Look out your window: if there’s a line of cranky employees outside waiting to punch a time clock before starting their shift it might be time to invest in attendance tracking software.
Using a time clock is the equivalent of asking your employees to yell “here” every morning as you dutifully check off their name in an attendance notebook similar to the one your second grade teacher used. Read the full entry
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According to a survey released by CareerBuilder, 35% of companies were predicted to hire temporary workers in 2012, an increase of 8% from three years ago. Hiring temporary workers can help your business fill gaps in staffing, complete special short-term projects, and save money on payroll and benefits.
Utilize the power of social media, networking, and skilled staffing agencies to find the right temporary employees for your business. Read the full entry
Just watch an hour of TV and you’ll find a half dozen 401k companies vying for your attention.
This one wants you to follow a green line. That one wants you to listen to that guy from “Law & Order.” The other one has a talking baby. And they all make your eyes glaze over when they start talking about markets and investing and retirement.
Given how confusing and daunting retirement savings can be (especially in the wake of a struggling economy) it’s no wonder there are so many gimmicks — not to mention so many mistakes made — in regard to 401(k) plans.
But neither companies nor individuals should let talk of tax codes and portfolios bully them into denying their employees a valuable benefit or opting for a retirement-savings-sized piggy bank instead of investing. To administer or participate in a plan successfully, all you have to do is avoid these common pitfalls:
Chances are, you won’t walk into your office one day to find a giant flashing billboard over your desk telling you that your current payroll system is hopelessly outdated and you should consider joining the rest of us here in the 21st century by adopting much more efficient and accurate time and attendance software.
No, the reminders that it’s time for an upgrade to your old system might be a little more subtle. Like the fact that you break out in hives at the sight of the stack of time sheets on your desk. Or, the fact that you woke up in a cold sweat the other night because you couldn’t remember whether you gave Shirley from customer service her shift differential. Or that you give Bill from accounting the stink eye every time you see him because his 9′s look exactly like 4′s (or is it the other way around?) making it a bi-weekly struggle to translate his time card.
Of course, there are more practical signs that your business needs a time and attendance system — ones that have less to do with your sanity and more to do with efficiency and accuracy. Read on. Read the full entry
The 2012 Aflac Workforces Report surveyed over 1,800 HR professionals and 6,151 employed adults to determine each group’s priorities and beliefs regarding employee benefits. It found that there are quantifiable connections between the quality of an employer’s benefits package and employee performance and retention.
Furthermore, the study found that small businesses are the least likely to communicate with employees about their benefits and the least likely to offer voluntary insurance options. Read the full entry
According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, employees will only spend 1.5 years with their current employer.
Finding and replacing your employees over such a short span of time can put strain on your business, lower productivity, and decrease the quality of work that you generate.
When it comes to your Millennial or Generation Y employees – the fastest growing group of workers in the labor force – you need to take proactive measures, and that means offering the kinds of benefits that they value most. (Hint: it isn’t salary). Read the full entry
Outsourcing HR offers many incentives — namely the opportunity to save money, time and resources in order to focus on long-term goals and growing the business.
But there are plenty of drawbacks to shutting down your in-house HR department and relying on an outside vendor to handle its duties.
Talk to any veteran HR rep, and they’ll no doubt be able to tell you how messy and complicated working with employees can be.
A good HR rep knows people. She knows Glen has been struggling with a long-term illness and that Carrie feels uncomfortable with the blonde jokes the guy from accounting tells in the break room every day. Read the full entry
How do recruiters come up with candidates? Many businesses believe that in this economic market, the candidate pool is teeming and it doesn’t take much more than a few calls and some generic job postings to reel in a significant response.
Unfortunately, this isn’t the most effective method for bringing in the big fish. Similarly, it won’t help companies survive the waning years of baby boomers, when more than 10,000 of them are reaching age 65 on a daily basis according to the Pew Research Center.
It’s time to be proactive, intentionally setting out to attract a certain caliber of candidates who will fit with our organizational cultures. But, did you consider that marketing would play a role in this? Read the full entry
Rare is the person today who earns a degree, is hired by a big company, and works there for the entirety of his or her career. According to data collected by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, people change jobs around 11 times over their working lifetime. It is not unusual today for workers in their 30s or 40s to go back to school and change professions altogether.
Business.com spoke with Amy Hannington, editor of TotalProfessions.com, about reinventing a professional career, and where to start when making that change.
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Let’s face it. Working in an office is pretty safe. If your workers stay behind a computer or glued to a telephone, there isn’t a lot of opportunity for disabling injuries. Nevertheless, day after day office accidents happen, office workers lose days to workplace injuries and employers find themselves with higher worker’s compensation premiums because of it.
Falls are far and away the most common office accident. Further, according to the Department of Commerce, an office fall is more than twice as likely to cause a disabling injury as falls elsewhere. Keep your workforce safe and worker’s compensation premiums affordable with these basic precautions against fall injuries. Read the full entry
