Unemployment Insurance Program

Overview: State Priorities and Strategic Direction to Ensure Continuous Improvement.

• Cross Functional Areas: The last 12 months have brought much change to Indiana’s UI Program. During the fall of 2018, new leadership embarked upon two major projects focused on improving UI Benefits staff retention (which is discussed further in the UI Benefits section below) and overall efficiencies of the Quality, Policy, Integrity and Training (QPIT) Unit. The National Association of State Workforce Agencies (NASWA) Integrity Center visited Indiana in October of 2018. Additionally, Indiana launched enhancements to the Employer Self-Service (ESS) in Uplink in March of 2019 (discussed further in the UI Tax section below). 

The results of the QPIT efficiency review resulted in the following:

• Reinstated an overall UI Training Unit: This effort brings all UI Trainers to one team. 
• Created separate UI Internal Quality Unit: This effort focuses on providing coaching and feedback directly to staff in all UI areas.
• Created a UI Performance Unit: This effort brings all staff responsible for UI reporting to one team, streamlining data validation efforts and allowing time and focus for data integrity projects.
• Created UI Special Projects position: This effort brought forth a single point of contact to coordinate projects that span across functional areas, such as implementing the NASWA Integrity Center recommendations. 

As noted above, the NASWA Integrity Center was invited to Indiana to review specific areas of the Indiana UI system. This visit resulted in a better understanding of the current processes for new leadership, areas for growth and where efficiencies may be gained, and a formal report and recommendations from the NASWA team. Coordinating analysis and implementation of the recommendations from the NASWA report has been assigned to the UI Special Projects position mentioned above. In addition to the NASWA Integrity Center visit, Indiana is in the final stages of finalizing an MOU with the NASWA Integrity Data Hub. 

Complementing the NAWSA team, Indiana also completed all 15 of the UI Self-Assessments. There was one internal finding and resolution (discussed further in Section 2 below). In addition to the self-assessments, Indiana added a new process to the TPS review. As reviewers are examining processes and systems during the TPS review, they are documenting notable efforts and best practices, as well as overall process and system challenges. This effort will allow leadership to recognize staff for positive practices, as well as identify areas of improvements. 

Update for 2022

During the last 12 months, Indiana has focused on the following: processing the unprecedented workload; striving for timely and accurate payments; doubling of state staff; adding three vendors to assist with increased volume of workload; implementing, updating, ending, re-starting and ending again the pandemic related programs; undertaking multiple system changes to implement, update end, re-start and end again the pandemic related programs; disseminating multiple communications to claimants and employers regarding changes in the pandemic related programs; responding to the plethora of media requests and misinformation from the media; implementing strategies to boost and maintain staff morale; train and provide equipment to several hundreds of new staff; determine and implement teleworking procedures that allow for maximum flexibility with routine monitoring for accountability; acquire and implement several fraud prevention and detection tools, software and methodologies. 

The last 12 months continue to bring change to the UI Program in Indiana.  Indiana continued to explore and/or implement recommendations from the NASWA Integrity Center.  Major projects included switching benefit payment vendors, overhauling the Tax CORE Training (discussed in the UI Tax section below), and pivoting the UI IT staff to the Agile approach to software development.  All priorities and strategic plans for 2020 came to a halt in March due to the Covid-19 pandemic.  Since March of 2020, Indiana UI has been solely focused on the unprecedented workload in all areas.  

During February 2020, DWD moved to a new payment vendor allowing claimants to make an election between payment methods which includes same day direct deposit to a qualified checking or savings account or a stored value card.  As long as the claimant timely elects their payment method at the same time that they register for a Claimant Self-Service (CSS) account, the claimant can receive their first payment distribution the day after their claim voucher is approved for payment.

The UI IT leadership worked with UI Business to implement a more streamlined approach to develop and deliver software enhancements.  The Agile method focuses on system/customer interactions and developer/business collaborations.  This approach served the Indiana UI Team very well during the Covid-19 pandemic, as IT deployments were able to be scheduled weekly as opposed to taking several months to receive an IT deliverable. 

Indiana started working with a vendor to refine and update the contact center IVR.  While this project was halted due to the pandemic, Indiana was able to accomplish the following: added new language and prompts; added tax prompts; added screen pops (claimants enter personal information and their information auto-populates on the screen when the contact center agents picks up the call, reducing the time for the agent to verify the identity of the caller); and added self-service options (claimants can enter personal information and the system will relay specific details, such as remaining benefit balance and last payment date and amount).  The Benefits and Tax contact centers were merged for efficiency. 

Another accomplished priority during this reporting period was the remove of social security numbers from UI forms. 

Backlogs

Adjudication Backlogs: Indiana’s plan to continuously address the adjudication backlog is to continue to hire and train new staff.  Hiring has become challenging, as the qualified candidate pool has slowed to a trickle.  Training has started to do refresher trainings for all adjudication staff hired during the pandemic and received the abbreviated training.  All existing adjudication staff will go through the full 12 weeks of adjudication training in cohorts, starting in January of 2022, as a method of retraining with a quality emphasis.  Training for all adjudication new hires is in person to maximize learning.  Quality reviews have resumed.  Adjudication staff are also absorbing the adjudication workload from the Fraud Unit to allow those staff to focus on the increased fraud workload.  Vendor staff is being utilized to perform fact finding for adjudication work.  To maintain and/or increase morale, mandatory overtime has ended.  However, voluntary overtime continues to be an option.  Adjudication staff continue to be exempt from the ‘return to work’ mandate from the Governor (except for those with internet, production or performance concerns), to maximize flexibility to retain staff. 

