Resources

Even in our digital age, paper remains a vital commodity for doing businesses. As an International Data Corporation study reported, “U.S.-based companies spend $25 billion to $35 billion processing (filing, storing and retrieving) paper.” Management of these documents pushes that figure up to $100 billion annually. As utilization of business data expands, companies are experimenting with alternate solutions to managing paper files.

Some say performance reviews are a thing of the past; a waste of time for everyone involved. If you’re part of these naysayers then most likely you haven’t been part of a culture that embraces the year-round significance of performance reviews. Performance reviews are essential to workplace management yet often times they hold lower weight amidst a sea of projects, to-do lists, meetings and more. Supervisors tend to look at performance reviews through jaded lenses, but what they may be overlooking is the fact that effective performance management leads to improved productivity.

Released concurrently with Feb. 10’s changes to the employer mandate, the Affordable Care Act’s shared-responsibility regulations offer guidance to employers in two areas: non-assessment periods and transitional relief. The non-assessment portion allows for specific periods of time when employers will not be held accountable for fines levied for failure to offer qualifying health insurance to a full-time employee. Additionally, employers entering their first year as an applicable large employer (ALE) were given details on a transition rule, giving them a specific time frame to comply fully with ACA mandates without being penalized.

While many portions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) have been delayed, postponed or a mixture of the two, the IRS recently released two rules for employer reporting requirements.These rules are seen in Section 6055 and 6056 and will be reported via forms 1095-B and 1095-C, respectively. Both employers and insurers may voluntarily report for 2014, but reporting will not be required until 2015.

The prospect of boosting wages can ruffle the feathers of businesses that believe such a hike would force them to cut jobs. Their theory may be put to the test, as President Barack Obama has issued a proposal to the U.S. Department of Labor to expand the eligibility requirements for overtime workers. This expansion would raise the minimum salary an employee must receive in order to qualify for overtime pay by more than double what it is today.

The ever-rising cost of corporate health care is expected to increase by 4.4 percent this year. Couple that rising pressure with hard-fought efforts to maintain compliance with the federal government’s Affordable Care Act, and some employers have chosen to waive benefits, placing more responsibility onto their employees, who pay more both in premiums and out-of-pocket costs.

There is a lot of chatter about pre-employment testing, leaving many organizations asking themselves if there is a benefit to implementing them during the interview process. Should I invest in them? Do you find yourself at this juncture? Well I’m here to debunk any misleading information about them and discuss why, in fact, pre-employment testing can greatly benefit your company.

What does it mean to be a leader? And can anyone be a leader? These are questions I’ve been asked a lot in school, interviews and workshops but until now I didn’t really have a definite answer. Leadership is a complex trait and it’s far more than “guiding a group of people.”

No one said forecasting talent and your budget was easy. It’s extremely difficult to try to see into the future and anticipate what your organizational budget and staffing needs will be in the coming year. It is, however, a necessary evil of planning for the future of your human resources department. Not only is it imperative to plan for spending but also it gives you a sense of what your department’s priorities are, what challenges you may face and what your staffing needs will be. In order to do so successfully, there are several strategies you can utilize along the way.

No longer is computer security exclusively the responsibility of the IT department. At every level in your company, executives, managers and employees should take responsibility to protect your data and, by extension, your reputation. Take these five precautions to help avoid a security break.

Owning a restaurant seems like a glamorous idea, or at least it did to me, but there’s more to running a restaurant than cooking good food and mingling with customers. In order to be a successful restaurateur you have to have a good grasp on the fundamentals on running your establishment. You have to meet customer demands, maintain inventory as well as staff and manage expenses.

In the scope of basic math, the difference between 30 and 40 isn’t much. The continuing battle over the Affordable Care Act (ACA), however, is anything but basic. Currently at stake in the U.S. House of Representatives is the definition of a full-time employee. Whereas most federal labor laws equate a 40-hour workweek to full-time employment, the ACA definition lowers that to 30.