IRM resources:

Web Resources:

Account Management Services (AMS) provides a common user interface that allows users to update taxpayer accounts, view history and comments from other systems, and access a variety of case processing tools without leaving AMS.

AMS functionalities include inventory management, next case delivery, nationwide history and follow-ups, immediate print capabilities to fax to taxpayers, generation of electronic referrals and inventory management.

The AMS system provides managers access to many reports. The AMS Reports tool allows the manager to generate pre-defined management reports based on data available in AMS such as Inventory Reports; Case Reports such as the TIN Summary Reports; and Miscellaneous reports such as their Group Profile report.

For additional information regarding AMS, refer to the AMS website at: http://ams.web.irs.gov/index.asp

Control-D WebAccess (CTDWA) is Web Access software that allows viewing of reports electronically. Control-D reduces the print output and allows faster access and greater report management for users to their respective report files.

The reports are made available to the users upon logging in to the Control-D WebAccess server. This action is necessary to ensure employees have access to the workload.

To access Control-D, users must submit a Form 5081, Information System User Registration/Change Request, via On-Line (OL) 5081 at https://ol5081.enterprise.irs.gov/OL5081/olne_home_page_display.show_page

The most common report utilized by CCP is the CCA 4243 report from Control-D provided by the Overage Report Compiler and Sorter (ORCAS).

MMR reports are used to brief the SB/SE Commissioner on a monthly basis.

MMR reports provide year to date information on resource usage and inventory activity for major operational program objectives.

MMR Reports are reviewed to determine if the Operation is on target to their Plan. If the Operation is not on target, then information should be obtained to determine what actions can be taken to meet the business measure targets.

There are separate MMR Reports for CCP and CLO. The information is shown for the current fiscal year cumulative data and two prior years, with percentage columns comparing the current to the prior year, the Plan to date, and the FY Work Plan. During Mid Year assessments a column is added for FY Projected Year-End Accomplishments.

Line items on the Collection CCP MMR:

Line items on the CLO MMR:

MMR reports are available at: https://organization.ds.irsnet.gov/sites/SbseEcsCsop/ecp/Wpps/campus/default.aspx

The Targets at a Glance (TAAG) report is a summary of the monthly MMR reports for the current Fiscal Year. SBSE and each campus have a report. Measures not within +/- 3% of target are highlighted in yellow, and measures not within +/- 5% of target are highlighted in red.

The TAAG is used by the SB/SE Area Directors for Campus Collection for discussions with the campus Operations Managers to address measures in red or yellow.

The CCP and CLO Targets At A Glance reports are available at: https://organization.ds.irsnet.gov/sites/SbseEcsCsop/ecp/Wpps/campus/default.aspx

The Work Plan includes three Planning Periods (PP):

Work Plans are established and monitored in three FTE categories:

Work Plans change throughout the year depending on different factors, such as peak months for mail receipts, telephone calls, and inventory availability. Changes to the Work Plans are done through the Financial Review and Hiring Plan process throughout the year.

In order to reduce inventory, it may be necessary to request additional staffing. Sites must submit requests for additional FTE and/or hiring exceptions through PPM and F&S.

HQ staff monitors the use of FTE to ensure adherence to the Work Plan for each program, and coordinates with the Joint Operations Center (JOC) to ensure adherence to telephone staffing requirements, so that program goals are achieved.

Managers must schedule available staffing for each planning period based on the correspondence workload and telephone staffing schedules. This includes scheduling of overtime, training, and seasonal furloughs.

Managers are responsible for accurate reporting of Time and Attendance (T&A) in the TAPS/SETR system. This includes correct coding for new, reassigned, and detailed employees. Managers will verify and validate all T&As and will input corrected T&As and/or IPR adjustments when errors are identified. Managers will ensure the correct posting of SETR codes as follows:

Managers are expected to monitor reports weekly to ensure their employees are reporting time correctly to direct (Not Function Code 990) and overhead (Function Code 990) OFPs (Organization/Function/Program). The following reports are available for resource monitoring:

Managers must be consistently aware of changes to staffing and relate that information to the Operation Technical Advisor responsible for preparing the Hiring Plans. This includes gains and losses, LWOP/AWOL/Comp/Credit, overtime, and training.

Managers are responsible for:

Refer to SB/SE Operations Support at: http://mysbse.web.irs.gov/opsupport/financeresearchstrategy/default.aspx for information regarding Financial Reviews, Hiring Plans, Exception to Hire Requests, Travel, Awards, and IT projects.

