Closing Due to Inclement Weather
Q: Our company is closing today due to inclement weather. Are we required to pay employees for this day?
Can Employers Terminate an Employee that was Arrested?
Q: One of our employees was arrested today. Can we terminate their employment?
Requiring Employees to Turn Cameras On During Meetings
Q: Can employers require employees to turn on their cameras during meetings?
5 Simple Ways To Improve Employee Onboarding
An employee’s days and weeks at work can be stressful, chaotic, and overwhelming—and then there’s the new hire.Strike a confident, considerate tone by creating an employee onboarding process that is personal and positive without making it complicated. It should answer, in short order, the four main questions all new employees have:
- Who is my boss?
- What are my main responsibilities?
- Where are the breakroom and restrooms?
- Where can I put my coat?
While simple, how well your company addresses these “basic needs” questions will set the tone for how you operate throughout your new hire’s entire career. The point of a solid onboarding process is to increase employee engagement, loyalty, and tenure; without it, you’ll sink more time, energy, and money into the repeated training of new hires than you will other crucial aspects of your business—and that rarely works out well.
Here are five simple ways to make a positive impact on a new employee.
1) Make them feel at home
Your new hire should feel like they have a spot they can claim, whether it’s a physical desk or office or a place they can count on to place their coat, lunch, and personal items. It should be clean and posted with their name as if they were always meant to be there.
2) Get them connected
All technology set-up should be completed before the employee’s first day; nothing makes a new hire feel out of place than having things referred to as “John’s old laptop” or “Patrice’s extension.” All laptops, emails, peripherals, permissions, and phones should be ready for the new hire prior to her first day on the job; this makes training, troubleshooting, and everyone’s first week a little easier.
3) Give them a tour
Your new hire’s first day started with finding a parking spot in a new place; it will take him a while to get the lay of the land. Unless you show him, of course, which is exactly what you should do. Don’t just show him the break rooms and restrooms; introduce him to people as you go, especially the people with whom he’ll be working closely. Before you part ways, give him a map that is labeled with everything (and everyone) you covered.
4) Simplify the paperwork process
We can all remember our first days at work as we filled out form after form with the same repeated information. Benefits, taxes, job description, handbooks—more paper gets pushed at new hires on the first day than almost every day following. Streamline this process as much as possible with intuitive Human Resources software that allows cross-referencing, cross-checking, and no crossed eyes.
5) Swag is always a good idea
Go as crazy or as practical as you please here; even fresh office supplies bundled with a company t-shirt can go a long way to showing a new employee that you are bringing your A-game to the table, and that you are expecting the same from her.
And remember, onboarding isn’t just a one-day thing. Create schedules and strategies for follow-up, check-ins, and team meetings. Concerns and accomplishments in this period should be addressed quickly; it demonstrates awareness, responsiveness, and accountability, and lays the groundwork for employee success and satisfaction.
Five Warning Signs That Your HR Department Needs Support
Growing and thriving businesses can’t continue to grow and thrive without additional resources or efficient processes, and that’s where an effective human resource department comes in.
If you can’t afford to hire an additional full-time HR professional on your team, it may be time to consider outsourcing certain human resource functions; not only will you gain the benefits of experienced, efficient operations, but you’ll also free your time and budget to channel your attention where it belongs—back on growing your business.
If any or all of the below ring true for you and your business, it may be time to outsource certain HR functions.
1. When HR tasks are taking an excessive amount of time.
When you are tackling human resource tasks on top of running a business, things are bound to take longer; after all, there are so many hours in a day, and you don’t speak employment law and best hiring practices as a first (or even fourth) language. Enlisting the help of a professional HR workflow consultant means that you have someone well-versed in their industry, and all they have to do is apply it to yours.
2. When human resources are spread too thin.
It often happens as a business grows; HR tasks are often delegated and dispersed among a team of managers and department heads. While this can ensure the responsibilities get done, it can often lead to inconsistency and confusion as employees aren’t sure where to direct questions or report concerns. Having consistent human resources processes, either in-house or outsourced, help clarify job responsibilities and the chain of command. It also helps ensure nothing falls through the cracks.
3. When it’s taking away from your bottom line.
Effective human resources should add value to your bottom line, not take away from it. Outsourcing certain HR functions means you have qualified professionals well-versed in employment law, recruiting techniques, payroll, and benefits management. It means you can trust the job to get done right the first time, minimizing your risks while maximizing your time spent growing revenue, networks, and lead sources.
4. When the human resources department becomes too risky.
The bigger you grow, the more responsible—and accountable—you need to be. From new EEOC requirements to mandatory state and federal compliance, a skilled HR, Benefits and Tax professional has a keen understanding of liability landmines and IRS risks. Considering the cost of one tax reporting violation, one year of outsourced Payroll Tax compliance is a worthwhile investment that carries so many other related benefits.
5. When it’s making your business clumsy.
When your business was small and nimble, you could adjust to change rather quickly, but as it grows, it becomes harder and harder to prepare for growth, challenges, and the occasional rare opportunity. If given a chance to expand rapidly, could your current HR systems handle a massive hiring spree and still be effective?
If you’ve been handling human resources on your own or ineffectively delegated them throughout your untrained staff, now is the best time to have an HR Assessment by Highflyer HR. It’s not too good to be true; it’s just smart business. Don’t just get more things done. Get them all done—correctly, professionally, and efficiently.
4 Things To Look For In A Powerful HR Software Solution
The field of human resources has become increasingly bureaucratic; paperwork, compliance deadlines, paperwork, payroll, benefits, paperwork—you get the idea. More and more HR professionals spend their time navigating separate software and duplicated data on top of their recruiting, training, and employee engagement efforts. Thankfully, more and more HR teams are turning into single-source software solutions to streamline employee onboarding, payroll, benefits, employee tracking, and many other branches of HR work.
While a company’s specific needs and size will play a role in choosing the right software, there are some universal components from which all HR departments can benefit.
- HR Software should be easy to use, with intuitive navigation to allow company-wide, strategic collaboration.
- HR software should provide targeted reports and analytics aimed at helping manage their employees more effectively.
- HR software should be accessible from any device and anywhere in the world. This minimizes downtime and increases the ability to make strong decisions based on the most current information.
- HR software should include all the major facets of the department, including applicant tracking, time and attendance management, benefits enrollment, applicant and employee tracking, and payroll.
Highflyer HR’s iSolved software combines the necessary functions of human resources into one interactive app for professionals. iSolved provides full payroll reporting opportunities, time and attendance trackers for each employee and field, automated benefit processing, new hire reporting, and more. iSolved brings all aspects of HR together seamlessly to ensure the easiest most complete reporting and tracking.
Our goal at Highflyer HR is to make sure your business begins and ends with Human Resources. Easy to use, iSolved streamlines the staggering list of HR responsibilities into a single-source software that cross-references information, profiles, and goals, freeing up time for HR departments to focus less on resources and more on humans.
And we call that a win-win.
Not convinced iSolved is the program for you? Click here to take the software for a test drive.
As mandated by the Affordable Care Act, Section 6106, long-term healthcare providers now must submit staffing information in the form of a payroll-based report. Including the number of employees and total direct care hours worked by these employees, the information reported is used to track the level of staff plus employee tenure, retention, and turnover—all valuable numbers HR professionals of healthcare providers need to know and have on hand.
