Did you know you should “OBJECT!” in a hearing if the claimant uses hearsay?
Did you know you should never fire someone for good cause or poor performance?
If you have to fire someone, fire them for misconduct. And be able to prove it. Watch this one-hour webinar all the way through to get these and many more tips about controlling your unemployment costs.
If your SUTA bill skyrocketed this year you are not alone. Controlling unemployment costs is front of mind for many employers this year. NMRA started to get phone calls in late November when the new SUTA bills were sent out by the Department of Workforce Solutions. We called the department for an explanation and were told that 70% of businesses had no increases but those who had claims within the last three years had significant increases. So the first thing you should know is your bill now reflects your last three years of claims and those claims are what your calculation is based on.
As a bit of background, the New Mexico SUTA fund was healthy, with over $550 Million dollars in the fund before the recession. Obviously, the recession struck the unemployment fund disproportionately. Many states’ funds went broke. Ours went to unthinkable lows before the legislature was forced to take the plunge and figure out how to refund it. Your bill this year reflects that unfortunate correction. I am assured that the fund is building back at a healthy clip and rates should come down by 2017 if we do not hit economic hard times again.
NMRA worked on legislation during the session that would have given our members relief eventually but not soon. That legislation did not pass. We decided that the one thing we could do was help members control their SUTA rate by understanding the system better.
Most of you have had an unemployment claim filed against you. You get the notice and complete the steps but you don’t know how to really affect the outcome of the claim. We held a half-day workshop in June with the Department of Workforce Solutions to help members get control of unemployment rates and it was so informative that we wanted to get the information in a form every member could access.
Listen all the way through…you will hear important tidbits:
- Did you know you should “OBJECT!” in a hearing if the claimant uses hearsay?
- Did you know you should never fire someone for good cause or poor performance?
- If you have to fire someone, fire them for misconduct. And be able to prove it.
- Did you know it is always better to have a clear policy on grievance procedures because a claimant has to use that procedure or their claim is dismissed.
This webinar will give you these tips and sooooo much more about controlling your unemployment costs. Watch it now!!!
Special mention and thanks to Marshall Ray Marshall Ray, Deputy Secretary, General Counsel, NM Department of
Workforce Solutions for being a very informative and lively speaker.
PowerPoint Document to use as a reference (the video is worth your time to watch!)