Appeals Backlogs: Indiana’s plan to continuously address the appeals backlog in the clerk area is to continue to hire and train new staff.  Hiring has slowed in Indianapolis area, thus hiring efforts have moved to other parts of the state.  An increased starting salary was approved and has been requested to be extended.  In efforts to attract more qualified staff.  In-person training was reinstated.  The unit has added Team Leads to assist with increase volume of work and staff.  Indiana’s plan to continuously address the appeals backlog in the ALJ area is to continue to hire and train new staff.  The State continues to struggle in hiring for all positions.  Due to the statutory obligation to hire attorneys licensed in Indiana, the ALJ positions have been extremely hard to hire and retain.  Recruitment efforts have included targeted job fairs for retirees, part time and out of state qualified candidates.  The ALJ position continue to be exempt from the ‘return to work’ mandate from the Governor (except for those with internet, production or performance concerns), to maximize flexibility to retain staff.  While training is still abbreviated, it was extended from 8 days to two and a half weeks.  In addition to all of the above efforts, Indiana is also undergoing an initiative to move the full Appeals Division to paperless.  This effort will maximize ALJ time for hearings, streamline processes for clerks and allow for much easier remote work.

• UI Benefits: Historically, Indiana was overly optimistic about the ability to bring both quality and timeliness of benefits processing into core measurement standards. Meeting both of these standards in FY 2019 and 2020 remains a significant challenge. Over the past few years, the Indiana Department of Workforce Development (DWD) launched several initiatives in the UI Benefits program to improve performance in the areas of quality, timeliness, and first payment promptness.  Quality improvement strategies have succeeded, with the agency achieving 79% separation quality and 85% nonseparation quality in the second quarter of CY2019. The focus on quality determinations has resulted in a struggle with nonmonetary determination timeliness and first pay promptness.

1. Training and Staffing: Indiana has struggled with negative UI Benefits staff turnover during the last several years. Although adjudicators received a salary increase in 2017, this one action did not decrease or slow the rate of turnover. New leadership of the UI division took a different approach to resolving this issue. Several roundtable conversations were held during September and October of 2018 with UI Benefits frontline adjudicators, adjudicator supervisors, Benefits Timeliness and Quality (BTQ) staff, and UI leadership. These roundtables were held to understand directly from the staff their thoughts on what is and is not going well and what is preventing adjudicators from staying. From this feedback, several policy changes have occurred in efforts to increase staff retention. Some examples include: adjusting the vacation policy to allow for an increase of staff who could be off, especially during holidays, while maintaining appropriate coverage; reinstating a flex-time policy; and piloting telework for both adjudicators and contact center staff. UI Leadership again worked with the State Personnel Department (SPD) to review the classification and salary range for adjudication work.  Conversations this time focused on the complexity of the work and the skillset needed to accurately complete adjudication work. DWD strongly encouraged SPD staff shadow adjudicators and not solely review job descriptions to understand the work. As a result, SPD created a new classification specifically for adjudicators, Claims Investigators. The new classification is tiered to allow for upward economic mobility and succession planning.  Claims Investigator Trainees have a higher starting salary and will receive a salary increase when they are able to pass the Working Test period. DWD is monitoring the impact of this reclassification as well as all the other changes on staff retention.

During the roundtable discussions, staff voiced wanting additional time with the Quality Manager for feedback, both positive and negative, and coaching from supervisors. The next task in the overall adjudication retention project is to revamp the internal quality review process. Historically, this process mimicked BTQ, though BTQ staff split their time between reviews and training. In PY2019, BTQ staffed reviewed 7,000 issues and held four 12-week training sessions. Feedback on quality pulls were minimal, occasionally only a sentence.  Adjudicators voiced needing and wanting more quality feedback. Revamping the benefits internal quality process is ongoing with implementation beginning in fourth quarter of 2019.  DWD will monitor the impact of the new process on Benefit, BTQ, and Benefits Accuracy Measurement (BAM) metrics.

Indiana has continued its adjudication training program, though a review of the current 12-week training began in the fourth quarter of 2019.  Any changes will be implemented throughout 2020. Indiana continues to hold monthly adjudication quality meetings, where members of the BAM, BTQ, and Adjudication Training Units meet with adjudication supervisors, the Director of Benefits, and the Associate Chief UI Officer to identify quality issues and training needs. Monthly refresher training lectures for adjudication staff, as well as ad hoc updates, are offered on unique issues as they arise.

2. Prevention, Detection, and Recovery of Improper Payments: Indiana has continued to make the prevention and detection of improper payments a priority by focusing on claimant messaging and work search initiatives. New administration, along with NASWA Integrity Center recommendations, have initiated efforts to provide claimants with understandable and easy-to-locate information. When the new claimant intake system was launched in 2017, it was designed with improper payment prevention in mind. This included many warnings and sign-offs about what not to do when filing a claim and weekly certification. After a few years of usage, however, it was determined that there was insufficient claimant education about what they should be doing. This has led to claimant confusion and simply guessing what they should be entering when filing a claim and weekly certification. This can lead to improper payments.

In early 2019, Indiana released a website (unemployment.in.gov) to explain and facilitate the UI process for the constituent. This website is used by both claimants and employers with the most sought after links provided on this page. Currently in progress are videos to walk through filing a weekly certification and a separate video about how to correctly report earnings. Also provided to claimants in 2019 was a work search log in a fillable PDF format. Indiana requires claimants keep a log of their weekly work search activities but has never provided the claimants with a form to utilize. The link to the log is available in multiple locations and is used weekly by claimants. The work search question page on the weekly certification was modified to help claimants better understand the work search requirements for the week. The previous question was modified to more clearly state the requirements. More information regarding work search projects is included in the section, WIOA and Reemployment.

