WorkInTexas.com Communications & Support Conference Call
Scott Eychner, WorkInTexas.com Project Manager/Workforce
November 20, 2008
3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. CT
During our November WorkInTexas Liaisons Conference Call we welcomed a total of 24 Boards. Thank you all for scheduling time to participate. This year has certainly passed quickly and I’m stunned to realize that November 20 was the last conference call of the year. We will however return to our monthly conference call schedule in January 2009. Please consult the schedule below for dates.
DISCUSSION TOPICS
I. WorkInTexas.com Project Team Topics
A. WorkInTexas.com Project Status - The WorkInTexas.com Project Overview 2009 is available at this link: http://intra.twc.state.tx.us/intranet/its/html/projects_hiretexas.html#guide. All Commission approved enhancements for FY2009 are listed on this page. Some items were part of the FY2008 list of approved enhancements, but with all of the DCS transformation restrictions, we were unable to complete them in FY2008. As a result, these two items are now part of the FY2009 enhancements: 1) Combining Match and Browse and 2) Job Posting Breakout (changing page flow to bring job posting information to the forefront, similar to the revamping of job seeker registration).
B. WorkInTexas.com System Functionality Letters – are informal letters discussing various components in WorkInTexas.com along with some suggestions for getting the best results out of a featured function. In some ways, these letters can be viewed as best practice letters where the WorkInTexas Business Team and Workforce Policy Team entrust the knowledge to staff in the form of a letter that provides information, but is not an official directive.
These letters can be forwarded to anyone and everyone who works with WorkInTexas.com. There will not be a schedule of letter releases. Letters will be written and sent out to Liaisons whenever we happen upon something that we think could be helpful. Eventually, we will have a set place in WorkInTexas.com where we’ll be able to post these System Letters. When that happens, we’ll limit our email to letting you know that a new letter has been posted.
Two System Functionality Letters are being included in this email: the Events Calendar and Job Type.
C. UI Claimant Status – As workforce center staff already know, UI Claimants often question them about their UI claim status or some other UI related issue when they are unable to get through to Tele-Center staff. To alleviate this problem to some degree, UI has created a new website where claimants can logon from any computer and check their claim status without staff assistance.
The creation of the UI claim status website accomplishes two things:
i. Alleviates the number of UI claimants asking workforce center staff questions about UI related issues.
ii. Staff can refer claimants to this website when they ask about the status of their claim.
A Benefits Letter with screen shots was released on 11/19/08 and a copy of this letter has been attached to this email. Also, for those who can access this link, you’ll find the Benefits letter displayed. http://intra/intranet/uir_dir/html/bl2008-11.html (Accessing this link may require you to logon to the TWC Intranet first.)
This new website is seen as a way to reduce the workload on workforce center staff. The site can be accessed from the TWC main page (http://www.twc.state.tx.us/). A “New” icon displays on the Unemployment Insurance (UI) Information tab under the Featured Links section of the TWC main page.
The claim status data reflects information as of yesterday’s date. UI data is batched at midnight, so anything updated that day will be processed at midnight. If a claimant updates something at 8am and checks their status 2 hours later, the update will not be visible, but it is stored and awaiting batch processing at midnight.
D. UI Address Exchange – before the address exchange began, we were used to getting address updates from UI that would update WorkInTexas.com and TWIST. We tried to initiate an address exchange that would allow WorkInTexas.Com and TWIST to send address updates back to UI. However, the Interface override between systems didn’t work quite right. Some addresses were updated that shouldn’t have been. The exchange had only been working for a brief time when we turned it off. When we figure out how to make it work, we’ll let you know before turning it on again.
The WorkInTexas.com / TWIST Interface is still functioning as it was before the UI Address Exchange was turned on. The tip in WorkInTexas.com is also still displaying even though the update is not working. We’ll remove the tip as soon as we can.
Most importantly, the WorkInTexas/TWIST Interface is still functioning as it was before. We’ll continue to process updates from UI, but we won’t be sending any updates to UI.
E. Job Posting Status – Shortly after Release 3.4 was in production, we realized that Other Activity Contacts (or Mass Entry Contacts) added to a job posting caused the job posting status to disappear. Fortunately, the window for this problem was fairly brief, but as a direct result of this problem, there may still be some postings in WorkInTexas.com that still have no status. If you run across one, please review and add a status as appropriate, based on the Closing date and other pertinent job posting information.
F. Next WorkInTexas Liaisons Conference Call (Jan2009) – please review the schedule below. Since we still have some staff on holiday leave in early January, we’ve moved the January WorkInTexas Liaisons Conference Call to January 15, 2009.
