Fortifying Our Frontline

Feb-15-2022

Employees

After much deliberation and planning, the Imagine! Executive Team, with the support of the Imagine! Board of Directors, is implementing changes in pay at Imagine!. These pay changes are crucial for addressing our number one challenge: restoring services for the individuals we serve. 

Effective February 7, the starting pay for all new Direct Care Professionals at Imagine! will be $20 an hour. Employees who have been in these positions for two or more years will receive additional increases for tenure with the organization.

By executing this ambitious new pay scale for the people at the front line of our services, we are proudly letting the world know we value these front-line employees and recognize the incredible difference they make in the lives of people with disabilities. We are intentionally fortifying our frontline, and being true to our stated principle: “Our workforce is our number one asset.”

For far too long, Direct Care Professionals have been compensated at the lower end of the Imagine!’s overall pay rates. That lower pay flew in the face of the undeniable fact that, without our Direct Care Professionals, we can’t provide the core services we are so justifiably proud of offering. This has been a long-standing concern, primarily due to inadequate rates paid by the state to providers like Imagine!. The lack of adequate pay for Direct Care Professionals is a society-wide issue that puts vulnerable people with a variety of disabilities at risk. This was bad for Imagine!, bad for the people we serve, and bad for our community.

We are defining Direct Care Professionals at Imagine! as employees who spend 50% or more of their time providing hands-on personal care – activities of daily living, such as meals & nutrition, restroom, hygiene, dressing, transfers/lifts, mobility, behavior plan implementation and moment to moment safety - during programming hours.

A Re-Evaluation

The pandemic and subsequent “Great Resignation” has given Imagine! the opportunity to re-evaluate how we support the employees who carry so much of our mission directly on their backs. We’ve made some smaller efforts toward this in the past year and a half, including providing targeted raises, hazard pay, and “stay bonuses” to many positions at Imagine!. The creation of a new Direct Care pay scale is the next and biggest step in the direction of offering more competitive pay for all employees of the organization.

The State of Colorado has recently authorized a series of temporary, and permanent, rate increases meant to support the direct care workforce, including service rate increases for the Medicaid Services we provide. To fund Imagine’s pay increases, Imagine! will use the increases in rates from the State as well as some fundraising from the Imagine! Foundation, increases to our county contracts, and Imagine’s general funds. 

Why Are We Doing This?

There are many reasons we think it is past time to increase the pay for our Direct Care Workers:

• It is hard work. Direct Care is some of the most physically and emotionally challenging work at our, or any, company. It is also important to note that Direct Care Professionals haven’t been able to enjoy some of the “silver linings” that have come with the pandemic and the subsequent collective re-envisioning of how work can be delivered. It is impossible for them to work from home or take advantage of the flexible schedules that some are able to enjoy. Their work is immediate, intimate, and often requires personal sacrifices that other Imagine! employees may not experience. Yet, Direct Care Professionals bring unwavering sensitivity and compassion to the people around them, every single day, no matter how exhausted or burned-out they may feel themselves. We want to honor that commitment in a tangible and meaningful way.
• Imagine!’s existing pay scale has to respond to the current labor market. Companies across the country have struggled to fill open jobs. This hiring crisis has hit Imagine! especially hard at the level of Direct Care Professionals. Our pay rates are determined by Medicaid rates paid to providers, set by state payers, and these rates have historically been woefully inadequate. You can learn more about that issue, and how it relates to Imagine!’s current hiring crisis here. We have long been advocating with all our funding sources the necessity of being paid more for the services we provide so that we can increase pay rates. Creating a more sustainable Direct Care Professional pay scale will strengthen our efforts in recruiting, hiring, and retaining our front-line staff. 
• Traditional factors that lead to more pay for some employees don’t necessarily apply to this workforce. We are challenging the notion that years of higher education attained or technical licensure should be the only drivers for compensation. We also believe that the responsibility of hands-on direct care should be a driver of compensation at Imagine!. Raising the overall wages of our Direct Care Professional recognizes the specialized skills these jobs require, and we will be able to:
  • Tap into a larger talent pool
  • Retain employees longer
  • Build a workforce that is sufficiently compensated for doing the work necessary to create a world of opportunity for all abilities.

While there is no doubt that most employees at Imagine! deserve to be compensated better, currently, our Direct Care Professionals are the job class in the most critical situation. Turnover in these positions is massive and recruitment is almost impossible. Positions are staying open for months and/or being taken down for a lack of applicants. As a result, our ability to provide even a basic level of services continues to diminish. We’ve already repurposed some of our group homes to serve smaller populations and our Adult Community Services is currently providing only 12% of the amount of service today that we were providing before the pandemic. We need to turn the tide before it’s too late.

Imagine! has served individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities for close to 60 years. We have established a legacy of innovation and leadership unsurpassed in our field. The goal of the wage adjustments we are making now, and will be making in the future, is to position ourselves better in order to build upon that legacy for the next 60 years.

Below you will find some graphs that demonstrate why we need to increase the pay for Direct Care Workers at Imagine!:

This video also helps to explain our decision. 

Are you, or someone you know, interested in becoming a direct care worker at Imagine!? Get started here.

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