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Salary Increase For Protective Service Workers Takes Immediate Effect

State protective service workers are set to receive a 20 percent salary bump with hopes that will fill vacant positions.

The new pay rate will take effect immediately for current and new employees. Current employees will also see a 10 percent increase in retention bonuses for those who have worked for two and four years, and a five percent increase to employees who have stayed on for six and eight years.

CPS workers in the Eastern Panhandle, a region that is severely understaffed, will offer a starting salary of $50,000 to compete with neighboring states.

The announcement was made during Gov. Jim Justice’s regular briefing, with DHHR Interim Director Jeff Coben providing the details.

“It’ll be what we think is a critical first step in our continued efforts to protect and assist West Virginia’s most vulnerable children, youth and adults,” Coben said during the briefing.

The move comes during a statewide childcare crisis. The DHHR reported that the state’s protective service workforce has been understaffed with at least one third of positions being vacant.

It follows other, similar initiatives were put in place last month that also attempt to address this worker shortage, including the addition of hiring bonuses in identified counties, and an executive order allowing retired employees to make a partial return while still benefiting from full retirement.

DHHR Launches Hiring Events To Fill Positions Throughout W.Va.

The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources announced this week that it plans to host in-person and virtual hiring events throughout the month of January.

Open positions are available for nurses, office assistants, program specialists, lab scientists, child protective service workers, and others.

Last month, newly appointed DHHR Interim Secretary Dr. Jeff Coben lifted the department’s hiring freeze and said the search for new employees to fill hundreds of open positions would begin immediately.

On its website, the DHHR indicates several hiring incentives, including sign-on bonuses for specific positions in a number of counties.

On Jan. 19th, the Bureau for Family Assistance will hold an in-person job fair for Cabell and Wayne counties from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Huntington. A virtual interviewing event is scheduled the same day at William R. Sharpe, Jr. Hospital in Lewis county.

The department has indicated it wants to improve retention rates for all new hires.

Anyone interested in registering for an event, email DHHRJobs@wv.gov

New DHHR Workforce Initiatives Come In Bunches

Several moves to bolster the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources workforce came from the governor’s office Wednesday morning.

In his Wednesday coronavirus briefing, Gov. Jim Justice re-introduced his new DHHR leadership team after the retirement announcement Monday from Sec. Bill Crouch.

“That is Dr. Jeff Coben, the associate vice president for Health Affairs and dean of the West Virginia University School of Public Health, as our interim secretary,” Justice said. “Along with Dr. Clay Marsh and Ret. Gen Jim Hoyer as DHHR advisors, we will absolutely get into this and have hit the ground running.”

Justice said over the past 48 hours, his leadership team, along with some newly appointed DHHR agency directors, had identified some ‘bottlenecks’ in hiring practices and put several new workforce recruitment initiatives into action.

Justice said four Child Protective Services positions were offered in the Eastern Panhandle. Coben said two of those positions have already been accepted. Justice explained that some Eastern Panhandle CPS hiring bonuses were increased from $2,500 to $5,000.

The governor admitted the moves were made, in part, in a response to a publicly shared letter he received from Sen. Charlie Trump, R-Morgan, identifying a dearth of crisis level child welfare shortcomings specific to the Eastern Panhandle.

“These are addressing the needs that Sen. Trump brought up,” Justice said. “Today we have authorized the $2,500 CPS hiring bonus for CPS workers in Morgan, Berkeley and Jefferson counties be moved to $5,000.”

Justice also issued an executive order to entice DHHR retirees to return to work on a limited basis without losing any of their retirement income.

In the briefing, new DHHR Interim Secretary Dr. Jeff Coben said the department hiring freeze has been lifted and employee recruiting and retention efforts will immediately increase.

“We’re working with the Division of Personnel to clear out some lists of potential applicants who may want to work at DHHR,” Coben said. “We will also immediately begin to further recruit for our workforce needs by reaching out to our high school programs, the Mountaineer Challenge Academy, our vo-tech programs, as well as health sciences students and others throughout the university along with the Jobs and Hope program.”

Coben said he was working on plans to acquire additional technology allowing DHHR people to work smarter and more efficiently to manage cases that are in the system, both now and in the future.

In the briefing, Marsh said department priorities will focus on the health and well being of all West Virginians, especially the most vulnerable.

“That’s our children and our elders, looking at making sure that we have the right team, the right workforce, to be able to bring the care that these vulnerable West Virginians need,” Marsh said. “Then, starting to extend the focus to the mental health crisis that is currently not only our state, but our country. Then, the issues with substance use disorder. West Virginia leads the country in substance use related deaths and addiction related deaths.”

In the briefing, Hoyer said he would extend efforts to reach the best DHHR client outcomes.

“The governor tasked us to work with all the different constituency groups,“ Hoyer said. “We’ll leverage the partnerships we built with the Joint Interagency Task Force to get to those groups and work with everybody to understand the challenges as we work through this.”

Justice was asked how he might find legislative common ground after Senate President Craig Blair, R-Berkeley, and other lawmakers vowed to renew efforts to separate DHHR into two departments and not wait on seeing any fruits of the McChrystal study implementation. He said there were things that Crouch could have done a lot better, but said he also did a lot of good. He said the staff at DHHR, including Crouch, did not need to be “kicked around.”

“It was not support, it was just a constant undermining,” Justice said. ”I am absolutely for things being better but in a smart way and on a smart pathway and not just jumping on a soapbox.”