Report 2013-102 Recommendations and Responses in 2014-041
Report 2013-102: Employment Development Department: It Needs to Address Data Issues to Better Evaluate and Improve the Performance of Its Employment Programs for Veterans
| Department | Number of Years Reported As Not Fully Implemented | Total Recommendations to Department | Not Implemented After One Year | Not Implemented as of 2013-041 Response | Not Implemented as of Most Recent Response |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Employment Development Department | 1 | 8 | 4 | n/a | 4 |
Recommendation To: Employment Development Department
To improve the quality of the performance reporting it submits to Labor, the department should work with Labor to develop reasonable controls to avoid reporting overstated and inaccurate performance measures.
Response
With the launch of the upgraded California Job Opening Browse System (CalJOBSSM) on May 5, 2014, the system now includes a single client record that significantly decreases the chance of overstated or inaccurate performance data being reported to the United States Department of Labor (DOL). As noted in the Employment Development Department's (EDD) October 9, 2013, response to the audit, the EDD has been and will continue to work with the DOL to implement any additional guidance or controls it prescribes to avoid overstated or inaccurate performance data. On June 17, 2013, the DOL requested that the EDD re-program CalJOBSSM to automatically take any wages over $1,000,000 and convert them to $999,999 for both pre-program and post-program wages to meet their Enterprise Reporting and Validation System reporting specifications. This request was implemented in CalJOBSSM effective June 19, 2013. The EDD has implemented all other requirements set forth by the DOL related to performance reporting. The EDD requests that this recommendation be closed.
- California State Auditor's Assessment of Status: Partially Implemented
- Estimated Completion Date: May 2014
- Response Date: October 2014
Recommendation To: Employment Development Department
To identify ways to better serve veterans in California, the department should assess the success or struggles of veterans within demographic categories in finding employment, such as age, race, or educational attainment, by comparing veterans' performance to that of nonveterans in the same demographic categories and across demographic categories and use this analysis to determine whether specific populations of veterans could be better served through more targeted efforts and to identify best practices for improving employment outcomes for these specific populations. Further, the department should provide the results of this analysis annually, beginning in 2014, to stakeholders, including local workforce agencies, the state workforce board, the interagency council, the Legislature, and the public.
Response
The EDD continues to work within its available resources to determine the feasibility of fully implementing this recommendation. The initial assessment was slated to begin after the launch of the upgraded CalJOBSSM originally set for February 2014. Due to a variety of operational issues including faulty data conversion, the launch was pushed back to
May 5, 2014; it was successfully launched on that date. Though the current CalJOBSSM has some functionality to gather performance data for veterans by demographic category, the Program Reporting and Analysis Unit will work with the system vendor and the EDD Information Technology Branch staff to develop processes, procedures, and tools that will allow the Veterans' Program Unit staff to collect and analyze the additional information needed to identify veterans' services delivery improvements. Due to the extraordinary efforts required to launch the upgraded system, implementation of these new processes, procedures, and tools has been pushed back to the first quarter of 2015 and will take approximately five months to complete.
- California State Auditor's Assessment of Status: Pending
- Estimated Completion Date: July 2015
- Response Date: October 2014
Recommendation To: Employment Development Department
To better optimize its leadership role in the interagency council's employment workgroup, the department should ensure that the employment workgroup develops a timeline for completing its action items and develops a process for measuring its success in improving employment outcomes for veterans. Specifically, the department should take the lead for establishing a time frame for evaluating tools to help assess and translate military skills into finding civilian jobs and establishing a transition assistance program for veterans.
Response
The EDD remains committed to advancing the work of the Interagency Council on Veterans in many key areas such as translating military skills into civilian jobs. But, establishing timelines and goals for the workgroup is not within the sole purview or control of EDD to accomplish. Therefore, the EDD requests that this recommendation be closed.
- California State Auditor's Assessment of Status: Will Not Implement
- Response Date: October 2014
Recommendation To: Employment Development Department
To assess whether it is doing enough to take advantage of federal requirements that federal contractors give preference to veterans when hiring, the department should determine why the reported number of veterans receiving employment with federal contractors is so low relative to the number of job referrals made and it should provide appropriate direction to the veterans employment representatives to better leverage the federal contractor job listing.
Response
The Workforce Services Division, Program Reporting and Analysis Unit, will develop guidance on the reporting functions within CalJOBSSM that can assist the Veterans' Program, Wagner-Peyser program, and Workforce Investment Act partner staff in helping veterans apply for federal job contractor listings.
On March 24, 2014, the DOL, Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, published a Final Rule that made changes to the regulations implementing Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and Section 4212 of the Vietnam Veterans' Readjustment Assistance Act. The new regulations establish specific metrics for federal contractors and subcontractors to recruit, hire, promote, and retain veterans and people with disabilities. The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs has been providing assistance to federal contractors to help them develop a plan, policies, and procedures to implement these regulations.
As a result of the new regulations, more businesses will be looking to State Labor Exchange Systems to help them recruit and hire veterans and individuals with disabilities. This presents a tremendous opportunity for CalJOBSSM to improve employment outcomes for the veteran population and to provide a valuable service for our business customers.
The WSB is developing an outreach process for Local Veterans Employment Representative staff throughout the America's Job Center of CaliforniaSM to contact all federal contractors who have filed letters disclosing their status. The process will inform the federal contractor of their responsibilities and offer workforce services assistance which includes matching qualified veterans with their future hiring needs.
- California State Auditor's Assessment of Status: Pending
- Estimated Completion Date: December 2014
- Response Date: October 2014