Quality Assurance - Chicago, United States - Neighborhood Housing Services

Description

Job Description

Neighborhood Housing Services is a 48-year-old nonprofit community development organization and HUD-approved housing counseling agency focused on revitalizing historically underserved neighborhoods through homeownership. Our mission is to create opportunities for people to live in affordable homes, improve their lives, and strengthen their neighborhoods. We do that by:

• Educating and preparing new homeowners for success
• Lending to help people buy, fix, and keep their homes.
• Sustaining homeownership through education and foreclosure
  intervention services
• Preserving, rehabbing, and investing in housing
• Building powerful and enduring community partnerships

The NHS Homeownership Services Department annually provides to over [4,000] homebuyers and existing homeowners education courses and individual housing counseling designed to increase knowledge and build new skills around homeownership to ensure sustainable homeownership opportunities.

The Reporting and Quality Assurance Analyst is responsible for Homeownership Services reporting and data integrity providing timely and accurate reporting to internal and external stakeholders (e.g., the City of Chicago, HUD intermediaries, network associations, funders, etc.), which is critical to maintaining compliance, facilitating funding, and telling the NHS story of impact. They will interpret, operationalize, and monitor compliance with regulations and guidance from the HUD Office of Housing Counseling, National Industry Standards for Housing Counseling and program-specific rules, regulations, and directives to ensure the highest level of operating standards. A successful candidate in this position will forge relationships with key stakeholders and departments across the organization and with external partners and funders to define key performance indicators, data collection needs, identify process changes needed to collect the data, assess technology and policy changes that might impact data reporting, and ensure the integrity of that data. The Reporting and Data Analyst will develop standardized and customized reports, identifying the processes and tools necessary to measure and report on clients served and outcomes.

The position will be responsible for creating simple and complex data files, manipulating raw data, and generating ad hoc reports while evaluating inputs and outputs to ensure reporting accuracy. The Reporting and Quality Assurance Analyst will share insights garnered from analyzing data trends to inform internal and external relations, program performance, marketing efforts, service, or product development, and/or service delivery design as part of a continues improvement process.

Reporting

• Working alongside the Director of Homeownership Services and teams within the senior staff to understand reporting requirements or desires, establish business performance data management needs, define data points, identify needed process changes to collect data, and quality assurance measures to satisfy grant, contract reporting, and other business requirements.
• Providing timely internal and external reporting on a monthly or quarterly basis for Homeownership Services federal, state, and local programs (e.g., HUD, IHDA and City of Chicago reporting) and contracts.
• Supporting the reporting needs of senior management and operating business lines in sharing Homeownership Services data as required.
• Coordinating with the Resource Development Department on reporting needs in connection with reporting for private and public grants.
• Drafting narrative reports that provide performance context, analysis, and interpretation of data.
• Identifying and reporting on patterns and trends in programmatic data. Researching national and local market data to benchmark performance data trends.
• Conducting monthly data reconciliations as it impacts the financials in support of operating business units.
• Articulating data findings especially as it relates to contractual and grant obligations.
• Working with department directors, project leads, and stakeholders to design intervention success and impact measurements.
• Working with independent contractors, IT, and stakeholders to develop business requirements for data collection and end-user reports and overseeing implementation of data collection tools.
• Defining new data collection and analysis processes and ways of presenting data
• Documentation of methodologies and provide training for housing counselors and stakeholders.
• Maintaining policies and procedures around data management and supporting necessary end user training in its collection, use, and reporting
• Maintaining and sharing a calendar of reporting due dates for internal and external reports with a timeline to account for quality assurance review prior to submission
• Ensure the consistent documentation and reporting of all counseling activities, outcomes, and outreach in NHS counseling databases for internal tracking and external reporting to funders on a monthly, quarterly, and annual basis as required. Generate reports through the respective software; review reports to ensure that data is correct; if data is incorrect, trace collection process to verify collected data and documentation.
• Track necessary guidelines, requirements, and deadlines of various funding grants.
• Thoroughly review client cases to ensure that they meet the guidelines for their respective grant and include any relevant documentation; follow up with Homeownership Consultants to ensure that correction deadlines are met.
• Maintain a current and working knowledge of HUD programs and guidelines as well as National industry standards for housing counseling to ensure data matches standards and guidelines. Review existing and new grant and program requirements to ensure data collection and reporting meet the
• Support the organization by organizing, finalizing, and submitting government contract uploads and billing, developing, and maintaining client management systems.
• Compile and maintain program data for funding sources and regulatory agencies; prepare regular reports annual, quarterly, monthly, and as required.
• Review client data in the CMS monthly prior to reporting to ensure data entry is accurate and complete enough to not cause errors. Also review and correct data in the CMS quarterly prior to HUD reporting submissions.
• Maintain up-to-date knowledge and expertise on all contract reporting and auditing requirements.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Quality Assurance