As mentioned above, during the Self-Assessment process, Indiana found that the work done by the Benefit Payment Control (BPC) unit performing fraud and new hire investigations were limiting the scope of their work. This was implemented during the aftermath of the Recession when their workload was extremely high. Although necessary at the time, this process has since been recognized as insufficient for prevention, detection, and recovery of improper payments. The BPC unit has since updated their procedures and has lifted the previously imposed restrictions on the limits of their investigations.

In FY 2016, the agency implemented State Information Data Exchange System (SIDES), SIDES Web Services, SIDES E-Response, and SIDES Outreach, which are intended to increase quality, timeliness, and quantity of employer participation in the adjudication process. Since implementation, positive outcomes include: quicker employer response times, better and more complete information within the initial employer response, and immediate confirmation of receipt of the employer’s claim response instead of waiting on busy fax lines. While a few unintended consequences have arisen (e.g., differences in UI SIDES and SIDES E-Response functionality and some ISPs blacklisting DWD email addresses, which prevented the notification of many SIDES E-Response employers of claims), Indiana continues to be part of the 100% Club (since October of 2016), consistently meeting the requirement to receive 50% of employer responses to claims through UI SIDES and SIDES E-Response. We started meeting the requirement to receive 35% of employer responses to claims through SIDES E-Response in May 2018, only 24 months after the first SIDES E-Response requests were sent. In addition, DWD has been highlighted by NASWA Best Practices for promoting SIDES web service projects to high volume and multistate employers.  DWD has won the NASWA SIDES Overall Outstanding Performance for two consecutive years (2017 and 2018). DWD continues to be a top 10 performer in overall SIDES stats each month, often hitting the top 5. 

In prior years, Indiana struggled with overpayment recoveries. Indiana previously used SBR funds to implement the Treasury Offset Program (TOP) for fraud overpayments in FY 2015. The agency has fully implemented TOP for the recovery of fraudulent and eligible non-fraudulent overpayments and has vastly increased collections on overpayments by doing so. Additionally, Indiana has implemented automated wage garnishment for eligible claimants as of March 2019. The automated wage garnishment system is housed in the UI Program’s Uplink environment, which allows for better tracking, auditing, and data analytics. The automated system provides a mechanism for collections staff to review prioritized lists of debtors and sort the list using various parameters (e.g., total debt amount, total wage records, most recent wage records, etc.). All documentation, including orders and notices, will be housed within the system, which will automatically generate notices and orders when appropriate during the life of the garnishment case.

During the reporting period, the collections unit has collected a total of $2,830,574.91 through wage garnishments, $5,988,320.10 through voluntary payments, $5,192,353.42 through federal TOP intercepts, $2,399,782.77 through state tax intercepts, and $2,454,835.01 through offsets. Moreover, the agency has continued its partnership with county prosecutors and the Attorney General’s Office to prosecute fraudsters and collect overpayments. 

Update for 2022

Historically, Indiana was overly optimistic about the ability to bring both quality and timeliness of benefits processing into core measurement standards.  Meeting both quality and timeliness standards in FY 2019 and 2020 remains a significant challenge.  Over the past few years, the Indiana Department of Workforce Development (DWD) launched several initiatives in the UI Benefits program to improve performance in the areas of quality, timeliness, and first payment promptness.  Quality improvement strategies have succeeded, with the agency achieving 79% separation quality and 85% nonseparation quality in the second quarter of CY2019.  The focus on quality determinations has resulted in a struggle with nonmonetary determination timeliness and first pay promptness.  A major priority for 2020 was to do additional root cause analysis of this area.  While this project started during the first quarter of 2020, efforts were stalled due to lack of available resources.  As noted above all 2020 priorities were stalled in efforts to divert all available resources toward the increased workload in all functional areas due to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Training, Internal Quality and Staffing

During this reporting period, Internal Quality was revamped to focus on coaching staff to make quality decisions.  This process included several planning meetings, gathering input from the quality managers, adjudicators, adjudicator supervisors and Benefits leadership staff.  The new process includes identifying common errors in quality reviews to inform training agendas.  Identifying common errors in the BTQ and BAM process was being explored for the same purpose.  The resulting Quality Management Performance Plan was due to be implemented in April of 2020.  These efforts were stalled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Prior to the pandemic, the training unit was able to revamp the Adjudication training to include more competency-based materials.  Additional updates were planned for 2020 however were stalled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Indiana also amended its work search requirements from three (3) work searches per week to one (1) per week. 

• UI Tax Administration:

1.  Performance Improvement: Indiana continues to exceed federal standards for new employer status determinations time lapse. The reorganization of the Tax Performance System (TPS) Unit under the same division as other quality units and trainers has resulted in improved communication between the TPS Unit and the Tax Divisions. This has, in turn, allowed the agency to identify root causes of several quality issues. Improvements in this area have led directly to the state’s passing performance in TPS reviews for all functions except Credits in at least one of the last three years.

