OREANDA-NEWS. September 14, 2015. Southwest Airlines recently gave tips and techniques for moving towards an intelligent UI claims response process — and saving millions of dollars.

Kevin Minchey, Labor & Employment Attorney at Southwest Airlines, was guest speaker at a webinar, “Intelligent Unemployment Claims Response and Cost Management,” where he spoke to the use of technology to improve the UI claims response.

Kevin was joined by our own Bob Austin, VP of UC Operations, who provided background on why this has become so important. Bob gave an overview on the current state of “UI Integrity” – the push to hold employers accountable for a timely and complete claims response.

Nearly half of survey respondents indicated they were not yet responding to 100% of unemployment claims

Nearly half of survey respondents indicated they were not yet responding to 100% of unemployment claims

Under the new regulations, employers are required to respond to all UI claims, not just the ones they think are unjustified. The 400+ attendees showed that not all employers are on top of the challenge: close to half of the respondents to a live poll said they were not responding to 100% of claims. (see graphic)

Following Bob’s UI Integrity update, Kevin ran through recent improvements Southwest Airlines has made to its claims response process. For example, he discussed technology the airline has begun using that allows busy managers “… to work on this at their leisure and to prioritize, but it’s really increased our accuracy and timeliness of the response.”

The upshot, according to Kevin: \\$3 million in savings over two years.