ESD: 90-day call-center pilot raised weekly call capacity 16% and improved first-pay timeliness

Tatiana Roberts told the Unemployment Insurance Advisory Committee that a 90-day call-center pilot implemented Oct. 27 compressed claim-center phone hours to Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8 a.m. to noon and produced results that exceeded expectations.

"Our results far surpassed what we were hoping to see," Roberts said, reporting a 16% increase in weekly call capacity — roughly 800 more calls per week — and an average increase of about 3.5 full-time-equivalent staff dedicated daily to phone staffing even though headcount did not change. She said the office also completed 37% more non-phone work and saw a 6% increase in calls per month.

Those operational gains translated into an improvement in first-pay timeliness: Roberts said the department’s fourth-quarter rate rose from 67.4% to 70.4% year over year. Roberts also said the pilot aimed to reduce staff burnout by limiting long, continuous phone shifts and to repurpose staff time for intake and downstream eligibility work.

Committee member Josie Cummings asked whether the agency had tracked claimant hold times before and after the pilot. Roberts said she did not have the specific pre/post hold-time numbers available at the meeting but offered to share them later; she said the department’s goal is to answer 80% of calls within 20 minutes and that current performance is about 60%.

Given continued workload growth and limited overtime funding, Roberts said the department is proposing to extend the pilot through the end of the current fiscal year so the agency can lock in the operational gains and continue analyzing customer-service metrics.

The committee did not take a formal vote on the pilot extension during the meeting; Roberts and staff offered to provide additional hold-time and related customer experience data in follow-up materials.