Request a call Login

  • My two older boys, ages 9 and 10, are playing ‘kid pitch’ baseball this year. Believe it or not, when I asked them what position they wanted to play, they both said “Dad, I want to be the pitcher”.

    Then we asked each player on the team what position they wanted to play and each and every player said “Pitcher”. On paper this is not strange, as this is the most glorified position in baseball. After all, they make the most money, get the most publicity (when they are good), and seem to have the biggest fan base.

    The other coaches and I talked to our 13-man roster about how important every position is on the team and how every position contributes to the overall goal. We teach them that they all have to play together to win.

    This conversation made me think of a business and all the “players” within a company. I bet if you asked most employees, “If I could give you a new position, what would it be?”, a popular responses would be, “I want to be the manager, the president, or the owner.”

    I am not downplaying the pitcher, the manager, the president, or the owner positions, as they are still important. But isn’t the baseball team just like a company, where that every position is important?

    • Without Risk Managers – workers gets hurt and worker’s comp rates go through the roof.
    • Without Payroll Employees – we have anarchy because no one gets paid.
    • Without Tax Administrators – the IRS is knocking at the door (actually they don’t even knock, they just enter.)
    • Without Sales People – there are no new customers.
    • Without Benefits Administrators – no one has healthcare, 401K’s, or vision and dental insurance.
    • Without Wellness Coordinators – people miss out on learning to improve their health choices.
    • Without Human Resource Employees – you have a disheveled mess.

    You get my point? Every business needs:

    • Right, center, and left fielders
    • Catchers and pitchers
    • First, second, and third basemen
    • Shortstops
    • Teammates on the bench ready to play
    • Fans
    • Beloved mascots
    • Coaches
    • Umpires

    No team is successful without all of these positions working together towards a unified goal. Isn’t the same true in business? Whenever everyone works together—bringing their special talents and experiences with them—games are won, and businesses grow.

    “Trend Following Little League Team,” © 2012 Michael Covel, used under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic License.

  • Do any of these sound familiar?

    • Losing good employees to competitors.
    • A cranky work environment.
    • Excessive workplace injuries.
    • Out-of-control healthcare costs.
    • Ridiculously high unemployment insurance costs.

    If you’ve been dealing with any of these issues, no doubt you’ve come to the conclusion that HR is more than just a luxury enjoyed at big corporations. HR is a necessity for small and medium-sized businesses, too.

    It’s possible that you have HR problems. What are you going to do?

    HR Outsourcing

    You’ve heard about HR outsourcing, but maybe you don’t know what it entails or how to learn more about it. How can you tell if it is right for your company?

    You’ve heard about Professional Employer Organizations (PEO). But maybe it sounds a little shaky since you don’t know of anyone who’s using a PEO. How popular are PEOs?

    You might be surprised.

    The HR outsourcing industry has grown from $61 billion in 2002 to $103 billion in 2007 and is projected to grow to $162 billion in 2015. The largest chunk of that is the PEO industry.

    Professional Employer Organizations (PEO)

    PEOs work with small businesses to help reduce time and cost when it comes to the things that an HR department would do at a large company. If you walked into a large corporation with thousands of employees and asked to see their HR department, what do you think you would see? The department would include a payroll department, a benefits department, a risk management department and actual HR manager or department. You might even find a wellness department to work hand-in-hand with the benefits department.

    These huge companies have tons of money to throw at problems and lots of high-priced attorneys to get them out of trouble. Yet they still keep all of these departments active. They know how important HR can be.

    Big corporations realize they need HR departments. It’s even more crucial that small businesses understand that they should have access to these essential HR services.

    Specializing in Small Business HR

    Not all small businesses have the means or the resources to keep all of these HR departments in-house, and that’s when they should begin looking at outsourcing their HR.

    A small business is already probably outsourcing their payroll, their benefits and their Worker’s Comp administration to different companies. All of those departments need to be able to share information with each other. If you can have one vendor do all of that for you, allowing you to focus on growing your business, wouldn’t you? What if you could do that while saving money as well? What if in addition to saving money, you could also offload a lot of your tax and employee liability in the process? Can you see why this industry is growing?

    What about compliancy issues? In the last five years, have you seen an increase or a decrease in the amount of regulations imposed on your business? What about the Affordable Care Act? Do you need to be compliant? If not now, will you someday? What does that mean to you? Do you know who to turn to find out?

    There are tons of HR questions that small businesses have, and PEOs—like GMS—have the answers. Ask us anything.

    ***

    “Footbridge to Canary Wharf,” © 2008 Stephen McKay, used under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic License.

  • Virtually every company in America is bound by the Federal Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA).

    This law “regulates the status of employees (versus independent contractors) and provides for a minimum wage and overtime unless the employee meets an exempt classification.” However, the scope of this law is not simply limited to employees’ wages.

