The prospect of corrective action or termination makes a lot of managers nervous. That’s understandable. For employees, being disciplined or losing their job can be anything from moderately embarrassing to financially devastating, but it’s rarely a happy occasion. For the employers, these actions always come with some risk, and there are plenty of legal danger zones an employer can end up in if corrective action isn’t done properly.
Here are some tips from our HR Pros to help you avoid these pitfalls and make corrective action productive for everyone:
Everyone in the organization, but especially those responsible for disciplining or terminating employees, should understand
Earlier this month Governor Evers issued Executive Order 20 (EO), which will ultimately lead to a crackdown on misclassification of employees as independent contractors. The EO calls for creation of a joint task force of leaders from the state Department of Workforce Development, Attorney General’s office, Workers’ Compensation and Unemployment Insurance Divisions, and several other state agencies.
The task force has been given numerous objectives, some of which are fairly administrative, but it’s clear that its primary focus is enforcement and a push for increased reporting of misclassification. The Governor cited the impact on vulnerable populations that are misclassified (
A SIMPLE IRA can be a great retirement savings vehicle. It allows a business owner to take an active roll in preparing employees for their financial future. These plans can be easy to administer, but they can also somewhat limiting by nature- which means they aren’t the perfect fit for everyone. If you’re looking for a bit more flexibility out of your retirement plan, you may want to consider the 401(k) option.
Here are a few things a 401(K) can offer that a SIMPLE IRA cannot:
- Maximize your contributions*
- Limit tax liability on both a business and personal level
- Allow for customized options such as Roth contributions, profit sharing, and loans
With year-end and first-of-the-year goals out of the way and a lull between holidays, there’s no better time to do some organizational spring cleaning. As many experts in tidying up and clearing clutter will tell you, a clean space with room for movement (both physical and psychological) will boost productivity and just make people feel better.
You may be low on time, or you might feel ready to embrace some serious reorganization. Depending on the number of hours available, consider mixing and matching the following spring-cleaning options, from quickest to most comprehensive.
Do a walk-through of the workplace to ensure that pathways are clear and free of tripping or falling hazar
Is your company going through change? Are you growing? Have you acquired new businesses or have been acquired? All these scenarios can change your ALE status, thus dictating whether you're required to offer medical coverage and do ACA reporting.
As a starting point, let us define an Applicable Large Employer (ALE). An ALE according to the IRS is a company who "has at least 50 full-time employees, including full-time equivalent employees, on average during the prior year, the employer is an ALE for the current calendar year, and is therefore subject to the employer shared responsibility provisions and the employer information reporting provisions.” Essentially, every year you sho
The hotly contested issue of what exactly needs to be filed for EEO-1 reporting this year has been resolved—at least for now. Pay data for both 2017 and 2018 must be reported to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) by September 30, 2019. The data that has been required in years past is still due by May 31, 2019. An appeal of the latest decision has been filed, so it's possible that there could be yet another change to the requirements, but employers should plan to comply with these deadlines, as described below.
Does my business even need to file the EEO-1 report?If you have fewer than 100 employees and no federal contracts, you are not subject to EEO-1 reporting re
Did you know that each state has their own rules on when an employees final paycheck is due?
Here in Wisconsin, if an employee quits, it is due to them on their next scheduled pay day.
If an employee is fired, it is also the next scheduled payday, or if the termination is the result of a merger, relocation, cessation, or liquidation of the business, final pay is due within 24 hours.
It is definitely not an exciting read, but here is a link to the details on the Wisconsin State Legislature website.
If you have questions on other states, please don't hesitate to ask us.
Even with video conferencing and messaging apps, fully involving remote employees in team and company meetings remains a challenge. There may be no replacing the experience of being physically in the room, but you can take steps to make these meetings more productive and inclusive.
The most important thing to remember when “meeting” with remote employees is that you can’t conduct the meeting in the same way as you normally do when everyone is physically present. You have to find a way to replace the advantages that close proximity has, especially the ease of reading body language and picking up social cues. These, unfortunately, do not translate well over the screen or the ph
In December, The Washington Post reported on an odd, eyebrow-raising phenomenon in the working world: employees are “ghosting” their employers. If you’re unfamiliar with the term, ghosting is an unfortunately common practice in the dating scene. It occurs when someone breaks off a relationship without warning or notice and then ceases all communication. In the business scene, it’s a catchier, hipper name for job abandonment. Instead of giving the courtesy of a two-week notice—or any notice for that matter—employees just vanish without a word, silently moving on to their next endeavor.
These employees feel comfortable abandoning their jobs because they believe g
Right now, in workplaces across the country, people are going about their jobs, seemingly content, but deep down feeling the ache of loneliness. They aren’t necessarily working alone or all by themselves with no one to talk to. They may be chatting amicably with customers on the phone or in person. Or they may work from home, but are in frequent communication with their coworkers through digital channels. Whatever the case, these lonely workers feel isolated and unnoticed.
Given all the means that people have at their disposal to connect with each other in the workplace – face-to-face meetings, email, social media, messaging apps – one might have expected loneliness in the workplac
