Contact:  Nick Demerice, ESD public affairs director, 360-902-9289

OLYMPIA – Giving excellent service to customers of WorkSource employment centers and of the new Paid Family & Medical Leave program seeded two national awards for the Washington State Employment Security Department.

The National Association of State Workforce Agencies (NASWA) today recognized Employment Security for:

• Designing, building and implementing the Paid Family and Medical Leave technology platform.
• Creating a cohesive and collaborative statewide team of equal opportunity officers to ensure that all customers have equal access to employment services.

The technology used to collect premiums and pay benefits for the state’s new Paid Family & Medical Leave program met its budget and launched three days early. The team’s approach was iterative and even now is focused on continuous improvement. All these achievements earned Employment Security NASWA’s Merrill Baumgardner Innovation in Information Technology Award.

"This new technology platform is an excellent example of innovation and provides a model for other states to follow and adopt," said Scott B. Sanders, Executive Director of NASWA.

Employment Security beat seven other states to earn NASWA’s William J. Harris Equal Opportunity Award. The win recognizes how the agency took a group of independent equal opportunity offices around the state and forged them into a team to develop new policies, training, guidance and tools. Their efforts increased EO compliance statewide.

“The Employment Security Department is making Washington proud with its new Paid Family & Medical Leave program and with its consistent focus on diversity and inclusion,” said Commissioner Suzi LeVine. “All thanks go to my amazing staff always working to improve the lives of Washingtonians.”

Both awards are part of NASWA’s Winter Workforce Innovation Awards. Employment Security received the accolades today at NASWA’s Winter Policy Forum in Washington, D.C.