Individual Employment Plans and Case Notes are supposed to be related to each other. Think of an Individual Employment Plan as being an executive summary of your work with your jobseeker. One size does not fit all! An Individual Employment Plan should be unique to your client. It is an overview of where an individual has been, where he or she is going, the assessment to support where he or she is going, and how the individual will get there. In addition, the Individual Employment Plan should show progress reports and modifications. This document is done at the start of a relationship when you don’t know what you don’t know. As you learn more about your jobseeker there will likely be changes in the Individual Employment Plan. Modifications will be needed.
The Individual Employment Plan is the executive summary that is supported by the detail that is included in the Case Notes. The Case Notes document the details of what is included in the Individual Employment Plan. In addition, the Case Notes document all the interactions with the jobseeker and interaction with any relevant third parties such as training agency representatives, worksite supervisors, or supportive service entities.
Case Notes should show evidence of coaching, mentoring, guiding done by the Career Planner/Advisor. It is the documentation to support the decisions you and the jobseeker make. Case Notes do not have to be a “book” but rather should include enough information to follow the jobseeker’s journey from initial contact throughout each service and updates on each service.
You should be able to pull Individual Employment Plans from ten client files and the Case Notes from the same ten client files, shuffle each and then match the right Individual Employment Plan with the right Case Notes.
Unfortunately, throughout my WIOA program monitoring nationwide, most Individual Employment Plans look the same with no unique information. Most Case Notes do not provide much evidence of coaching. The majority show transactions with training vendors and/or picking up travel checks. There is little to no documentation of discussing or coaching how things are going and any needs or challenges the client may have.
You can switch some of your Individual Employment Plans and Case Notes with a co-worker to analyze the contents and make recommendations for improvement! Exceptional coaching is what sets a fair or good organization apart from one that is high performing. Workforce professionals change lives for a living. Coaching is an essential ingredient in transforming a life!
