (2) the progress VA has made in addressing critical management issues. GAO reviewed relevant laws, regulations, and guidance as well as recent studies; reviewed various program management criteria; analyzed VA administrative data on veterans who entered the program between fiscal years 2003 and 2012; interviewed staff at the VA central office and 8 regional offices; interviewed a random but nongeneralizable sample of 17 program participants; and analyzed data from a VA survey of participants.

What GAO Found

About half of the almost 17,000 veterans who entered the Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (VR&E) program in fiscal year 2003 and received employment-related services were placed in suitable jobs, one-third left the program, and most of the others are still participating. It often took veterans 6 years or more to achieve success, due in part to veterans often leaving the program temporarily. Interviews with VR&E staff and participants and administrative data GAO reviewed suggest veterans face numerous challenges that affect their ability to obtain employment, especially related to mental health conditions, working with multiple VR&E counselors over time, and civilian employers' limited understanding of military work experience.
VA has taken steps to improve VR&E performance management, workload management, and staff training, but weaknesses remain. With regard to performance management, VA has an ongoing initiative to revise its approach for measuring rehabilitation success at the individual employee, regional, and national levels. However, the new approach VA is considering for employees reflects only the number, not the rate of successful outcomes, and therefore would not provide sufficient context for understanding program success. VA has not yet developed its new approaches for assessing rehabilitation success regionally and nationally. Also, VA began surveying participants' satisfaction with the program and plans to use the results to manage performance; while VA has generally followed good survey design practices, the agency has not fully assessed the reliability of early customer satisfaction results. In terms of workload management, VA has taken steps to reduce paperwork burdens on regional offices. However, several offices still reported heavy workloads and noted that VA's formula for allocating staff among offices does not consider other staff duties affecting workloads, such as education counseling. In addition, VA has not studied the relative effectiveness and efficiency of regional offices' approaches for assigning staff to manage workloads. Finally, with respect to training, VA has addressed redundancy and most gaps in training for VR&E staff, but gaps remain in the areas of job placement assistance and workplace accommodations.

What GAO Recommends

GAO recommends that VA reflect success rates in revised performance measures, ensure the reliability of its customer satisfaction survey results, re-visit its staff allocation formula, study staff assignments, and close certain gaps in its training for staff. In its comments, VA generally concurred with these recommendations and noted steps it plans to take to address them.