{"id":29575,"date":"2021-11-16T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-16T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/retirement-services-for-federal-employees\/"},"modified":"2022-11-15T10:28:13","modified_gmt":"2022-11-15T15:28:13","slug":"retirement-services-for-federal-employees","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/our-solutions\/customer-experience\/y2021\/retirement-services-for-federal-employees\/","title":{"rendered":"Retirement Services for Federal Employees"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n<\/i>Back to Customer Experience Profiles<\/span><\/a>\n\n\n\n
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Office of Personnel Management<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Executive Summary<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Data Highlights<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>Customer Experience Insights<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>Delivering Services Equitably<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leading Customer Experience Practices<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The Office of Personnel Management administers the Civil Service Retirement System and Federal Employees Retirement System\u2014benefits that those who have dedicated some or all of their careers to public service are entitled to. Many federal employees, retirees and their families rely on the annuities and other benefits that OPM provides for financial security in their retirement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Customers engage with OPM at a variety of stages before and after their retirement, including asking questions or finding information to help them plan for retirement, submitting an application, and managing their benefits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of their transition to retirement, OPM works to quickly provide many customers with interim pay, based on estimates of what their benefits will be, to reduce uncertainty in the first few months of retirement while their exact benefits are being determined. The agency has also recently made it easier to connect with OPM and has introduced practices to more quickly answer customer questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, many common tasks\u2014including applying for retirement\u2014are not currently available online and are paper intensive, and the time it takes for OPM to process retirement claims is often longer than customers would like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Service Overview<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

OPM Retirement Services is responsible for administering the retirement programs and benefits available to federal employees. OPM works in conjunction with federal agency human resources offices to process employees\u2019 retirement paperwork. Once a federal employee becomes a retiree, OPM is responsible for their human resource needs, such as annuity payments and health and life insurance benefits. As of fiscal year 2020, OPM served an annuitant population of 2.7 million<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Primary\u202fcustomers<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Retiring federal employees, those receiving retirement benefits and their families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key services provided to<\/strong> customers<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  • Answers to questions about federal retirement policies and benefits.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Retirement application processing and adjudication.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Delivery of retirement annuity payments.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Management of federal benefits\u2014such as health and life insurance\u2014after retirement.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    Service Snapshot (all data for fiscal year 2020)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    • 1.53 million<\/strong> retirement-related phone calls received.1<\/sup>\n
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      • Average wait time for calls: 6.3 minutes.<\/strong>2<\/sup><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • 91,927 retirement claims<\/strong> processed.3<\/sup>\n
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        • Average processing time: 69 days.<\/strong>4<\/sup><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n
        • About 600,000 unique users<\/strong> of OPM\u2019s Services Online accounts.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

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          Data Highlights<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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          more calls handled in fiscal year 2020 than fiscal year 2019.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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          average processing time for retirement claims in fiscal year 2020, compared to OPM\u2019s goal of 60 days.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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          Customer Experience Insights<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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          Improvement from last year<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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          Room for improvement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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          Contact Center improvements are enabling more customers to speak with OPM representatives, but some customers continue to experience difficulties. <\/div>\r\n\t\t\t
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          OPM\u2019s customer research in 2019 showed that many people were encountering busy signals when calling the contact center and were unable to speak with a representative.<\/p>\n

          To address this problem, OPM initiated a series of improvements to increase access to the contact center. The agency analyzed information on the most common types of calls and reconfigured the initial messaging customers hear when they call. This new, streamlined messaging allows customers to indicate their purpose earlier in the call, routing them into the correct queue more quickly and enabling OPM to answer more calls and resolve customers\u2019 questions more quickly. The agency also created a new online form for customers to submit questions, which are then sent directly to the contact center to be answered via email. This provides customers with an additional way to access needed OPM information without having to call. The agency has also reorganized and clarified the information available on its website to enable customers to find answers to their questions without needing to contact OPM.<\/p>\n

          With these initiatives, OPM significantly increased access for customers and handled approximately 80,000 more calls in fiscal year 2020 than in fiscal year 2019. However, technological and staffing limitations meant that some customers continued to experience busy signals in fiscal year 2021. To address these limitations, OPM hired additional contact center representatives and in September 2021 implemented a new cloud-based, multi-channel contact center platform. So far, this platform has almost eliminated busy signals and has also enabled the agency to offer customers the additional choice of a call-back feature, which has been popular, with approximately 50% of customers using this option.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t<\/div>\r\n\t

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          Customers cannot access detailed updates on the status of their case, but OPM\u2019s interim annuity payments help reduce uncertainty for customers waiting for final adjudication.<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t
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          In their online accounts, customers can see a rudimentary tracker that offers limited information about where their retirement application is in the adjudication process. But customers cannot access exact information or receive detailed updates about the progress of their case. This lack of specific, personalized information can create uncertainty for customers as they are do not know when exactly they will begin receiving retirement payments or how much they will receive, limiting their ability to plan ahead.<\/p>\n

          OPM addresses some of this uncertainty by providing, for many customers, interim annuity payments while cases are being processed. This interim pay provides customers with a partial annuity\u2014normally about 85% of their likely entitlement\u2014during the period before final adjudication. Agency officials noted that customers appreciate the financial security that interim pay provides during the processing period, which was an average of about 90 days long in August 2021, and that it limits some of the anxiety customers might otherwise feel while waiting for updates or final decisions on their case.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t<\/div>\r\n\t

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          Processing times generally meet OPM\u2019s published standards but are longer than customer expectations. <\/div>\r\n\t\t\t
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          OPM seeks to process and adjudicate retirement applications within 60 days, a goal the agency largely met before the pandemic, with an average processing time of 58 days in January 2020. However, the shift to telework during the pandemic limited OPM\u2019s ability to process paper-based claims and extended processing times, with the monthly average processing time reaching 95 days in July 2020.5<\/sup><\/p>\n

          Although processing times shortened during the spring of 2021\u2014the average processing time was 69 days in March 2021\u2014they began climbing again later in the year, reaching a monthly average of 93 days in August 2021. However, even when the agency meets its 60-day goal, agency officials noted that customers expect shorter processing times. OPM is working with agencies to improve the quality of retirement submissions to enable smoother and quicker processing and is also hiring additional adjudicators to increase the staff available to process applications.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t<\/div>\r\n\t

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          Customers cannot file for retirement or complete certain other transactions online. <\/div>\r\n\t\t\t
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          Several of OPM\u2019s retirement services\u2014including filing for retirement\u2014are not currently available to complete online. Some transactions are governed by regulations or laws that require original documents or written requests to be submitted, which prevent OPM from making these services available online.<\/p>\n

          The agency is currently working on developing an online retirement application and internally testing a prototype before piloting it with one or two agencies. OPM is also hoping to invest in a case management system that would help facilitate electronic filing and is exploring avenues to fund this tool. Expanding the services available online is particularly important given the high demand for phone assistance from OPM\u2014enabling customers to access more tasks and information online could reduce the need for customers to call the agency.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n