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How healthy are your employees? If you are a small business owner looking to save money on your healthcare, let’s hope they are all vegetarian non-smokers training for a marathon, right? 

While that would be great, for your small business what matters more for your bottom line is the type of healthcare plan you provide. You have two choices: a fully insured plan or a self-insured plan. 

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It’s likely that as a small business, you don’t have a dedicated HR team. You may divide the tasks amongst a group of people, you may spend your nights and weekends making sure you’re keeping up to speed on the various HR regulations out there, or, even worse, you ignore it all together and just ‘wing’ HR management.

If you find yourself spending more and more time dealing with HR functions and less and less time growing your business, you have a couple options: hire a professional employer organization (PEO) to handle the tasks for you, or hire someone dedicated to the management of your HR needs.

Of course, we’d love it if you chose the option of hiring a PEO, but if you opt for hiring an HR manager, we’ve compiled a helpful list of 8 traits you should watch out for.

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Are you looking for a way to reduce administration costs for your small business? Have you considered how much time (and money) you would save if you didn’t have to prepare and process your payroll and payroll taxes?

When you outsource payroll services, there are a number of benefits. The most essential for small businesses is that you can take the time you used to spend on payroll and devote it to building your business. 

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According to a Wells Fargo study, 37% of people expect to work until they die. That’s an alarming number, but one that you can use to your advantage.

Most people would rather spend their later years comfortably enjoying their retirement, so by offering a quality 401k plan, you give your business a step up in attracting and retaining quality employees.

Avoid Financial Confusion: Educate Your Group

Before we give you the key elements to a great 401k plan, it’s worth taking a moment to remind you that financial choices can be intimidating and confusing for many employees. One way you can help is by making an effort to ensure employees are educated about their choices. These resources will help make sure everyone is on the same page.

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Did you know that January 17th has been named National Ditch Your Resolution Day? It has been reported this is the average day that most people give up on their healthy resolutions.  This is an important day for us in the” Wellness World”, but it is also the average day most people give up on all of their work and personal goals too. This is the time that most people who have been working so hard since the New Year become tired and simply give up. 

So how does someone go from throwing out all of the “bad” food, habits, attitudes, spending a small fortune on “good” food, gym memberships, and changing work habits to giving up merely 17 days later?  Before they jump right in to making and attacking resolutions, they need to have a plan in place.

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As a small business owner, you probably rely on the services of other organizations to accomplish a range of tasks, services and other duties. Your health insurance broker or policy provider is one you expect has your best interest in mind. The reality is, they may not, especially when it comes to premium and individual claim costs.

With all your other responsibilities, you don’t have time to keep tabs on everything your health insurer does, however, there are some key questions you need to ask in order to effectively evaluate just how much they are working for you:

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With today’s challenging economy, employees are often finding themselves searching for a better paying job.  A recent survey states that 47 percent of top-performers are looking for jobs. That statistic could be earth shattering for any business. "Whenever there’s a shift in talent, it’s the ones you want to keep that leave first."

Little do they know, they may be making more than they think.  Employees typically only see their take home pay and not the cost of the additional benefits you as the employer are offering.  

As an employer, it is imperative to make sure your staff feels valued.  A great way to accomplish this is to show employees everything they are being offered besides what they put in the bank.  By presenting your employees with these facts, it will encourage them to stick around. Turnover rates can not only bring morale down, it is also a huge cost to you. With costs like unemployment taxes, job ad placements, background checks, training, and administrative costs during the process, it could cost you thousands of dollars each time an employee quits.   

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Conducting an employee review is one of the most disliked tasks among managers and business owners. However, these evaluation opportunities are critical in retaining good employees, motivating employees to remain productive and maintaining a good relationship with your staff. 

Before you sit down to complete your laundry list of assessment points, consider the following tips to help your employee reviews be more effective than ever:

Listen

While it is tempting to run down the list of “grades” the employee has earned throughout the year, engaging in an open discussion is the best form of evaluation. Instead of leading with the company form, ask your employee about their performance throughout the year, the problems and challenges they have encountered and how they overcame those obstacles. Carefully listen to your employee to help solve their work-related problems and create goals for the coming year. 

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"Keeping the plates spinning," is an idiom many small businesses use to describe the way they manage their human resource responsibilities. Some outsource HR functions to various companies while some tasks are handled by an in-house team member who has many other job duties

There's no need to juggle between outsourcing tasks to multiple companies and attempting to have them work together on your behalf. Professional employee organizations, or PEOs, can help minimize the stress, time and costly resources you spend administering your HR functions by managing: 

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For small-or medium-sized businesses, worker's compensation can be extremely costly. You invest a lot of the time, money and resources into claims management to ensure your business stays compliant and your workers are protected. With your limited resources, there are steps you can take to minimize your risks and reduce your worker’s compensation costs. 

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