KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas Department of Labor released an update on Tuesday about the progress being made to fix several internal problems amid an influx of unemployment claims due to COVID-19.
The department has been under fire for difficulty handling call volumes and errors in unemployment payments.
KDOL Secretary Delia Garcia resigned on June 22 amid the growing criticism of how the department was managing the COVID-19 pandemic numbers.
The department has been working with specialists from Accenture to resolve major issues.
“We know there have been major issues and missteps, we’ve hit the reset button and are focusing on the future,” Gov. Laura Kelly said in the update. “Accenture is reviewing and providing recommendations to improve the stability of our systems to make sure they are readily available to support Kansans.”
The Tuesday update stated that call center representatives trained in surge response have been added to the unemployment call center.
KDOL has also added seven more IT employees to help with the outdated coding language the department's system was built in. According to Accenture, it is one of the "most severe cases of outdated technology they have encountered."
According to the update, there is also a new online virtual agent named "Amelia" that can answer frequently asked unemployment questions.
“The response model being implemented will be able to be scaled up as needed and there will be more trained agents and technology workarounds for the current computer system,” KDOL Acting Secretary Ryan Wright said in the update. “Our top priority is to get Kansans paid as quickly as possible and with good customer service.”
Since the pandemic began, KDOL has delivered $1.2 billion in unemployment claims to nearly 200,000 Kansans, according to the update.
