NCSEA Connections: Child Support Product and Services Guide

Company profiles | National Spotlight | Covid-19 | Work From Home | Corporate Culture
implementation was so quiet that it was easy to
forget we were transitioning to a new card.”
“In the middle of a pandemic
with all of our program and IT
people working from home, the
implementation of this project
was surreal, in the sense there
were no issues or concerns.”
-James Fleming,
IV-D Director, North Dakota
Child Support Division
When the North Dakota project kicked off—SMI’s
twelfth such transition from a different
contractor—the world was changing at lightning
speed. Widespread shelter-in-place restrictions had
shaken the economy, fear pervaded the public
discourse, and uncertainty about the future
threatened to disrupt the critical services the
child support sector provides to millions of
people across the country. Rather than waiting
to see how the industry would react to the
crisis, SMI did what they’ve done since
1971—put families first and forge ahead.
Within a week of the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (CDC) declaring Covid-19 a
global pandemic, SMI successfully transitioned
85 percent of their 175-person smiONE Team to
a work-from-home environment—100 percent
within the following two weeks. “We knew that
it was the right decision for the safety of our
employees and for us to continue providing the
highest level of service to our clients,” said Joe
Stone, CEO. “Our goal was to take care of the
SMI Team so we could take care of the clients
we serve.”
By immediately implementing a
work-from-home solution without interrupting
service—or waiting until team members got
sick—SMI employee engagement improved,
resulting in higher productivity and increased
customer satisfaction. In fact, as the pandemic
surged across the nation, quality assurance
scores in May were highest for the year, agent
satisfaction reached all-time highs, and
employee retention increased 50% over the
previous year. What’s made the difference?
According to in-house smiONE call center
agents, they value the flexibility to care for their
families while working, the extra time to
connect with loved ones during uncertainty,
winning time (and money) back each day by
eliminating a commute, and peace-of-mind that
they’re safer and healthier at home.
The DEC PDP-11, a cousin to
the data processor "as big as
a living room sectional" that
powered SMI in its early days.
-Institute of Computer Sciences, FU Berlin