Ides What to Do When You re Employed Again
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Dozens of unemployed people take told us they've waited weeks for a phone recollect from IDES only to get disconnected.
What'due south going on?
CBS 2 Investigator Dorothy Tucker talked with an insider who tells us what's happening behind the scenes.
Evanston'south Moika Long is one of those unemployed Illinoisans whose phone became like an extra body part.
"I had my phone glued to me. It was in my bed," she said. "Once or twice I forgot and almost went into a panic. I ran dorsum looking at my phone hoping that they didn't call, which they didn't."
Long didn't desire to miss the phone call that would determine if she could pay her hire, her car notation, even purchase food.
"Very frustrating. Well-nigh scary," Long described her overall experience with the Illinois Department of Employment Security.
Since mid-March, 1.7 one thousand thousand unemployment claims have been filed in Illinois. Long's is one of them. She started having issues when her benefits unexpectedly stopped in July. That was when she started calling IDES to detect out why.
"I called over and again," Long said.
She never got through, simply she got hopeful when she heard this recorded IDES announcement: "We have implemented the callback-but model."
"I thought, great! I'm thinking like business, you lot'll become a recollect within 24 hours," Long said.
Only 24 hours was closer to another 24 days before her phone finally rang and a live human was on the other cease.
"I was so excited. I'm like, yeah, I'grand finally going to get this taken care of," Long said.
The agent asked her a few questions, got some information and then asked Long to hold on
"I'm like, they're going to come back with something," she said.
Afterwards holding for 21 minutes, the unbelievable, unimaginable, and unthinkable happened.
"I heard a click and I looked down at my telephone and it had gone back to the main screen. I was disconnected. I was almost in tears," she said.
"I retrieve claimants deserve better. I know they do," said an IDES insider who wants to remain unidentified.
"I worked under the callback queue system," said the insider who quit in August, frustrated with how IDES operated the system and overwhelmed by the need. "They're sad. They're crying. They need money. They don't know why it'due south taking and then long for a remember."
The insider believes one reason could be at that place are just likewise many calls to handle.
"When I left, there were 2,000 calls in the certification queue," the insider said.
Translation: 2,000 people with the same effect – all waiting for a telephone call back. Difficulty certifying is just one of the many reasons people phone call IDES for assist. Other reasons, meaning other queues, include PIN and countersign issues, problems filing an initial merits and reporting a lost or stolen debit card.
The insider also told u.s.a. nearly a lack of training for agents: "At that place were a lot of things I didn't know how to do."
The CBS 2 investigators obtained a copy of the state's "Courtesy Think" preparation transmission. The document covers several topics just the insider says nigh of the preparation focused on how to help someone open a claim. For other bug?
"I had to exercise my ain research," the insider said. "Sometimes supervisors were available for questions, just ordinarily they weren't."
That meant placing people on concur while the agent sought answers. And sometimes the unbelievable, unimaginable, and unthinkable would happen.
"Information technology would sometimes drop the calls," the insider said. "There was not a mean solar day where I did not have a dropped telephone call; usually three a day."
"Sometimes it was systemwide," the insider continued. "I would cheque into Teams and say 'Hey anyone having a trouble?' I would get 'Aye, I just got booted out, I just booted out. I but got booted out.'"
Remember, that's what happened to Long.
"To hear that click – I was just outdone," she said.
Behind the scenes, the insider told us what's happening when calls get disconnected: "It would become abroad. It would only go abroad. So we would accept to log dorsum in."
And the insider said there was nothing in the training transmission to address that problem.
"That doesn't say anything about a dropped call, nada about a dropped phone call, so we didn't take any training on what to do if a call drops," the insider said.
And then, why do calls become dropped? That's a question our insider couldn't respond. Merely state managers should know.
At a recent Zoom meeting with the Employment Security Advisory Board (ESAB) where several IDES VIPs presented updates to board members, CBS 2'south Tucker asked: "An insider tells us that in that location are technical glitches causing these dropped calls, several times a day, they say information technology'due south happening. I'd like to know whether the agency is aware of this problem. If you are not why not? If you are, what is the agency doing about it?"
ESAB Chairman Jim Agnionis replied, "Thanks Dorothy."
A polite, "We're not the ones to answer that question," is all nosotros got, even though many IDES VIPs gave presentations – including new Director, Kristin Richards. Her initials and her voice, but not her face, were on the Zoom.
Here'south how our insider dealt with the problem.
"If the system drops a call through no fault of claimant, I would ever call them right dorsum," the insider said.
The insider would always write downwardly the claimant'southward number just in case because the system does non automatically redial a dropped call. Instead, it puts the claimant back in line.
"To me, that was not off-white, which is why I would call dorsum," the insider said, "particularly if they had been waiting weeks or months for a call."
The insider's advice? Make sure the agent you lot get writes down your number in case you get disconnected.
It took almost two more than weeks presently eventually connected with a second agent. Based on that conversation, she's now appealing her instance, which means she'south waiting on another recollect.
"So, here we go again," Long said.
An IDES spokesperson told us that at that place is no technical or software glitch causing those disconnected calls, but did acknowledge calls do go dropped "for whatever reason." This is IDES' total statement:
"At that place is no technical or software glitch with the callback organisation, but perhaps some misunderstanding in how the callback organization works.
• The callback system is not one commonage queue, it is a broken out into several categorical queues (password resets, appeals, etc.) depending on the nature of the claimant'due south telephone call. If a claimant somehow finds themselves in the incorrect queue and/or the claims rep they are working with is unable to handle the issue at hand, their issue will exist transferred to a claims rep who is better equipped to assist. This transfer does not mean the phone call is existence transferred right so and there. Rather, their issue is beingness transferred to the correct queue and they volition be chosen back without losing their place in line. IDES is currently working on some improvements to this process and can share more data nigh this when information technology becomes available.
• If a call is dropped, for whatever reason, during a call with a claims rep and a claimant, the claimant'due south information is however locked into the organization because their issue was not fully resolved. Therefore, their contact information is yet available within the queue. Claims reps are instructed to phone call the claimant back if a call is dropped.
CBS ii is committing to Working For Chicago, connecting y'all every mean solar day with the information you or a loved one might need about the jobs market, and helping you remove roadblocks to getting back to work.
We'll keep uncovering information every 24-hour interval to help this customs get dorsum to work, until the job crisis passes. CBS 2 has several helpful items right here on our website, including a await at specific companies that are hiring, and information from the state about the best manner to become through to file for unemployment benefits in the meantime.
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Source: https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/whats-going-on-with-ides-dropped-calls/
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