Announcing New Workload Management Procedures in the Office of Retirement (HR/RET)

Announcing New Workload Management Procedures in the Office of Retirement (HR/RET)
June 2006

This Department Notice provides updated information to the on-going process of modernization in the Office of Retirement. Implementation of Phase II as outlined below initiates a new workload management system designed to provide improved customer service to employees.

Phase I - RNet, AskRNet, Annuitant Employee Express, Personal Benefits Statement, Annuity Benefits Calculator

Over the past year, the Office of Retirement has implemented a number of technological changes designed to improve and modernize the delivery of our services and to increase retirement literacy by providing both Civil Service and Foreign Service employees with the information they need to know well ahead of their actual retirement. We have provided access to resources by providing detailed retirement information available on our RNET website and FAQs on a variety of topics, posted on AskRNet. The "Steps to Retirement" notice released in January 2006 seeks to put the tools employees need at their disposal so that a) by knowing now what the process is, during the course of a career, employees can build the right financial structure needed for a safe and secure retirement and then, b) when ready to retire, employees can make a planned, smooth, non-stressed transition to retirement. Technology has made it possible for us to offer employees overseas the same access to information as domestic-based employees. We are now implementing Phase II of the modernization process – instituting a new workload management system.

Phase II - RET Workload Distribution and Tracking System

Effective April 10, 2006, we are initiating a workload management system which will enable us to track tasks more efficiently and ensure a timely and accurate completion of all service requests that come into the office. How will this affect employees who use the services of this office? The biggest change is that we are moving away from the alphabet-based assignment of counselors to clients, and moving to a workload-based assignment process. All requests for service, including retirement processing will be logged into the RET Workload Distribution and Tracking System. Clients will be given a ticket and tracking number, a delivery time frame, and, as required, the name of an HR/RET employee to resolve the request for service.

This system will ensure a better connection between cases and clients since it will include assignment based on case-by-case evaluation and, it will ensure a better distribution of cases and work among a very limited number of benefits counselors.

How will this work? When employees or annuitants call up, email, fax, or stop by with any request for service, it will be logged into the system. We will assign the appropriate individual from HR/RET to answer the query, and we will be able to track it and see if it is resolved in a timely manner. This should be the death knell of the proverbial black hole of unanswered requests. It will also help manage the "immediate gratification" syndrome connected with emails—an expectation of an instant reply. The email like other requests will be logged in and assigned for response in the order in which it is received, unless it requires an immediate response. The employee submitting the request will get an email with an RET Tracking System number.

In the case of retirement applications, if you have applied for retirement, you will be given a completion date for your retirement processing that is 90 days from the time we receive your fully completed request and assign a counselor. For example, if you want to retire September 30, 2006, we will need to have your completed package of forms for either Civil Service or Foreign Service retirement submitted to us no later than June 30, 2006.

RETServices@state.gov

Managing email is an important part of this system. We ask that all email requests for service come into one mailbox: RETServices@state.gov rather than to individual counselors in the office. This way emails, telephone calls, mail and fax requests for all our services will be logged in, given a tracking number and will be assigned to an employee in HR/RET to resolve in a determined time frame. We anticipate that this will give greater workload transparency, establish accountability and provide better and timely responses for you the client.

Customer Service Representatives

Coupled with this work load management system, we are establishing a new system of customer service representatives. We will now have a rotating duty officer available to answer technical questions for employees who walk in the door. If you are submitting a retirement application and wish to meet with your processing counselor, that request will be ticketed and assigned for an appointment at a mutually convenient time. Any questions you have initially, when you walk in the door, will be answered by the duty officer. We will of course make every effort to accommodate employees returning from overseas who have a limited time to see their counselors, but we do ask that they too request an appointment in advance.

On-line Forms and Applications

Finally, we can now discontinue the practice of mailing paper retirement packages to prospective retirees. All of the updated retirement forms are now available through the Internet, on RNet. Employees overseas no longer have to wait for Fed Ex or pouch packages to arrive. Simply go to www.RNet.state.gov and click on the left hand side of the page where you will see “Forms.” All the forms are organized by retirement system. The log in function is reserved for retirees, but active employees do NOT need to log in to get the forms or information on retirement systems.

Phase III - Electronic Retirement

Later this summer RET will unveil the last step of the modernization process: the electronic retirement application. This will coincide with the conversion to a paperless process as we complete the conversion of all 42,000 active and retired files to electronic files. All Active employees, both Civil Service and Foreign Service, now have a Retirement folder in their eOPF. We are currently converting all 15,600 Annuitant files to electronic files. Benefits Counselors are transitioning from paper processing to electronic processing. The new RET Workload Distribution and Tracking System is intended to facilitate this fundamental transition to a modern customer service system.

We anticipate that these measures will enhance our customer service, and will enable us to provide you, our clients, with better more accurate and timely service.