OPEA

OPEA members met at the Cleveland County Noble DHS office June 24 to discuss workplace issues and prepare for the upcoming quarterly meeting with Director Hendrick.  OPEA Membership Representative Alicia Wright and OPEA Policy and Research Director Trish Frazier attended the meeting. 

“Members called to request a meeting to address concerns with the new imaging process in their office,” Frazier said.  “Problems with the vendor are causing Family Support workers to spend more time searching for their information in cyberspace, which is making it difficult to be timely on cases.”

“The idea of having our cases all in one place, electronically, sounds good,” said one worker.  “But it is causing more work and taking away from our ability to keep up with cases at a time when caseloads are very high.” 

“There doesn’t seem to be a rhyme or reason as to the naming the documents,” she continued.  “We end up with each other’s files and have to reroute information.  Our only clerical worker must spend time trying to identify which worker should receive the file.  Also, the quality is often bad.”

According to workers, when the idea was first discussed, the plan was to have scanners at their desk.  Instead, a vendor picks up information from the county offices and takes them out to be scanned.  Inevitably, pieces of information are lost and workers are forced to sift through documents to retrieve them. 

Frazier suggested the workers present their issues to Director Hendrick at the upcoming quarterly meeting July 10.

“These are the kind of concerns the Director wants to hear about at the quarterly meetings,” said Frazier.  “You know more about your work and clients than anyone else.”

If workers have issues about the imaging project in central Oklahoma county offices, e-mail trishf@opea.org before July 8. 

The quarterly meeting with Director Hendrick will be at 1:30 pm July 10.  RSVP Trish Frazier via e-mail  at the OPEA office: trishf@opea.org.