Overview:
Unlike other human resource management issues, unemployment insurance (UI) management issues have a direct impact on an organization's tax liability, and since taxes reduce profitability, on its bottom line. Unlike other payroll taxes however, UI taxes are experience-rated and represent a controllable expense. Thus, an organization's UI experience, influenced by its success in managing turnover, separations, and chargeable UI claims, provides an objective measure of human resource management effectiveness.
This interrelationship between human resource management and financial management stems from the unique nature of the nation's UI program. The UI program is a joint federal-state partnership under which benefits in the form of a temporary, partial wage replacement are provided to unemployed workers who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own. The program attempts to draw a relationship between benefit entitlement and wages earned, and between an employer's benefits liability and the amount of wages paid by that employer. Within broad federal guidelines, each state is allowed to determine its taxing methods and benefits program. The UI program is financed by two employer-paid UI taxes: A flat-rated federal tax and an experience-rated state tax.
NOTE: Governmental agencies and certain nonprofits are exempt from the federal UI tax. They may also elect to reimburse the state dollar-for-dollar for the UI benefits collected by their separated employees in lieu of paying the state's experience-rated tax.
Cost control of the federal UI tax is achieved through the use of financial management techniques. Cost control of state UI taxes is achieved through a combination of financial and human resource management activities. Cost control of an individual employer's UI taxes and liability is achieved by stabilizing employment, by taking advantage of tax saving provisions in the law, by using effective hiring, employment, and firing procedures, by training supervisors on proper UI management, and by implementing effective UI claims-hearing administration and management reporting systems. Through effective UI cost management, organizations can control their UI tax liability and have positive impact on their financial results.
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