Refer to training course, 28643–102, Financial Management for Campus Managers and Analysts at: http://publish.no.irs.gov/catlg.html by entering Catalog Number 59604, for further instructions on managers’ financial responsibilities.

The Virtual Call Center (Enterprise) links through a central location and delivers the call to the longest available agent for the skill group.

If no agent is available, the call is queued at the Enterprise level until an agent becomes available and only then is it routed to the agent.

All toll-free telephone data is captured daily and stored in the web-based Enterprise Telephone Data (ETD) Warehouse. ETD stores data for historical use and also produces daily, weekly and ad hoc reports at the national (Executive Level Summary) and site level, including directorate roll-ups of remote sites. ETD raw data is available for research and troubleshooting. Site-level measures are also available on ETD when appropriate.

The role of a manager, in the Enterprise environment, is to ensure the right number of people with the right skills are available to answer calls.

JOC programs Intelligent Call Management (ICM) (through scripts that use business rules) for maximum call routing efficiency, based on demand and assistor availability.

Monitoring capabilities, data base records and management information are available on the phone system. Instructions for using features of the phone system are available through the telephone system analysts.

Use features such as:

For managers with employees scheduled for telephone duty, open real time monitoring reports to view current phone status.

Review the screens for all of the following:

JOC controls all announcements and scripts used on toll-free telephone numbers.

Announcements are valuable tools to:

As a manager, telephone data is available to assist you in evaluating the service being given to taxpayers and determining the efficiency and availability of site-level staff.

Managers and Systems Analysts (SA) must determine on a half-hourly basis by application if staff is available as scheduled. If less than the required number of agents is signed on, an explanation is required per adherence guidelines. This is normally accomplished by contacting the JOC Monitoring Room to notify JOC of the shortage and the reason (i.e., local inclement weather) the site will be understaffed.

Managers must ensure their employees are signed on to the telephone system and taking calls when scheduled. This reduces shrinkage, which is considered unscheduled time away from normal scheduled activities. Examples of shrinkage include:

JOC, in collaboration with Compliance headquarters and site management, makes daily real-time adjustments to staffing levels based on actual demand and actual staffing.

The real time reporting tools can be designed to:

The real time reports can assist managers in the following ways:

Real time reports show the number of employees who are actually at their work stations handling incoming calls. This data, compared to the total number assigned, provides information about the realization of the scheduled staff.

Managers should ensure all employees assigned to answer calls are at their workstations taking calls.

Managers will be notified by local site System Administrators (SA) or Department Managers if changes are needed in scheduled staffing based on contacts from JOC. This could include adding staff in a specific agent group or taking employees off the telephones to do other work. It is important for managers to minimize the amount of time it takes for employees to transition to a different work assignment, i.e. to start taking calls or to start other work.

Employees may need to make outgoing calls to secure additional information to resolve an inquiry.

Employees making outgoing calls on these phones are not counted as part of ready staffing for site level adherence to schedule, nor are they considered in routing calls. Managers should monitor the number of outgoing calls to ensure they are necessary.

The wrap time for an employee for outgoing calls should be appropriate to the type of call.

A site may receive calls normally not handled when there is a hardware or network failure. When failures occur, calls do not route out to Intelligent Call Management (ICM) but instead queue locally. Site system administrators (SAs) are responsible for identifying calls in applications not currently staffed and contacting site management to place employees in the appropriate agent group to handle the call or write a referral if the call cannot be fully answered.

Efficient telephone staffing is one of the keys to meeting the planned Level of Service.

Managers must ensure staffing is efficient. An increase to the Average Handle Time (AHT) can impact Level Of Service (LOS) and other business measures and in turn increase the need for staff. Circuit availability may also be impacted.

Information is available from system reports for you to monitor the efficiency of your staff. Reports available include:

End of day activities involve reviewing the real time reports for the following:

An end of shift review of telephone concerns and problems should be completed. These should be shared with the Manager(s) responsible for the next phone shift/rotation. This allows for a review of assistors signing on for the next shift at the start of their Tour of Duty (TOD) to help take calls when in the phone rotation.

The System Administrator/Telephone Analyst (SA/TA) is a valuable resource person for information on the call center environment.

Managers must coordinate with their SA/TA on any activity limiting the sites ability to deliver its commitment for scheduled staffing requirements.

The SA/TA provides assistance on the following:

Manager calls should be very rare. If an assistor refers an excessive number of calls, it is likely that additional training and coaching is needed in "Effective Communication" and/or "Dealing with Difficult Taxpayers."

Remember everyone in the IRS is an advocate for the taxpayer. Appropriate actions should be taken to correct the taxpayer’s problem on first contact. However, if you cannot correct the problem AND the taxpayer’s issue meets Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) criteria, as outlined in IRM 21.1.3.18, Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) Guidelines, refer the case to TAS using Form 911.

