Selection or allocation of a Workforce Australia Employment Services Provider 001-02060010

Is the job seeker eligible for Disability Employment Service (DES), Australian Disability Enterprises (ADE) or Community Development Program (CDP)?

• Yes, and the job seeker:
• is eligible for DES, go to Step 2
• lives in a Department of Employment and Workplace Relations designated remote area, the job seeker is to be referred to a Community Development Program (CDP) provider. Procedure ends here
• is eligible for Workforce Australia - Transition to Work (TtW), go to Step 3
• No, go to Step 4

Job seekers eligible for DES do not require a referral unless they want to access Workforce Australia. This is voluntary. However, all job seekers must be encouraged to access Workforce Australia and have an initial appointment booked and they will be able to lodge a resume. This will assist them to access a wide range of job vacancies even if they are doing other activities.

Does the job seeker wish to access services from Workforce Australia?

• Yes, continue with the referral. Go to Step 5
• No, the job seeker does not require a referral at this time. If the job seeker has been recommended for a referral to a DES provider and yet to be referred to the service, see Referring a job seeker to Disability Employment Services (DES). Procedure ends here

Is the job seeker eligible for TtW?

• Yes, follow the TtW referral process
• No, go to Step 4

Check if the job seeker has one of the following mutual obligation requirements exemptions lasting more than six weeks in the future:

• temporary incapacity
• jury duty
• volunteering during a state or national emergency

Does the jobseeker have an exemption?

• Yes, the job seeker is not required to be referred to Workforce Australia. They will be advised by letter toward the end of their exemption to contact Services Australia to arrange for the referral to Workforce Australia. The process is adjusted to coincide with a new expiry date where the exemption period is:
• reduced
• extended, or
• immediately followed by a different allowable mutual obligation requirements exemption
• No, go to Step 5

Check if the job seeker has one of the following mutual obligation requirements exemptions:

• refugees (first 13 weeks)
• expectant mothers
• job seekers serving a Community Service Order
• job seekers with caring responsibilities
• job seekers experiencing a major personal crisis
• job seekers experiencing major personal disruption at home

Does the jobseeker have one of the above exemptions?

• Yes, the customer is not required to be referred to Workforce Australia during the exemption period, however, they can choose to volunteer. If the job seeker:
• volunteers to participate, continue with the referral, go to Step 6
• chooses not to participate, procedure ends here
• No, go to Step 6

Make a referral for the job seeker to another participation program if appropriate. See:

• Skills for Education and Employment (SEE)
• Self-Employment Assistance
• Reconnect
• Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP)

Job seekers participating in these programs must still be referred to Workforce Australia.

A voluntary referral to Workforce Australia can also be offered when:

• a customer is 21 years of age and under, and
• not on income support, or
• in receipt of a payment without mutual obligation requirements, or
• participating in one of the approved activities/programs that fully meet their requirements
• a principal carer or a customer assessed as having a partial capacity to work is:
• already fully meeting their requirements by undertaking suitable paid work or self-employment of at least 30 hours per fortnight, or
• studying full-time

Does the customer need a referral or accept a voluntary referral for Workforce Australia?

• Yes, go to Step 7
• No, procedure ends here

• If the referral is being done as part of an initial registration process, the List Providers screen will be presented. See Step 1 in Table 2
• If the job seeker is already registered but has not been referred to an Employment Services Provider (for example, responding to the no provider letter as exemption from mutual obligation requirements is ending):
• go to the Participation Summary, Job Seeker registration & provider referral information tab
• select Start job seeker registration button and complete another Job Seeker Snapshot
• book an appointment through the Online Diary
  Note: the job seeker must receive proper notification and reasonable notice of the appointment. See Step 1 in Table 2
• If the referral is being attempted and the Service Officer is getting the Job seeker is not eligible for the program error message, see Table 3
• If the job seeker is re-registering and already has a provider, determine the allowable break in registration. Go to Step 8

• If the job seeker is re-registering within their allowable break in registration (13 weeks), there is no change in the registration date and they are reconnected to the same provider, no selection/allocation is required. No appointment is needed. The provider will contact the job seeker. Procedure ends here
• For job seekers re-registering more than 13 weeks after the date of inactivation, the referral process begins as if the job seeker is registering for the first time. See Step 1 in Table 2

A list of all providers mapped to the job seeker's postcode appears on this screen. More than one page may be available and there is an ability to scroll through these selections. Providers that have no appointment sessions available within 2 working days and those with no available appointments within 14 days display can be selected from the provider list.

