Solutions for Unemployment Insurance

Typically, dislocated workers and employers access UI and reemployment services on a “two-stop shopping” basis, with the work test requirements imposed on UI claimants in many states as the only connection. The separation made sense back in the day, when telephone-based services were considered “advanced technology” and service delivery was based in the physical world, consisting of in-person visits to agency offices, printed forms completed in ink, and communications via regular mail.

But this separation has also contributed to reduced registration for and access to reemployment services. Whereas claimants used to be handed off immediately to the counselor at the next desk, they are now left on their own to connect with available services and to undertake key work search activities on an expeditious basis. Too often, they fail to do so. It may take weeks, if ever, for them to visit a workforce center, meet with a counselor, and find out which resources they are eligible for. As a result, the system misses out on the close, personal awareness of each job seeker, their employment prospects, and specific needs that a counselor typically develops.

Ultimately, an important opportunity may be squandered. Without a link to reemployment activities, interactions with the UI system represent a purely administrative process for claimants with no value-add other than a benefits check. Yet, many individuals begin the process of filing a claim immediately upon losing their jobs, even before they tell their families of their job loss – which means valuable reemployment assistance could be provided from the very outset.

Burning Glass believes that repositioning reemployment as an integral part of the claims process will achieve greater participation in the short-term, with the potential of millions of dollars of savings through a reduction in UI claim duration in the long-term. And we have the tools to back it up, as our solutions:

• Simultaneously activate both claim filing and reemployment activities, eliminating any delay in job search commencement
• Integrate claims data collection with resume building or upload, enabling job seekers to simultaneously file a claim and build a comprehensive, professionally-formatted resume in one easy step
• Deliver relevant job matches immediately at the point of claim and ongoing in order to ensure maximum exposure to relevant opportunities
• Improve assessment of likelihood to exhaust both at point of claim and ongoing based on job match prospects as well as other criteria
• Provide increased capabilities for work search validation through automated tracking of claimant website activity to obtain and follow up on job matches, including relevancy
• Help claimants find the right jobs more quickly, by using truly advanced technology (artificial intelligence) to match them with highly relevant jobs based on their skills and other qualifications
• Help claimants plan for a fulfilling career as well as find a job, by assessing individual skills gaps and providing personalized training referrals
• Provide employers with speedier access to highly qualified candidates through a robust search and match functionality

In 2010, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Unemployment Insurance conducted a review of state UI websites and concluded that many of them have not been designed to meet customer (claimants and employers) expectations for increasingly automated functions and access to online self-services. Redesigning UI websites to provide clearer and more consistent access for claimants and employers will deliver the dual benefits of more effective online UI services and increased use of the site by both populations. But it also provides a unique opportunity to achieve tremendous cost savings through a significant reduction in the duration of UI claims, by positioning reemployment as an integral part of the claims process rather than a separate or “after the fact” activity.

Research consistently has demonstrated that providing reemployment services to claimants yields a reduction in the duration of UI claims. This includes USDOL studies in the states of Maryland, Washington, and Oregon, which found that providing and following up on job leads reduced UI duration by 5-9 days. Linking work test requirements with more stringent job search reporting has also been shown to reduce the amount of UI benefits paid.

Burning Glass believes that implementing our comprehensive suite of high impact, self-service tools as an inseparable component of the claims process will provide further validation of these findings. Our solutions include:

• A resume builder that embeds UI’s extensive, mandated data collection requirements within a process that is productive for the claimant – yielding not only completed claim filings and superior data collection but also professionally-formatted resumes through a detailed, automated interview process that requires no writing.
• Immediate match to highly relevant jobs based on each individual claimant’s specific experiences, qualifications, and career path and their correspondence with actual patterns of placement – no keywords or O*NET codes required.
• Triage and assessment of likelihood of exhausting benefits both at the point of initial claim and ongoing based upon the availability of relevant work opportunities.
• Automated ongoing daily job leads delivered to the job seeker based on a database of millions of current job listings, updated daily .
• Options for integrating ongoing job matching at weekly requalification and for incorporating actual follow up on job leads into weekly work test requirements.
• Real-time feedback that helps job seekers understand the qualifications and experience they need for successful placement into the jobs that interest them and identify relevant, local training opportunities.
• Connection to available skills-building and training resources.

In addition, our technology provides an innovative method for validating work search activities independent of claimant reporting, by tracking (1) all matches and referrals provided to a claimant on a weekly basis, and (2) all matches and referrals that were accessed (“clicked through”) by a claimant each week.

Linkage to Burning Glass reemployment solutions results in demonstrable outcomes, as measured in terms of reduced claims duration, increased numbers of referrals generated, or wider registration for and access to employment services. That said, it’s also important to take stock of a less tangible but still important benefit: the greater support afforded to claimants by immediately getting them involved in reemployment activities. Individuals who have been laid off or terminated are often in some emotional distress, which can be alleviated by engaging them directly in constructive and proactive reemployment activities and by presenting reemployment as the beginning of a new chapter in a fulfilling career.