Uplink system core functionality was launched for Tax in FY 2015 and FY 2016, as planned. Current system upgrades include identifying all barriers to quality that exist in Uplink at this time and to develop a multiple phase initiative to increase quality and integrity at all levels. In 2017, to correct its deficiencies, Indiana evaluated current the Uplink system defects. The agency then developed system resolutions for identified defects. Specifically, the agency completed the compilation of all known defects and required process improvements in the target areas of Status New, Successorship, Collections, and Inactivations. Tax and IT staff established a feasible timeline for addressing the defects and improvements and then moved forward to pursuing these projects beginning in FY 2017 and continuing through FY 2021. As development nears completion, staff will test application updates and then release application updates into production in a well-planned and widely-communicated manner.

Enhancements to the Employer Self Service (ESS) domain were released in spring of 2019.  Additional phases are planned to make improvements in the detection of registration errors, unreported successorships, and communication of credits in order to push computed measures with regard to timely determination of successorships to a more acceptable level, proactively correct registration errors including legal name and business type mismatches, provide for timely notification of employer overpayments (credits), and to fully integrate mandatory audit trail events into processing actions.

There is direct accountability in Indiana’s Status, Employer Account Maintenance, and Collection Enforcement Units, as work items are distributed by the last two digits of an account number.  The agency has gained some operational efficiency under this method and each auditor is able to take a more holistic approach to account resolution. With the process improvements and new work items created in future releases of the planned system enhancement, continued improvement in all quality review areas is expected.

2.  Addressing Worker Misclassification: The new field audit software package was fully implemented in June of 2016.  This implementation included integration with the Uplink system, which automated audit result processing of adjustments and wage records, in addition to ownership and profile updates. The IRS 1099 extract data are being compared with data from Indiana’s system to generate reports that provide the information needed to target existing employers who may be misclassifying workers. Additionally, these data analytics allow Indiana to identify businesses that currently have not registered for a SUTA account but are issuing 1099s. The investigators also investigate tips received from other DWD divisions, other governmental agencies, and the public.

• WIOA and Reemployment: Indiana has increased collaboration and communication between UI and our workforce development programs. Specifically, UI is working with the RESEA program on several projects: TAA/TRA; Wagner-Peyser; and regional WIOA partners. The official title of Indiana’s UI Leader is Chief Officer of UI and Workforce Solutions. She has been tasked with uniting both UI and WIOA Core Programs to ensure collaboration, communication, and efficiencies.  As such, she leads the DWD internal committee on Workforce Best Practices. This allows her to stay current on both UI and workforce development needs, accomplishments, and areas of growth. 

One example of increased collaboration and communication started with ensuring UI is represented on the regional customer service survey (see section F below). This collaboration has grown to include routine information sharing between UI and the workforce side. Specially, UI provides contact center stats to the WDB Regions quarterly. It is important that regional office staff understand wait times and customer services hurdles in order to provide general assistance to claimants who visit a WorkOne to engage with a UI kiosk. UI has developed, with the assistance of regional partners, FAQs regarding filing UI claims. UI works diligently with Wagner-Peyser staff and WIOA leadership to ensure regional staff are educated on the type of assistance they can and cannot offer and when to refer a UI clamant to the contact center. UI Contact Center leadership have visited several regional offices to observe claimant/regional staff interactions. This project has assisted in understanding the type of information the regional office staff need to assist claimants. 

TAA and UI TRA staff have recently started meeting weekly. The focus of these meetings is to increase communication, gain a better understanding of the impact of processes to each side, and to collaborate on areas of improvements. 

UI is also an active participant in the Infrastructure Costs process, consulting with other DWD workforce programs prior to negotiation meetings. This level of communication ensures UI has an understanding of the full impact of funding decisions at the agency level. In addition, both UI contact center and adjudication staff refer claimants to their local WorkOne, when appropriate. Indiana continues to refer all UI claimants to RESEA (except those with relevant waivers) for reemployment services.  The Indiana UI program has focused on increased communication and collaboration with the RESEA program staff over the past year. This has resulted in increased communication between these two divisions.

In Indiana, UI claimants are granted access to IndianaCareerConnect.com (ICC) upon filing an initial claim for benefits. This strategy to quickly connect claimants to ICC, Indiana’s labor exchange service, assists in the reemployment efforts to refer claimants to available job openings early in their claims. ICC is also where all records are kept for a claimant’s reemployment activities and services received. In order to expedite the communication between RESEA and UI Adjudication, on May 17, 2019 Indiana implemented an integrated system communication structure between ICC and Uplink. This new line of communication electronically notifies UI Adjudication of potential issues in a streamlined process rather than the manual process that previously existed, which included faxing paper documents and manual data entry for issue creation. This integration has saved UI Adjudication staff and RESEA program staff a significant amount of time and resources.

Indiana has cross-trained the UI benefits unit and the RESEA policy unit to understand each other’s policies and requirements. The units have met many times and have worked together to study possible changes to programs. The UI benefits unit has also concentrated efforts on learning about the RESEA program and how it focuses on claimants work search activities. Statutorily in Indiana, the RESEA program is required to review the claimants work search activities. The UI benefits unit hopes to utilize the RESEA program’s knowledge on how to help claimants utilize their work search activity options to become reemployed, while meeting UI standards for work search activities.

UI is a full partner as Indiana makes decisions around the RESEA evaluation requirement.  UI leadership is co-leading this effort with DWD Research and Analysis leadership. DWD has identified a RESEA evaluation team, which is charged with developing and implementing the RESEA evaluation plan and will include opportunities for even better systems integration. 

