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

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!

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.

Improved Service to Claimants Scheduling Call-Backs in Trumba

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

All Claimant Calls Answered Call connect rate is 100% - this time last year we were at 56% October 2017 average wait 43:49 October 2018 average wait 3:23 (2 weeks of data) 92% improvement from last year!

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.

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

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

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 email-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, 2017. 288 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.  

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 2017.   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.  

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

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 email notifications for account activity

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

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.

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

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

Improving Service to Employers Listening to Our Customers 2018 employer survey underway 119,000 sent by email 3,800 responses so far Future improvements will be informed by employers Staff for AMC =24 Highest month was October 7200 Staff for Intake = 112 + 30 Highest month 67,626  

Questions ?