• Support strategic initiatives while also identifying and resolving potential data-integrity and other reporting issues to measure and meet NHS annual goals for Homeownership Services programs and services.
• Develop and monitor quality assurance policies and procedures regarding client interactions, data collection, and grant submissions. ensure all quality standards are met and all internal and external reporting is accurate and timely.
• Developing and implementing data quality assurance policies and procedures in conjunction with Director of Homeownership Services.
• Conducting regular data audits across service types/programs, documenting findings, and preparing corrective action plans in preparation for external program audits
• Maintaining data integrity
• Ensuring data accuracy and performing variance analyses to reconcile discrepancies.
• Update existing quality assurance policies and procedures with Homeownership Services leadership; develop guidelines for contact with clients, best practices, action plans, and data entry.
• National Industry Standards for Housing Counseling
• Manage on going communication and coordination with Homeownership Services leadership regarding quality management, activities, and initiatives.
• Develop and implement monitoring instruments to advance the auditing and reporting process, maintaining electronic monitoring tools, suggesting improvements, to increase functionality and accuracy.
• Support strategic initiatives. Identify and resolve potential data-integrity and other reporting issues.

Education

• 4-years college degree is required. A concentration in data analytics, public policy or urban planning with data analytics experience or equivalent work experience preferred.

Experience

• Two to four years of work experience with quality assurance.
• Two years of experience working with data collection software and data analysis and working in a lending or housing environment.

Desired Skills

• Demonstrated intellectual curiosity.
• Ability to collaborate and coordinate with peers and senior management.
• Experience in methodologies and processes for using large scale databases to manage and analyze data.
• Experience in data models, reporting packages, and infographic tools
• Demonstrated ability to review and analyze multiple and large datasets.
• Ability to write comprehensive reports and, when needed, to present data
• Strong verbal and written communication skills
• An analytical mind and inclination for problem-solving
• Great attention to detail
• High proficiency with Microsoft Office applications (specifically experience with advanced Excel functions), and other analytic tools such as Power BI, Tableau, SQL, Google Analytics, etc.
• Experience with client management systems and relational databases. Experience with using Salesforce a plus.
• Experience with mapping software (e.g. ARC-GIS, Geopointe, etc.) a plus
• Experience in community development, housing, real estate development, mortgage lending, or financial services or with impact measurement and evaluation, a plus

CERTIFICATES, LICENSES, REGISTRATIONS

• N/A

OTHER REQUIREMENTS:

• Valid driver's license with access to a safe, reliable vehicle for extensive travel associated with the position.
• NHS offers a competitive salary and a comprehensive benefits package. We also offer a team spirit, which strives for excellence in customer service.

To perform the job successfully, an individual should demonstrate the following competencies:

• Productivity and Time
• Communication & Interpersonal Skills
• Customer Focus
• Accountability
• Job Knowledge and Self-Development
• Collaboration
• Manages Conflict

TRAVEL
Local and national travel may be required from time to time for trainings, meetings, or in-community events.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is:

• regularly required to talk or hear.
• frequently required to stand; walk; sit; use hands to finger, handle, or feel; reach with hands and arms.

The employee may occasionally lift and/or move up to 25 pounds.

The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate and is of a typical office environment.

REMOTE WORK POLICY

The Homeownership Department staff work on a 3/2 schedule requiring a minimum of 2 days in-office, in addition to any in-office time as necessary for important meetings, team meetings, all staff meetings, audits, site visits by funders, agency events, etc., including twice monthly in-person team meetings.

IMMUNIZATION POLICY

NHS Chicago has a COVID vaccination policy that requires testing to work in our office environments actively and safely. As a condition of employment, all employees must either be immunized by vaccination against COVID-19 (unless granted a medical or religious exemption) and/or test weekly if unvaccinated. This policy is designed to protect the health of our workforce and to serve as a public health measure and ambassador within our community.