Update for 2022

Enhancements to the Employer Self Service (ESS) domain were released in spring of 2019.  These enhancements have provided numerous benefits across the Department, notably the Cashiering unit with increased deposit timeliness, and reduction of on-site staff to process mail trays.  Multiple new work items have been added to detect conflicted registrations and have revised the business type identification to be much more robust.  DWD began enforcement of the electronic reporting requirement in 2Q2019 by issuing delinquency notices to all employers that mailed in reporting in violation of the regulations.  In 4Q2019, Indiana began fining those employers $25 for the same.  Performance dashboards are used to show the improvement in timely reporting as a result of the first effort with the 1Q2020 results being impacted by COVID, but not as significantly as it would have been were we still over 50% non-electronic reporting.  Beginning with 2Q2020, Indiana began enforcement of the requirement to pay electronically by changing our policy on mailed in payments.  DWD is determining timeliness by the delivery date of the payment rather than the postmark date.  In addition, because of the ESS enhancements, many employers have reached out to the department for more information on several topics.  The Tax and Compliance Units have started hosting employer webinars.  One of the most popular webinars was on determining localization for multistate workers.  Additional example of webinar topics included: worker misclassification and SOC codes.  The webinar efforts were stalled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

At the end of 2019, Indiana undertook the process of revamping the Tax CORE training.  This process brought all interested stakeholders to review existing training topics and gather information on new topics to add.  In addition, competency-based materials were developed.  All related work instructions for the Tax and Compliance Unit were updated by the end of 2019.  On the Tax quality side, DWD created and published a Third-Party Agent handbook which we have been told is the first of its kind.

Compliance Administration

DWD has implemented multiple fraud prevention and detection measures. CARES ACT Strategies: DWD is sharing information with the Integrity Data Hub (NASWA), and acting on information received from IDH.  Also, through data analytics, DWD has identified several factors that are more likely to be fraudulent claims that are flagged for further review.  DWD has identity verification procedures in place and is in the process of utilizing the IDH identity verification tool as well as contracting with ID.me.  Lastly, DWD is working with state and federal law enforcement partners and with financial institutions to identify fraudsters and collect any payments.  There were no high dollar overpayments reported on the 227 during the time period noted.

WIOA and Reemployment

Indiana continues increased collaboration and communication with Workforce Programs.  Specifically, UI is working with the RESEA program on several projects; TAA/TRA; Wagner Peyser program and regional WIOA partners.  Indiana’s UI Leader’s formal title is Chief Officer of UI and Workforce Solutions.  She has been tasked with uniting both programs to ensure collaboration, communication and efficiencies.    This allows her to stay current on both UI and Workforce needs/accomplishments and areas of collaboration. 

One example of increased collaboration and communication started with ensuring UI is represented on the Regional customer service survey (see section F below).  This collaboration has grown to routine information sharing between UI and the Workforce side.  Specially, UI provides contact center stats to the Regions quarterly.  It is important that regional office staff understand wait times, etc. in order to provide general assistance to claimant who visit an AJC to engage with a UI kiosk. UI has developed with the assistance of the Region’s a FAQs regarding filing UI claims.  UI works diligently with Wagner Peyser and WIOA leadership to ensure regional staff are educated on the type of assistance they can/cannot offer and when to refer a UI clamant to the contact center.  UI Contact Center leadership have visited several regional offices to observe claimant/regional staff interactions.  This project has assisted in understanding the type of information the regional office staff need to assist claimants. 

UI continues to be an active participant in the Infrastructure Costs process, consulting with other DWD Workforce programs prior to negotiation meetings.  This level of communication ensures UI understands the full impact of funding decisions at the Agency level.  In addition, both UI contact center and adjudication staff refer claimants to their local AJC when appropriate. 

Indiana continues to refer all UI claimants to RESEA (except those with relevant waivers) for reemployment services.  The Indiana UI program has focused on increased communication and collaboration with the RESEA program staff over the last year.  This has resulted in several shared positive outcomes, including increased communication.  Additionally, UI took over the RESEA reporting during this reporting period, increasing communication and shared goals.

The RESEA program was paused for several months, while the American Job Centers were closed.  The program started a phased in approach to serving claimants in June of 2021.  As of the writing of this report, the state is not yet at 100% serving capacity.  Regional partners, much like the State and all other employers are struggling to attract and retain quality employees. 

Federal Emphasis (GPRA goals): Indiana’s efforts to meet the GPRA goals and National Priorities for FY 2019 are discussed generally in Part A (First Pay Promptness) above. The agency will continue to strive to meet or exceed performance goals against the GPRA goals. See CAP plans to review expectations and processes to be put into place to achieve these metrics (for First Pay Promptness).

Regarding the Employer Tax Liability Determinations Made Timely goal, Indiana made a significant change in UI reporting for 2019, which prevents an employer from filing until they have registered completely. This change should decrease the number of accounts that make payments without prior registration and which are always set up with a liability date in the 1^st quarter of the year. As the number of “pre-assigned” accounts with the default 1^st quarter qualification is decreased, the computed measure will increase.

Update for 2022

The agency will continue to strive to meet or exceed performance against the GPRA goals.  Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Indiana does not have available resources to dedicate to discover the root cause for any discrepancies between State performance and GPRA goals.  Indiana does not have available resources to develop action plans to achieve the GPRA goals and targets. 

Program Review Deficiencies (Causes for Failures): Data Validation: Indiana has successfully conducted and transmitted all data validation except for Benefits Module 4 – Appeals. Indiana has automated this review process in the Uplink system. There are hard-coded limitations and deficiencies to what information the system is able to produce over time.  As a result, the information required to conduct this review is not available to the data validator.

