The COVID-19 pandemic drove many changes in American society and government, even beyond the healthcare sector. As businesses shut down and unemployment rates rose, millions of Americans applied for unemployment insurance. For many of the newly unemployed, applications languished in outdated systems that stalled or failed due to the unexpected volume of claims.
With the pandemic over and unemployment rates at historic lows, this period of reduced unemployment insurance applications presents states with an opportune time to modernize outdated systems before the next unexpected crisis.
In this news roundup, we’ve pulled together three stories that walk you through the challenges and share some resources that are helping states meet their modernization goals.
Department of Labor Must Do More to Support State Unemployment Insurance Modernization
According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the Department of Labor must do more to assist state governments in their unemployment insurance modernization work, particularly when it comes to overcoming challenges. In a study of eight states currently undertaking unemployment insurance modernization work, the GSA found that states struggled in five key areas: staffing, contracting, management, financial, and technical.
The GAO was asked to review the status of unemployment insurance modernization plans and activities to assess plans, bring a greater understanding of the challenges states are facing, and advise the Department of Labor on how to support states in their modernization efforts. The study concluded that the Department of Labor needed to support states by improving pilot program design, establishing performance standards, and establishing benchmarks and key performance indicators.
Read the full GAO report and recommendations here.
Automation Helps State Governments Improve Unemployment Insurance Service Delivery
In addition to system modernization and reducing the incidence of fraud, waste, and abuse, unemployment insurance system modernization should improve service delivery and user experience for both employees and customer end users. During the pandemic-era surge in claims, most state governments learned that scalability on the back end must be a priority to support constituents effectively.
In a conversation with Government Technology Insider, Dale Smith, Director of Workforce and Unemployment Insurance Solutions at TCS – Tata Consultancy Services, said, “States weren’t able to hire more staff to review this surge in applications, and as a result, applicants had to wait months to receive their UI payments.” Not only did this situation frustrate applicants as they struggled to make ends meet, but it also had a negative impact on state employee morale.
Smith recommends leveraging automation to remedy this issue. “In a workplace where automation takes care of the simple actions, you create more meaningful roles where workers are able to bring value by delivering exceptional customer experiences,” he commented.
Take a deeper dive into Smith’s recommendations on automation here.
OpenUI Initiative Webinars Help States Navigate the Path Forward
In the last moments of 2023, the Department of Labor announced a new initiative to help state governments modernize their UI programs. The OpenUI Initiative is designed to support states using modular IT to build their UI programs. A press release from the Department of Labor web site explains that “[s]tates can choose to use or adapt software developed by others or make software they’ve created on their own available for others to use via the platform.” To help states navigate their modernization journey, the Department of Labor hosted a webinar on the OpenUI Initiative hosted by Jim Garner, Administrator, Office of Unemployment Insurance at the Department of Labor and Andrew Stettner, Director of Unemployment Insurance Modernization.
Watch the webinar below.
