Blog

In the business world, everyone is always looking to maximize profitability. It’s not because business owners are greedy trying to grab every last dime. It’s because they are working their tail off to either make the business succeed or make it grow.

In their efforts to do so, business owners look to control what they can, especially when it comes to costs. As a salesperson, I have often been the person who they tried to control costs through by either beating me up on price, extracting extra services or using what my company does to help make them more profitable. However, it often seems to come back to controlling costs.

When a business owner thinks of controllable costs, they often think of material prices, employee hours or something else on the production end. What seldom comes into play is controlling workers comp, healthcare and unemployment costs.  But, how can you control those costs? Those things are completely out of a business owner’s control. Right?

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Beginning January 1, 2015, OSHA will begin enforcing new rules and requirements according to a recent article in Construction Equipment Guide. This new rule applies to companies that fall under Federal OSHA jurisdiction. (Do you know if your company falls under this category?)

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For many employers, hearing that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has issued a ruling sounds a lot like fingernails on the chalkboard. They know it’s there, but they don’t often want to hear it.

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Got Problems? Who Doesn’t?

An EAP is a great resource for employees to seek help with personal concerns. From anxiety and emotional distress to financial difficulties and relationship concerns, an EAP is here to help. The cost of an EAP for employers is minimal however; the benefits to both the employer and employees can be life changing.

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So you listened to your friends and advisors and finally established your company’s presence on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.  Now you can control your company’s web presence, right?

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Well, that’s a relief.  The employer mandate for 100+ employee companies has been pushed back to 2015 and 50+ employee companies to 2016. No worries until then, right?

Unless you’re the guy who keeps kicking the can down the road hoping that something changes, you’re wrong. There’s a pretty good business book written by Rick Page called Hope is not a Strategy. I’m amazed at how many savvy business owners seem to think that it can be.

The simple truth of the matter is that the Affordable Care Act has changed everything you know or have ever known about health insurance. In fact, it’s completely changed the game. If you think you’ve protected yourself by getting grandfathered in, you’re just going to trip over that same can later.

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According to a recent article in Bloomberg’s Business News, HR departments are going to become increasingly busy over the next 12 to 18 months.  Why?  Because of a recent memorandum that was issued by the White House to the Department of Labor to “modernize and streamline overtime regulations and make more workers eligible under federal law.”

Burning the midnight oil might be more valuable for exempt employees in the near future.

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Ahhhh---feel the ocean breeze blowing through your hair, your toes digging into the sand, and the cool drink in your hand. Your computer is nowhere in sight. That’s right, you’re on vacation!

As an employee, taking time off is important. It keeps you focused, gives you a break and lets you spend some quality time with your family or friends. As a company, administering a paid time off (PTO) policy is also important, and much less relaxing than taking the time off. 

With traditional PTO and sick time plans, your company is trying define and limit the liability of paying an employee for time they didn’t work. Sounds simple. 

But how do you keep track of it all? Without a streamlined system it can be easy to miscalculate PTO for your employees. Miscalculations mean lost money for your company. According to a 2010 survey by Kronos conducted with Mercer, poorly planned absences cost U.S. organizations over 8% of their payroll each year.

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You’re looking to hire a new candidate or thinking about promoting an employee from within your company.

But before you take a step further you want to run a background check. What are the legal requirements and information you need to be aware of as an employer before you start this process? We do our best to give you an overview on the process below.

Information requested for a background check depends on the employer and the job involved. For some jobs, a state or federal law requires the employer to conduct a background check. Working with children, the elderly, or people with disabilities are examples of jobs that require a criminal background check. 

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Effective September 1, new withholding tables will result in increased take-home pay for Ohio workers.  Governor Kasich’s plan will lower the income tax rates 10% over the next three years with a majority of the decrease coming in 2013. In addition to the lower payroll withholding rates, small businesses will see tax savings of up to 50%.  And while that’s great for payroll and businesses, Ohio will also see an increase in sales tax by .25%.   

A brief description of the withholding rate change was released by Tax Commissioner Joe Testa on August 26^th, and can be found at: http://www.tax.ohio.gov/Portals/0/communications/news_releases/NR_TaxWithholdingCut.pdf.

The Department of taxation released an update of the sales rates on their website at:  http://www.tax.ohio.gov/sales_and_use/rate_changes.aspx.

Have questions? Leave a comment below or contact us at 330-659-0100!