The Nevada Department of Employment, Training & Rehabilitation’s (DETR) Bureau of Vocational Rehabilitation is a state and federally-funded program designed to help people with disabilities become employed and to help those already employed perform more successfully through training, counseling, and other support methods.
Case managers struggle to contact clients
Case managers at Nevada DETR spent countless hours on manual outreach—making telephone calls, mailing letters, and reaching out to participants. In some situations, case managers were left with only one contact method to reach their participants, which was challenging.
“You can only call and leave so many messages, you can only send so many letters,” explains Sheila Rasor, Business Process Analyst for DETR. They needed a new accessible, and convenient way to reach participants.
Sara is the equivalent of 65 full-time employees at a fraction of the cost
The Nevada DETR was selected to implement Sara as one of the three states participating in a Sara pilot program funded by the Rehabilitation Services Agency (RSA) in 2015 and have been using the product ever since. Sara’s automated communication tools have allowed DETR case managers to reclaim the time usually spent on manual outreach to focus on more important duties and positive outcomes for their clients.
In fact, the work completed by Sara is the equivalent of 65 additional full-time employees for the cost of only 7 full-time employees. These savings are critical during the current human services staffing crisis, where over 20% of positions in the industry are vacant.
Sara facilitates remote work during the pandemic
When the pandemic hit, the Nevada DETR and their case managers saw the true impact of Sara. DETR’s team members started working from home without the infrastructure to work remotely. Case managers relied on Sara’s generic text number to reach participants without sharing personal information.
Additionally, DETR leaned heavily on Sara for outreach and bulk messaging for notices on office closures, vaccine locations, appointment reminders, and more. “We were able to send lots of information very simply and we were able to use that during the pandemic when staff were working from home and didn’t necessarily have a business cell phone,” explains Rasor. “Sara was the tool that we could use that allowed us to communicate without using personal resources. It was wonderful during the pandemic.”
