Unemployment insurance (UI) costs are skyrocketing. The recession has depleted state UI funds and as a result UI taxes will increase by more than 250% in some states. Additionally state UI agencies are ramping up their vigilance and audit activities of employers payrolls in a search for misclassified employees and missing UI taxes. On the UI claims-hearing front, plaintiff attorneys are increasingly using UI hearings as a discover tool and incorporating the UI process in their legal strategy. At the policy level, states are being encouraged by the federal government to broaden benefit entitlement and reduce separation disqualifications.

In response employers are taking a new look at UI cost management and using HR audits to assess their exposure.

To be effective, UI cost management requires a comprehensive and coordinated strategy. Organization must measure and assess the operational and human resources management decisions and activities that impact their UI experience rate; they must assess financial information and decisions to ensure proper tax payments; they must monitor and claims and hearing activities to ensure they are effectively communicating and presenting separation information, and they must review their UI training activities for management and supervisors to ensure informed decision making.

Join Ronald Adler, nationally recognized in unemployment insurance issues and president and CEO of Potomac, Md.-based Laurdan Associates Inc., management consulting firm specializing in HR auditing and employment practices liability risk management, for a provocative look at implementing UI cost management.

During this live BNA-sponsored Webinar, Mr. Adler, who co-developed Employment-Labor Law Audit (ELLA), the leading HR auditing and employment practices risk-assessment tool, will:

• Review the DNA and guiding principles of UI
• Describe and assess the UI political landscape including UI Modernization
• Explain the importance of UI cost management and UI auditing
• Examine the strategic, HR management, financial, and claims-hearing factors that affect your organization's exposure to UI tax and benefits liability
• Review the critical components of effective UI cost management and UI auditing
• Provide you with an HR auditing tool to audit your UI management activities
• Answer your questions about the costs and resources associated with UI cost management,
• and much, much more

Ronald Adler, President and CEO, Laurdan Associates Inc.