State and Local Agencies

Appendix F10

Round 1
Local Office Interview Guide

Local Office Interview Guide

Round 1: Implementation

The Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA) has three local offices in Hampden County, the location of the Healthy Incentives Pilot (HIP). Two local offices are located in Springfield and the third in Holyoke. The purpose of Round 1 interviews with local office staff is to document the activities undertaken to get ready for the HIP program. The interviews will take place approximately 6 to 8 weeks before the implementation of HIP, focusing on preparations for notifying and training participants, recruiting retailers, and preparing staff. It is anticipated that interviews for all three offices will occur over a two-day period.

A staffing breakdown by full time equivalent (FTE) of local Hampden County offices is provided below¹:

Hampton County DTA Office	Management	Supervisors	SNAP-only Case Managers	SNAP and Cash Case Managers	Support Staff
Holyoke	1 Director 2 Assistant Directors	9	16	18	10
Springfield State	1 Director 2 Assistant Directors	7	16	20.6	10.6
Springfield Liberty	1 Director 2 Assistant Directors	11.8	23.4	26.4	13

Interview times will be scheduled at least two weeks in advance of the interview.

It is anticipated that for each round of interviews, three interview sessions will be held at each local office (or may be combined across offices). During these sessions the following groups will be interviewed:

1. Management

2. Supervisors

3. Case Managers/Clerks (staff that have participated in HIP activities. May require more than one interview session per office)

Interviews will include the following questions. Additional, follow-up questions are anticipated, to clarify or expand responses.

Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 85 minutes per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service, Office of Research and Analysis, 3101 Park Center Drive, Room 1014, Alexandria, VA 22302 ATTN: PRA (0584-xxxx). Do not return the completed form to this address.

GENERAL INFORMATION

1. Date and Time of Interview

2. Location of Interview

3. Name(s) and Title(s) of Respondent(s)

5. Provide a description of your normal job functions.

6. Describe your role in HIP implementation. Check all that apply.

 HIP Management

 Participation in the HIP Steering Committee

 Retailer Recruitment

 Participant Notification

 Technical Support

 Training and/or Development of Training Materials

 Retailer System Testing/Certification

 Other (please define)

HIP MANAGEMENT

5. Do you have a role in managing activities between HIP team members or stakeholders? If no, please skip to question 8.

   1. Please describe your role in managing HIP activities, including the HIP team members and stakeholders that you interact with.

   2. How frequently do you interact with other HIP team members or stakeholders and how do interactions take place (e.g., e-mails, calls, conference calls, meetings)?

   3. Describe any process or staffing changes that you have had to make due to HIP and why the changes were necessary.

   4. What issues, if any, have you encountered in managing HIP activities and how have these issues been resolved?

   5. Do you have any suggestions to improve HIP management at the local office level?

6. As a stakeholder, how you have been provided with information or updates concerning HIP, including meetings, conference calls, or e-mails and what has been the frequency of these interactions?

   1. What issues, if any, have you encountered with receiving adequate information concerning HIP and how have these been resolved?

   2. Do you have any suggestions to improve HIP communications?

HIP COORDINATION

5. If you’ve been involved with the HIP Steering Committee (HSC), when did you start participating and what has been your role in the workgroup? If not participating in the HSC, skip to question 10.

   1. Describe what the HSC has been tasked to do (such as retailer recruitment, suggestions for procedures/policies, or suggestions for HIP and nutrition training) and whether it is accomplishing these tasks.

   2. Describe how often the HSC meets and whether this is sufficient for accomplishing HSC tasks.

   3. Describe the strengths and weaknesses of the HSC, such as the ability to provide insight into the community or the inability to influence processes or procedures.

6. Describe the level and type of coordination that has occurred between you and the applicable stakeholder group(s).

   1. Describe how this coordination has impacted HIP.

   2. Describe the coordination activities that were most and least time consuming.

   3. Describe the coordination activities that were most and least effective.

   4. What was the biggest challenge in coordinating with stakeholders and how was this addressed?

   5. In retrospect, what changes would you make to stakeholder coordination that would improve HIP or HIP implementation?

HIP RETAILER RECRUITMENT

5. Were you involved in the recruitment of HIP retailers? If not, skip to question 13.

   1. Please describe your role in the recruitment process.

   2. Have recruitment retailer activities been completed? If not, please describe the ongoing recruitment activities.

   3. Describe questions or comments, if any, that you have received from SNAP retailers concerning the HIP program or HIP participation.

   4. What were the biggest challenges in recruiting retailers and how were these challenges met?

   5. What reasons were given by retailers who did not choose to participate?

6. In retrospect, what changes could have been made to improve the retailer recruitment process?

HIP TRAINING

5. Have you received any information on HIP? If not, skip to question 15.

   1. Describe the information and materials that you received.

   2. Describe the areas of HIP that were the most difficult to understand, for example, how participants are selected, what items are eligible for HIP, how HIP-eligible items are purchased, or how incentives are provided at retailers.

   3. What could be done to improve local office staff training or training materials?

6. Have you participated in the development of training processes or materials for HIP participants? If not, skip to question 16.

   1. Describe your role in HIP participant training and the development or distribution of training materials.

   2. Describe the plans and schedules for HIP participant training, including how participant readiness will be determined.

HIP PARTICIPANTS

5. Have you received any questions from HIP participants? If not, skip to question 18.

   1. Describe the questions that you have received, if any, from HIP participants and how frequently you received them.

   2. Can you make recommendations for providing responses or information to HIP participants?

6. Have you received any questions from non-HIP participants? If not, skip to question 19.

   1. Describe any questions that you have received from SNAP participants that have not been selected to participate in HIP and how frequently you receive them.

   2. Can you make recommendations for providing responses or information to non-participants?

ISSUES/LESSONS LEARNED

5. Other than previously discussed, have any other issues been encountered during HIP implementation and how were these issues resolved?

   1. What impact have they had on HIP implementation?

6. What key lessons have you learned from your experiences to date?

7. Provide any suggestions for moving forward or lessons learned that can be derived from your experience to date.

1 Staffing breakdown from the Massachusetts DTA HIP Grant Application, March 2010