By: David Prosnitz, Personnel Planners
Personnel Planners, an unemployment claims management company, had its humble beginnings in 1981 when David Prosnitz founded the business in his studio apartment with $400. “I didn’t have even a desk or a filing cabinet,” David says. “I worked from my sofa, using a clipboard and a plastic file container to reply to unemployment claims that my clients received.”
In his first month of doing unemployment claims management, David signed up 11 businesses, giving him revenue of just about $250 per month, enough to cover rent and food. “I made a decision to invest in every new technology that might come along to allow my business to grow,” David says. “I owned the first IBM pc; I had a rolodex and fax machine to exchange information with my clients. W developed software to manage the unemployment claims and the company grew.”
They were committed to lower the unemployment tax burden of the businesses they served. Their technical prowess expanded as the business did; currently they are leaders in the SIDES technology, the data exchange for U.I. claims that the US Department of Labor developed. “We have gone from a clipboard to a very sophisticated, highly computerized company with a dedicated and knowledgeable staff really capable of fighting unwarranted unemployment claims.”
Though they landed in Chicago almost by chance, David is glad they stayed. “After finishing grad school at University of Chicago, I was too broke to consider moving to another city,” he says. “There were so many opportunities to grow and the people I met were so wonderful. We moved from Hyde Park to Greektown in 1985, committed to helping a neighborhood revitalize.”
He was able to purchase a live-work loft very inexpensively and made it easy to grow the company. “I am glad to participate in the life of a vital city, providing employment now to 12 people and a future for my family,” he says. “Personnel Planners has become a national firm and being located in the middle of the country is extremely beneficial for a business of this size and scope. Currently we serve more than 1000 Illinois businesses and perhaps another 500 businesses throughout the country.”
David’s role these days is primarily accounting and customer service, as well as marketing. “We have transformed to the next generation,” he says. “Ofer Eckstein runs the company day to day and he is a computer science engineer trained at the U of I in Champaign. He has mastered the unemployment system as well. Our professional staff consists of paralegal and we look forward to growing it as our client base grows.”
Though they expected COVID to result in a contraction of their client base, most of their business clients and schools have survived the crisis. “During COVID, our client base, to our surprise, grew substantially,” he says. “Unemployment taxes are gong to be a major issue for businesses post COVID (especially beginning in 2023) so I suppose it isn’t surprising, thought it was at the time.”
David has been active in the Illinois Chamber’s committee for unemployment issues for many years. “This has been incredibly positive for my business and the concerns businesses should reasonably have regarding unemployment issues,” David says. “Labor, it seems, is always asking for something and this really needs to be tracked for its reasonableness and expense. Having people follow legislation and making legislative proposals that facilitate an efficient and fair and economically wise unemployment system (one that doesn’t undermine the employer-employee relationships, for example) is critically important. Watching changing eligibility standards at the agency does a world of good for employers looking to protect themselves. And publicizing the availability of unemployment claims management service, like the ones provided by Personnel Planners, is a service to the employment community. Quality services in this area are hard to find and the Illinois Chamber just helped you to find us!”