Report 2013-102 Recommendation 5 Responses

Report 2013-102: Employment Development Department: It Needs to Address Data Issues to Better Evaluate and Improve the Performance of Its Employment Programs for Veterans (Release Date: October 2013)

Recommendation #5 To: Employment Development Department

To identify ways to better serve veterans in California, the department should assess the success or struggles of veterans within demographic categories in finding employment, such as age, race, or educational attainment, by comparing veterans' performance to that of nonveterans in the same demographic categories and across demographic categories and use this analysis to determine whether specific populations of veterans could be better served through more targeted efforts and to identify best practices for improving employment outcomes for these specific populations. Further, the department should provide the results of this analysis annually, beginning in 2014, to stakeholders, including local workforce agencies, the state workforce board, the interagency council, the Legislature, and the public.

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From November 2017

As stated in our last response, EDD began issuing an annual report in 2016 to focus on the successes or struggles of veterans of select demographic categories. The report, "California's Veterans Workforce 2016," assessed veterans in five areas: Share of Populations, Veterans in the Labor Force, Racial and Ethnic Makeup of Veterans, Jobs Held by Veterans, and Unemployment Compensation Trends. The "2017 Veterans Day Workforce Report" addresses: Veterans in the Labor Force, Veterans' Skill Sets, Educational Attainment, Industry Sector Employment, and Occupational Employment. This annual report is published after the November Veterans Day Campaign. Both are available to stakeholders and the public on EDD's website (see Attachments 1 and 2).

To further evaluate whether specific populations of veterans could be better served through more targeted efforts, the United States Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration released new reporting guidelines due to the implementation of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) of 2015. These guidelines provide federal reporting layouts for the collection of data and reporting of the same basic demographic categories across programs, including veterans and non-veterans (e.g., Adult, Dislocated Worker, Youth, and Wagner-Peyser Act). These changes provide EDD and the California Workforce Development Board (CWDB) the ability to analyze the data across programs as it pertains to the levels of service provided and performance in order to determine best practices to improve the employment outcome for these populations. On November 3, 2017, the results of the analysis were provided to the CWDB for inclusion in the first annual report as set forth by WIOA. It is available to stakeholders and the public on CWDB's website.

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

We consider this recommendation fully implemented. However, we encourage EDD to use the data now at its disposal to inform its efforts to provide services to veterans.

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From September 2016

The EDD's Labor Market Information Division issued the first annual report in December 2015 titled, "California's Military Veterans - Valuable Assets for Today's Successful Businesses" (see Attachment). This report assesses veterans in five subject areas: Veterans in the Labor Force, Veterans' Skill Sets, Educational Attainment, Industry Sector Employment, and Occupational Employment. Each year the report will focus on the successes or struggles of veterans of select demographic categories. The report is published during the Veterans Day Campaign, which takes place annually in November. The report is available to stakeholders and the public on EDD's website.

To further evaluate whether specific populations of veterans could be better served through more targeted efforts, the United States Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration released new reporting guidelines due to the implementation of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act of 2015. These guidelines provide federal reporting layouts for the collection of data and reporting of the same basic demographic categories across programs (e.g., Adult, Dislocated Worker, Youth, and Wagner-Peyser Act). These changes provide EDD and the California Workforce Development Board the ability to analyze the data across programs as it pertains to the levels of service provided and performance. In October 2017, the results of the analysis will be provided to the California Workforce Development Board for inclusion in the first annual report as set forth by Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. This will provide California the ability to better serve our veteran population.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Not Fully Implemented

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2015

The EDD launched the upgraded CalJOBSSM on May 5, 2014. Through the new CalJOBSSM, current functionality is now available to gather performance data for veterans by demographic categories. The DOL/Employment and Training Administration 9002 and DOL/Veterans' Employment and Training Service 200 series reports are available within CalJOBSSM for reporting and data collection. The Program Reporting and Analysis Unit will continue to work with the system vendor and EDD's Information Technology staff to further provide data analyses. Additionally, the Program Reporting and Analysis Unit continues to improve product development for program processes, procedures, and formal statistical analysis that will allow the Veterans' Program Unit staff to collect and analyze additional demographic information needed to identify veterans' workforce services data such as the "Program Service Identifiers" implemented July 21, 2015, which provides specific identification of veterans with "significant barriers to employment" in CalJOBSSM (see Attachment 3).

The Veterans Program Unit is also in collaboration with EDD's Labor Market Information Division to further develop veteran demographic statistics with relationship to the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act 2015. The Labor Market Information Division is currently developing a formal report which we anticipate will be available by the end of the calendar year. This report will incorporate four subject areas: state-to-state comparisons, gender, educational attainment, and unemployment compensation for ex-service members. The EDD envisions this deliverable will be made available to stakeholders annually to support measureable data which supports EDD's vision to provide continuous quality improvement of outreach services to our State's veterans.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Not Fully Implemented

1-Year Agency Response

The EDD continues to work within its available resources to determine the feasibility of fully implementing this recommendation. The initial assessment was slated to begin after the launch of the upgraded CalJOBSSM originally set for February 2014. Due to a variety of operational issues including faulty data conversion, the launch was pushed back to

May 5, 2014; it was successfully launched on that date. Though the current CalJOBSSM has some functionality to gather performance data for veterans by demographic category, the Program Reporting and Analysis Unit will work with the system vendor and the EDD Information Technology Branch staff to develop processes, procedures, and tools that will allow the Veterans' Program Unit staff to collect and analyze the additional information needed to identify veterans' services delivery improvements. Due to the extraordinary efforts required to launch the upgraded system, implementation of these new processes, procedures, and tools has been pushed back to the first quarter of 2015 and will take approximately five months to complete.

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

6-Month Agency Response

The EDD continues to work within its available resources to determine the feasibility associated with fully implementing this recommendation. The initial assessment was slated to begin after the launch of Phase IB of the new CalJOBSSM originally set for February 2014. Due to data conversion issues/delays, the launch has been pushed back to May 5, 2014. Though the new CalJOBSSM already has some functionality to gather performance data for veterans by demographic category, the Program Reporting and Analysis Unit will begin work with the system vendor and EDD Information Technology staff after Phase IB launches to develop processes, procedures, and tools that will allow Veterans Program Unit staff to collect and analyze the additional information needed to identify veterans services improvements. It is anticipated that this work will commence in June 2014 and will take approximately 5 months to complete.

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

60-Day Agency Response

The EDD will work within its available resources to determine the feasibility associated with fully implementing this recommendation. The initial assessment is slated to begin after the launch of Phase 1B of the new CalJOBS set for February 2014. Though the new CalJOBS already has some functionality to gather performance data for veterans by demographic category, EDD Veteran services staff will begin work with the system vendor and EDD IT staff after the Phase 1B launches to develop processes, procedures, and tools that will allow EDD Veterans services staff to collect and analyze the additional information needed to identify veteran service improvements.

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

All Recommendations in 2013-102

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.