G. Full Text Search clarification – as you experiment with the new “By Text” Browse function, please take a moment to click on the “More examples” link to get some helpful hints and examples for getting better search results.
The relevance score that displays in your By Text results describes a percentage based on a very complex matching algorithm. While we can’t really describe the method behind the relevance score, we can tell you that the score becomes increasingly relevant as you add more specific information to your search criteria.
For example, when performing a job seeker browse for Civil Engineers, results may include 10 pages of job seekers with 100% relevance and the rest of the 500 total results show ever decreasing relevance percentages. When the search criteria does not specify a location, the results will include all job seekers with the words “civil” or “engineers” or “civil engineers” anywhere in their application. However, your results can be narrowed by adding a city, a city and state, a ZIP code, and/or a caret plus a number can be added to increase the relevance or weight of a certain word in your search phrase by a power of whatever number you add. Thus, we can either run a search for “civil engineers Austin TX” which returns 9 job seekers with a relevance score of 100% out of 500 results. Or we can increase the weight of a word (not the entire phrase) by searching for “civil engineers^5 Austin TX” which returns 500 results: 7 different job seekers with “engineers” mentioned somewhere in their application and a relevance score of 100%. The word (in this example, the word was engineers) followed by ^5 (caret and number) has more weight than other words in the search phrase. Using the caret allows you to indicate that one particular word is the most important word in the search.
We hope you will try running By Text searches using various criteria in order to increase your familiarity with this new function. And, please let us know if you have any questions.
Wishing everyone a very happy holiday season – we hope you will all find joy and happiness throughout the holiday season and a new year filled with peace and prosperity.
WDA Liaisons - If additional WDA staff attend, please coordinate their participation.TWC State staff - Please attend at 451T, Trinity Bldg., or TWC MoPac office.
Conference Call Dial In number: (866) 905-1614
Pass code: 1320449#
Request: Please minimize sound interference
- Sign On @ 3-5 minutes prior to the call & Mute your phone line to eliminate extraneous noise and improve reception on all conference connections.
- Please do not place the call on HOLD.
- Wait until the call is officially ended to Sign Off to avoid “beeping” others out of the on-going discussion.
WorkInTexas.com Communication and Support
Conference Call Schedule
November 2008-November 2009
Conference Call Schedule / Send Agenda Ideas by Close of BusinessThursday / November 20, 2008 / Thursday, November 13, 2008
Cancelled / December 4, 2008 / December call cancelled
Thursday / *January 15, 2009 / Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Thursday / February 5, 2009 / Thursday, January 29, 2009
Thursday / March 5, 2009 / Thursday, February 26, 2009
Thursday / April 2, 2009 / Thursday, March 26 , 2009
Thursday / May 7, 2009 / Thursday, April 30 , 2009
Thursday / June 4, 2009 / Thursday, May 28, 2009
Thursday / *July 9, 2009 / Thursday, July 2, 2009
Thursday / August 6, 2009 / Thursday, July 30 , 2009
Thursday / September 3, 2009 / Thursday, August 27, 2009
Thursday / October 1, 2009 / Thursday, September 24, 2009
Thursday / November 5, 2009 / Thursday, October 29, 2009
* Denotes an exception to our plan for “first Thursday” calls or the established due date for suggestions (“COB Thursday a week prior to a call”)
Agenda Topic suggestions and questions are due from Liaisons by the close of business on the Thursday prior to a call; send suggestions to OR
The Agenda is emailed to Liaisons on the Wednesday before the call.
Summary When available, a summary of the content of the conference call will be emailed to Liaisons 7-10 days following the call so they can share with staff throughout their WDA. These notes are not intended to replace local documentation or communications.
Cancellation A cancellation notice is emailed to WorkInTexas.com Liaisons as soon as a call is cancelled or rescheduled.
Call Lines Requested & Reserved per WDA
Workforce Area / Attend / Workforce Area / Attend / Workforce Area / AttendAlamo / East Texas / Panhandle
Brazos Valley / Golden Crescent / Permian Basin
Cameron County / Gulf Coast / Rural Capital
Capital Area / Heart of Texas / South East
Central Texas / Lower Rio / South Plains
Coastal Bend / Middle Rio Grande / South Texas
Concho Valley / North Central / Tarrant County
Dallas / North East / Texoma
Deep East / North Texas / Upper Rio Grande
West Central
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WorkInTexas Conference Call – 2008