This screen provides different options to display Workforce Australia providers that are mapped to the job seeker's postcode. Advance search options can be selected to display available providers.

You may choose to present the provider lists available by Provider Name, Post Code or Suburb to refine the display based on the jobseekers preferences regarding provider locality or their previous relationship with a provider organisation.

The provider status will present on the List Provider screen. Those with an appointment available within fourteen working days will display as ‘available’. Providers with the earliest available appointment will present first on the List Providers screen.

Providers who do not have available appointments within the next 2 working days will be identified in the status information on the List Providers screen. Encourage job seekers to choose a provider with immediate appointments available on the day or within 2 working days.

Ask the job seeker to select a Workforce Australia provider from the list.

• Only an Available, No immediate sessions within 2 business days, and No immediate sessions within 14 business days provider with available capacity can be selected
• A job seeker can only have one Workforce Australia provider
• If the job seeker's preferred Workforce Australia provider is full, they will need to select another provider
• If the job seeker wants to inform their decision by viewing the Workforce Australia provider performance ratings, see the Resources page - Workforce Australia – Services Provider Performance Ratings

Has the job seeker selected a Workforce Australia provider?

• Yes, place the mouse on the provider name hyperlink and select once. Go to Step 7
• No, go to Step 2

• Yes, select Advanced search type. Go to Step 3
• No, go to Step 6

You can refine the search criteria to find a provider more suitable to the job seeker’s needs.

Refine the search by selecting one of the following options from the Advanced search drop down list:

• Provider Name
• Postcode
• Suburb

Enter the additional search criteria and select Refresh provider list (select once).

A list of providers resulting from the refined search appears on the List Providers screen. Note that this screen may display differently on each web service call.

Ask the job seeker to select a provider.

Only providers with available capacity can be selected.

Has the job seeker selected a Workforce Australia provider from the list resulting from the refined search(es)?

• Yes, place the mouse on the provider name hyperlink and select once. Go to Step 7
• No, go to Step 5

Has the job seeker refused to register with an Employment Services Provider?

• Yes, a job seeker must be willing to satisfy their mutual obligation requirements to qualify for payment. A job seeker should have their claim rejected or payment cancelled if they advise they do not intend to meet their requirements, including being registered as a job seeker and/or referred to an employment services provider. See:
• Rejecting a claim for JobSeeker Payment (JSP) or Youth Allowance (YA) (job seeker)
• Cancellation, suspension and rejection reason codes for Newstart System (NSS)
• Cancellation of payments
• No, and the job seeker is subject to RapidConnect. Random Allocation is not available for RapidConnect eligible job seekers. If the job seeker is now willing to select an available Workforce Australia provider from the available list, Go to Step 4
• No, and the job seeker is not subject to RapidConnect requirements, randomly allocate a provider to the job seeker. Go to Step 6

Random allocation uses the criteria of the job seeker's postcode to find providers with available capacity.

Select Random allocation (select once) to randomly allocate a provider to the job seeker.

Selecting Random allocation randomly allocates a provider to the job seeker and navigates to the Appointments selection screen.

If the job seeker is not happy with the provider allocated randomly, up to 4 additional random allocations can be undertaken.

To conduct another random allocation, select back to initial list (select once).

If the job seeker is not happy with any of the maximum 5 random allocations, a Workforce Australia provider will be allocated.

The Appointments selection screen displays the following information about the selected provider:

• name
• address
• phone number
• service status
• session type
• specialist type (if any)

If the selected Workforce Australia provider has appointments available in the next 2 working days, these appointments will be displayed first.

Where appropriate, contact the Workforce Australia provider to request more appointments be opened within a certain timeframe (for example, next 2 working days).

Once the provider has scheduled more appointments, view the additional appointments by refreshing the Appointment selection screen. If the resulting Workforce Australia provider has no immediate appointments, the job seeker must provide a reason why they have chosen this provider in preference to a provider with immediate availability. See the Resources page for a list of acceptable reasons.

