Resolving backlogs with reduced phone hours: Oregon Department of Employment

SALEM, Ore. (CAT) – The Oregon Department of Employment says it has increased productivity and is working through a large number of claims cases faster thanks to a reduction in its incoming call hours.

Last month, the department announced it would turn off incoming calls on Mondays and reduce its hours from Tuesday to Friday to give employees a chance to clear up claims issues.

Employment Department Director David Gerstenfeld said the idea is to clarify the issues claimants are calling about so they don’t have to call again.

Nearly three weeks after the change, Gerstenfeld says it’s working.

«The extra time is allowing us to sort out the issues that people are calling us about all three programs have made great progress and we’ll be able to provide better customer service because of it,» he said during a conference call. for the media.

He said the average number of cases resolved for requests for the paid leave program increased by more than 60% from an average of 1,300 cases resolved per day to about 2,000.

He said paid leave workers also tripled the number of online messages they answered Monday while phone lines were down.

Within the Unemployment Insurance Program, workers are slowly making a decline in the number of claims cases that are older than three weeks, the total went from 13,500 to 10,200 since the call time change.

Gerstenfeld noted that the goal is to resolve at least 80 percent of these cases within three weeks, so far 60 percent have been resolved within that time frame.

Once the goal is reached, Gerstenfeld says the department will reassess whether it can open the phone lines again on Monday, although the reduction in phone hours from 8-5pm to 9-4pm will remain in effect.

The department’s director noted that employees are prioritizing the resolution of issues that prevent claims payments and said the ability to rank issues based on that priority is a feature that is unique to the new software the agency released in March. .

Since the switch, the agency has been inundated with calls from claimants who had some problems with the French software. Gerstenfeld has remained adamant that the problems are not due to any glitches within the new system, but rather a learning curve for claimants that has resulted in increased call volume.

Federal data show that the percentage of claims paid within three weeks in Oregon fell sharply in February just before Frances was introduced, from 81% to 67%. The federal «acceptable level» is paid at least 87% within three weeks. Oregon’s numbers haven’t reached that level since July 2023.

Gerstenfeld has blamed the drop in claims settlement on federal cuts after the pandemic resulting in a reduced workforce, something the Oregon Legislature has since remedied with state funding to increase employment within the department. The new group of employees is in the process of being trained and hired, according to Gerstenfeld.

During Wednesday’s media briefing, Gerstenfeld noted that federal data likely won’t begin to track the progress his department claims to have made as a result of the clock changes for some time. He said this is because with the settlement of old cases, claims that have been pending for months are now being paid and adding to the number of claims paid after three weeks.

As the backlog closes, it can be expected to eventually see progress reflected in federal data, however Gerstenfeld noted that the department expects a small increase in the number of claims next month when the new fiscal year begins and increases unemployment.

Gerstenfeld claims looking at the number of cases settled within three weeks is a more current measure of success than federal data showing how many claimants are paid within three weeks.

«What we’re doing is we’re taking that snapshot of the issues that are out there right now that are affecting real people, how many of them are over three weeks or six weeks and that’s what we’re really focused on,» he said. .

In terms of call volume, Gerstenfeld said Paid Permit is seeing a drop in both volume and wait times for callers. He said this is an indication that the new call hours are working because as cases are being resolved more quickly, fewer people need to call.

This change has not yet occurred within the unemployment insurance program. Gerstenfeld was unable to provide any data on whether or not department employees are making more outbound calls to claimants since they are no longer taking inbound calls on Mondays.