Report 2014-101 Recommendation 4 Responses

Report 2014-101: Employment Development Department: It Should Improve Its Efforts to Minimize Avoidable Appeals of Its Eligibility Determinations for Unemployment Insurance Benefits (Release Date: August 2014)

Recommendation #4 To: Employment Development Department

To reduce the number of its determinations that are overturned on appeal, EDD should allow additional time for its staff to process misconduct and voluntary quit cases, especially those that involve complex issues.

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From September 2016

As indicated in the prior response, EDD released a macro application in December 2014, which automatically streamlines the determination process, thereby enabling staff to enter eligibility decisions more efficiently. This allows more time for determination interviewers to process complex determinations. In October 2015, EDD enhanced the macro application to decrease the determination processing time and improve efficiency even further. The introduction of the macro application has resulted in a 49-percent average decrease in determination processing time.

In addition, with the assistance of the EDD Business Process Improvement Team, EDD created an enhanced intranet site, which is continually updated to provide statewide UI staff quick access to various determination reference materials for adjudicating eligibility issues. Reference materials include, but are not limited to, the Benefit Determination Guide, legal citations, UI Program Notices, and various training information.

These efforts allow additional time for staff to process misconduct and voluntary quit cases, especially those that involve complex issues.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Fully Implemented

1-Year Agency Response

As indicated in our six-month response, in December 2014 we released a macro application that streamlines the determination process enabling staff to enter eligibility decisions more efficiently and allowing more time for determination interviewers to process complex determinations. We continue working on enhancements to this application to further increase time savings with the determination process. Additionally, our UI Business Process Innovation team continues to advance with the development of a determinations SharePoint site, which will provide tools for staff to assist in streamlining the determination process and enhancing the documentation and quality of determinations. As noted in our six-month response, the site will be accessible to UI staff statewide and will provide quick access to various reference guides and materials to assist in completing determinations more efficiently. Unfortunately, due to lack of resources, the implementation of this site will be delayed until December 2015. In addition, progress is also being made to make the current fact-finding form more user-friendly and streamline the fact-finding that supports the legal eligibility decisions. We anticipate implementing the enhancements to the form in November 2015.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Partially Implemented

6-Month Agency Response

In order to allow more time for determination interviewers to process the more complex determinations, in December 2014, we released a macro application to assist staff in entering eligibility decisions more efficiently. Additionally, our UI Business Process Innovation team conducted a study targeted at streamlining processes by reducing unnecessary administrative actions performed by staff during the determination process and enhancing the documentation and quality of the determinations. As a result of this study, the team is in the process of developing a SharePoint site that will be accessible to UI staff statewide that will provide quick access to various reference guides and materials to assist them in completing determinations. The team is also making enhancements to the current form used by staff to document their fact finding in an effort to streamline the forms and make them more user-friendly. The estimated completion date is in the fall of 2015.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Partially Implemented

60-Day Agency Response

Through our Business Process Innovation project aimed at reviewing, rethinking, and potentially redesigning our UI business processes to help achieve improvements in performance, we are presently conducting a study targeted at streamlining processes by reducing unnecessary administrative actions performed by staff during the determination process and enhancing the documentation and quality of the determinations. The implementation of the Business Process Innovation team's recommendations are expected in early 2015, and are expected to include the development of reference guides to assist staff in managing the sequence of tasks to reduce unnecessary time spent on administrative actions. Additionally, in order to allow more time for determination interviewers to process the more complex determinations, we are programming a macro application to assist staff in entering eligibility decisions more efficiently. The first phase of this macro is expected to be released by December 2014.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

All Recommendations in 2014-101

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.