Our DOL April 2021

Watch the Commissioner's Intro on Microsoft Stream

Claire Miller: Director of Training and Development 

From her time in AmeriCorps to her role as the Director of Training and Development at the New York State Department of Labor, Claire Miller has dedicated herself to helping others. She came to the DOL by accident, but found a home here during the pandemic. When she noticed how stressful it was for everyone working during the pandemic, she saw a chance to bring a little joy to the office, in the form of her charming dog Alfie. 

Watch this video on Microsoft Stream

Orville Abrahams: Deputy Commissioner of DEWS

Ask Orville Abrahams to tell you about himself, and he will regale you with stories of living in Jamaica as a young boy, or of his youth in the South End of Albany, where his summers were spent swimming in the Normanskill, and his bedroom window at Ezra Prentice apartments was so close to the train tracks, he would talk to the conductors as they passed. It was these years growing up in the shadow of the Port of Albany that fueled his passion for community activism as he fought for a better quality of life for the people of the South End. Now he brings that activist background to the DOL, where he hopes his experience will help him to better serve the underserved communities in New York. 

Watch this video on Microsoft Stream

Did you miss the beginning of the video series last month? Learn about how Sue Filburn and Lars Thompson unwind when they’re outside of work. 

By Crystal Haring

In March 2020, many of us traded our offices for remote workplaces.  In Rockin’ It Remotely, we interview members of our DOL family who are Rockin’ It while working remotely. This month we recognize another outstanding remote DOL employee.

Rebecca Alex started with DOL in 2006 as a Senior Employment Security Clerk and became a Labor Service Representative in 2008. Like many mothers, she changed her primary job to being a mom of three in 2017. Luckily for us, in January 2020, she returned to DOL and has been Rockin’ It both as an LSR and as a mom. At the beginning of the pandemic, Rebecca recalls shifting to working remotely and taking UI claim calls like many of us. Today, she has returned to her role in reviewing work separations, worker compensation and severance claims.

Rebecca likes the change to a quiet work environment while working remotely, and she and her supervisor feel like she is more productive. While many of us working remotely are grateful for the lack of a commute, as a mother of three, Rebecca is still commuting her children to school, preschool and daycare while doing an outstanding job of working remotely. 

Rebecca’s manager says she is “a focused and extremely diligent employee.” Rebecca is always willing to take on additional assignments with a positive attitude and without complaint. She also actively looks for overtime. Rebecca is a team player even remotely, and is a huge part of the team’s accomplishments. Rebecca is well-liked and has a great working relationship with her coworkers. They all say Rebecca has an outstanding quality of work and exceptional customer service skills. Her manager says, “She is truly an asset to the Team, CDTCC and the whole Department.” Rebecca has stepped up to the plate during these times, and her manager and team are all very proud to work side by side with Rebecca every day. 

While juggling raising three children, Rebecca also is a mom to two beagles, one blind Shih-Tzu and a cat. We don’t know how she does it! Rebecca likes being home and close to her family. She also likes that she can catch up on some of her family's needs and a few things around the house during her lunch break. Yet she does miss the face-to-face interaction of asking questions. She also misses having the cafeteria, but she sees it as a bonus to have her own kitchen close. 

Rebecca shared a few tips and suggestions for working remotely. She sets up every day to work in her dining room next to a large picture window with natural light. This way she is able to have space and keep her area clean and organized. While working remotely, she follows the same workflow of handling her daily tasks as if she was in the office. She also shares a great tip of using Outlook folders to organize all the new information and changes we all receive in our positions, to give you instant access to information all in one place. As Rebecca says, “You cannot remember everything, so save it in Outlook.” Rebecca has also made it a habit to sign on right at 8:30 a.m. and email her supervisor to have that first contact “Good Morning” to start her day off on a positive note. 

Rebecca gives kudos to her manager Jennifer Decker for setting her and their team up for success. Rebecca has proven to be an amazing asset to DOL while making it look easy as a mother of three lovely children, three dogs and one kitty. 

Thank you, Rebecca, for Rockin’ It Remotely and being a part of the DOL Family. 
 

Our DOL Family would like to congratulate Associate Economist Karen Knapik-Scalzo for her 30 years of service at the DOL.

We are so fortunate to have her as a member of our DOL team.

Karen was recently honored by the Oswego County Business Magazine. Read the full story at www.oswegocountybusiness.com/special-features/30-years-on-the-job-karen-knapik-scalzo.

Your hard work is nationally recognized!

The New York State Department of Labor continues to receive national recognition for its effort to help New Yorkers during the COVID-19 global health emergency. The agency is nominated for StateScoop 50’s State IT Innovation of the Year Award, which celebrates the cutting-edge state IT approach to technology that embraces innovation. 

