Questco Earns NASWA Recognition. Here's Why That Matters for Employers

Most employers evaluate HR partners on what they can see: the onboarding experience, the benefits package, the quality of the support call. What there is no easy way to evaluate is how the partner handles the operational work that runs quietly in the background. That quiet operational layer is where things go wrong, and it's why the National Association of State Workforce Agencies (NASWA) recognition is worth paying attention to.

For the fourth consecutive year, Questco has been recognized by NASWA with the Outstanding SIDES Performance Award. For the first time in Questco's history, the company maintained a 100% SIDES Integrity score for an entire calendar year—a level reached by only one other PEO in the industry.

What is the SIDES System?

SIDES, or the State Information Data Exchange System, is the electronic system NASWA uses to route unemployment insurance (UI) claim requests between state workforce agencies and employers. When a former employee files for UI benefits, the relevant state agency sends the employer a request for information. SIDES is how that exchange happens securely, electronically, and on a defined timeline.

The SIDES system exists to make UI claims process faster, more accurately, and with less administrative burden. When employers respond through SIDES accurately and on time, the process moves cleanly. When they don't—whether that be wrong information, late responses, missing documentation, or otherwise—it creates friction. Ultimately, that friction can lead to delayed determinations, avoidable appeals, and administrative legwork.

For most employers, this system hums in the background like crucial infrastructure they rarely think about until necessity creeps in.

What is a SIDES Integrity Score and How is it Measured?

A SIDES Integrity score measures how reliably an employer or PEO responds to state unemployment insurance requests; accuracy, completeness, and timeliness all factor in. A 100% score means zero integrity defects across every response during the measurement period.

In 2025, every SIDES request Questco handled met those standards. That earned the company "SIDES Superstar" status for the first time. But getting there—where only one PEO has ever been before—wasn't a matter of trying harder at the same process, says Emily Duncan, VP of Business Operations at Questco.

"Achieving a 100% SIDES Integrity score required a deliberate shift from reactive processing to a highly disciplined, proactive operating model. We strengthened our internal workflows by standardizing processes across all unemployment claims, reinforcing strict adherence to SOPs, and implementing enhanced quality control checkpoints at every stage of the response lifecycle."

Real-time tracking, performance visibility, and a culture of accountability allowed Questco's team to identify and resolve potential gaps before they could affect response timeliness or accuracy. The score reflects that rigor.

Why Should Employers Care About SIDES Performance?

Unemployment claims administration earns no credit when it works and causes real problems when it doesn't. Slow responses, inaccurate submissions, missed deadlines, compliance exposure, employers absorbing consequences in the form of avoidable claim costs. It’s all administrative cleanup that shouldn't have been necessary.

For claims that could have been properly contested, timely and meticulous SIDES responses help ensure processing based on accurate information. Commitment to SIDES also reflects the kind of operational discipline that carries across HR administration broadly. It’s the difference between a partner that treats process as foundational and one that treats it as an afterthought.

A 100% integrity score across a full calendar year is a specific, measurable indicator of that discipline. It's one of the few data points that lets employers see into the work they'd otherwise never observe.

What This Recognition Says About Questco

Awards tied to measurable system performance say something different than awards tied to reputation or industry standing. NASWA's SIDES recognition reflects how a specific administrative process was executed, tracked, ataxaaand maintained over time.

Four consecutive years of recognition, culminating in a perfect integrity score, suggests Questco is running this work at a high and consistent level. Unemployment claims handling sits in the background of the employer-PEO relationship. It doesn't come up in sales conversations or appear in onboarding materials, yet it shows up when a claim is handled poorly, a response arrives late, or a determination has a negative result.

For employers evaluating HR partners, backend consistency matters. It's usually the hardest thing to assess from the outside, but this recognition is a concrete signal.

