BI Beat: Creating a BI-Informed Claimant Handbook
When Thoreau dug up this seed of American wisdom near Walden Pond, little did he know how it would flower into NASWA’s Model Claimant Handbook!
The Model Claimant Handbook has helped states better instruct claimants on Unemployment Insurance (UI) procedures. As discussed in previous editions of the BI Beat (on unintentional and burdened noncompliance), claimants’ misunderstanding of UI requirements can lead to improper payments.
Simplifying handbooks can help claimants:
- Understand the process of filing a UI claim;
- Comply with UI requirements, such as filing weekly claims and reporting work search activities; and
- Be accurate and honest, especially when completing challenging items like correctly reporting wages earned.
Why a BI-informed Claimant Handbook?
Learning and the Behavioral Insights unit partnered in reviewing state handbooks learning that many were written to provide “legally comprehensive information” to claimants. While completeness is an important goal, in practice, handbooks become very dense. As a result, claimants can find them too overwhelming, fail to learn critical information, and make errors when filing claims.
Learning and Behavioral Insights then collaborated to develop the Model Claimant Handbook which draws on principles of plain language, visual communication, and behavioral insights to more effectively communicate—and thus reduce improper payments. The guide also has features to help claimants rapidly review information, as well as a linked glossary of common UI terms and numerous aids and graphics that help translate complexity into clarity.
Here are two examples that show the Handbook in action:
Example #1: Visual Communication to Prompt Action
Notice how the graphic to the right includes:
- Colors to immediately communicate the sentiment of each bullet point,
- Layout cues that clearly categorize information,
- Language that is plain and not legalistic,
- Ordering, such that the most frequently needed information is at the top.
Claimants can very quickly use this information to inform their behavior. Research agrees that such clear communication alters behavior more effectively than dense contract-style documents.
Above is a screenshot from the revised handbook that demonstrates visual communication.
Example #2: Aids to Practice Important Procedures
The aid shown to the right guides readers to the two most common sources of confusion in reporting wages: 1) reporting wages in the period they were earned, rather than received, and 2) reporting gross wages, rather than net. Notice how, in reviewing the aid, claimants must practice the proper way of navigating a pay slip. They must narrow in on the reporting period date, rather than the pay date; then, they must narrow in on the gross wages, rather than other pay information.
“Rehearsal” and “visual cues” like those in the graphic lead to better recall than instructions alone. (See here.) Using this graphic, claimants are more likely to remember how to report wages correctly.
The handbook also includes “aids” to help claimants navigate tricky concepts. At times, aids work by helping claimants practice important procedures, rather than just reading them.
Reach out to NASWA BI
NASWA BI can help states develop or revise their handbooks, based on our own Model Claimant Handbook. Reach out to us at integrity@naswa.org to learn more.