Over the course of the last year, the DOL implemented a new Google-backed application, upgraded its phone system and launched ID.me, a new tool to help stop fraud. The DOL also created a new streamlined process for submitting previous weeks' certifications and deployed bot technology to improve the efficiency in the processing of claims and customer service. These innovative upgrades helped the NYS DOL connect more than 4.4 million New Yorkers with over $74.4 billion in benefits in record time. It also helped the agency identify over 607,500 fraudulent unemployment benefit claims during the pandemic, preventing fraudsters from stealing more than $6.9 billion in benefits. 

The annual StateScoop 50 Awards honor the best and the brightest who make state government more efficient and effective. Vote for NYS DOL today and vote often by going to statescoop.com/statescoop50/vote. Voting ends Friday, April 16, 2021.

If you’ve visited the agency’s website over the past few weeks, you may have noticed we’re giving our content a new look.  The fully updated site officially went public on March 17.

The newly revamped site is designed to improve our user experience and make content easier to find. The site includes landing pages that give users visually appealing and organized overviews of content, a new utility that allow users to easily filter documents, and the optimization to quickly share pages on social media. These new features will allow users to search for, find, and access information more easily than they could in the past. 

The changes to the site were fast-tracked to account for stability and licensing issues with the current site, and they are the first step in a two-part transition to a completely rebuilt web presence for the agency. Launching in summer 2021, the fully reimagined site will include additional functionality such as full chat-bot implementation, additional ways to filter and sort content, and improved external database and application integration. 

“This version of the site is a vast improvement, but come summer we’re going to have all of the bells and whistles,” said Peter Brancato, Assistant Commissioner for Strategic Communications. “Our website is an important part of how we communicate with our customers, so the agency has renewed its focus on this vital vehicle and is building a team to support the efforts during the build and into the future.” 

If you notice any content that is missing, please reach out to [email protected] for assistance.  
 

April 22 is Earth Day, and it’s the perfect opportunity for you to join our DOL family in leading the way to a greener New York. Our DOL has some ambitious goals as we work to make the DOL a green workplace, and we need your support to be successful in our efforts. Here’s how you can help!

Watch the Earth Day video on Microsoft Stream

Show us how you are going green at work whether at your DOL office or your home office, and win a Green Gift Card! 

Send us a picture of you:

• Saving energy
• Reducing paper waste
• Conserving water
• Anything that helps protect and preserve our environment at work!

Send your photos to [email protected]. 

Winners will be announced in next month’s OUR DOL newsletter!

Spread the word: We are hiring!

Do you have a friend or relative who you think would be a great fit at the DOL?

We are looking for enthusiastic and highly motivated candidates to fill Senior Employment Security Clerk positions to assist other New Yorkers with their Unemployment Insurance claims.

The DOL is looking for candidates to fill hundreds of open positions at our Albany and Endicott locations.

To apply, visit on.ny.gov/nysdolopenings.
 

Commissioner Reardon has been busy speaking to New Yorkers across the State about the Governor’s bold plans to move New York forward in 2021. Several DOL initiatives are part of the Governor’s plan, including our new Partial Unemployment program and the Workforce Forward Strike Team.

In January, Governor Cuomo directed the DOL to implement emergency measures that base partial unemployment benefits on the number of hours actually worked over the course of a week, instead of the number of days worked. Under this new system, unemployed New Yorkers can work up to seven days per week and still receive some unemployment benefits as long as they work fewer than 30 hours and earn no more than $504 in gross pay. 

Legislation will be submitted as part of the Executive Budget to permanently enact a Partial UI program and the revised benefit calculation. This will help incentivize unemployed New Yorkers to assume a part-time job as they search for full-time work because their partial unemployment benefits will be based on the number of hours they actually work, rather than the number of days they work in a given week. 

The Governor has also announced the launch of a Workforce Forward Strike Team. This team is made up of experts from the DOL, the Governor's Workforce Development Office and the Empire State Development Corporation, who will work to connect unemployed New Yorkers seeking part-time employment with small businesses that are looking for part-time workers. The strike team is also working with businesses to develop strategies to utilize the flexibility part-time workers provide as they build back from the pandemic. 

The DOL has also been hard at work marketing its Shared Work program which has been a lifeline for businesses and workers across the state in response to the COVID-19 crisis. The program enables employers to avoid layoffs by allowing workers to receive partial Unemployment Insurance benefits while working reduced hours. This enables workers to stay employed, sparing them from losing their income and other benefits like health insurance. 

We also continue to implement resourceful ways to help unemployed New Yorkers get back to work, and we are finding creative solutions to help businesses thrive in a new world of work. We have developed virtual services for job seekers as well as businesses which includes virtual Career Fairs, and we are in the process of launching additional virtual services. 

There is more to come on these and the many other wonderful efforts that our DOL is working on, so stay tuned!