L&I PROGRAM SPECIALIST 3

Program Specialist 3

Our Mission: Keep Washington Safe and Working! Our Values: Customer Focus, One L&I, Respect, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Learning and Growth, Reliability

Who We Are

Labor & Industries (L&I) is a diverse state government agency dedicated to the safety, health, and security of Washington's workers and employers.

The Program Specialist 3 (PS3) is stationed in Tumwater and reports to the Firm Appeals Program Manager.

This position has dual responsibilities managing program resources and operation, and as the Designated Appeals Coordinator which supports organizational-wide program responsibility and assists the Firm Appeals Program Manager with managing program resources and operations within Firm Appeals. Firm Appeals has statewide impact with both internal programs (Audit, Collections, Employer services, and Claims) as well as impact with the external agencies (Board of Industrial Insurance Appeals (BIIA) Attorney General's Office (AGO) and the public.

This position is the primary L&I contact with the BIAA, AGO, Director's Office, and Government Affairs for workers compensation premium firm appeals. This position makes independent decisions that impact L&I programs, due process for businesses and employers.

This Program Specialist assists the Firm Appeals Program Manager and is responsible for managing all aspects of program services, which include assigning work (reconsiderations and appeals) to the litigation specialists. In addition, consults with the Firm Appeals Supervisor (Program Specialist 5's) in the program by providing technical recommendations and solutions for complex programs (training issues and technical questions).

The PS3 handles legislative inquiries researching complex issues and addressing constituent correspondence, internal and external stakeholder inquiries as well as direct replies and also prioritizes program work, manages statistical requests, and reports for the program.

Duties

Some of what you will do:

• Manages daily operations of the Firm Appeals program, including but not limited to prioritizing and assigning work assignments for staff (L&I Auditor 5's/litigation specialists), identify issues for escalation and/or that require addressing, draft and maintains policies and procedures independently, liaisons with outside entities BIIA, and the AGO).
• Makes recommendations to program manager in designing needs, planning, designing and developing program processes that affect Firm Appeals and it's internal and external customers from Collections, Audit, Employer Services, BIIA & the AGO) that will affect Firm Appeals staff; attends meetings as the program representative.
• Makes recommendations to program manager for complex program issues; recommends alternative solutions to controversial resource conflicts, anticipates potential conflicts and attempts a resolution before problems occur or can escalate.
• Determines and/or recommends priorities and objectives, coordinates and resolves conflicts related to program and activities, structures and administer activities to ensure consistent approaches are utilized within the program. Manages with special project assignments.
• Firm Appeals Translation Coordinator: Manages and receives translation requests from Firm Appeals staff, manages requests with the CSCPS Language Services Coordinator (LSC) to contract for translation of business documents, manages inventory of translated documents for future use.
• Firm Appeals Public Record Request Coordinator: Manages and receives public records requests on behalf of the program. Manages public records requests with L&I's Public Records Unit for Firm Appeals; gathers responsive documents and converts them to acceptable formats and uploads them to the Public Records Unit portal.
• Assists program manager in developing, improving and/or establishing policies and procedures and standards for the program.
• Reviewing all new protests and determines timeliness status and determining the nature of protests and referring them to other functional units when appropriate (e.g. Employer Services, Audit, Collections, Retrospective Rating, DOSH, Self-Insurance.)
• Prepares timely intake documents for requests for reconsiderations, firm appeals, Superior Court and higher firm appeals, and director's compromises/Policy 74.05 requests.
• Reviews, analyzes, assembles and submits timely transmittal materials to the BIIA and the AGO in conjunction with appeals whether timely or untimely.
• Determines the assignment type, calculations of timeliness, providing appropriate documentation to determine the proper jurisdiction.
• Directs collection staff to issue abeyance orders and when appropriate, to vacate warrants and levies, maintaining a case inventory tracking system to ensure no protests and/or appeals go unprocessed;
• Is the primary L&I point of contact for employer assessment protests for workers compensation protests & appeals for the Board of Industrial Insurance Appeals (BIIA), the Attorney General's Office (AGO), and the public.
• Process and assign new reconsiderations, appeals and Director's Compromise/Policy 74.05 assignments to the Litigation Specialists.
• Identifies public disclosure requests contained in protests interfacing with the Public Disclosure division, identifying and providing documents responsive to public disclosure requests.
• Creates all electronic new assignment program files in the SERV computer program.
• Makes recommendations to program manager for SERV programming requirements and bugs.
• And so much more!

Qualifications

Required Qualifications:

Any combination of (6) years or more experience at Labor & Industries in support roles, such as Customer Service, Administrative Assistant, Paralegal, or similar roles; or experience in an administrative or legal support role (legal secretary, paralegal or similar), planning, policy analysis, coordination and consultation with a variety of public private agencies and/or levels of government.

OR

Bachelor's Degree and 2 years of experience with focus on legal, criminal justice, public policy, government, political science, administrative, business, or social work, planning, policy analysis, coordination and consultation with a variety of public and private agencies, organizations, and/or levels of government.

These position specific competencies are required. If you would like the full list, please ask for the Position Description Form (PDF).

Safety

Customer Centered Action

Treat Others with Dignity and Respect

Judgement and Problem Solving

Required Equity Competencies:

The ability to take action to learn and grow.

The ability to take action to meet the needs of others.

Preferred/Desired Qualifications:

• Paralegal or legal assistant certification or degree.
• Experience or education in the legal field and an understanding of legal documents and procedures.
• A demonstrated ability for project management and superior writing skills.
• A strong and thorough understanding of worker's compensation coverage, reporting and risk classification laws and rules and the application of these laws and rules to individual businesses.
• Knowledge and experience training, facilitation and coaching techniques.

Verbal Communication: Expresses ideas and information in writing using language that is appropriate to both the complexity of the topic and the knowledge and understanding of the audience speaks English well enough to clearly communicate information to worker's firm's legal representatives, co-workers and the public.

Written Communication: Expresses ideas and information in writing using language that is appropriate to both the complexity of the topic and the knowledge and understanding of the audience when working relationships with workers, employers, legal representatives, coworkers and the public.

Researching and gathering information: Effectively identifies collects, organizes and documents data and information in ways that make the information most useful for subsequent assessment analysis and investigation using what higher court rulings of the Board of Industrial Insurance Appeals and higher courts and other information to arrive at lawful and equitable decisions regarding benefit.

Supplemental Information

Things You Need To Know

To help you maintain a proper work-life balance, teleworking is one of the work schedule options for this position. L&I also offers flexible custom work schedules.

State employees who meet the qualifications will become eligible for a generous retirement package at the end of the employee's career. Click on the "Benefits" tab to learn more.

At L&I, your voice matters. In addition, L&I is a diverse state agency dedicated to the safety and health and security of Washington's 3.3 million workers. Take a look at this brief video and learn more about why L&I is an employer of choice.

This position is flexible/hybrid, and requires in-office presence as necessary, or as required by the hiring manager (Ex: team meetings, trainings).

The assigned duty station for this position is Tumwater, Washington.

Application process

We will contact the top candidates directly to interview for this position. Because we base the selection on information provided by you, it