As you become familiar with your organization, you can find ways to advocate for compensation and an accurate calculation of your workload. Explore these questions:

• How does your organization calculate your salary and workload or productivity?
• Does your employer offer supplements or pay grade increases for additional education?
• What is the turnover or vacancy rate for clinicians?
• What is the relationship between (a) high workload or productivity requirements and (b) professional burnout?
• Are there additional initiatives that require your time—especially related to your skills as an MSP?

Capture the activities required to effectively manage your workload. Think about any additional activities beyond documentation—for example, team meetings, training, and care coordination activities.

The ASHA Workload Calculator is a resource that MSPs working in schools can use to calculate time spent on different tasks. There are lines and blank fields where you can add tasks unique to multilingual service provision. Calculate whether multilingual service provision requires more time than monolingual service provision—and document that difference.

Gather information about how your multilingual services promote effective outcomes.

For health care providers, this can include how multilingual services help

• prevent hospitalizations,
• shorten length of stay,
• reduce re-admissions,
• impact patient-reported outcomes and satisfaction ratings, and
• support compliance.

For school providers, this can include how multilingual services help

• improve student progress toward individualized education program (IEP) goals,
• increase caregiver engagement in therapy goals,
• reduce risk of parent complaints or hearing of determination meetings (HODs), and
• improve interprofessional collaboration with other school professionals.

Use your research to lay out a case using language and terms that mirror the mission and policies of your workplace. Consider using a framework in which you do the following tasks:

• State the issue (e.g., “Current workload calculations do not include extra time required for providing multilingual service provision.”)
• Assess what past efforts worked and didn’t work.
• Determine when the best time is to address this depending on budget cycles and funding sources for your employer.
• Connect with your state speech-language-hearing association to determine if a statewide initiative is already under way or would be appropriate to initiate.
• Gather data from other districts (see ASHA’s statewide salary supplement advocacy and local district salary supplement  pages).
• Identify current stakeholders and determine their positions.
• Garner support from those impacted by the issue (including union support, if appropriate and parents of children receiving services).
• State the requested action and the underlying rationale.
• Describe the positive impact of the action— based on your research.
• Suggest next steps for your employer.

When communicating with your manager think about the following strategies:

• Consider the most optimal context for this important conversation: Which format, place, and time will most likely allow the manager to focus on the discussion?
• Send information and supporting documentation ahead of the meeting for their review, if appropriate.
• Use your talking points (see previous section above) to present your case in a positive, collaborative manner—with an emphasis on responding to the concern underlying the policy.
• Encourage your manager to take time to consider the information you’ve provided; return to the discussion later, if needed.

When direct conversations don’t lead to change, it may be time to get others involved.

• Talk with a director or other leaders at the organization to get guidance on the next steps for escalating your concerns in your facility. Here are some examples:
  • Contact your organization’s Human Resources department.
  • Contact your organization’s compliance officer.
  • Connect with an outside ombudsman.
• Reach out to your State Education Advocacy Leader (SEAL). SEALs are appointed by state speech-language-hearing associations to advocate on education issues for audiologists and speech-language pathologists.