Trying to effectively manage your unemployment claims and costs can be a bit like trying to hold sand in your hands without losing any grains through your fingers – so much to track and so much to follow up on.  Here are a few tips and tricks of the trade to make that job a bit easier.

• Become familiar with the non-charging provisions of the UI State Law in your state so that you can quickly and effectively contest improper claims lodged against your UI account.
• Overcharges to your account are quite common so it is important to keep track of the UI charge statements that come in so that you can locate errors or overcharges and effectively contest them.
• Review your UI tax rate notice to ensure that the numbers used to calculate your rate are correct – this is also another common error.
• Ensure that you properly document employee related disciplinary or training issues so that defending your employment decisions is easier and protesting unemployment claims based on those employment decisions is more effective – you will win more protests.
• Conduct exit interviews wherever possible – it is nice to have a statement about why an employee quit when they file for unemployment stating they were laid off.
• Make good hiring decisions and take the time to properly train your new employees – State Unemployment Agencies generally do not disqualify claimants from receiving benefits whose employment is terminated for poor job performance.
• Take the time to protest improper unemployment claims.  If you do not attempt to protest these claims, you will never win any of those protests and your UI tax rate will climb.
• Develop and provide a thorough and complete employee handbook, job description and other standards and expectations of employment and have the employee sign for these employment documents.

These are just a few tips to help you along your way – to effectively manage your UI costs, seek the assistance of a professional to learn the important steps in winning UI protests and controlling your UI costs.