These three basic goals focus on meeting callers’ needs for timely and accurate information. OWCP Lacked Valid Information to Measure Progress in Achieving Goals

Often, OWCP did not collect credible performance data to gauge progress in attaining its goals. OWCP did do customer satisfaction surveys of injured workers. Scope and Methodology

To determine how OWCP communicates with injured federal workers, agencies who employed these workers, and medical and other service providers who are involved in their treatment, we performed the following audit steps. We placed 2,400 telephone calls to OWCP’s 12 district offices (200 per office), to assess the accessibility of telephone representatives at each of the 12 OWCP district offices and whether each office’s automated integrated voice response (IVR) system’s data was consistent with the national office’s claim data. To compare OWCP’s goals and practices for telephone communication with those of leading organizations, we also surveyed three agencies that have won awards for their telephone communication practices: the Social Security Administration, Department of Veterans Affairs’ Bureau of Benefits Administration, and state of Ohio’s Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (BWC).
Why GAO Did This Study

This testimony discusses the Department of Labor's Office of Workers' Compensation Programs (OWCP). GAO reviewed how OWCP communicates with injured federal workers, agencies who employ these persons, and medical and other service providers who treat them. To evaluate OWCP's system, GAO used criteria suggested by the National Partnership for Reinventing Government (NPR). This report summarizes GAO's findings on NPR's study of private sector practices for providing telephone customer service, which included: (1) setting challenging goals for meeting callers' needs for timely and accurate information; (2) collecting credible performance data to measure progress in attaining those goals; and (3) improving telephone service by using the performance data and results to periodic surveys of customers and stakeholders to determine levels of satisfaction.

What GAO Found

GAO found that OWCP provided consistent customer service regardless of where injured workers live. GAO made 2,400 telephone calls to OWCP's 12 district offices. To compare OWCP's goals and practices for telephone communication with those of model organizations, GAO surveyed three agencies that have won awards for their telephone communication practices: the Social Security Administration, the Department of Veterans Affairs' Benefits Administration, and Ohio's Bureau of Workers' Compensation.