Blog

Working from home creates a few challenges – more distractions, an inability to work in the same room as your coworkers, etc. Each of these realities can have a direct impact on productivity. With more employees working from home than ever before, it’s important to take steps to set telecommuting employees up for success. Here are four ways that you can help your employees stay productive when working from home.

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Hiring the right person isn’t an easy task. It’s even harder to do so in a timely fashion. When your business is ready to hire, it benefits you to do so quickly. Not only do long hiring processes cost you time and money, they also delay you from filling a needed role on your team (and that’s not including your onboarding process).

Every hour spent during the hiring process is an hour taken away from other essential business tasks. However, it’s also vital to recognize that rushing a hire can lead to other costly issues. Settling for a bad fit – or worse, dealing with negligent hiring – will only set your business back even further. Hiring means you need to perform an important balancing act – speed up the hiring process while finding the right candidate.

While tricky, it’s not impossible to speed up the hiring process without rushing. Here are ways you can streamline your hiring process to get the candidates you need quicker than before.

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It’s not easy running a business. In trying times, it becomes even harder. Disasters, pandemics, and other events can wreak havoc on your business. While property damage and other issues can be calculated, it’s difficult to measure the impact these events have on a key element of your business – your employees. 

Difficult times can have a direct impact on your employees both professionally and personally. Supporting them during these times can help ease your employees’ situation, which can both resonate with your workforce and help improve productivity. Here are five steps you can take to make a difficult situation better for you and your employees.

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Over the years, remote work has become increasingly more common. According to SmallBizGenius, the number of people who work from home has increased by 140 percent from 2005 to 2019 – and that rate has probably grown even more as a result of the 2020 COVID-19 outbreak. In fact, Global Workplace Analytics estimates that up to 30 percent of the entire workforce will work from home at least a couple times a week by the end of 2021.

While technological advances make it easier for employers to provide work-from-home privileges to employees, it does lead to a good question: How does workers’ compensation apply to employers who work from home? Whether your employees are temporarily working from home or are full-time telecommuters, it’s important to understand exactly how workers’ compensation applies to remote employees (and what you should do protect you and your workers).

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During the summer of 2019, I spent my time as a full-time sales intern at GMS, but didn’t want my relationship to end with them just yet. The end of the summer was when I finally felt I had the hang of everything I had learned and I wanted to continue putting myself to use. 

I was lucky enough to go into my senior year at Kent State University with a flexible schedule allowing me to keep an internship while remaining a student. Thankfully, GMS gave me the opportunity to do this internship one-to-two days a week. This time around, I was able to work as the marketing intern under the Marketing Coordinator, Matt Schoolcraft. 

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With small businesses still feeling the impact of COVID-19, the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA) is attempting to help employers ease their financial burden. Applications for the NJEDA Small Business Emergency Assistance Grant Program may be closed, but the organization still has several other initiatives available for Garden State employers. Here’s a breakdown of some various programs and loans that will be available as of May 18, 2020 or in the near future.

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“Normalcy”, “Normality”, “Normal”; No more. I’ve never heard the verbal and written abuse of a seemingly, well, normal, word as much as the six-letter description of what is supposed to be over the past three months. For those of us familiar with the U.S. healthcare system, we’ve discarded the word “normal” from our vocabulary long ago.

As many of us anxiously await the “end” of the most recent global pandemic one common phrase has stood out among healthcare industry experts as the most detrimental aspect of the recent outbreak: “overwhelming the healthcare system.” In short, overwhelming the healthcare system can be illustrated by imagining the hospitals in our areas completely overrun with so many COVID diagnoses that it affects the ability for facilities to manage and effectively treat regular hospital patients (not spurred by the pandemic) resulting in worsened health outcomes for all. Luckily, we will avoid a blanketed overwhelming scenario in the U.S. due to this pandemic, but that doesn’t relieve the concern of a looming explosion of chronic illness that is likely to take a similar path within the American population.

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In response to the economic impact of the COVID-19 outbreak, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act was signed into law on March 27, 2020. Among many different types of loans and incentives, the CARES Act introduced tax relief for businesses in the form of payroll tax credits, enhanced net operating loss (NOL) deductions, and payroll tax deferment. However, the payroll tax deferral section of the CARES Act raised several questions for small and medium-sized businesses, especially those that received loans from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).

To help answer these questions, the IRS released guidance on April 10, 2020, regarding payroll tax deferrals. Here’s what business owners need to know when it comes to paying taxes on social security this year.

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Whether your business is facing a difficult financial situation or hit a slow season, it may seem like layoffs are your only option. However, there is another way that you can reduce payroll costs without completely cutting jobs: furloughs. 

Furloughs are a cost-saving measure that can provide employers with financial flexibility without completely severing ties with employees. Of course, you’ll need to ask yourself a few questions to figure out if furloughs make sense for your business. 

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Over the past few years, a growing number of states and cities have banned the practice of using salary history to screen potential new employees. If you’re an employer in New Jersey, you’re now included in that trend. 

Starting in 2020, it’s not a good idea for New Jersey employers to ask job applicants how much they made. The Garden State is now one of 17 states and multiple cities to outlaw pay history questions. While similar in many aspects, New Jersey’s version of the law does have some key differences that can help employers avoid potential penalties.

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