Human Resources

A Seven Point Checklist for HR compliance

Is Your Organization Playing by the Rules? Avoid fines and optimize your team’s productivity by following the legally established norms of employer/employee relations. Here is a step-by-step guide to doing just that: 1. Get Registered with both the IRS and your state/local revenue agencies to enable payments of your payroll taxes. Which brings us to our next point… 2. Withhold taxes accurately. After all, under-withholding could leave you in...

The 3 Most Common HR Mistakes

And How to Avoid Committing Them Yourself Leading a professional team in a way that is conducive to productivity and legally compliant can be more challenging than it sounds. Here are three frequent pitfalls that you should keep in mind: #1: Not Documenting Performance of Existing Employees. Even in a small company where you know every employee personally, conducting formal performance reviews on a consistent basis is very important....

Do You Need to Reevaluate Your Onboarding Process?

Watch for these signs that your onboarding process needs a makeover. A good onboarding process is crucial for turning your candidates into productive workers. Many companies use outdated materials and rush through the process to get new employees right to work. However, carefully planned and thorough onboarding can actually add value to a company by enabling new employees to start out with ample experience before hitting the work floor...

A Quick Age Discrimination Q&A For HR Managers: 3 Facts Every Employer Should Know

Understanding applicable laws and regulations is crucial for employers who want to avoid making HR mistakes. This is especially true in respects to discrimination laws, as failure to comply can be quite costly in terms of fines, lawsuits, and public perception of your organization. Below are three important (and often misunderstood) questions about age discrimination regulation in the US. Question: Who is Protected by Age Discrimination Laws? Answer: The...

Employee Reimbursement 101 – Minimizing taxable expenses and staying compliant with laws and regulations.

Keeping clients happy, vendors paid, and operations running smoothly is a tall task for any business — especially smaller organizations. For convenience’s’ sake, many employers find that allowing employees to pay certain expenses from their own pockets and reimbursing them later is a virtual necessity. However, business owners should be aware that this common practice does entail a bit of responsibility.
 Broadly speaking, there are three different ways of...

5 Onboarding Tips For New Employees

Adding new members to your staff can be an opportunity for increased productivity, teamwork and growth — or it can lead to disruption, discord, and wasted payroll. Smart onboarding policies are oftentimes crucial to determining which of these two paths your organization will take. And this is why you should consider implementing these simple onboarding tips and tricks: Announce your decision! Announcing and introducing your new hire — in-person,...

Managing Client Relationships

Staying on positive terms with your clients can be just as important as the quality of your products or services. Retaining customers is about more than just giving them good value on a good product — it is also about being perceived as convenient, reliable, and willing to go the extra mile. Here are a few simple tips that can help you manage customer relationships more effectively: Manage Customer...

What to Do When An Employee Breaks the Rules

Whether it’s a habitual bad apple committing another infraction, or even a model employee making a sincere mistake, employee discompliance is never an easy topic for employers to deal with. After all, workplace morale, employer-employee relations, staff completeness, and even legal actions all potentially lie in the balance. However, such issues cannot be ignored — especially when they are serious and/or ongoing in nature. In this article, we will...

What is Job Abandonment?

Every business owner has had experience of an employee quitting. And this can be rather disappointing, especially when the employee was someone who was particularly talented. But in normal circumstances, as frustrating as employee resignation can be, business owners can usually take solace in the fact that their employee made the effort to show respect and give due notice of their decision to move on. Unfortunately, this doesn’t always...

The Basics of Workplace Conflict Mediation

Traditionally speaking, Human Resources are usually viewed as a liaison between management and the workers. However, conflicts between employees are also very common — and when this occurs, HR departments are usually called upon to mediate. If you are an employer who finds yourself called upon to play a conflict-resolution role, you may be feeling rather overwhelmed. Fortunately, the art of workplace mediation is well-studied, and there are many...