Report 2020-128/628.1 Recommendation 12 Responses

Report 2020-128/628.1: Employment Development Department: EDD's Poor Planning and Ineffective Management Left It Unprepared to Assist Californians Unemployed by COVID‑19 Shutdowns (Release Date: January 2021)

Recommendation #12 To: Employment Development Department

To ensure that it is able to take informed steps to provide better customer service through improved call center performance, EDD should implement a formal policy by no later than May 2021 that establishes a process for tracking and periodically analyzing the reasons why UI claimants call for assistance. By no later than October 2021, and every six months thereafter, EDD should analyze these data to improve its call center by doing the following:

-Identifying and resolving weaknesses or problems with the ways in which it provides assistance to UI claimants through self-service and noncall-center options.

On January 31, 2023, the Unemployment Insurance Command Center Division implemented 11 "Agent Tags" into the Virtual Contact Center (VCC) for contact center agents to select why customers did not use self-service or non-contact center options. This new feature used by contact center agents within the VCC will allow the EDD to track and periodically analyze why UI customers call for assistance instead of using an available self-service option or non-contact center option. When a customer calls the contact center and speaks with a contact center agent, the agent will notate why the customer did not use self-service through an "Agent Tag" to select the most appropriate reason why a customer elected to call the contact center. Like disposition codes used by contact center agents, "Agent Tags" are a vital piece of information needed to gather to ensure the EDD is serving its customers in the best manner possible and optimizing the performance of the contact center.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Status: Fully Implemented

We reviewed information provided by EDD regarding the "agent tags" and the results of its analysis of call data. These agent tags will enable EDD to identify the reasons that claimants chose to call instead of using noncall-center options. For example, some possible agent tags include "EDD chatbot attempted," Tele-Cert attempted," and "UI Online attempted." When a claimant chooses one of these reasons for calling, it means the claimant attempted to solve their issue using the noncall-center option but was unsuccessful and ultimately resorted to calling. The data EDD has collected and analyzed will enable it to make additional improvements to optimize those noncall-center options.

The Employment Development Department (EDD) has developed a mechanism via its Virtual Contact Center (VCC) to capture why Unemployment Insurance (UI) customers opt or prefer to call a contact center representative to obtain assistance with their benefit claim or inquire about the UI program instead of using a non-contact center or self-service option. The EDD has developed seven categories that will be used by contact center representatives to identify why a customer elected to call rather than using a non-contact center or self-service option, see attached Artifact. The EDD is finalizing its project related deliverables to train contact center representatives and anticipates implementing the functionality and furnish data metrics obtained within the VCC by March 31, 2023.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Status: Pending

We have reviewed the document EDD provided that describes the seven categories it will use to identify why a customer elected to call rather than using a non-contact center or self-service option. If EDD implements this functionality as planned, it would gather useful information about the reasons UI claimant call for assistance and could then implement changes to the ways it provides assistance to UI claimants through its self-service and non-call-center options. We look forward to the analysis EDD performs of the data it gathers.

The Employment Development Department continues to evaluate a sustainable business model to capture why Unemployment Insurance (UI) customers opt or prefer to call a contact center representative to obtain assistance with their benefit claim or the UI program instead of using a non-contact center or self-service options. The UI Branch is actively researching the capability for UI contact center representatives to collect this information via the My Agent Experience functionality within the Virtual Contact Center or a survey-based method administered to UI customers to collect the reasons why customers elect to call the contact center.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Status: Partially Implemented

We look forward to the results of EDD's research and the approach EDD chooses to identify and resolve weaknesses with the ways in which it provides assistance to UI claimants through self-service and non-call-center options.

On June 15, 2022, the Employment Development Department (EDD) met with the California State Auditor (CSA) to review the artifacts submitted for CSA Recommendation # 12 submitted by the EDD with a request for the recommendation to be "fully implemented". During the collaborative discussion, the EDD received additional insight into the context of Recommendation # 12 and is now conducting research and analysis to best meet the recommendation.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Status: Partially Implemented

We look forward to EDD's next update on the progress of its efforts to identify and resolve weaknesses or problems with the ways in which it provides assistance to UI claimants through self-service and noncall-center options.

In March 2022, the Employment Development Department's Unemployment Insurance (UI) Branch's UI Command Center Division (UICCD) completed its quarterly analysis of disposition codes used by contact center agents from October 29, 2021, through January 29, 2022. Based on the completed analysis, the top reasons why customers are calling the contact center were identified to provide contact center agents with targeted training modules using the Knowledge Management System (KMS). On April 1, 2022, the KMS was updated to communicate that each week, the KMS will be updated to highlight a new disposition code and provide existing and new resources so staff can quickly access the reference materials to assist customers who are calling the contact center. Within the KMS, agents are provided with "articles" which provide a self-service option to guide a customer if they would like to continue on their own, or an assisted process to assist a customer. Additionally, the EDD continues to partner with the vendor, Emplifi, to continuously update the responses provided by the EDD Chatbot based on a customer's intent to provide a non-contact center channel to answer questions they may have on their benefit claim. After assessing the top reasons customers are calling the contact, the EDD is currently exploring "live" chat with customers as an additional non-contact center option to minimize the number of calls entering the contact center and improve the customer experience.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Status: Partially Implemented

We reviewed the quarterly analysis of disposition codes and the knowledge management system documentation that EDD provided. We believe that providing additional training resources to its staff related to the topics most frequently sought by callers is valuable. Also the "self-service" process described in the example KMS article EDD provided appears to direct callers to online information intended to answer their questions. However, we believe that EDD should continue to gather data that would help it determine why callers are using the call center to seek answers to those most common topics rather than using the other self-service and noncall-center options EDD has made available. As part of its disposition coding it should include codes that indicate why the caller chose to call in rather than use other self-service/noncall-center options.

In May 2021, the Employment Development Department's Unemployment Insurance (UI) Branch's UI Command Center Division (UICCD) developed a formal policy for tracking and analyzing the reasons why customers call the contact center. In accordance with the policy developed, the UICCD has reviewed the disposition code data used by contact center agents from June 1, 2021 through October 27, 2021 to identify improvements of the contact center, identify self-service and non-call center options, and provide contact center agents with targeted training modules.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Status: Partially Implemented

We reviewed EDD's policy and the recent status update and found that EDD has established and followed a process to track and analyze reasons why claimants call for assistance. It has analyzed these data and determined that some of the disposition codes it was using were too high-level and did not truly determine the reason for a claimant's call. We believe EDD should continue this type of monitoring and analysis of the data it gathers to identify additional improvements in the ways it provides assistance to UI claimants. We will review EDD's progress at the next update to determine if new disposition codes have allowed it to improve its service options.

The Employment Development Department's Unemployment Insurance Command Center Division (UICCD) has formed a workgroup to review and analyze the current disposition codes used by contact center agents. The workgroup completed their initial analysis and the newly proposed disposition codes are in final review before deploying to contact center agents. In addition to updating the current disposition codes utilized by contact center agents, the UICCD will be collaborating with the Branch Training Section to develop and deliver a training module to advise contact center agents of the importance of correctly dispositioning a call after service is provided to a customer. The UICCD continues to review and analyze the disposition codes used by contact center agents to leverage opportunities to assist customers through self-service and non-call center options.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Status: Partially Implemented

We look forward to reviewing the newly proposed disposition codes that EDD finalizes and deploys to it contact center agents, as well as its analysis of those disposition codes and any actions it takes to revise its self-service and non-call center options.

In May 2021, the EDD's UI Command Center Division developed and implemented a policy that will track, analyze, and address the reasons why UI claimants call the contact center. The policy developed is comprised of the following elements:

-Disposition Code Analysis to ensure the intent is correct.

-Root Cause Analysis for a Customer's Inquiry

-Determine Operations Goals

-Determine Implementation Strategies (e.g., self-service options)

-Implementation Plan

By October 2021, the EDD's UI Command Center Division will begin analyzing the resulting data to improve the customer experience with specific focus on enhancements to self-service and non-call center options that assists customers, and identification of specialized training for staff to better assist callers.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Status: Partially Implemented

We reviewed the policy that EDD developed and found that it establishes a process for tracking and periodically analyzing the reasons why UI claimants call for assistance. We look forward to reviewing in October the analysis EDD conducts and any resulting improvements to its processes.

The EDD is in the process of establishing a policy to track and periodically review the top reasons why UI claimants contact the UI Customer Service Center for assistance. The EDD plans to utilize the disposition codes provided by contact center agents to identify and propose self-service enhancements or non-call center options.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Status: Pending

All Recommendations in 2020-128/628.1

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.