CONTENTS VOL. 7 No. 2 New hire reporting requirments ADP employees volunteer for Ohio flood relief New ADP e-XPENSETM offer HR/PerspectiveTM gives apparel retailer information Helpful hints for 401(k) plan New ADP offering to focus on strategic services Helping employees focus on what matters ADP offering seminars on "How to Discipline and Discharge" Drop by and see us at these trade shows!

How proper terminations and disciplinary action can lower unemployment insurance costs

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n employee has failed to follow your company's policy in reporting his absence. You remind him that this is the third time you and he are discussing this issue and there has yet to be any improvement. Furthermore, given his poor performance in general, you have no recourse but to fire him. The employee files an unemployment claim against your company. Will he be successful? It depends....

You can improve your chances of successfully appealing such claims and help keep your company's SUI costs to a minimum. Start by following a few simple guidelines:

Make your expectations crystal clear.
The first precaution is to clearly communicate your policies and procedures before infractions occur. Protect yourself by having each employee sign a document stating that he or she has read and understands your company policies.

Document all warnings.
In an appeal hearing, when it's your word against an employee's, the benefit of the doubt often goes to the employee. Protect yourself by documenting every disciplinary action and warning.

• Your document should give the date of the disciplinary discussion, clearly identify problem behaviors and specify a corrective action plan.
• The document should state clearly that failure to change the problem behavior will constitute grounds for the employee's termination.
• Have the employee sign as an acknowledgment that he or she has received your warning. If the employee refuses to sign, obtain the signature of a witness.

Maintain a professional atmosphere.
If all corrective measures fail, you may have no choice but to discharge the employee.

When that happens:

• Discharge the employee on the day of the final incident, if possible. Or suspend the employee until a discharge can occur.
• Avoid arguments and emotional discussions of the employee's past performance. Simply state in a factual manner the reasons for the termination. Remind the employee of your prior disciplinary actions and warnings.
• Again, document your reasons for the termination and have the employee sign the document.

Remember, when you appeal an unemployment insurance claim, facts count, opinions do not. By establishing, following and documenting a course of progressive disciplinary action, you can protect your company against unwarranted claims and unnecessary SUI costs.

ADP is offering seminars on "How to Discipline and Discharge, While Avoiding Litigation." To find out more, link to the article in this newsletter for more information.

Also, ADP Unemployment Compensation Management Services offer professional consultation and administrative support for managing your claims. ADP can even represent you during an appeal.

States revamping their requirments for new hire reporting Faced with an October 1st deadline, state governments are busy revamping their new hire reporting programs. This could mean a new reporting requirement for your company-plus extra confusion if you have employees in many states. The states are rushing to comply with a new law that creates a National Directory of newly hired employees. This will help to track down delinquent payers of child support and other obligations, and to reveal fraud and abuse by ineligible claimants of public assistance. Some states currently have no reporting standards, so they will be busy establishing programs in the near future. Other states have reporting requirements, but may be modifying them to comply with federal guidelines. Still others may request more information, or require you to report sooner than called for by the federal guidelines-with monetary penalties if your company fails to comply. Twenty days to report, with fines of up to $500. Under the national guideline, every employer, regardless of size, must report new hires to the state on Form W-4 or an equivalent no later than 20 days after the hire, or twice a month if reporting electronically or magnetically. States may impose fines up to $25 on non-complying employers for each employee not reported, or $500 if the employer and employee have conspired to avoid reporting. Multistate employers face additional complexity. To ease the administrative burden, multistate companies may "select" a single state for all their new-hire reporting. However, that particular state may not have the capability to process reports in the formats of other states. Furthermore, some states will require additional data not called for by the national standard. The "state of choice" provision may be of little help in such states. In any event, you would be well-advised to stay informed of the requirements in your state. ADP's New-Hire Reporting Service can take this worry off your hands. Whenever you hire a new employee, your payroll department simply enters the employment date, birth date and other personal information into payroll, as it normally would. We transmit the necessary new-hire information to the appropriate state agencies.