Wherever possible, job seekers should be encouraged to accept referrals to Workforce Australia providers with immediate appointments or their payment start date may be affected.

Available providers will not require a reason code.

• Make an appointment on the Appointment selection screen with the selected Workforce Australia provider
• Print the appointment details and give or post to the job seeker
• After making the appointment, record a DOC outlining the details of the appointment and the verbal notification provided to the job seeker:
• Use Fast Note - select Auto text, use Jobseekers > Update > Provider Appointment Booked

Note: the job seeker must receive proper notification and reasonable notice of the appointment.

This message is not a system fault.

If the message displays when trying to refer a job seeker to an Employment Services Provider, further investigation and action is required before making the referral.

If the message presents:

• outside of a new claim process - standalone Job Seeker Snapshot, go to Step 2
• during the job seeker claim appointment (Participation Interview) as part of new claim, go to Step 3

Navigate to the Employment ESAt referral request history table by selecting:

• > Participation Summary > Job seeker registration and provider referral information

If a pending ESAt is displayed with a ‘Started’ status in the Type of Action field:

• an ESAt is required to be undertaken by Assessment Services
• confirm that an ‘ESAt required’ activity exists on the Activities information within the Process Direct Snapshot Icon. Further assessment is required before a referral to an Employment Service can occur
• Hold the job seeker management work item for 3 months. See Job Seeker Management Activities
• procedure ends here

If a pending ESAt is not displayed with a ‘Started’ status in the Type of Action field, check the:

• Registration type. If it appears correct, re-run Job Seeker Registration including the Job Seeker Snapshot. See Registering a customer as a job seeker
• Status of latest Job Seeker Snapshot is Active. Navigate to the Job Seeker Snapshot from the Job seeker registration and provider referral information page. Access the Job Seeker Snapshot details screen after logging into the Workforce Australia system. If:
• Pending, and the job seeker needs an ESAt referral, hold the job seeker management work item for 3 months. See Job Seeker Management Activities
• Pending, but the ESAt is no longer required and needs to be withdrawn before being referred to a provider, see Actioning a pending Job Seeker Snapshot initiated Employment Services Assessment (ESAt) activity
• Inactive, run the Job Seeker Snapshot to determine the most suitable referral option before making the referral. See Conducting a Job Seeker Snapshot interview
• ESAt/Job Capacity Assessment (JCA) outcome from the Snapshot history - the recommended outcome and expiry presents. If the assessment:
• is still current and valid, and the recommended outcome is DES, refer the job seeker to a DES provider. See Referring a job seeker to a Disability Employment Service (DES)
• was finalised more than 2 years ago or is no longer current and valid, re-run the Job Seeker Snapshot. See Conducting a Job Seeker Snapshot interview
• Procedure ends here

Participation Interview - Job seeker needs an ESAt referral

If a job seeker needs an ESAt referral after completing the Job Seeker Snapshot, DEWR will generate an ESAt request to Services Australia systems. The relevant ESAt referral activities will generate once a Service Officer grants the job seeker's claim.

If Service Officers try to refer a job seeker to an employment service before the Job Seeker Snapshot status becomes Active, the message ‘Job seeker is not eligible for the program’ presents. Check the Job Seeker Snapshot status by selecting:

• > Participation Interview > Job seeker registration and provider referral information > Job Seeker Snapshot and access the information within the Job Seeker Snapshot history screen after logging into the Workforce Australia system

If the status is Pending, an ESAt referral is needed instead. See Determining when an Employment Services Assessment (ESAt) is required.

Confirm if a RapidConnect determination is present on the Job Seeker RapidConnect (JMRC) screen:

• Exit Participation Interview
• Check JMRC screen

If a RapidConnect Status Determined line is present:

• annotate the Progress of Claim DOC. Advise:
• the Participation Interview is complete, and
• claim processing staff must code a manual exemption, using code Exempt Other Reasons (EXO) on the JMRC screen when they finalise the claim. See RapidConnect exemptions

If the RapidConnect Status Determined line is not present:

• re-run the Participation Interview within the claim transaction
• check the JMRC screen has a RapidConnect Status Determined line. If so, follow the above workaround

Note: cancel the JobSeeker Registration transaction and change the new claim status from On Hold to In Process.

Procedure ends here.