Policy and management influences on the laptop experience were also important, and involve similar complexity. Figure 3 shows how ACS DCP must develop and carry out policies that originate in or are shaped by several organizations: NY State OCFS, NY City Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS), and the contract and relationships with Social Services Employee Union Local 371 (SSEU).

Three policy areas that are most pressing on the laptop experience:

1. Working at Home Policy. The NYC DCAS maintains a strict no-working from home policy for all NYC employees. This policy is for both regular work hours and after-hours work, meaning no NYC employee can work from home at any time. This policy restricts the full potential of using the laptop for CPS work. Working from home on the laptop during regular work hours could potentially alleviate having to travel to the office before making field visits, cutting down on commute time and time between field visits. After regular work hours, it allows caseworkers to catch up on documentation in the evening or weekends. Although ACS may want to encourage caseworkers to work from home, they cannot because they do not oversee the prevailing policies.

2. Field/Office Scheduling. ACS DCP currently has policies that prescribe the days the caseworker is in the field and the days they are in the office. This work model was developed so that caseworkers can leave the office for family visits and court appointments and return to the office for supervision and documentation. The laptop offers a new model for how caseworkers and supervisors can interact. While in the field, caseworkers currently communicate with the office primarily by cell phone. The laptop offers new possibilities of receiving case information in the field and communicating via email. In order to experience the laptop’s full potential, management and supervisory practices may need to change so that office time and field time is not prescribed.

3. Overtime and Compensatory Time. The policies for overtime and compensatory time present a couple of concerns including the daily cap for overtime and the inconsistent implementation of approvals. Since there is a cap on time, caseworkers are sometimes faced with the fact they will not get compensated for the amount of work they have done using the laptop. In some cases establishing a connection, maintaining a connection and completing the work takes longer than the time they are allowed for overtime. Subsequently, they risk not getting paid for the full amount of time they worked which can impact the overall laptop experience. Additionally, field offices do not uniformly implement the policy. Some offices require preapproval and others do not, and the inconsistency leads to confusion about using the laptop after work hours.

Finally, other policy and management factors shaped how the laptops were used in the pilot: existing caseload, consistency in management practices across field offices, and training. Overtime and compensatory time policies for work completed in the field or at home were particularly important. Although ACS may develop much of its own policies and management practices, it is still subject to NYSOCFS policies and oversight by NYC’s DCAS.