The implementation of employer-provided health and accident insurance plans increasingly involves payroll operations, and this trend continues in the wake of the need to implement sweeping federal...

The issue of who is an independent contractor and who is an employee is getting more attention from cash-starved states. While the federal government has taken some initiative to address a perceived...

When it comes to voting, leave for employees can sometimes be a grey area. Although few employers go as far as to give their employees the entire day off with pay on Election Day, many will allow...

As the economy continues to recover from the recent recession, employers face challenges with employee retention and controlling employment-related costs. Some employers are addressing these issues...

In 2013, payroll departments are to implement a key tax increase provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The Internal Revenue Service calls this provision the Additional...

Federal taxes that employers are required to withhold from employees' pay—income, Social Security, Medicare, and railroad retirement taxes—are known as trust fund taxes because the employer holds...

Issues surrounding the requirements to provide meal and rest periods have challenged employers throughout the state of California. Meal and rest periods are an entitlement, enforced by the state...

Weather-related emergencies, bomb threats, fire, labor strikes, protests, and acts of terrorism present policy and procedural questions for HR managers. For example, organizations affected by...

Deciding whether to offer an individual employee or groups of employees a severance agreement requires an in-depth analysis of each circumstance and careful consideration of numerous factors. While...

Progressive discipline imposes increasingly severe penalties against employees who commit repeated offenses against employer work rules. For several decades, union contracts obligated employers to...

The Internal Revenue Service is deadly serious about collecting all the employment taxes it is due. HR professionals and their payroll counterparts need to ensure that there is an effective system in place to calculate, withhold, and remit employee payroll taxes, because if there isn't, there's no telling whose door that IRS agent might be knocking on.

This issue of Workforce Strategies offers a number of practical strategies for a CEO, senior management team, and a board of directors to consider. There is no doubt that the Whistleblower Program, created in July 2010 by the Dodd-Frank Act, which offers whistleblowers potential financial rewards and protection from retaliation, will lead to an increase in whistleblower activity.

This issue of Workforce Strategies explores the nature and causes of workplace bullying, details the damage bullying can do both to the employees who must endure it and to the employers that tolerate it, and provides practical solutions employers can apply to eliminate workplace bullying without constraining the “constructive confrontation” that fuels workplace innovation.

This issue of Workforce Strategies examines social media use during the hiring process, including pros and cons, risk and rewards, and legal considerations for employers. The report also offers best practices and policies for to help protect employers.

This issue of Workforce Strategies examines the performance review process as part of an overall corporate strategy and provides practical advice from experts in the field on how managers can use the evaluation process to motivate employees and to better integrate their individual activities with overall departmental and corporate goals. A case study of the performance management system developed by Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts gives a specific example of how this advice can be put into practice.

This Workforce Strategies report examines cultural changes affecting the workplace, the challenges of hostile work environments, consequences for management, and HR's role in providing a safe and professional work environment. The report provides best practices for managers in the form of clear definitions and procedures when creating an effective sexual harassment policy.

This issue of Workforce Strategies sets forth a practical approach for employers to reorient their strategy toward building a healthy workforce, rather than simply tweaking components of their health plan, such as wellness offerings or plan design. It outlines the business case for a healthy workforce, drawing upon data which demonstrate the potential impact of implementing the right programs. It also summarizes common initiatives seen today in the employer community. The issue concludes with five key strategies for enhancing current initiatives.

This issue of Workforce Strategies provides practical guidance for employers in determining what is (and what is not) a de minimis fringe benefit for employment tax purposes and in avoiding potential pitfalls in accounting for the benefits. The appendix presents a case study in IRS's fact-specific approach to determining the actual status of a benefit defined by an employer as de minimis and how subjective (or fluid) that judgment can be.

The latest decisions and pending regulations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act are explored in this issue of Workforce Strategies, with advice from practitioners from around the nation as well as overseas. A compendium of outside resources are included, as well as contradictory voices, part of a behavior cycle roiling the world of international trade.

 

This issue of Workforce Strategies provides practical advice for employers trying to navigate the tricky process of developing an effective compensation strategy in a still uncertain economy. It highlights current trends in compensation, options for rewarding key employees, and how compensation programs fit into total rewards schemes and into an employers overall business strategy.

 

Since the events of September 11^th, 2001, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has seen a steady increase in charges of religious discrimination by Muslim workers. As a result, the EEOC has filed several prominent lawsuits on behalf of Muslim workers complaining of interruption of prayer breaks and discrimination based on their attire. This issue of Workforce Strategies examines the challenges for HR departments and offers strategies for reasonable accommodations.

This issue of Workforce Strategies examines OSHA recordkeeping with an aging workforce, ergonomic enforcement, and other trends with this growing segment of the labor force.

This Workforce Strategies report gives you an overview of the challenges these companies face, initiatives designed to improve retention rates, and best practice recommendations on repatriation programs.

This issue of Workforce Strategies examines what is ahead for states: can they weather the ongoing storm over unemployment benefits or do they face a fiscal tsunami? The report also covers the options employers have to limit, as much as possible, the impact of higher unemployment insurance costs.

This issue of Workforce Strategies examines the nature and prevalence of substance abuse in the workplace and offers some expert advice on how employers can most effectively address it, including case studies of programs that have proven successful.

 

Beyond HRMS: Cutting-Edge Technologies Provide New Opportunities for HR provides practical advice on workforce optimization and identifies the leading vendors of administrative and workforce management applications.

 

This issue of Workforce Strategies, Women and Retirement, has three parts. The first outlines the importance of guaranteed lifetime income to retirement security, especially for women. The second advances two specific policy proposals: requiring employer-sponsored defined contribution plans to offer lifetime income options and informing workers about lifetime income options. Finally, the third part argues against two alternative policy proposals: providing tax-preferred treatment of annuity income and weakening existing spousal protections.

 

In this issue of Workforce Strategies, we analyze the drivers of employee retention, identify the benefits and other perks employees really value (sometimes more than money), discuss which management styles are most likely to enhance employee retention strategies, look at the importance of a cooperative workplace, offer some practical advice on developing and implementing an effective retention program (including a case study of one particularly successful strategy), and explain the role the HR manager should play as the "chief engagement officer."

 

In this issue of Workforce Strategies, we discuss how an employer can balance its legitimate need to validate the information provided by job applicants as a means of reducing turnover, minimizing disciplinary problems, and avoiding negligent hiring lawsuits with employees right to privacy and the various state and federal laws enacted to guarantee that right.

 

Succession Planning and Management: The Challenge of Continuous Readiness in a Changing Business Environment outlines the necessary steps employers need to take to develop and implement a succession management scheme.

 

To help employers navigate the sometimes complicated process of paying terminated employees, this issue of Workforce Strategies provides some practical advice about what employers should consider when calculating, paying, and reporting final wage payments and how to organize the process for maximum efficiency.

 

To help employers navigate the current tumult of immigration and employment law, this issue of Workforce Strategies looks at the problems surrounding employment eligibility verification, providing expert analysis and practical advice on employers obligations under IRCA, federal enforcement procedures and penalties for violations, compliance and risk-avoidance strategies, due diligence, and handling I-9 audits.

 

Business Travel: Expense Reimbursement, Wage & Hour, and Federal and State Tax Liabilities outlines the keys to success in minimizing problems associated with business travel, such as effective communication of policy to employees and management and follow-up through a system designed to track employees travel and associated expenses and any tax liabilities incurred through expense reimbursement.