Encourage assistors to practice techniques to diffuse a taxpayer's anger, reassure taxpayers that they can assist with the issue, and make every effort to handle the call themselves. However, some taxpayers:

IRM 1.2.10.1.9, Policy Statement 1-44,http://irm.web.irs.gov/Part1/Chapter2/Section10/IRM1.2.10.asp#1.2.10.1.9, provides guidelines regarding "Monitoring of Employee Telephone Conversations." This Policy Statement mandates the use of monitoring employees for evaluative and training purposes.

Telephone monitoring allows managers to determine whether the employee:

Telephone reports provide managers call activity statistics on a particular assistor/agent. The telephone systems analysts are a valuable resource for information on reports such as:

Critical Job Element (CJE) 5, Business Results - Efficiency, provides the performance expectations for Timeliness and Meeting Deadlines, Time Utilization, and Workload Management. This involves the following:

Consider the following factors when performing a Workload Management/Efficiency review.

The review can be performed by directly observing the employee (side by side) or reconstructing the actions taken by the employee during the defined period. Typically, this would be a block of time ranging from one to four hours or two complete cases and will include, but is not limited to, the following:

Conducting the review using the side by side approach (as discussed above), will allow the manager to complete the reviews timely and improve the quality of the feedback.

Workload Management/Efficiency reviews determine if an employee is:

Management is responsible for communicating expectations and evaluating employee performance relative to CJE 5, Business Results-Efficiency, pertaining to Timeliness, Time Utilization and Workload Management.

Follow guidance in the National Agreement regarding the rating of work performance.

Evaluative reviews must be recorded in accordance with the National Agreement established between National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) and management.

Conduct a minimum of two evaluative reviews (phone or paper) for each employee per month. The number and times for monitoring will be set by the Operation or Department Manager.

Managers are required to perform a minimum of one workload review per quarter for each employee. For Tax Examiners (GS-0592), the workload reviews will consist of one bin review and one day after/time utilization review.

Evaluative reviews must be conducted by a manager or an individual in an official acting manager capacity.

When conducting reviews, ensure recordation is input into the Embedded Quality Review System (EQRS).

Use the Employee Feedback Report on EQRS for sharing evaluative monitoring results. Refer to Article 12 of the National Agreement II on the time frame for sharing these reviews with the employee. If you do not meet these time frames (i.e., due to unexpected leave, etc.), notate the reason on the review sheet.

Obtain the employee’s acknowledgment on the designated form. Provide one copy to the employee and retain the other copy for the employee’s Employee Performance Folder (EPF). Be sure to sanitize when appropriate.

If for some reason reviews cannot be conducted on an employee (e.g., extended illness, furlough, managerial absence, etc.), a review waiver or other documentation is placed in the EPF explaining why the required numbers of reviews were not conducted.

Department managers must ensure team managers conduct sufficient evaluative reviews to provide employees with a well documented evaluation. An EQRS Report is available for this purpose.

Department managers must provide monthly feedback to front line managers regarding adherence to the review requirement. This feedback addresses the number of reviews conducted for each employee, type of review (paper, phones, targeted) and types of errors identified.

Clerical employees perform various administrative duties which support the IRS's ability to provide customer service. They may include the following:

You should focus not only on the employee’s ability to complete their assignments, but also on their ability to set priorities and complete assignments independently and expeditiously. You must conduct monthly reviews to determine the accuracy and timeliness of employees’ work.

Clerical reviews should also address the clerical work process (i.e. Form 3210 acknowledgement and follow-up).

Documented monitoring is a part of the evaluation process. The National Agreement governs such recordings. When completing reviews, ensure they are:

A manager narrates the review using enough detail to support their assessment. Clearly identify to the employee actions taken (or not taken) to accomplish the Critical Job Elements (CJE). The EQRS automatically identifies the critical element for each action addressed. Give examples of what employee said and examples of what could have been said.

When conducting a live review, do not interrupt a call unless the employee is:

Sharing monitoring results is a two-way communication. The Employee Feedback Report on EQRS is available for this purpose and must be used. After sharing the review, managers must determine if the employee agrees with their assessment.

Managers must follow the time frames for sharing performance feedback outlined in the current IRS/NTEU National Agreement, which states the following:

If employee performance indicates a need for improvement, discussions should reference the current review and prior reviews to identify the observed progress. Identify and complete actions to assist the employee such as additional training or coaching.

