Hannah Chatham

The solution: Make small "fixes" on top of the legacy system

While New Jersey was in the midst of procuring a vendor to perform a holistic overhaul of their application system, our team of 4 joined to see if we could patch certain impactful pieces ahead of that modernization. We did this by serving up existing information, just in a new format (think wrapping paper, but digital). 

• Fix 1: Make it possible to reset your password online 
• Fix 2. Give claimants a tool to plan ahead
• Fix 3: Provide better status messaging
• Fix 4. Make up tools to listen and monitor for feedback

Fix 1: Make it possible to reset your password online 

Sounds crazy, but in 2022, claimants were calling in to reset their online portal password. This caused call wait times of 45 minutes or more. This was our first “low stakes” change, an obvious need and was fairly straightforward to do. This allowed us to get to know our State partners, and make an impactful digital change. This alone resulted in a 60% drop in call volume. We were off to the races! 

Fix 2. Give claimants a tool to plan ahead

We joined a Facebook group dedicated to claimants asking each other questions about the process, we recruited actual claimants, we scanned Reddit threads and sat in on call center calls. We learned the paid leave experience of the pregnant person was the most complex because it involved applying for two separate programs: Temporary Disability Insurance and Family Leave Insurance. We decided to start with this most complex user first. In one-on-one moderated interviews, core needs we heard were:

• Give room and tools for parents to plan ahead (as they shift their jobs, money, time and minds)
• Set expectations (around application time and steps involved. Applies to users and doctors)
• Provide flexibility whenever possible (especially for pregnant users, as it is highly unpredictable and unique to each person)
• Speak "pregnancy lingo" and provide parent specific info (maternity leave is a square peg in the round hole of disability insurance)

To address these needs, we stood up the Maternity Coverage Timeline Tool, adding it to the myLeaveBenefits website. This was launched in English and (human translated!) Spanish.

Fix 3: Provide better status messaging

Once you have applied, the website gives poor “status” information and wait times are inexplicably long. Claimants are stressed and in the dark while waiting for (often) much-needed income. We used our “overlay” technique to take the existing status information and serve it up in an improved layout. We launched this change iteratively, tracking response and feedback after each change. 

To inform messaging, we also spoke with medical providers

The top most reason applications were being denied was lack of a medical certification, or a doctor certifying they qualified for paid leave. The problem was, many doctors were not certifying in time, or missing it altogether, holding up a claim. Why was this happening? To learn this, we met with doctors and learned their process was unclear, not all medical staff felt comfortable completing this paperwork and surprisingly, paper was sometimes better for rural medical offices. We used these learnings to improve the wording and doctor instructions within the claim status tool. 

This topic area is ongoing and we hold monthly State calls to discuss solutions. Join us here.

Fix 4. Make up tools to listen and monitor for feedback

In proper agile form, we wanted to know if our experiments were working. To track feedback, we built a “feedback widget” to collect real time comments.  We also created a dashboard using Google's free Looker studio as a way for internal DOL staff to keep track of website performance.