Call Center for State Agency

 

The Problem: When coronavirus (COVID-19) hit South Carolina in March 2020, employers across the state began initiating furloughs and lay-offs of their employees at levels never seen before. Unemployment flipped from record breaking lows to an increase of 400%. For comparison, when the Great Recession occurred in April 2009, 13,848 initial claims filed. The week of April 11, 2020 there were 87,686 new unemployment claims made due to COVID-19.

The existing unemployment call centers were now in a position where they had to keep up with an increase of over 100,000 callers every day.  Individuals had questions regarding how to file without a computer, when they could expect to receive their first payment and many more pressing concerns.  Adding to the challenge, many of the answers were still in the hands of the U.S. Department of Labor.  Our client had an immediate need for call center support services that could be executed quickly, accurately and in the midst of a pandemic.

The Solution: Recruiting Solutions partnered with client to launch remote call center operations to assist with general unemployment questions.  We developed and designed an ideal project structure, screened and hired the workforce, created/executed the onboarding and orientations, established technological resources and security measures, built the employee training plans and executed them according to agreed-upon performance standards.  To top it all off, it was managed 100% remotely.

Results: Recruiting Solutions hired and organized the workforce virtually, accurately and quickly enough for the client to meet all their internal deadlines.  With our team managing the workforce, performance metrics improved 50+% within the first month of operation.

“I wanted to personally recognize your company’s contribution to our agency throughout the pandemic. We have enjoyed working with your staff and feel we have gotten good value for our money. I specifically wanted to mention Friday, which was the snow day. While I understand that the Recruiting Solutions staff still works from home, the attendance rate of your people  on the phones was impressive. It certainly helped our agency a great deal on a day when several of our call centers were closed due to inclement weather. Please thank all the people assigned to our account.” – Executive Director, State Agency