Throughout the year, data validation staff identified and resolved new issues with both Tax and Benefit populations. These issued were in part due to extracts, as well as the accuracy of Federal Report data. The state has identified the root cause for a majority of the remaining deficiencies; however, more research is needed, particularly into the cause of Module 4 Non-Separations and Module 4 Inactivation/Termination. One outstanding obstacle to be resolved is inadequate IT resources. The state implemented several system enhancements throughout 2018 and 2019.  These enhancements have occupied significant resources in previous years, reducing the ability to resolve Data Validation issues. The state intends to prioritize correcting issues with federal reporting as the next major IT project.

Update for 2022:  Nothing to report

Program Deficiencies – (plans to correct deficiencies identified): Nothing to report. Update for 2022:  Nothing to report

Reporting Deficiencies Corrections (identify actions to correct):

• Incorrect Recording of Issue Detection Date: The deficiency to meet the metric for correct issue detection date is due to incorrect issue detection dates auto-populated by the Uplink system, as well as staff data entry errors. The auto-populated dates are fields that can be edited by adjudication staff while working on the issues. Each quarter, the BTQ staff provide a list of all incorrect or notable issue detection dates for analysis. The results are different each quarter, which makes solving the problem more complex. Previous efforts were focused on specific issue types, which were identified with incorrect detection dates. The focus of this analysis was too narrow, resulting in insignificant change. Recent efforts to identify and analyze the root causes are focused on hard-coded system information utilized to populate the fields.

Members of the BTQ unit and the Director of UI Benefits will continue to track and analyze the data utilized for Issue Detection Date recording to identify causes and to recommend changes.

• Lower Authority Appeals Monitoring Findings: The launch of the Uplink system resulted in unintended consequences for the Appellate Division. As noted in previous SQSP submissions and DOL monitoring responses, errors in the Uplink system caused federal reports to fail (specifically ETA 5130, ETA 9054, and ETA 9055). The Performance unit has been analyzing the problem to determine the root causes in order to resolve the problem.

In order to sufficiently identify the problem, the Performance unit has met with the Appeals unit to better understand their processes and procedures and specifically how activities in Appeals are counted in Uplink. Identified through these continuing conversations is the necessity of a manual count, which is not accounted for in Uplink reporting. Each of these manual processes are currently being reviewed to be better understood. Once understood, these manual processes can then be converted into automated processes in Uplink. If implemented prior to an accurate understanding, the problem of incorrect reporting would remain. After all accurate processes and counts have been finalized, the IT department will be notified of how to correct the problems and implement the solutions. The IT department has been made aware that necessary changes are forthcoming, and they will be prioritized accordingly. 

Update for 2022

Incorrect Recording of Issue Detection Date and UI Reporting requirements.  Indiana failed these additional performance metrics. 

Preliminary examinations show that there are a couple reasons regarding why we fail recording the correct issue detection date:

• Indiana’s Uplink system struggles to determine the correct date when there are duplicate issues.

• Uplink cannot determine the correct date when investigators find an issue exists that the system was previously not aware of.

At this time, we believe most of this can be avoided through training if investigators are made aware of the manual approach to changing the detection date.

Indiana has re-transmitted various ETA reports throughout the reporting year where inconsistencies/discrepancies were discovered. Indiana will continue to transmit ETA reports in a timely fashion.

Customer Service Surveys:Customer Service Surveys: WorkOnes and Uplink Customer Service worked in partnership to design a customer satisfaction survey to identify and address the essential needs and level of service claimants receive while visiting the WorkOne office or speaking with representatives from the UI Contact Center. This includes over-the-shoulder help that Wagner-Peyser staff provide to UI claimants, telephone assistance provided by the UI Contact Center staff, and RESEA services provided in the WorkOne. The UI leadership team meets on a regular basis with the workforce leadership team to review the results and determine any action that might be needed.  

DWD continues to work with the Indiana General Assembly on trust fund solvency, as the funding of the trust fund is determined by the statutory framework in the Indiana Code. 

Update for 2022

WorkOne (Indiana’s American Job Centers) and Uplink Customer Service worked in partnership to design a customer satisfaction survey to identify and address the essential needs and level of service claimants receive while visiting the WorkOne office or speaking with representatives from the UI Contact Center.  This includes over the shoulder help that Wagner Peyser staff provide to UI claimants, telephone assistance provided by the UI Contact Center staff, and RESEA services provided in the WorkOne.  The UI leadership team meets on a regular basis with the Workforce leadership team to review the results and determine any action that might be needed. 

Assurances:The state will comply with the assurances listed in HB 336, Appendix I. Pertinent dates for the implementation, testing, and updating of the plans are as follows:

