CUSTOMER PROFILE
THE GOAL
The Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) was an early component of Canada’s federal response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This program provided cash payments to workers suffering direct and indirect economic impact from the pandemic and associated response, including those with lost income due to closures, reduced demand, school and daycare shutdowns, and the need to act as a home caregiver for a COVID-19 patient.
The program was announced in March 2020, in the early days of pandemic response. Its administrator, Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC), recognized that there would be massive response to the offered benefit and that a dedicated contact center would be necessary to manage the extraordinary demand. Because of the urgency of the situation, ESDC needed to agree to terms with a contact center partner on a Thursday with the aim of having the contact center up and running for business the following Monday morning.
Accenture was awarded the CERB contact center contract, and the race was on. At the outset of a pandemic, with virtually everyone on the project working from home or otherwise in unfamiliar territory, Accenture needed to spin up a nationwide service center in record time.
THE SOLUTION
Accenture has selected NICE IEX Workforce Management for a number of high-profile, high-volume, and high-value engagements over the past decade, making it a natural choice for the CERB contact center. Working around-the-clock, Accenture created a new NICE IEX Workforce Management instance which integrated with the Canadian agency’s Amazon Connect communications platform.
ESDC staffed the contact center with 3,000 representatives. Many had been working in other roles before the pandemic hit, and lacked any contact center experience whatsoever. Accenture’s responsibilities included ensuring that each of the agents had access to adequate technology, including a suitable computer and headset. Accenture’s training specialists worked with the newly-minted agent pool over the weekend to explain NICE IEX Webstation basics and distributed a customized one-page cheat sheet.
THE RESULTS
Accenture combined its process expertise with the power of NICE IEX Workforce Management to successfully bring the CERB contact center online in less than four full days. Accenture’s regional managers worked with Service Canada leadership to ensure adequate scheduling and coverage for the Monday launch. They were able to go live with schedules and interfaces in compliance with Canadian labor law, union covenants, and English/French language requirements as well.
Accenture’s sprint to train employees over the preceding weekend ensured that representatives were able to hit the ground running and navigate their personal schedules with little hassle. The center caught an important break when call volume at go-live was lower than anticipated, providing some breathing room for employees to get oriented to their duties and new work environment. Instead they could focus on working with fellow Canadians to navigate their economic uncertainties.
Because of the tight timeframe, the CERB contact center launched with stock reporting found in every NICE IEX Workforce Management deployment. In the following weeks, Accenture strengthened the data links with Amazon Connect to improve contact center insights.
Over the life of the CERB program, nearly 9 million residents submitted over 27 million applications to the center, and the CERB program paid out CAD$74 billion. Accenture’s quick deployment and effective implementation of the CERB program’s contact center proved to be a model for benefit and contact tracing centers in several US States.
NEXT STEPS
The CERB program sunset in October 2020, replaced by new programs including the Canada Recovery Benefit (CRB) to provide ongoing benefits to workers impacted by COVID-19 but who do not qualify for normal Employment Insurance benefits. The contact center continues to service those programs.
