Have a burning
HR question?
Email it to:
[email protected].
pay — drops too low (as determined by
the California Employment Development
Department), they are eligible for par-
tial unemployment payments, which will
cost you.
If you lay off your employees, they are
eligible for full unemployment payments,
which will also cost you. Just how much will
vary based on a number of different things,
but expect costs around $4,000 per laid-off
employee. This is because unemployment
costs from state-issued unemployment are
charged back to the employer, depending
on how many people are eligible and how
long they receive payments. This is prob-
ably less than paying people, but it’s not a
negligible cost.
Don’t, under any circumstances, make
up a reason why the person was termi-
nated and try to say it’s a termination for
cause. It’s not. Not only is this dishonest,
you’re likely to lose the unemployment
claim and have the employee receive
unemployment anyway.
RECRUITMENT COSTS
If you lay off your employees, or drop their
hours so low that they start looking for oth-
er jobs, there’s no guarantee they will still
be available when your busy season picks
back up. This is fine if you are running
something with low-skilled labor — or it
would be fine if the economy wasn’t hum-
ming along right now. As of May, there were
more jobs open in the U.S. than there were
people looking for work.
This means you’ll likely have to recruit
and train new people every season. The
more complex your jobs are, the more dif-
ficult this process will become. If your busy
season corresponds to summer holidays,
college and high school students may be
plentiful. If it doesn’t? It will be a lot harder.
WOULD TEMPORARY EMPLOYEES BE
A BETTER FIT?
If you know people will only be working
for a few months, and you’re willing to
train new people every busy season, then
you should consider hiring temporary em-
ployees. You’ll pay extra to an agency, but
they’ll handle everything and when the
contract is finished, it’s finished. You won’t
be dinged for unemployment or have to
worry about benefits.
But, most people taking temporary
jobs would prefer to be in long-term posi-
tions, so your turnover might be higher. On
the other hand, if you can build a good re-
lationship with a temp agency, this might
be a great solution. Make sure you’re clear
about your costs ahead of time, and how
overtime hours affect pay. Remember, in
California, employees are due overtime
pay if they work more than eight hours in
any single day.
All in all, there isn’t an easy answer for
a seasonal business. You want to treat your
employees well (otherwise, you’ll get lousy
work and even higher turnover), but it can
be difficult when you don’t have actual
work for them to do.
You can probably make it work through
a mix of methods — some long-term em-
ployees that you keep year round, supple-
mented by temporary employees, for in-
stance. Just make sure you sit down with
your accountant and your employment
attorney before you make any decisions. n
Suzanne Lucas spent 10 years in corpo-
rate human resources, where she hired,
fired, managed the numbers and double-
checked with the lawyers. On Twitter
@RealEvilHRLady.
August 2018 | comstocksmag.com
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