1. 1. IT Contingency Plan
      1. Implemented – 7/28/2008
      2. Tested – All DWD systems are highly redundant and clustered systems that are tested, maintained, and updated according to precise documented procedure that are delegated according to role. The last major test coincided with the replacement of all application and web servers coinciding with upgrades to all supporting software technologies. These server replacements and software upgrades were concluded on March 28, 2018. These upgrades reflect complete shutdowns, server replacements/rebuilds, software loads, complete system restores, and testing procedures. Another set of server upgrades were due before Q4 2019 to remove a few remaining Windows 2008 servers.
      3. Reviewed/Updated – All Contingency and Continuity of Operations Plans were reviewed by IRS auditors as part of a Safeguards Security Audit on July 24, 2018. DWD has received the results of that audit and has responded to noted findings in IRS-issued corrective action plans on April 30, 2019. Plans were updated during the 1^st quarter of 2018 in support of the server and software upgrades concluded on March 28, 2018.
   2. System Security Plan
      1. Implemented – 02/18/10
      2. Tested – 09/01/15 through 07/24/18
      3. Reviewed/Updated – DWD has developed agency and application security plans to fit current NIST 800-53 requirements and in a new prescribed format required by the Indiana Office of Technology. These documents were the foundation for an IRS Safeguards Security report that was submitted April 30, 2018, and was reviewed during an on-site Safeguards Security Audit that occurred on July 24, 2018. DWD has received the results of that audit and has responded to noted findings in IRS-issued corrective action plans on April 30, 2019. All security plans are stored in Archer, the state’s enterprise governance, risk, and compliance tracking system and updated on a yearly basis. The last updates to DWD’s security plans were completed on July 10, 2019.
   3. Risk Assessment
      1. Implemented – 5/1/2006
      2. Tested – 09/01/15 through 07/24/18
      3. Reviewed/Updated – 07/24/2018: DWD participates in the Indiana Office of Technology (IOT) monthly vulnerability assessments utilizing Nexpose reports and reviews of current security risks in biweekly security meetings with the state CISO. The state has also purchased a license for Tenable Nessus, which allows the state and individual agencies to scan servers and applications to the same level utilized by the IRS during Safeguards Security Audits. Application scanning is also performed every six months utilizing IBM Security AppScan. All security plans, including Risk Assessment Planning, have been reviewed during the full audit of DWD compliance with IRS Safeguards Publication 1075 conducted on July 24, 2018. DWD has provided a set of corrective action plan responses on April 30, 2019 and on October 31, 2019. All security plans have been given an annual update, as required by IOT, on July 10, 2019.  An annual review of risk assessment information, including system categorization, data classification, and recovery objectives, is conducted with system owners on a yearly basis.

Indiana has a centralized IT agency, the Indiana Office of Technology (IOT), which has the primary operational responsibility for the state’s IT systems. The IOT maintains and reviews the IT-related policies and plans referenced in this section. All plans identified above are up-to-date.

DWD continues its participation in the Treasury Offset Program (TOP), in conjunction with the United States Department of the Treasury – Bureau of Fiscal Service. Indiana submitted an initial Safeguards Security Report on January 16, 2015. DWD has participated in two tri-annual audits and has submitted bi-yearly corrective action plan reports since the initial report. The last full audit of agency compliance with IRS Safeguards Publication 1075 was conducted during the week of July 24, 2018 and the initial corrective action plan report was submitted on April 30, 2019.

In conjunction with IOT, DWD has fully implemented two new, robust information security tools, Archer and Varonis DatAdvantage. Archer is a governance, risk, and compliance tracking system that has been implemented statewide for managing the state’s and DWD’s information security profile and compliance issues. Additional modules are being added to Archer that allow for comprehensive audit results tracking and abatement management. A second tool, Varonis DatAdvantage, has been implemented to monitor file usage activity, user access rights to file servers, and shares across the agency. Additionally, DWD has embarked on an ambitious project to bring its Uplink system into a firewalled, protected zone on the state’s network. This will bring the entire Uplink system into compliance with the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) Security Technical Implementation Guides (STIGs). DWD has made significant progress in this initiative, both the A-Track and B-Track, for both development and QA database servers are in full operational, day-to-day use. Supporting systems for production batch scheduling and file transport have been moved to the protected zone and thoroughly tested. The Stage pre-production, 2-node database RAC servers have been tested and are in full operational, day-to-day use by September 30, 2019. The production 2-node database RAC servers were unit and regression tested in October 2019 and are in full operational use beginning in December 2019.  The cutover to Stage and production have been delayed in support of other state-level initiatives related to security improvements and in support of high priority DWD business needs to enhance the functionality of the Uplink system. All databases in all Uplink environments utilize Oracle Advanced Security for encryption of both data-at-rest and in-transit.

Update for 2022

The state will comply with the assurances listed in HB 336, Appendix I. 

Pertinent dates for the implementation, testing, and updating of the plans are as follows:

