Effective Employee Documentation – The Key to Winning UI Protests

For many employers (most actually), protesting unemployment claims that should not be paid is a headache and seems to be a study in futility – the average employer only wins about half the time. Some employers get so frustrated with losing that they stop protesting altogether. Why do employers lose protests?

Well there are several reasons for it:

Poor or missing employee documentation – this is the number one reason that employers lose UI protests.
Poor or missing policies and processes – if your policies do not fit Federal and State UI laws, then you have already lost the protest.
Missed timeliness deadlines – if you protest too late then you lose automatically.
Lack of understanding of your State’s UI Laws and processes – if you don’t have at least a basic understanding of how your state UI system works (and its laws) then you significantly lower your chances of winning.

Let’s discuss reason number 1 in a bit more depth.

Employee documentation covers a number of categories:

New Hire Paperwork – answers to interview and applicant questions can be of use when battling an unemployment claim. Perhaps the employee lied about their licensing or skillset, they lied about how far they are willing to travel for a job or the hours that they will work, or any number of other items that can be used in a UI protest.
Developmental – Training documentation or employee reviews can be of great use when fighting improper unemployment claims, but beware that these items do not hurt your case. Poor training or poorly handled employee reviews can come back to bite you – if you are telling the Unemployment agency that the employee has had ongoing issues in an area that led to their termination, yet their review does not reflect this issue – your case is in the toilet.
Corrective Action – this is the centerpiece of any UI protest. Some questions you should ask yourself:
Do you show a pattern of offense by the employee?
Is your disciplinary documentation properly done?
Do you have a policy against this type of action?
Did the employee sign an acknowledgment of the rules (usually the employee handbook, safety policies, etc.)?

These are all questions that need to be answered with a “yes” if you want to win.

Separation documentation – Some questions to consider include:
Did the employee sign off on the separation paperwork (if not – did you have a witness sign off that it was given)?
Did you send an Exit Interview form to the employee (sometimes their answer can bolster your case)?
Did you fill out the separation paperwork properly?

These answers can bolster or crush your protest win chances.

Take the time to ensure that your documentation is effective and if it is not, get help to make sure that it gets there. The resulting savings will make it worthwhile. For additional information or to learn more about our company visit us on the web at unemploymenttracker.com.