Overpaid unemployment benefits top $14 billion. Take a minute to let that sink in. Odds are, your business is a part of this statistic. That’s the bad news. The good news is you don’t have to be. You have the power to control your unemployment insurance costs.

Winning unemployment hearings and initiating protests are the most effective way to lower your costs and win back dollars for your business. That said, there are things you can and should be doing regularly that will set you up for success.

Here are a few tricks of the trade to get you started:

Conduct Exit Interviews

It’s helpful to have a statement about why an employee quit, should they file for unemployment, stating they were laid off. In the same vein, properly documenting employee-related disciplinary issues makes it easier to protest an improper unemployment claim in the future.

Watch For Overcharges

You can’t protest improper claims if you aren’t aware they are occurring. Overcharges to your unemployment insurance account are more common than you would think. If you aren’t actively keeping track of the unemployment insurance charge statements that come in, you’ll miss errors and the opportunity to refute them.

Understand State Unemployment Regulations

You don’t know what you don’t know. Every state has unique laws and regulations regarding unemployment insurance. Without this knowledge, you will struggle when interacting with your state UI Agency. This can often result in losing claims you deserve to win, which increases your costs.

Invest In UI Management Software

Cost management software can reduce costs for businesses of any size. Do you feel it is nearly impossible to manage effectively without software?Unemployment Tracker software will help you identify claims that should not be paid, effectively protest them, identify credits you have earned and catch costly errors.

Don’t take a backseat to rising UI costs. If you’re feeling overwhelmed or don’t know how to begin taking control, contact us today. We can help.