RMS Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Comments are only required when you use the “social services” program code, the “county- funded” program code, or the “other” activity code. If you select any of these codes, please include a comment noting the specific program and activity you were working on at the sample moment. Although not required, comments are helpful if there are questions, so feel free to include clarifying comments - we do read them!

You can email the DCF RMS mailbox at DCFRMS@wisconsin.gov.  Please include the observation number you are working on.

The fastest thing to do is hit ‘reply’ to the RMS email. Your email will go to a generic RMS inbox that is checked many times throughout the day. The ‘reply’ will list your group, sample number, and name and makes it easier and faster to process your email. Provide information in your email that will explain why/if an email expired or specifically what your question is. All emails will be responded to within one or two business days.

When this occurs, it is usually due to an incorrect username and/or password. Passwords are case sensitive. If you accidentally type the incorrect info, e.g., have your caps lock on when your password is in lowercase, the system will lock you out after multiple failed attempts. If you are unsure of your username or password, you can go to DWD/Wisconsin Logon Management System or go to the DWD website listed in the RMS observation e-mail and click on the Logon ID/Password Recovery link to recover your username or password. Or you can call the DWD service desk directly at (608) 266-7252. Make sure that you are using your DWD WIExt ID not CARES or another system ID.

Since we are not able to have all schedules in the RMS system, you may be sampled at times you are not normally scheduled to work. Yes, you must respond to every sample. Please record these observations using program code “370 - not specific to a program” and activity code “630 - sampled outside of normal work hours.”

When your work hours change, ensure that your supervisor is aware and they can update the RMS roster to reflect your new schedule. The current quarter samples are already selected with your old schedule so you may still be sampled outside your new work hours for the rest of the current quarter. If you are, just record the observation to program code “370 - not specific to a program” and activity code “630 - sampled outside of normal work hours.” When samples are created for the next quarter, your updated work schedule hours are what your samples will be based on.

YES, even if you are not working on a case, you still need to answer your observations. If you are working on a specific program, you should still record non-case related program specific work to the program codes. For example, if you are reading information pertaining to the food stamp program, you should use the “food stamp” program code and the “professional reading” activity code.

Please use the “370 - not specific to a program” program code with the “620 – break, lunch, ‘leave,’ vacation, sick, fmla, pto, day off for county holidays, or when bldg. is closed for emergency (snow, fire).

When you are in the office, observations must be responded to within 24 hours to be valid. If you have an observation that has expired it will be manually closed out by the RMS Administrator and you will get an email letting you know it was closed out.  The observation cannot be changed once it expires.  The most common reason observations expire is when a sample is created but the person is unexpectedly out of work the next day and can’t update the sample because they were not physically able to. The supervisor can respond to the observation on behalf of the employee if the employee is out of the office in training or out sick or using PTO.

In a few instances, some county e-mail systems are not accepting the link in the e-mail – when you click on the link, the entire link is not being picked up. Please check with your IT staff to see if there are settings on your computer that can be changed so the entire link is picked up. This is a very frequent issue when an agency changes or upgrades its software or system. Normally, IT just resets your settings and things are back to normal.

Below are approaches used by others to overcome the link issue:

1. Highlight the link from right to left and click on it when the entire link is highlighted.
2. Copy and paste the link from the RMS e-mail to the address bar of your Internet browser.

The program code depends on what you were doing at the actual moment in time that you were sampled. For example, if a client is eligible for FS/MA/CC, but you were working on an activity related only to the child care portion of the case, then you would use the child care program code. Conversely, if you were updating general information for this case that affected all these programs, you would use the multiple program code FS/MA/CC to capture the activity related to all three programs. Note… The program selected should specifically list the programs that was being worked on or affected at the time of the sample. For example, if you were working on both FS and MA, if there is no specific program option that lists both of those programs, then the 025 – IM programs only option should be selected. If you were working on CC, BC, and MA, if there is a specific program that lists all three codes, then that program code should be selected. If not, the code 075 – IM/CC program option should be selected. 025 should be used when no CC is involved and 075 should be used when CC is involved.