Why This Is More Than Just Another Award

The invisibility of unemployment claims administration is precisely why this kind of recognition has weight. If employers could easily observe how their HR partners handled this work, the quality differential between PEOs would be more obvious. They can't—which means most employers are making partnership decisions without this information at all.

Questco didn't receive recognition for being well-regarded generally. It was recognized because its SIDES response data (submitted to state agencies, measured against defined integrity standards) held at 100% for a full calendar year. Not a single error. That's a specific, externally validated performance result in a category where most employers have no visibility.

As Duncan puts it: "We view this [award] as a foundation, not a finish line." Questco's next focus is advancing from operational excellence to predictive impact. How can we identify claim trends earlier? Can we reduce claim volume through proactive employer guidance? How will we continue to improve response workflows without trading accuracy for speed. In today’s hyper-fast, hyper-technical world, the standard will not be static.

For employers, that position matters as much as the score itself. Because it’s one thing to ask an HR partner how they’ve performed, and another to ask how they’re building towards something better.

Thank you to all the business we serve, and to NASWA for continuing to recognize our effort. We’ll see you again next year.

Questco is a certified PEO serving growing businesses across the country. If you're evaluating HR partners, it's worth asking how they handle the operational work you'll never directly observe. Questco's SIDES performance is one concrete answer to that question. To learn more about Questco's approach to HR administration, compliance, and client support, contact the team.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is NASWA? NASWA is the National Association of State Workforce Agencies — an organization representing state agencies that administer unemployment insurance, worker re-employment services, and labor market information programs across the country.

Why does SIDES integrity matter for employers? High SIDES integrity ensures that unemployment claims are processed based on accurate, complete, timely information. This protects employers from costs tied to claims that could have been properly contested and reduces the administrative friction that results from errors, late responses, or missing documentation.

How does a PEO handle unemployment claims? A PEO like Questco acts as a third-party administrator, using systems like SIDES to respond to state workforce agency requests on the employer's behalf. That means specialists managing response accuracy and deadlines — rather than the work falling to a busy HR generalist or business owner who may not have the background or bandwidth to handle it consistently.

Is Questco a certified PEO? Yes. Questco is a Certified Professional Employer Organization (CPEO). That certification, alongside four consecutive years of NASWA SIDES recognition, reflects a commitment to federal compliance and operational standards that goes beyond baseline requirements.

What's the difference between a SIDES Integrity score and a response rate? A response rate measures whether an employer responded to a UI request at all. A SIDES Integrity score measures whether that response was accurate, complete, and submitted within required timelines — not just present, but correct. An employer could technically respond to every request and still carry integrity defects if responses are late, incomplete, or contain errors. The integrity score is the more meaningful measure because it reflects the quality of the work, not just the volume.

Does a PEO's SIDES performance affect an employer's UI tax rate? It can. Unemployment insurance tax rates are influenced by an employer's claims history — how many former employees collected UI benefits and whether those claims were properly managed. Accurate, timely SIDES responses help ensure that only valid claims are processed without unnecessary friction, and that claims that could have been legitimately contested are handled correctly. Over time, disciplined claims management can contribute to a more defensible claims record, which factors into UI tax rate calculations.

What happens when a SIDES response is late or inaccurate? When a SIDES response is late, the state agency may proceed with incomplete information — which can result in claims being approved that might otherwise have been contested, or in determinations that require appeals to correct. Inaccurate responses create a similar problem: the claim moves through the system on bad data, and correcting it requires additional administrative work from both the employer and the agency. Neither outcome is inevitable, but both are more likely when claims administration lacks consistent process and quality control.

How does SIDES performance relate to overall PEO quality? SIDES performance is one indicator among many, but it's a useful one because it's externally measured and operationally specific. A PEO that performs well on SIDES has built the internal process discipline — standardized workflows, quality checkpoints, accountability structures — that tends to carry across other compliance-heavy functions. It won't tell you everything about a PEO, but it tells you something real about how that organization handles high-stakes, deadline-driven administrative work.