Success Story: Using A Tax Expert For The WOTC Screening Process

Written by Stephanie Cornejo. Updated Aug 15, 2017.

checklist-1622517_640.png**This case study is an amalgamation of CTI client success stories – based on real-life outcomes – to showcase a balanced, conservative perspective in the interest of not inflating numbers or empty promises. 

Company XYZ owns and operates senior living facilities with a concentration on rehabilitation. The company specializes in post-acute and short-term recovery and offers memory unit services. The company currently hires around 2,000 hires per year and is continuing to grow. The company has acquired 26 businesses in this year alone. CTI has implemented the screening process for those acquisitions in less than a month’s time.

Complexities Encountered:

Multiple Screening Implementations, Methods, and Fast-Approaching Deadlines

The screening process originally set-up for Company XYZ has been implemented several times with the company’s acquisition of 26 entities in 2017 alone. This trend is expected to continue and is no hurdle for our well-run implementation team.

Additionally, we’ve had two screening methods in place simultaneously, for two different purposes. The first is the paper method, rarely utilized for its inefficiencies, which was needed here because of a technology system transfer happening within Company XYZ from a recent acquisition. 

This method gave additional challenges. Because the timing of the engagement coincided with a large acquisition, CTI was left with only 36 days to screen and submit certifications for 2,100 hires within the 28-day deadline. 

Due to the lack of computers, printers and (in some cases) email, CTI had to overnight WOTC Questionnaires across the country to ensure each hiring manager received the forms necessary to screen their new hires at a mass hiring event. Within this timeframe, the CTI Project Manager also had to coordinate trainings with the Hiring Managers and the Corporate Team to explain the WOTC Process and importance of screening as many people as possible.

With the buy-in from the client’s Corporate Team and the Hiring Mangers, we successfully processed over 1,600 questionnaires, which equated to 75% of the 2,100-people hired within a few days.

For the rest of the employees hired after this initial acquisition, we initiated the online screening process. The company uses an online HRIS system that allowed CTI to integrate our screening link in the on-boarding workflow.

Payroll and Data Integration

The HRIS system utilized is also the payroll provider for Company XYZ. We were able to easily obtain a payroll-feed within a 1-week time-frame from the start of the project. Though payroll integrations can take anywhere from 2-4 weeks to complete, we simply reached out to the HRIS service representative and had him send us a test file using a secure FTP we set up that same day.

Checks and Balances
Despite such a large population of new hires, Company XYZ is 100% compliant. This is primarily due to the corporate buy-in to the process. The importance of the program is effectively communicated to the Hiring Managers at the beginning of the acquisitions and throughout the lifetime of the project.

Each Hiring Manager is trained on the overall process by a CTI Project Manager and has an opportunity to ask questions. If there is turnover, the Corporate team at Company XYZ knows to reach out to CTI and set up a training for that Hiring Manager, leaving no gaps in the education process and offering accessible resources from our side.

Automation and Efficiency with Technology

Another key element was our use of technology for this project. For each acquisition subsequent to the initial one, we were able to offer same day screening configuration set-up, a competitive advantage that most competitors can’t meet. This allowed us to maximize the credit without any additional burden to the client.

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Topics: Employment Incentives, WOTC

Stephanie Cornejo

Written by Stephanie Cornejo

Stephanie Cornejo leads CTI’s Credits & Incentives Practice with primary oversight of operations and overall practice development. She is focused on identifying, and maximizing federal, state and local tax credits that drive job creation, job training, capital investment and new business development.