Noteboom The Law Firm

VA’s Employment Training Must Be More Consistent

October 7, 2010 - American Legion Official Ian De Planque testified in front of Congress two weeks ago. He focused on the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and how their current work force is "one of the most inexperienced" the VA has ever presented. To remedy this situation, he suggested the VA make their training programs more consistent.

Almost 50% of the VA's total work force has less than 3 years on the job. Given their inexperience, the one thing the VA should be focusing on is ensuring its workers receive adequate training. VA Secretary Eric Shinseki's goal is a 98% accuracy rating in processing disability claims. This is not realistic with such an inexperienced work force.

De Planque's testimony also spoke to the VA's inconsistency in implementing various programs. He further highlighted how each VA Regional Office (RO) seemingly operates independently not only from each other, but from the VA as a whole. The result is little to no consistency between ROs.

The problem seems to have developed into a vicious circle. The VA is bound, determined, and rushed to meet their disability claims processing goal. In order to meet that goal, they need more people to process the claims. Those people are rushed through training and in the end, will cost the VA more time and money than if they had trained their employees properly the first time. It is the ROs that are ultimately responsible for implementing training programs, however.

The VA's Systematic Technical Accuracy Review (STAR) system tracks patterns of inaccurate processing of disability claims. The VA could use the STAR system for as a valuable resource to properly train new employees, if they were so inclined. Whatever they use, it needs to happen sooner rather than later given the incredible amount of disability claims the VA will be facing in the coming years.