Report 2020-128/628.1 Recommendation 15 Responses

Report 2020-128/628.1: Employment Development Department: EDD's Poor Planning and Ineffective Management Left It Unprepared to Assist Californians Unemployed by COVID‑19 Shutdowns (Release Date: January 2021)

Recommendation #15 To: Employment Development Department

To maximize the number of calls that its staff are able to answer, as soon as possible EDD should add the prerecorded message functionality to its new phone system to advise claimants of their rights and responsibilities after they file their claim with an agent.

The EDD is currently working to implement benefit claim filing wrap-up messages. The claim filing wrap-up messages were deployed into production on April 12, 2021. The EDD is still conducting User Acceptance Testing and is on track to implement this recommendation by April 30, 2021. When the final validation and UAT is successful, after a UI claim is filed or reopened by phone, the wrap-up messages will be automatically played to a claimant, allowing agents to move onto the next customer call.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Status: Fully Implemented

We reviewed documentation indicating that the prerecorded message functionality was added to the new phone system and operational, and that user acceptance testing had been completed.

All Recommendations in 2020-128/628.1

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.