November 14, 2011 Rhode Island

 Benefit Year Earnings (BYE): Root Causes Identified:  Agency Causes  Poorly worded messaging  Staff do not “Own Integrity”  Workflow issues  Claimant Causes  Lack of understanding  Sense of entitlement  Misrepresentation of fact  Employer Causes  Late or incomplete responses to requests for information  Misunderstanding of role and responsibilities 2

 Benefit Year Earnings (BYE): Planned actions to address:  Investigate better messaging techniques through UI messaging sub committee  Employer Education Series  Staff education on “Everyone Owns Integrity” Principle milestones:  Conduct Employer Education Series targeting UI Fraud on Nov. 3, 2011  UI Messaging Sub Committee starting in November 2011  Conduct additional Employee Education Session in Adjudication, UI 101 and Benefit Charge prior to the end of November

 Separations (SEPs): Root Causes Identified:  Agency Causes  Not addressing returned employer forms in a timely manner  Not processing adjudication decisions in a timely manner  Poor messaging on fraud and claimant responsibilities  Claimant Causes  Misunderstanding reason for separation  Misrepresenting reason for separation  Employer Causes  Late responses to forms  Incomplete responses to forms  Not clearly communicating separation reasons to claimant and the agency 4

 Separations:  Planned actions to address:  Implement UI SIDES  Create Employer Form focus group  Improve claimant messaging  Principle milestones:  Launch UI SIDES (anticipated in November 2011)  Increase staff assigned to back office work to address employer forms (October 2011)  Post signage in One Stop Career Centers, customer outreach via predictive dialer, messages in the newspaper, and other media activity (ongoing) 5

 Work Search Issues: Root Causes Identified:  Agency Causes  Currently do not collect weekly work search for ES claims  Do not review work search data randomly (data is not collected)  Limited resources to review work search logs  Claimant Causes  Do not understand work search requirement  Do not keep work search log  Do not conduct work search 6

 Work Search Issues :  Planned actions to address:  Revise messaging to illustrate work search requirement  Require work search log as part of weekly certification  Gather work search records through Interactive Web Response system (IWR)  Principle milestones:  Revise messaging on Interactive Voice Response (IVR), IWR and update Benefit Rights  Modify IWR to collect work search data  Update automated payment system to reject certification if work search does not meet criteria 7

8  Issue 1: Benefit Year Earnings  Root causes identified:  Claimant’s do not understand what earnings to report  Claimant’s do not understand when to report earnings  Claimant’s do not realize that failure to report earnings has penalties  Planned actions to address issue:  Improve messaging by making our language more clear  Improve access to information via online knowledge base and one stop career centers  Illustrate that working and collecting is fraud and highlight penalties  Principle milestones:  Messaging subcommittee  Media Campaign

9  Issue 2: Separation Issues  Root causes identified:  Late or incomplete employer forms  Inability to address employer forms in a timely manner  Incorrect information provided at claim filing  Planned actions to address issue:  UI SIDES Implementation  Employer Form focus group  Improve claimant messaging  Principle milestones:  UI SIDES Implementation to be completed in November  Employer form focus group to launch in November  Messaging subcommittee to start in November

 Strategies to Support Owning UI Integrity:  Educate every staff member to:  Understand the problem  Understand how they can help  Feel like they can make a difference  Develop processes to:  Accept new ideas  Foster employee input  Respond to changing demands  Management oversight:  Regular review of improper payment statistics 10

 Communication Strategies:  To claimants:  Signage in the One Stop Career Centers  Instructional videos on agency web site  Media outreach  To employers:  Employer Education Series  Additional content on agency web site  Educational material to provide UI 101 to employers 11

 Communication Strategies, Continued:  To State UI staff:  Training Sessions to share data and strategic plan  Status updates on progress  Method for suggestions on how to improve operations  To the Public:  Media campaign  Improved messaging illustrating enforcement  Media focus on prosecutions 12

“Integrity: Own It!”  Questions?  State Contact for follow-up: Raymond A. Filippone, Assistant Director Phone: