7th Annual 2001 - 2002 Best Practices Award Winners

MANAGEMENT
Workers' Compensation Board
The MIRROR

Workplace injuries, and their aftermath, impact hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers each year. In 2001, nearly 270,000 workplace injuries were reported to the New York State Workers' Compensation Board. In the past, New York's workers' compensation system had been characterized as slow and unresponsive. It had been suggested that system participants and the Workers' Compensation Board did more "to add insult to injury" than to efficiently and effectively administer claims for benefits under the law.

The New York State Workers' Compensation Board embarked on an aggressive program to revitalize the Workers' Compensation Program in New York State and refocus the agency's efforts on service to our customers - the State's workers and employers. The environment envisioned included not only significant systems and technology improvements, but also a comprehensive restructuring of the workforce, and completely reengineered work processes that would advance the agency's mission "...to serve the workers and employers of New York State by fairly and promptly administering the provisions of the Workers' Compensation Law".

The Board recognized, however, that a reengineering project that addressed only functional requirements would fail to deliver the Board's ultimate goals. The Board's systems modernization effort would need to also include technological innovations that address the informational requirements of the Agency and its constituents. A clear and consistent set of performance measures, including targets and visions, is perhaps the single most critical factor in implementing change in an organization. There is no more powerful means of communicating to stake holders that things are going to be different than to clearly measure the new processes. Prior to reengineering, the Board did not have the data necessary to adequately and accurately measure its processes. While there were manually prepared reports consuming significant resources to produce, the results were time consuming, error prone, and strictly volumetric. As part of the reengineering project, the Board developed an application software system, called "the MIRROR - Management Information, Research, References & Operational Reports" which distills and presents performance data.

This year, the Board has selected the "MIRROR" as our Best Practices Award nomination because this project most closely embodies the substantive efforts and achievements identified as qualification for this award. The team responsible for implementing the MIRROR was tasked with developing the performance measures for programs within the Board that would directly support the Agency's "Balanced Scorecard" of performance measures for the new Claims Operations, Conciliation, Adjudication and Appeals processes. They were tasked with developing the targets for performance in each of the areas measured and they have been leaders in the process of integrating performance measures into management programs at the Board. While the development of functional software systems like the Electronic Case Folder were instrumental in launching the successful Business Process Improvements at the Board, the efforts reflected by the implementation of the MIRROR have enabled sustained and continual improvement throughout the Board. It represents the critical "next step;" both evolving and validating the earlier technologies while enabling their benefits to become fully realized. The MIRROR's technical innovation has been recognized by Sybase, Inc and selected for presentation at the company's annual international Technical Conference (TechWave ). The project team was recognized in New York by the Governor's Office of Employee Relations winning the Work Force Champions award in 2001 and the MIRROR was recognized by the Citizens Budget Commission winning its annual Prize for Public Service Innovation 2002. The project reflects imaginative innovation both in terms of a highly successful project team and technical accomplishment.

In July, 2001 the "current insights" reported by the META Group included the following:

"...By 2003/04, market leaders will drive changes with scorecards and cross-organizational teams. By 2005/06, companies will link strategies to individual behaviors through cascading management systems that monitor internal staff..."

These features are in the MIRROR today. While government innovation tends to lag the private sector, the MIRROR's innovations are far ahead of the trends. The MIRROR represents a "front end" application software system that provides access to the "back end" database of performance data. The MIRROR has numerous features including:

  • Standardized report layouts including easy access to performance data and the performance target
  • My Favorites - Create a customized collection of the reports you need to see.
  • Online Help that easily guides the new user through the MIRROR's many features and Documentation that enables the new user to learn the fundamentals of measuring performance
  • The Data Dictionary allows users to understand all of the meta-data; the information about the data and how it is summarized or aggregated in support of measuring performance.
  • Report levels and easy drill-downs that direct the user to the best level of detail for their interests.
  • Open many reports at once and tile them side-by-side or over-under for easy comparison.
  • Report Extracts allows data to be saved in any one of dozens of industry standard file formats.

In addition to these robust navigational features, the MIRROR supports acquiring a narrative analysis from "owners" of the report. The MIRROR is bi-directional; it not only delivers performance data but also facilitates the acquisition of qualifying commentary.

The Board has made, and is continuing to make, sweeping changes in the way that workers' compensation cases are resolved. Many of the operational successes are attributable to the implementation of performance measures and the MIRROR. The Board is replicating the work of this project with a new performance measures project addressing the Office of Compliance and Regulatory Services. The plan, methods, templates and deliverables are now being applied to a wholly different aspect of the Workers' Compensation Board by a different team.

The MIRROR represents the Board's ability to address the operational and technological obstacles to implementing performance measures. This innovation has fostered a performance driven culture at the Board that encourages excellence in its practices. This evidences itself in, as noted by the New York State Claims Commission, the Board's "steadfast commitment to making improvements to advance justice and fundamental fairness for all participants in the New York workers' compensation system "

Contact:

Thomas B. Wegener
Workers' Compensation Board
100 Broadway
Menands, NY 12241
(518) 486-5143
tom.wegener@wcb.state.ny.us