Managing unemployment insurance costs in any environment is difficult, but particularly so as it relates to retailers.  Part of the value of outsourcing to an Unemployment Cost Management vendor is being able to centralize the process in a very decentralized environment.  Retailers have stores across the country which makes if very difficult to ensure the effective management of proper documentation, 1st hand witness reports and other aspects of an Unemployment Cost Management program.

While the vendor can handle all the paperwork, the expertise necessary to do prep work with witnesses and generally advise you on case work, really making sure that stores comply requires special attention.  A great best practice for retailers is to experience rate your stores and allocate unemployment taxes across the organization.  Your bound to get more attention from your store managers if the cost of unemployment hits their bottom line.

Tammy Mullin