Businesses often have to deal with ups and downs in demand, whether they sell products or services. If a bad spell lasts for more than a few weeks, a business may be forced to let go one of its most valuable resources: its skilled workers.

If you are an employer, or a skilled worker, you know that training a worker is not cheap. It requires a lot of time and money to pay for courses and the one-on-one training a skilled worker needs. What is more, once you let go of a skilled worker, the chances of him or her being there waiting for you to rehire when work picks up are low. The chances are another business will be more than happy to pick up the slack and employ a skilled worker. This creates another problem for businesses who are forced to lay off workers: deal with the initial lack of work and then with the cost of retraining skilled workers once their business recovers.

The Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation understands this and has created a new program to help solve this problem for both employers and workers. The solution offered is the Short Time Compensation for Employees Program. This program helps employers who are going through hard times and employees at risk of being laid off with financial assistance to allow employers keep their workers while compensating workers for reduced work hours.

Program Requirements

To qualify for this program your employer needs to apply for the Short Time Compensation Plan with the Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation. For an employer to qualify he must include a minimum of 10 percent of its staff (no less than 2 workers) in the program and provide evidence of their previous normal weekly hours.

If you are included in the Short Term Compensation plan you will receive a payment for the hours reduction you have to endure for as long as your hours are reduced or one year goes by, whatever occurs first. You will have to report to the Florida Agency of Workforce Innovation with the hours you worked and any extra income from part-time employment or self-employment you received during the week.

Notice that eligibility for this program is similar to eligibility requirements for unemployment benefits and not all workers will qualify. Ask for assistance from your local Workforce Innovation office and your employer’s human resources manager. Click here for more information on this program.