Unemployment Benefits Associate Jobs

We are hiring! Join our team of Unemployment Benefits Associates who are responsible for answering customer calls and listening to questions, comments, and concerns. Our Associates will manage calls in queue from claimants or other business contacts, taking care of requests, or concerns regarding resolutions on their unemployment claims. Will guide claimants through the initial filing process for unemployment insurance, processes initial, reopen, or additional claims filed by unemployed workers. Resolves problems and errors for customers; provides supportive tasks and performs related work as required.

Key Responsibilities In This Position

• Identify customers’ needs, clarify information, research every issue, and provide solutions and/or alternatives for the customer.
• Process unemployment insurance claims where the claimant has only Iowa employers in the base period
• Manages high-volume of inbound and outbound calls in a timely manner, in a call-center environment.
• Engage customers with professionalism and empathy when a response is warranted.
• Keep accurate records of conversations in a standardized format when conducting screenings, taking notes of the conversations during the screening with active listening skills
• Follow communication “scripts” when handling different subject matter.
• Exercises good judgment and handles customer problems.
• Communicates with internal and external customers and answers questions from claimants and employers.

Essential Knowledge & Skills:

All new hires will participate in an intensive 4-week training class as part of the onboarding program. This training consists of classroom education, on-the-job, practice phone calls and an evaluation process at the completion to ensure position readiness for the Unemployment Benefits Associate role.

Essential Skills

• Perform basic math to determine amounts of payments, overpayments, underpayments, and re-qualifications.
• Able to prioritize, manage deadlines and work well under pressure
• Understand complex subject matter, such as the Code of Iowa, federal and state laws, rules and regulations, agency policy, and procedural manuals.
• Maintain a sense of professionalism and calmness when claimant, or customer is irritated, angry, or exhibiting frustrations by potential delays, or negative outcome
• Problem solving abilities, and able to understand complex subject matter of information
• Excellent communications skills, both verbal and written; communicate in courteous manner with customers and coworkers.
• Excellent time management, attention to detail

Complete other duties as assigned.

No applicant seeking employment with the Iowa Department of Workforce Development can have a current, ongoing overpayment balance with Iowa Workforce Development without a payment plan in place. Select positions will be subject to a criminal background check.

The classification for this position is Workforce Associate ( 00806)

Minimum Qualification Requirements

Graduation from an accredited area college with an Associate's Degree;

OR

Experience equal to three years of full time public contact work obtaining, analyzing and evaluating data such as job/claims interviewing, testing, referral and/or placement, sales representative, credit investigation, or related public contact work dealing with job applicants and employers in a variety of supportive clerical and outreach functions;

OR

an equivalent combination of education and experience substituting thirty semester hours of college or university coursework for one year of the required experience with a maximum substitution of three years;

OR

employees with current continuous experience in the state executive branch that includes experience equal to eighteen months of full-time clerical work or direct customer service in a local Workforce Development Center or other Iowa Workforce Development office.

For additional information, please click on this link to view the job description.