SUPPORTING STATEMENT - PART A
Veterans Engagement Action Center (VEAC) Surveys
1. Need for the Information Collection
Veterans Experience Action Center (VEAC) is a Veterans Affairs (VA) program established to proactively assist Veterans in a selected state with a one-stop resource for all their needs. The VEAC brings together VA benefits, health care and other resources in partnership with state VA resources.
The VEAC gathers feedback from Veterans, Active Military, Guard/Reservist, Family members, caregivers, providers, and survivors. The VEAC then provides that feedback to VA leaders to measure the success of the outreach event and measure the ease, effectiveness, emotion, and trust from the participants as they exit.
The surveys will further allow the Veterans Experience Office (VEO) to measure whether the needs of the participants were met. Additional areas where the survey results will provide meaningful value and impact:
Identifies gaps and challenges in health care, benefits, and service delivery.
Identifies areas for how VA can best support local efforts in a holistic fashion.
Identifies areas where there may be barriers to access to VA products and services, and the extent to which outreach tailored to local communities is valuable and effective.
2. Use of the Information
VEAC surveys afford VEAC participants the ability to provide feedback to VA and allow the customer to share their experiences. VEO uses the customer’s feedback to enhance and increase outreach and engagement efforts and determine the direct value of our efforts.
The surveys and its delivery are an innovative approach to measure and improve customer experience based on the "voice of the Veteran." Through the use of the VSignals digital platform, VEO can identify gaps and challenges in the community, provide information on VA programs, increase access and outreach, identify what is and what is not working, and determine how VA can best support local community efforts in support of Veterans, families, caregivers, and survivors. The Veteran Experience Office (VEO) has also been commissioned to measure the satisfaction of Peer-to-Peer organizations and veterans who recently interacted with the VEAC.
Survey respondents will be Veterans, Active Military, Guard/Reservist, family members, caregivers, and survivors that attend a VEAC event. Some VEAC participants may also be offered to provide feedback to surveys that capture their experience through their Peer-to-Peer connections or their attendance on a Veterans Experience Live Question and Answer event. Different surveys may be administered participants of events:
VEAC Exit Survey: Outreach event staff will verbally administer the survey to event attendees as the last step in the overall event process. The outreach staff will fill out the web-based survey on behalf of the outreach event participant.
VEAC Email Survey: A survey will be sent via email to event attendees that were not able to take the VEAC Exit Survey. The email survey will not be sent to event attendees that opted out of the VEAC Exit Survey.
Peer-to-Peer Survey: The survey is completed via an email-based survey design. After a Peer-to-Peer organization interacts with a VEAC Representative, the VEAC Representative will send an email to the Peer-to-Peer organization with a link to the Vsignals survey. The Peer-to-Peer organization can take the survey and share the survey to Veterans via email at the conclusion of each Peer-to-Peer interaction. Peer-to-Peer organizations and veterans will choose whether they want to participate in the survey.
The Veterans Experience Office will be providing quarterly reports on the status of the implementation of the VEAC pilot program to Congress in conformity with requirements stipulated in legislation (House report 116-445, FY2021). These reports will summarize and quantify the effectiveness of the pilot program in reaching Veterans, particularly underserved Veteran populations, and increasing utilization of VA programs and services.
In addition, the Veterans Experience Office will provide quarterly reports to Congress titled Congressional Tracking Reports that will include (a) data and statistics pertaining to VEAC events (what information or resources were shared, the extent to which Veterans followed up on the resources shared, and the customer satisfaction scores of participants); (b) a summary of VEACs held by date and location; (c) a summary of steps taken to implement operational and systems improvements identified as needed based on the results of customer satisfaction surveys administered to VEAC participants; and (d) a summary of program resources provided to Veterans (with corresponding numbers of Veterans receiving those resources) by VEAC and category of programs/services provided
3. Use of Information Technology
100% of the responses will be collected electronically. This survey is a non-probability-based survey and is not intended to make inferences about any overall population. This survey will be administered to Veterans who either are (a) affiliated with Veteran Service Organizations; (b) affiliated with Veteran-focused community-based or nonprofit organizations; or (c) Veterans who are not affiliated with any specific organizations.
4. Non-duplication
VEO will work with each stakeholder group to assure that 1) the survey is not duplicating any other survey effort and 2) the survey does not answer questions that can be answered with alternative sources of data (e.g., administrative data). Administrative data can provide some metrics of service delivery but do not indicate the outcome sought; namely, Veteran satisfaction and Trust.
5. Burden on Small Businesses
This information collection does not impose an economic impact on small businesses or entities.
6. Less Frequent Collection
Events are held in different states and use different staff members from the local areas. It is important to collect feedback at each event to provide insights on attendee experience at the local level and tailor process improvements to specific areas.
7. Paperwork Reduction Act Guidelines
This collection of information does not require collection to be conducted in a manner inconsistent with the guidelines delineated in 5 CFR 1320.5(d)(2).
8. Consultation and Public Comments
A 60-Day Federal Register Notice for the collection was published on April 22, 2022 (Vol. 87, No. 78, page 24225). No comments were received.
A 30-Day Federal Register Notice for the collection was published on June 28, 2022 (Vol. 87, No. 123, page 28460). No comments were received.
No additional consultation apart from soliciting public comments through the Federal Register was conducted for this submission.
9. Gifts or Payment
No payments or gifts are being offered to respondents as an incentive to participate in the collection.
10. Confidentiality
A Privacy Act Statement is not required for this collection because we are not requesting individuals to furnish personal information for a system of records.
A System of Record Notice (SORN) is not required for this collection because records are not retrievable by PII.
A Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) is published here: https://www.oprm.va.gov/docs/PIA/FY19VeteranSignalsPIA.pdf
Vsignals does not intentionally retain any personal identifiable information. Veteran respondents could provide PII via open text field without solicitation. Data is retained for 7 years as defined by the agency before being purged from the system. Vsignals system does not retrieve records by personal identifier. Any information in identifiable form or PII is not intentionally collected directly from individual. It is extracted from the CDW. Information received from CDW is purged from the system after usage. Any issued privacy
notices have already been provided at the point of collection before being stored in the CDW. The data remains in the S3 bucket until the next round of data is pushed to the bucket at which point the deprecated data is removed. This is an approved rule, which runs twice a week.
11. Sensitive Questions
There are no questions of a sensitive nature.
12. Respondent Burden and its Labor Costs
Part A: ESTIMATION OF RESPONDENT BURDEN
Collection Instrument
VEAC Exit and Email Surveys
Number of Respondents: 12,000 annually
Number of Responses Per Respondent: 1
Number of Total Annual Responses: 12,000
Response Time: 5 minutes
Respondent Burden Hours: 1,000 hours
Collection Instrument
Peer-to-Peer Survey
Number of Respondents: 4,000 annually
Number of Responses Per Respondent: 1
Number of Total Annual Responses: 4,000
Response Time: 3 minutes
Respondent Burden Hours: 200 hours
Total Submission Burden (Summation or average based on collection)
Total Number of Respondents: 16,000
Total Number of Annual Responses: 16,000
Total Respondent Burden Hours: 1,200 hours
Part B: LABOR COST OF RESPONDENT BURDEN
Collection Instrument(s)
VEAC Exit and Email Surveys
Number of Total Annual Responses: 12,000 annually
Response Time: 5 minutes
Respondent Hourly Wage: $28.01
Labor Burden per Response: $2.33
Total Labor Burden: $28,010.00
Collection Instrument(s)
Peer-to-Peer Survey
Number of Total Annual Responses: 4,000 annually
Response Time: 3 minutes
Respondent Hourly Wage: $28.01
Labor Burden per Response: $1.40
Total Labor Burden: $5,602.00
Overall Labor Burden
Total Number of Annual Responses: 16,000
Total Labor Burden: $33,612
The Respondent hourly wage was determined by using the [Department of Labor Wage Website] ([http://www.dol.gov/dol/topic/wages/index.htm])
13. Respondent Costs Other Than Burden Hour Costs
There are no annualized costs to respondents other than the labor burden costs addressed in Section 12 of this document to complete this collection.
14. Cost to the Federal Government
Part A: LABOR COST TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
Collection Instrument(s)
VEAC Exit and Email Surveys
Number of Total Annual Responses: 12,000
Processing Time per Response: .02 hours
Hourly Wage of Worker(s) Processing Responses:
$143,064 annually for GS14 step 5 in Washington DC
2087 hours per year (Computing Hourly Rates of Pay Using the 2,087-Hour Divisor (opm.gov))
$143,064/2087 =$68.55
Cost to Process Each Response: $1.37
Total Cost to Process Responses: $16,440
Collection Instrument(s)
Peer-to-Peer Survey
Number of Total Annual Responses: 4,000
Processing Time per Response: .02 hours
Hourly Wage of Worker(s) Processing Responses:
$143,064 annually for GS14 step 5 in Washington DC
2087 hours per year (Computing Hourly Rates of Pay Using the 2,087-Hour Divisor (opm.gov))
$143,064/2087 =$68.55
Cost to Process Each Response: $1.37
Total Cost to Process Responses: $5,480
Overall Labor Burden to the Federal Government
Total Number of Annual Responses: 16,000
Total Labor Burden: $17,020
Part B: OPERATIONAL AND MAINTENANCE COSTS
Cost Categories
Equipment: $0
Printing: $0
Postage: $0
Software Purchases: $0
Licensing Costs: $3,840,000 annually, 121 surveys, this OMB package is for 3 surveys:
$3,840,000/121 = $31,736 annually per survey
$31,736 x 3 = $95,207 annually for all three surveys in this package
Other: $3,648,000 annually for contract support, 121 surveys, this OMB package is for 3 surveys:
$3,648,000/121=$30,149 annually per survey
$30,149 x 3 = $90,446 annually for all three surveys in this package
Total Operational and Maintenance Cost: $185,653 annually
Part C: TOTAL COST TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
Total Labor Cost to the Federal Government: $17,020 annually
Total Operational and Maintenance Costs: $185,653 annually
Total Cost to the Federal Government: $202,673 annually
15. Reasons for Change in Burden
This is a new collection with a new associated burden.
16. Publication of Results
The Veterans Experience Office will provide quarterly reports to Congress titled Congressional Tracking Reports that will include (a) data and statistics pertaining to VEAC events (what information or resources were shared, the extent to which Veterans followed up on the resources shared, and the customer satisfaction scores of participants); (b) a summary of VEACs held by date and location; (c) a summary of steps taken to implement operational and systems improvements identified as needed based on the results of customer satisfaction surveys administered to VEAC participants; and (d) a summary of program resources provided to Veterans (with corresponding numbers of Veterans receiving those resources) by VEAC and category of programs/services provided.
The Veterans Experience Office will also be collaborating with state and county Departments of Veteran Affairs to produce monthly “local government executive summary reports” related to VEAC data/statistics/resources shared similar to the information provided in the Congressional Tracking Reports referenced above.
17. Non-Display of OMB Expiration Date
We are not seeking approval to omit the display of the expiration date of the OMB approval on the collection instrument.
18. Exceptions to “Certification for Paperwork Reduction Submissions”
We are not requesting any exemptions to the provisions stated in 5 CFR 1320.9.
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2023-08-01 |