ADP employees volunteer time and expertise for Ohio flood relief When the Ohio and Licking Rivers flooded last March, 17 counties in the Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky area were declared disaster areas. That's when 30 ADP employees from the Cincinnati region volunteered to work at the Red Cross headquarters. They processed calls, drove Red Cross vans and assembled care packages for homeless families. They provided help wherever it was needed. Some ADP volunteers even provided their professional expertise to create databases of damage assessment reports, relief workers and corporate contributors. This eliminated countless hours of duplicate data entry and allowed the Red Cross to focus on what really mattered: aiding flood victims. "We expect the flood relief effort to continue for another two months," explains Christina Belding, a National Accounts implementation specialist at ADP. "The Red Cross received thousands of donations and had hundreds of volunteers. Our database will be used to send thank you letters to all these people."

New ADP e-XPENSE offers a completely automated travel & expense management system

It's no surprise that employees dislike reporting travel and expenses. It takes even more time away from the work they need to catch up on. By the same token, employers would rather not devote administrative resources to processing these reports. Now there's an automated alternative that will make everyone happy- by streamlining the expense-reporting process.

ADP's new e-XPENSE Services offer a comprehensive Travel & Expense Management System which lets you automate your T&E process using your existing PC network and e-mail. You can electronically distribute e-XPENSE software to your employees. After that, they use e-mail and/or a telephone voice response system to submit their expenses.

With e-XPENSE, you can set your company's T&E rules and have it automatically verify compliance. It supports credit card charge feeds, on- and off-line manager approval, direct deposit employee reimbursement, receipt scanning to CD-ROM and detailed receipt auditing. You can install e-XPENSE as an on-site software system, or use it as a totally off-site processing service.

"With e-XPENSE, companies can select a T&E administration solution that fits their business needs while lowering overall processing costs, reducing fraud, improving expense control, and increasing employee satisfaction," says Robert Brandes, vice president and general manager of ADP's e-XPENSE Services business.

For more information on e-XPENSE, call (201) 994-6701.

HR/Perspective gives apparel retailer "custom-tailored" information

Thanks to a new ADP service, Domenick Gramuglia has a much clearer picture of

his company. Dom is the payroll and HR manager of Group USA, a discount retailer of women's apparel and accessories. Not only must he keep track of payroll, benefits and staff turnover, he must analyze subsets of the data, such as the wide company absence rate and variations in health-care costs from state to state.

With HR/Perspective, a comprehensive Windows-based HR Information System, Dom can manage this multiplicity of data quickly and easily. "It's really user-friendly and its reporting capabilities are fantastic," says Dom enthusiastically.

"I can look at compensation by business unit and do meaningful comparisons. With a quick click of a mouse, I've got the information I need to analyze management needs and make personnel decisions based on that information." What about the other HR information systems? In Dom's opinion, "HR/Perspective just blows them away!"

For more information on HR/Perspective, contact your ADP Major Accounts Representative.

HELPFUL HINTS FOR 401 (K) PLAN ADMINISTRATORS
It's that time again ... IRS Form 5500 is due to be filed by July 31st. The IRS Form 5500 is "the 1040" of 401(k) retirement plans. Most calendar year plans must file this form by July 31st. The IRS estimates that it takes 100 hours to complete. Who prepares this form? Full-service 401(k) providers usually include 5500 preparation as part of their one-stop shopping approach. Government filings are simply part of the package. These providers already have the necessary information, since they've administered your plan throughout the year. Plans that are not full-service usually rely upon a third party administrator to prepare your 5500 filing. This company gathers data about your plan from various sources (payroll, trustee, investment managers, etc.) and prepares your 5500 filing.	Now is the time to gather and review your data. Regardless of who will prepare your form, now is a good time to start preparing the data. Pull out and review the following reports (this can be facilitated by having a full-service provider): Year-end plan valuation report Trust report Participant data on past and present employees Plan amendments If you find inconsistencies or have any questions, talk to your 401(k) plan provider. Beginning now will make it easier for you to file by July 31st, as most plans must do. Should you need more time, a one-time extension of up to two months is available-if requested in "sufficient time." That's rarely necessary when a full-service provider consolidates your plan
For more information on ADP 401(k) Plans, please click here or call 1-800-432-401k.