1. Employment Security Advisory Committee
Julie Lord, Director Unemployment Insurance Customer Support
October 24, 2018
Refer to as UICS throughout the presentation

2. Agenda Recap from July presentation Update on planning for peak
Improved service to claimants
More efficient benefit payments
Improved service to employers
Questions
Theme is customer support and service!

3. Improved Service to Claimants
New Triage Team up and running
September 4
30 new agents began taking question-calls Monday thru Friday
Transferring complex calls to intake agents or scheduling call-backs
October 1
12 new intake agents started (now at 112 total intake staff)
October 15
Launched ability for claimants to schedule a call-back on esd.wa.gov
WorkSource staff began scheduling call-backs
67 claimants self-scheduled call-backs in the first three days.

4. Improved Service to Claimants
Scheduling Call-Backs in Trumba

5. Improved Service to Claimants
Triage Team Work
Week ending October 13, answered 6,100 calls
About 50% of all question calls answered are scheduled for a call back
93% of all call backs are made within their scheduled appointment
Average handle time for Triage team is 5.5 minutes per call
When intake was handling all calls, handle time was 13.5 minutes

6. All Claimant Calls Answered
Call connect rate is 100% - this time last year we were at 56%
October average wait 43:49
October average wait 3:23
(2 weeks of data)
92% improvement from last year!

7. Improved Service to Claimants
Faster Eligibility Decisions
If there is an issue that needs to be resolved on a claim, it goes to a special unit that gathers the additional info needed to make a decision about whether a person is eligible for UI
Backlog has diminished by 90% since April.
Completing our work within the 21-day federal standard.
This should also reduce the number of call to find out the status of claims
FYI: Staff have maintained a 14% backlog of total open issues since September.

8. Improved Service to Claimants
Partnering with WorkSource
23 WS offices will have a staff person trained on basic claims and re-opening claims
October 15 – WorkSource staff also began scheduling call-backs online and service launched
34 WS or affiliate office have a direct emergency telephone line to the Claim Center for claimants
Development underway to integrate worksourcewa.com so that claimants are redirected to employment information

9. Improved Service to Claimants
Partnering with WorkSource
October – Instituted process for WS staff to escalate urgent claimant issues

10. Improved Service to Claimants
eServices improvements
October 22 – Customer survey implemented in eServices to gather feedback from claimants
GOALS
Measure the level of customer satisfaction
Use data that helps us make business decisions
Demonstrate that we value the opinions of our customers
Improve eServices for users
December 13 – Claimant -survey scheduled to determine how we can improve our service to all
So what are our customers telling us?
Focus groups were held at WorkSource offices between February 1 and April 3, responses from 59 participants were recorded.
1. The most common complaint was the inability to contact an agent by phone.
2. The next greatest number of responses had to do with confusion and frustration regarding the content and language within eServices.
3. Third most common responses regarded difficulty using Secure Access Washington (SAW), the portal claimants use to establish their accounts.

11. More Efficient Benefit Payments
Improved eServices
September 8
Initiated pilot removing complex identity verification questions
Reduced the seven-day lockout for identity problems
September 28
Claimants can check status of claim online
Adding tools to provide help to navigate eServices including: progress bars, helpful links and messages
A series of further eServices improvements are planned to help claimants access reemployment services
Standardize look and feel of eServices including mobile version of eServices
And much more… [such as]
Screen layout changes to improve overall flow of site and improving the flow of questions in application forms
Improvements to interactive components such as employer and occupations lookup tools
[Your former notes are below in case you need them]
This customer feedback was used to prioritize eServices improvement projects.
First major project was  SAW portal improvements in  
Second major project was major re-write of letters to customers explaining decisions on eligibility.
 A series of further eServices improvements are under way with project funding that will run through June 2019.

12. More Efficient Benefit Payments
Change to Benefit Payment Process
August 1
Moved away from paper checks to debit cards or direct deposit
Change did not impact current claimants
Claimants now choose between a debit card and direct deposit
Direct deposit is the preferred option

13. More Efficient Benefit Payments
Get cash at over 1,500 KeyBank ATMS nationwide – 55,000 ATMS worldwide
Cash out cards with no fee at MasterCard member banks
No wait for a check to be delivered each week
800 number for assistance
No requirement for a bank account
Online access to view transactions, pay bills, or transfer funds
No banking fees
Get text or notifications for account activity

14. Improved Service to Claimants and Employers
Faster Processing of Appeals
December 2017 – 41 days to process appeals
ESD conducted internal Lean events
Goal: To speed up processes and reduce the backlog of pending appeals cases.
As of October 17, 2018, ESD is processing appeals within 24 hours
OAH has hired additional staff to work appeals cases

15. Improved Service to Claimants and Employers
Making Determination Letters Clearer
Less ambiguous, plain talk the explanation, straightforward grammar, and provide clarifying information
625 existing paragraphs updated - main paragraphs explaining reasons for allowing or denying a claim
558 sub-reason sentences added to provide additional clarity
60% of the letter changes are now in production
Higher priority letter changes are done or underway.
Remainder may not be done until January.

16. Improved Service to Employers
Listening to Our Customers
Surveyed 10,000 employers and employer representatives in 2017
881 responded with what was important to them:
Preferred to speak to a live person
Preferred first call resolution
Would like a live chat feature

17. Improvements to Employers
Triage Team for Employers
All employer calls go to a live agent
Ended cold handoffs – employer calls that require additional expertise are prepped for transfer so that the employer only has to explain the reason for call once
Call wait times average1.33 minutes with an average of 10,286 calls per month
Working on a chat feature for implementation in 2019
In July, at the last ESAC presentation, the call wait time was 2.22 minutes on average with an average of 6,200 calls per month

18. Improving Service to Employers
Listening to Our Customers
2018 employer survey underway
119,000 sent by
3,800 responses so far
Future improvements will be informed by employers
Staff for AMC =24 Highest month was October 7200
Staff for Intake = Highest month 67,626

19. Questions ?