Oregon Department of Employment Reports Efforts to Resolve Frances Online and Oregon Paid Leave Filing Issues – KTVZ

SALEM, Ore. (KTVZ) — The Oregon Department of Labor said Wednesday it is now in its ninth week of using Frances Online for unemployment insurance benefits. In that time, the new system has paid $111.3 million in profits and there has been a significant increase in customers successfully using Frances Online.

Here’s the rest of his full media update on efforts to resolve issues and make improvements:

For example, the number of timely weekly claims has leveled at approximately 30,000 for each of the past six weeks. This aligns with seasonal trends this time of year and shows that most customers have acclimated to the new system.

The percentage of people using Frances Online to lodge their claim has also risen steadily since launch, from 81.1 per cent in the first week to 93.8 per cent last week. This shows that more and more people are learning how to file their claims online with each passing week.

The new technology is working as intended and is becoming more secure and much more flexible. It also offers more opportunities for self-service than legacy systems.

While, as with any major new system, adjustments need to be made, the department can see more clearly where people are having trouble using the system than we can in our legacy systems. Program leaders have already made many changes and continue to make things easier and more efficient for the public so that people who qualify can get their benefits faster.

the challenges
While the new technology works, some customers are frustrated that they have not been able to communicate with the department and the time it takes for the UI program to review and approve (or deny) some UI claims. Unfortunately, both of these challenges were present before the release of Frances for UI benefits and still exist today.

“We know that people are already facing difficult situations with the loss of jobs, and we know that it is difficult to wait any length of time,” said the director of the Department of Employment, David Gerstenfeld. “We also recognize that it’s particularly frustrating when they can’t get through to us by phone or have to wait a long time when they do. While more people are using the new system successfully, and we’re dealing with many people’s complaints quickly, we know that this is no comfort to those who have to wait.”

The Oregon Department of Employment is committed to providing the best customer service possible, and there are two main things you need to do to do that.

• The first thing is to have the right tools. Frances Online offers the necessary flexibility and improvements over legacy systems.
• The second is having enough employees to do the job. The department’s staffing levels remain low relative to its workload due to chronic federal underfunding.

Here is what the Ministry of Employment is doing to face these challenges.

Recruitment push

• Unemployment insurance
  • Thanks to the support of the Oregon Legislature and the Governor, House Bill 4035 (2024) will provide much-needed administrative funding for 72 positions. Some of these positions are already filled on a temporary basis, and the funding will make them permanent.
  • There are currently 409 employees in the UI program. The department’s goal is to reach 476 and achieve increased productivity and better customer service by mid-to-late August.
• Paid Leave Oregon currently has 311 employees and the program expects to have 365 at the end of June.

Other personnel-related approaches

Because it will take time to feel the customer service gains from HB 4035 (2024), the Department of Employment is doing a lot in the meantime to help customer service. Some of these will be long-term adjustments, while others are only intended as short-term measures as the department works to hire and train more employees in the coming months. These include:

• Over time
  • Dedicated UI employees have been working an average of 400 hours of overtime per week. This will increase to 600 hours or more per week.
  • Staff from other parts of the agency who have the appropriate skills will assist with the work of the UI, including adjudication, processing claims, and responding to applicant inquiries. The goal is to achieve at least 320 additional overtime hours per week.
• Extension of support
  • Employees in the Workforce Operations division will make outbound calls to UI applicants between assisting clients with job searches and job skills training.
  • UI Managers and Team Leaders will temporarily take on more direct claims work.

Operational changes underway

In addition to adding more workers and overtime opportunities, the department is looking at changes how to do the job.

• Adjustment of workflows – The department is making it easier to solve common problems for both our customers and our employees. This includes reducing some redundant submissions to claimants and looking for ways to further improve the user experience based on feedback we are receiving from customers and our employees.
• Dedicated time – The department is looking at ways to free up staff time to focus on solving claims problems, which would help them process claims faster, get eligible workers benefits faster, and reduce the number of calls and messages from claimants who simply want to check the status of their claim or benefit payment.
• Update the wording – The department is revising its letters, questionnaires and online messages to further clarify the complaints process and help the public know what to expect.
• Provides more detailed information about the status of the claim – The department is improving and expanding the language on Frances Online to provide customers with additional details about why their claim is being reviewed and what, if any, they should do.
• Paid Leave Oregon is improving its communication – Using feedback from the first six months of the program, Paid Leave is improving communication with insurance companies, employers and health care providers to get the information they need faster so people can get their claims approved faster .
• Update the weekly certification tracking process – UI is making it easier for applicants to let the program know when they made a mistake when answering UI’s weekly eligibility questions so that issues can be resolved more quickly.
• Tweaking the way we deal with UI issues that started in our legacy system – The UI is changing the way it processes claim issues that originated in our legacy systems and moved to Frances. This may result in duplicate shipments to some customers, but this will reduce the average time for employees to resolve issues from 9 to 2 days.

Operational modifications completed

These are some of the improvements that the Employment Office has already made to improve customer service:

• Updated language and system functionality – Based on customer feedback, the department is continually fine-tuning Frances Online to make it even easier to use. Examples of changes include how people identify their employer in the system; the time when some letters are sent to claimants; facilitating the amendment of claims already submitted; and shorten the time employers have to respond, where applicable, to speed up the processing of claims.
• Improved employee training and orientation/resources
• A complete set of resource materials has been created: On the department’s websites, customers who need help with Frances Online can find guides, videos and answers to many frequently asked questions (FAQs).
• Improved UI identity verification process – UI gives claimants more time to respond (due to mail delivery delays, some people didn’t have enough time to respond). The program will soon be able to provide more advance notice that if you request certain changes to your account, it may require you to re-verify your identity.
• Improving live chat support – This option improves the customer experience and allows department employees, as they gain skills, to manage more simultaneous online chats to help multiple UI customers at the same time.

Demonstrated progress

The Ministry of Employment is already seeing signs of increased efficiency (which in turn means improved customer service):

• Over 93% of claimants are using Frances Online to submit their weekly claims.
• Due to staff training, the average time it takes UI employees to handle a call has decreased from 17 minutes to about 11 minutes, which means they can answer more calls.
• The average number of work items UI employees can complete on Frances Online has also increased significantly, from an average of 3.3 items per hour just after benefits went live in the new system to 6.8 items per hour time
• Adjudication Process Efficiencies: Since Frances Online went live, the average time for employees to resolve an issue on a claim, once they start working on it, has decreased from 9 days to 2 days.

Developing a new system for unemployment insurance and rolling out paid leave in Oregon, especially after the historic stresses of the pandemic and then drastic staff losses due to inadequate federal funding, were major efforts.

“While we are already seeing significant performance improvements, we know it will take more time to further refine the program, which affects so many workers and employers across the state,” said IU Director Lindsi Leahy. “We know how important the UI program is to Oregonians and that our work is not done. We are committed to continuous improvement and to keeping the public informed of our challenges, opportunities and progress.”

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The Oregon Employment Department (OED) is an equal opportunity agency. OED offers free help to help you use our services. Some examples are sign language and spoken language interpreters, materials written in other languages, large print, audio, and other formats. For assistance, call 503-947-1794. TTY users call 711. You can also email language@employ.oregon.gov.