Determine if additional monitoring/review is necessary based on the following factors:

Managers and/or their lead technical employees can perform non-evaluative monitoring on the following:

The primary purpose of a non-evaluative review is to help the employee develop and enhance their job skills. Effective non-evaluative reviews foster open lines of communication between the employee, the manager, and the lead employee. This enables the manager and/or their lead to receive employee feedback and transfer operational goals informally.

When implementing major procedural revisions, non-evaluative reviews can help managers determine if additional discussion and procedural reviews during group meetings may be needed.

Non-evaluative or coaching reviews do not contain a written rating. Share the results orally. Some documentation is appropriate to establish it actually occurred. EQRS may be used to track employee development for this purpose. Have the employee initial and date. Provide one copy for the employee and retain the other copy in the employee’s drop file.

Non-evaluative or coaching reviews have a significant impact on how the taxpayer is treated, since our employee can take immediate advantage of our experience. The manager or the lead employee should conduct the review; however, occasionally delegating these duties to a skilled journey level employee, for training purposes, may be appropriate.

Non-evaluative reviews can help the manager and employee determine progress as a result of training and coaching conducted as part of a performance improvement plan.

A non-evaluative targeted review is one in which an entire call or case is not reviewed. These reviews may serve as indicators for areas where additional evaluative monitoring should be conducted.

Accomplish non-evaluative paper or procedural reviews using the same guidelines as provided in workload reviews.

Clearly explain any problems you identify and provide guidance for the employee to improve performance.

The following IDRS Command Codes (CC) can be used to review on-line adjustments:

Use CC QRADD to enter the employee numbers of employees you plan to review. Suspend all transactions input by your employee or group using CC QRADD or CC QRADDG for the same day. Transactions remain suspended for review for two days. After two days, all transactions not reviewed are released systemically for processing to the Master File.

CC QRIND can be used with CC RVIEW to control workloads. CC QRIND requests a summary of an employee’s transactions available for review for a specific day. Evaluate adherence to IDRS security and procedures. It is useful to keep a control log of the CC QRIND reviews.

Use CC RVIEW to review all transactions or selected transactions input by individual employees. Input CC RVIEW within two days after a CC QRADD or a CC QRADDG request to review an adjustment.

Use CC QRACN to accept, reject, or review your employee's transaction input screens, displayed by using CC RVIEW. Review the displayed transaction for quality and appropriate documentation requirements before using CC QRACN.

Each operation and department manager should complete an operational review of each subordinate component every year.

Conduct more frequent follow-up reviews when warranted by indicators such as statistical data out of the acceptable range, lack of experience on the part of the subordinate manager, or poor results from prior reviews. These reviews should also have established follow-up review dates scheduled for any areas showing minimal/no improvement.

Each Operation and Department Manager will maintain an operational review schedule showing the date of the prior review and the scheduled and actual review dates for each component for which he or she is responsible.

Each Operation and Department Manager should review the manager’s Position Description and Performance Management System (PMS) expectations prior to starting the review.

Each Department Manager will set required reviews for each Department, including items such as:

Operational reviews are performed by:

A Department Manager's review should cover a majority of the team's and employees’ responsibilities.

An Operation Manager's review should cover a majority of all operational reviews completed by the Department Manager and EPFs maintained by the Department Manager. The Operation Manager should also sample work in the teams to validate the Department Manager's reviews. The sampled work should include telephone monitoring when applicable.

The scope of the reviews should include at least the following issues, but others may be added at the discretion of the reviewer:

Each operational review should be documented in a memorandum from the reviewer to the manager of the component reviewed. The memorandum should be issued promptly upon completion of the review. For purposes of assessing the timeliness of the review, the memorandum date will be the same as the review completion date.

It is not intended that the review be completed all at once. Any item reviewed before the scheduled operational review should not be repeated. However, the results of such reviews should be included in the documented annual review.

To provide continuity and a record of the problems and progress of each organizational component, review memorandums and all follow-up action items should be maintained in file folders or binders by organizational component. A signed and dated copy of the initialed memorandum(s) and all follow-up documentation should be placed in the EPF of the appropriate manager for future use in the evaluation process.

Managers should follow up to ensure accomplishment of action items identified in their reviews. Whenever an action item is documented, give a date for completion; use a desk calendar or other device to trigger the follow-up. One method to document follow-up is to leave a few blank lines below each action item in the review memorandum. The reviewer can then document follow-up results directly on the file copy of the review memo and will not have to initiate another memorandum describing the follow-up.

The follow-up should be performed timely and include actions taken on problems identified, updated progress actions taken towards completion and any further actions identified. All actions requiring additional follow-up should be documented with a second date for completion.