1. 1. IT Contingency Plan
      1. 1. IOT’s contingency plan was implemented 7/28/2008 and last updated spring 2019 (ver. 2.5).   DWD’s plan was revamped 7/2014, using the Department of Homeland Security template, and submitted to Indiana Department of Homeland Security 7/2014.  The 2014 DWD COOP was updated in 2019/2020 and approved by the DWD Facilities Director on 4/27/2021.  The most significant COOP changes related to the inclusion of IT systems information, lessons learned from the COVID pandemic, and synchronizing its content with the State’s IT (IOT) COOP.   To maintain system high availability, DWD also relies on project plans, with detailed tasks/roles that support the periodic replacement and upgrades of servers and software.
         2. Tested –The last major test coincided with the replacement of all application and web servers coinciding with upgrades to all supporting software technologies, concluded on March 28, 2018.  These upgrades reflect complete shutdowns, server replacements/rebuilds, software loads, complete system restores, and testing procedures.  A more recent plan was concluded 3/2020 with the replacement of servers and the operating system upgrade from Windows 2008 to Windows 2012.
         3. DWD’s disaster recovery testing in the 2^nd half of 2019 had performance issues.  DWD is currently configuring 8 virtual servers in support of a revised application architecture that will better support a recovery at the alternate datacenter.   No testing is planned in the remainder of 2021 in support of this architecture change.
         4. Reviewed/Updated – The 2014 DWD COOP was updated in 2019/2020 and approved by the DWD Facilities Director on 4/27/2021.  The most significant COOP changes related to the inclusion of IT systems information, lessons learned from the COVID pandemic, and synchronizing its content with the State’s IT (IOT) COOP.
   2. System Security Plan
      1. 1. Implemented – 02/18/10 (IOT).  The DWD Agency System Security plan was documented 12/21/2016, utilizing the FEDRAMP template.   More specifically, DWD’s Uplink System Security plan was implemented 12/1/2017 via a submission to the State’s IOT, security risk and compliancy tool, Archer.
         2. Tested –  The Uplink SSP has been going through an ongoing update/review/approval/audit process since 09/01/15 in support of various Federal (IRS, SSA, DOE, OCSE, NDNH, DOL) and State (DOE, SBOI) audits.  The Uplink SSP, to the Indiana State Board of Accounts as dated version 2/16/2021.
         3. Reviewed/Updated – DWD has developed agency and application security plans in 2016 to fit current NIST 800-53 requirements and in a new prescribed format required by the Indiana Office of Technology. These documents were the foundation for an IRS Safeguards Security report that was submitted April 30, 2018 and was reviewed during an on-site Safeguards Security Audit that occurred on July 24, 2018.  DWD has received the results of that audit and has responded to noted findings in IRS-issued corrective action plans on April 30, 2019.  The SSP supported the 3/2020 SSA triennial audit.  Security plans are stored in Archer, the state’s enterprise governance, risk and compliance tracking system.  The last formal update to the DWD security plan was completed on 2/16/2021 in support of the 4/2021 ISBO audit.
   3. Risk Assessment
      1. 1. Implemented – 5/1/2006
         2. Tested – At least annually, 09/01/15 through 7/2021.  Per State IOT policy, DWD performs self-risk assessments at both the agency level and systems level, with the results maintained in the Archer risk/compliance security tool.  IOT provides annual risk assessments for the State agencies via contracted 3^rd party vendors.  Federal (IRS, SSA, DOE, DOL, NCSE) agencies perform periodic onsite audits as well.   IOT contracted 3^rd party vendor Pondurance to performed penetration security tests of all DWD servers 9/2019 - 10/2019.   IOT contracted 3^rd party vendor Mako Group to perform infrastructure penetration security tests of State resources and sourced Cloud services July 2021.
         3. Reviewed/Updated – Security findings are reviewed and updated on a monthly basis, via the monthly DWD security plan-of-action worksheet.   DWD participates with the Indiana Office of Technology (IOT) in monthly vulnerability assessments utilizing Nexpose reports and reviews of current security risks in biweekly security meetings with the state CISO. The state has also purchased a license for Tenable Nessus, which allows the state and individual agencies to scan servers and applications to the same level utilized by the IRS during Safeguards Security Audits. Application scanning is also performed every six months utilizing IBM Security AppScan. All security plans, including Risk Assessment Planning has been reviewed during the full audit of DWD compliance with IRS Safeguards Publication 1075 conducted on July 24, 2018. DWD has provided a set of corrective action plan responses on April 30, 2019 and October 31, 2019.  A subsequent set of responses were provided on April 30, 2020.  The SSA performed a triennial audit during March 2020, with follow-up responses provide to SSA successfully completed May 2021.  The next IRS triennial audit is scheduled for 3/2021.  All security plans have been given an annual update, as required by IOT on July 10, 2019.  An annual review of risk assessment information, including system categorization, data classification, and recovery objectives are conducted with system owners on a yearly basis.

Indiana has a centralized IT agency, the Indiana Office of Technology (IOT) that has the main operational responsibility for the infrastructure of the state’s IT systems. The IOT maintains and reviews the IT related policies and plans referenced in this section. All plans identified above are up to date.

DWD continues its participation in the Treasury Offset Program (TOP) in conjunction with the United States Department of the Treasury – Bureau of Fiscal Service. Indiana submitted an initial Safeguards Security Report on January 16, 2015. DWD has participated in two tri-annual audits and has submitted bi-yearly corrective action plan reports since the initial report.  The last full audit of agency compliance with IRS Safeguards Publication 1075 was conducted during the week of July 24, 2018 and the initial corrective action plan report was submitted on April 30, 2019.  The last 6-month CAP report, in support of the 2018 triennial audit is due 10/2021.

In conjunction with the Indiana Office of Technology, DWD utilizes information security tools such as Archer, McAfee, QRadar, Rapid7. Archer is a governance, risk, and compliance tracking system that has been implemented statewide for managing the state’s and DWD’s information security profile and compliance issues. Additional modules are being added to Archer that allow for comprehensive audit results tracking and abatement management.  QRadar allows DWD to detect anomalies in network traffic to/from devices storing or processing confidential data.  The InsightVM/Rapid7 tool scans devices connected to the network allowing DWD to address significant software vulnerabilities.

Also, in conjunction with the IOT, DWD has embarked on an ambitious project to bring its Uplink system into a firewalled, protected zone on the State of Indiana network.  In 9/2019, DWD completed the relocation of Uplink’s database servers into segregated protected zones.  The application servers remain to be relocated.  Eventually this will bring the entire Uplink system into compliance with the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) Security Technical Implementation Guides (STIGs).   All databases, in all Uplink environments, utilize Oracle Advanced Security for encryption of both data-at-rest and in-transit.

Assurance of Disaster Unemployment Assistance (DUA)

Indiana assures annualized training for the DUA staff, starting in Spring of 2022.  Indiana has already developed DUA Standard Operating Procedures.  This manual will be updated prior to the annual trainings, starting in Spring of 2022.