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Direct Deposit for Benefit Payments Coming Soon

We are continuing to improve the customer experience. We’ll soon support the ability to have benefit payments directly deposited into our customers’ personal checking or savings accounts. This ability to direct payments to a bank account creates a safe and streamlined experience. We’ll be announcing more details about this direct deposit option in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, customers who still have funds remaining on their old Bank of America debit cards have until April 30 to transfer remaining money to a checking or savings account of their choice. After April 30, customers can request a paper check from Bank of America. Visit our Debit Card webpage or access frequently asked questions for more information.

This update is one of many improvements for our customers as part of EDDNext, an ongoing modernization effort to completely transform the EDD customer and employee experience. Through EDDNext, we are making it easier and faster to work with EDD than ever before. Working with experts like Amazon Web Services and Salesforce, we’re embracing cutting-edge technology and best practices in customer service. To date, we have streamlined the unemployment benefit determination process, added customer satisfaction surveys, deployed text message updates, published a simpler How to Apply guide for unemployment benefits, launched the myEDD secure web portal to access benefit services, opened dedicated phone lines with EDD representatives fluent in California’s eight most common languages, and much more.

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Customer Service Improvements for Communities Speaking California’s Top Eight Languages

California’s Armenian, Korean, and Tagalog communities can now apply online for unemployment benefits in their preferred language. This enhancement adds to English, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, and Vietnamese languages already available. Together, these eight languages represent the top spoken languages of working-age adults in California.

Unemployment customer service centers have dedicated representatives fluent in these top eight languages and translation and interpreter services are available for more than 200 other languages at no cost. Unemployment customers also now receive timely updates about the status of their claim and payment notifications delivered via email or text message in their preferred language. These language resources and more information are posted on our Language Resources webpage.

EDD’s public education and outreach efforts continue raising awareness about these valuable services in diverse communities across California.

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Elevating Community Outreach Activities

EDD’s public outreach to Hispanic, African American, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Filipino, and many other communities has brought valuable information to millions of Californians.

We recently attended the Black Business Association’s Salute to Black Women event in Los Angeles and shared information about our programs and services, including Paid Family Leave. Our goal is to ensure all Californians are aware of the valuable programs and services we offer, how to access them, and the service enhancements we are developing through our EDDNext modernization effort.

There’s much more to come. We’ll be getting into full gear this month as we springboard into multiple community outreach events including:

• Active Streets (626 Golden Streets) in San Gabriel on April 28, 2024
• Long Beach Filipino Festival on May 4, 2024
• Cinco De Mayo Festival Southside Park in Sacramento on May 5, 2024
• Olvera Street Cinco de Mayo Festival in Los Angeles on May 5, 2024

Please help spread the word and stop by our booth at any of these events to say hello and gain some helpful information about our services.

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Partnering with Qualtrics to Improve Customer Experiences with a Voice of the Customer Program

As part of our commitment to put customers first, we have a Voice of the Customer program that focuses on customer needs and expectations. This involves getting customer feedback and sharing it across the EDD so we understand our customers better, can make data-driven changes to improve EDD customer experiences, and measure the impact.

This spring, we began working with Qualtrics, an experience management company, to expand our Voice of the Customer program and capture customer experience data. This will help us identify areas for improvement as we work to design and deliver services that are accessible and easy for our customers to use. 

Starting in June, customers will have more ways to provide feedback on their experiences with us. We’re starting with English and Spanish surveys in our offices and on the EDD website, and then expanding to other languages. This builds on the success of our telephone customer surveys, which are already offered in multiple languages.

By listening to customers we can improve our services and customer satisfaction.

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CalJOBS Improvement Project Underway

CalJOBS is California’s online resource center to help customers navigate the State’s workforce services and connect employers with qualified job seekers. Californians can search for jobs, create resumes, and find qualified candidates. While minor enhancements to the site have been made throughout the years, we recognize the need to modernize and improve our online tools for a better customer experience.

The CalJOBS modernization project is underway to make significant improvements that focus on a more user-friendly experience for job seekers, employers, and partners. The process will include EDD’s Customer and User Experience teams to ensure the system meets customers’ needs and aligns with current business needs.

The first priority for the project is to secure a new CalJOBS service contract with an experienced vendor who can meet all identified customer and business needs. We expect to have a vendor in place by summer 2025 in collaboration with the California Department of Technology (CDT) following their project approval process, known as the Project Approval Lifecycle (PAL). The PAL helps ensure clear objectives, costs, schedules, and policy compliance. Each stage requires CDT’s review and approval.

Visit our information notice for more information about this CalJOBS modernization project.

In the interim, we have created California Occupational Guides to provide customers with information about trending jobs and other occupation-specific data to help people make decisions about what careers to pursue. The guides help customers identify potential careers based on qualifications, desired wages, geography, and many other factors. Customers can also compare occupations side-by-side, including job market data, entry requirements, occupation profiles, and education providers. These online guides are a free tool published by our Labor Market Information Division.

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Unemployment Insurance Customer Satisfaction Remains Strong

We engage in robust customer satisfaction research to measure performance and identify areas for improvement. In response to the California State Auditor’s recommendation and Assembly Bill (AB) 56, we expanded the availability of after-call surveys through our benefit program contact centers. The surveys help measure customer satisfaction after speaking with an agent.

From August 2023 to December 2023, 90 percent of customers calling our unemployment customer service line found that our representative was polite and professional, up from 85 percent between January 2022 to July 2022. Our customers said that 85 percent of our representatives had helpful knowledge and experience, up from 83 percent last year.

Survey results remained especially positive for our dedicated, multilingual service lines for the unemployment program. Over 95 percent of customers using the Spanish-language line found the representative polite and professional, and 93 percent said their representative had helpful knowledge and experience. Of the customers using the dedicated Armenian, Cantonese, Korean, Mandarin, Tagalog, and Vietnamese language lines, 93 percent reported their representative was polite and professional and 93 percent said the representatives had helpful knowledge and experience.

We are optimistic that the new training and resources we deployed for employees, and our sustained EDDNext modernization investments, will help further these positive trends. In addition, we are investing heavily in improving our contact centers for the State Disability Insurance program to improve the customer experience of obtaining assistance with disability and Paid Family Leave benefits.

Our Survey and Applied Research professionals are also conducting a customer service survey for the State Disability Insurance program in the top 16 languages spoken in California. This will help guide continued improvements as part of EDDNext.

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Californians Impacted by Severe Winter Storms Stay on the Road to Recovery

In response to the powerful storms and extreme flooding that struck Southern California earlier this year, Governor Newsom proclaimed a state of emergency on February 4, 2024, for the eight counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ventura. The emergency proclamation (PDF) includes provisions facilitating unemployment benefits for impacted residents, among other actions.

After a Presidential Disaster Declaration in February, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) determined San Diego residents who lost jobs or self-employment were  eligible to apply for federal Disaster Unemployment Assistance (DUA) benefits. DUA provides temporary unemployment assistance to individuals who do not qualify for regular, state unemployment benefits, such as farmworkers, business owners, and the self-employed.

In addition, we awarded a grant of $995,000 to the San Diego Workforce Partnership (SDWP) to help with immediate recovery efforts after the storms.  SDWP actively engages with local employers to provide comprehensive flood-relief information and support through employee retention and recruitment efforts.

 

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EDD By The Numbers