Resident Experience Initiative

The Resident Experience Initiative (ResX) is an ongoing effort aimed at streamlining, simplifying, and improving how the State delivers key benefits and services to residents through the use of agile methodologies and human-centered design. ResX and its projects have grown out of the innovative approaches used during the pandemic to help residents get vaccine appointments, prevent evictions, and connect with other vital programs and services.

Challenge

Whether it’s accessing health insurance through NJ FamilyCare, obtaining nutritional food benefits through SNAP, or finding meaningful employment through the State’s multitude of workforce programs, millions of New Jerseyans interact with the State government in person, on the phone, and online to receive benefits and support. While these benefits and services are crucial, the process to access them can be long, complex, or confusing, discouraging some eligible residents from applying. Bureaucratic silos, complex processes, and hard-to-reach customer service are significant barriers that disproportionately hinder the State’s most vulnerable from accessing benefits.

Innovation In Action

The Resident Experience Initiative puts residents and their experience at the center of all design, engineering, policy, and implementation considerations. Using extensive user research, cross-agency collaboration, and agile development, ResX projects work to tangibly improve the lives of residents. At a high level, ResX also advances uniform standards across government, shared digital services, and the creation of cross-agency one-stop websites.

Impact + Metrics

• In partnership with the Department of Labor, OOI launched a completely redesigned application for Unemployment Insurance with 20% fewer questions. On average, the previous application took 3 hours and 50 minutes to submit. With the new application, half of applicants submitted theirs in less than 25 minutes. As of March 2025, 90% of applicants now finish and submit on the same day.
• OOI, in partnership with the Department of Labor, created a Maternity Coverage Timeline Tool, so expecting parents can receive a personalized calendar to help them plan when and how to take their maternity leave. As of April 2025, more than 150,000 New Jerseyans have used the Maternity Coverage Timeline Tool to understand their benefits, and more than 750,000 timelines have been created since the tool launched in May 2022.
• OOI worked with the Department of Labor to build and launch My Career NJ in March 2024, an interactive digital hub that centralizes personalized career resources. The hub features two tools: the NJ Training Explorer and the NJ Career Navigator. The Training Explorer enables customized filtering of training programs, provides information on tuition assistance, and gives users valuable insight into the providers that offer programs that meet their skill-building needs. The Career Navigator leverages big data and machine learning to generate personalized job and career recommendations that align with each user’s skill set, employment history, and individual professional goals across a wide range of private and public employment sectors. One year after the launch of My Career NJ, more than 262,000 workers have used the resource to get personalized career recommendations and find training programs, online classes, and other upskilling opportunities that fit their unique needs and goals.
• To provide much-needed guidance and support for transgender and non-binary New Jerseyans, OOI partnered with advocacy and service-based organizations to launch Transgender.NJ.gov, a resource hub with relevant information from nearly a dozen agencies. As of March 2025, the Transgender Information Hub has been visited more than 90,000 times and connected these visitors to critical information and services.
• Working with the Office of the Secretary for Higher Education, OOI launched BasicNeeds.NJ.gov to support low-income college students in accessing nutrition, housing, and other resources to address challenges that could end their academic pursuits. As of April 2025, BasicNeeds.NJ.gov has been visited more than 75,000 times, providing these visitors with critical information and resources.

Status

• The Resident Experience Initiative is an ongoing effort to modernize State programs, benefits, and services. The Initiative is scaling to a number of high priority program areas including housing and utility assistance, food security, worker benefits, and more.

Partners

• Office of the Governor
• NJ State Department of Labor
• NJ State Department of Human Services
• NJ State Office of the Secretary of Higher Education
• NJ State Office of Information Technology
• NJ State Office of the Attorney General, Division on Civil Rights
• NJ State Department of Children and Families

Last updated on 4/2/25