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LA County Department of Mental Health Case Study

Background

In November 2004, California voters passed Proposition 63, which is now known as the Mental Health Services Act. This historic act created a one-percent tax on individuals with personal incomes exceeding $1 million to go directly to new mental health programs in the state of California. The “millionaire tax,” which was projected to generate nearly $600 million from fiscal years 2004-2005 to 2005-2006, affected a number of organizations throughout the Golden State, but few as much as the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health (DMH), which, serving a population of approximately 10 million residents, is the largest mental health service system in the United States.

Challenge

In the wake of the Mental Health Services Act, DMH found itself suddenly inundated with requests for new information technology (IT) projects and services. While dealing with this unprecedented demand, DMH’s Chief Information Officer, Robert Greenless, Ph.D., realized that his staff, although intelligent and motivated, came from diverse professional backgrounds and did not all have the formal training and consistent methodologies required for success.

In response, Dr. Greenless was determined to help his staff develop skills and best practices in business analysis and project management. “We decided that a common understanding and language among our employees, complete with shared knowledge, tools and methodologies, would help them face each new challenge in a consistent way without having to reinvent the wheel each time.”

After an extensive search, DMH engaged industry leader ESI International as their performance improvement partner. Together, the Chief Information Office Bureau and ESI analyzed practices and competencies across the organization and built a program to meet DMH’s specific needs.

Tactics

The Chief Information Office Bureau’s performance improvement program officially began in March 2005 as a “cohort” of employees entered ESI’s Business Analysis Professional Development Program. This initial group attended on-site deliveries of a variety of ESI courses and soon earned their Professional Certificates in Business Analysis from ESI and ESI’s academic partner, The George Washington University (GW).

“ESI’s certificate program and their relationship with GW were major differentiators among the other vendors in the market,” says Sharon Carlson, Associate Chief Information Officer. “ESI allowed us to provide an integrated training curriculum to our employees, not just disparate courses from a list. And, being able to recognize our team’s hard work with Master’s Certificates in Project Management and Business Analysis was an excellent benefit.”

DMH was also pleased with the fact that ESI was able to deliver courses on site and that its training curricula were consistent with the Project Management Institute’s (PMI®) Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK®Guide).

“ESI’s instructors were a pleasure to work with, and some were even able to integrate DMH materials into our classes,” says Carlson. “Their ability to tailor their courses to make them more relevant to our employees added tremendous value.”

Along with their employees, a number of the DMH’s executives and managers took ESI training as well. According to Carlson, this turned out to be a wise decision. “Managers who went through training were able to more effectively pair employees to projects that aligned with their new skill sets.”

Since the program’s launch, 37 DMH employees have earned a Professional Certificate in Business Analysis, nine have earned a Master’s Certificate in Project Management, and an additional 50 employees have taken basic project management training.  According to results generated from extensive post-course surveys, participants deemed their time in the classroom to be worthwhile. On a scale of 1 through 10, 10 being the highest, participant responses averaged nearly 9.5. Particularly high scores were recorded regarding ESI’s instructors. 

Results

Since beginning its relationship with ESI, the Bureau has enjoyed a quick, tangible return on its investment. “Right away,” says Greenless, “we noticed an increase in productivity and an increase in the quality of work. In fact, this year, when we turned in our 2006 results to the Los Angeles County Chief Information Office for the Business Automation Plan for 2007-2008, they commented on how productive we had been with our limited staff.”

There are a number of intangible benefits that can be traced back to the DMH’s relationship with ESI as well. “After completing their training, our business analysts have shown a whole new level of confidence in their ability to successfully deliver projects,” says Greenless.  “Not to mention, our ESI program was an excellent exercise in team building. By training together as a community of professionals, employees have others to go to for help and advice.”

Next Steps

The DMH currently has no plans to slow its training initiative. Based on the first cohort’s success, another group of employees has recently begun ESI’s program in business analysis, and many of the bureau’s planned 48 new hires over the next year will be taking courses.

“Introductory training for our new employees is certainly important, but we’re also very interested in the next level of training,” says Carlson.

The department is currently looking into ESI’s Courses for Experienced Project Managers, courses built upon writing Statements of Work and ESI’s new Business Skills Program—Training for Technical and Specialized Professionals. “There is much work left to be done as we continue to develop our employees,” says Carlson.

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PMI is a service mark and trademark of the Project Management Institute, Inc., and is registered in the United States and other nations.

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