    Protecting Whistle Blowers

    Did you know that an added feature of the FLSA is the protection of employees who may be labeled “whistle blowers”?

    Under the FLSA, an employee cannot be retaliated against for filling an official complaint against their employer with a government agency. According to an article on JD Supra’s legal website, a recent 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling has expanded this law to include “intra-company” complaints. They have also stipulated that this complaint can be in written ororal form.

    Forming a Written Policy

    As with any kind of employee-related issue, the best protection for an employer is the proper documentation of any employee events. By documentation, I don’t just mean that a supervisor should write it down and file it. All the documentation in the world doesn’t mean a thing unless the employees know what the rules of the game are.

    That’s why every company should have a written policy on how to handle employee complaints—and every employee should know exactly what that policy is. The tricky part is knowing just how much is too little and when you may have gone too far in setting up your company rules.

    Avoiding FLSA Issues

    Companies with the strongest Human Resource infrastructures in place are the ones who are least susceptible to FLSA penalties or potential employee lawsuits. To help protect themselves from ever-evolving government regulations, companies are looking for assistance in employer liability management.

    For many companies, a Professional Employer Organization like GMS can help.

  • 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 26th, 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!

  • For several years, GMS has been paying Ohio local taxes via Ohio Business Gateway. This method has saved us from printing 1,500 checks annually and the paper forms to go along with them. In a single quarter, GMS will pay over 1.2 million dollars in local tax payments to 180 jurisdictions. But what’s more exciting is that we uploaded and processed our first live electronic returns & payments to the ODJFS (Ohio Department of Job and Family Services) for Q2, 2013.

    What does this really mean?

    • We sent the agency a deposit that exceeded 1 million dollars. 
    • We avoided printing over 700 checks and the accompanying 1,800 sheets of additional paper. 
    • We avoided the extravagant shipping charges for such a large package and secured the payments by uploading rather than the standard delivery method.
    • We also no longer need to wait the typical 2-4 weeks for our returns to post, they are posted almost immediately. 
    • And best of all, we were the first TPA contacted to work with ODJFS on this filing method. 

    We’re very proud of the relationship we have with ODJFS and are happy to announce that we are now completely electronic with them. We get automated rate adjustments, automated tax notices and now electronic returns. If you have questions about your ODJFS account, please feel free to contact us at taxmail@groupmgmt.com.

  • 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. 

    “Women operators at Midvale Company payroll machine in Time Office, April 29, 1949” by Kheel Center, Cornell University

    Benefits to Outsourcing Payroll Functions

    Greater business focus

    Your focus should be about growing your business and strengthening your core business strategy, not administrative details. 

    Reduced costs

    Using a professional employer organization (PEO) isn’t free, but many companies find significant cost savings by outsourcing their payroll. And, with a PEO like GMS, you can rest easier knowing that a team of payroll experts will protect you from risks like payroll tax penalties that directly impact your bottom line.

    More time

    If you’ve handled payroll or HR you understand how time consuming it can be. Calculating taxes, filing forms, and trying to keep up with different labor and tax laws could end up taking up large parts of your day. 

    Time order pink payroll record before leaving for WWII. Glenn Gaskins last payroll recod before entering WWII by wcgaskins59 is licensed under CC BY 2.0

    Maybe it’s time to consider a PEO

    As a professional employer organization, or PEO, our services and comprehensive solutions can provide options that will help effectively manage your payroll needs for you. Think about the time you will save by streamlining your system. 

    GMS’s payroll services include:

    • Full-service, Internet-based payroll processing
    • Payroll tax payment & filing
    • Time keeping systems
    • Workers comp calculations & filing
    • Electronic new hire reporting
    • Online payroll services available 24/7

    Read more about our what our team of payroll experts can provide for your payroll services. 

    Still have questions about our payroll services or how working with a PEO can save you money? We thought you might, so we added a Payroll Services FAQ section.

    Still not convinced? You don’t have to take our word for it, you can read the testimonials about our payroll & tax services. 

    What are your top payroll frustrations? Find yourself wishing you could spend your time at work doing other things than payroll administration? Let us know in the comments below.

  • “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: 

     

    Human resources, including employee recruiting and training, performance management, HR audits and more. GMS provides an online system solution to coordinate communication and centralize information. 

    Payroll, by assuming all responsibility and liability for your business taxes. With GMS, you and your employees have constant access to the online payroll service in our secure and easy-to-use web-based system. 

    Competitive benefits at a reduced rate. Attract and retain talented employees with health insurance, 401(k) plans, and other benefits at the rate large companies receive. With more than 20,000 workers, GMS can achieve great economy of scale when purchasing benefits coverage. 

    Risk and liability to prevent and effectively handle problems when they do arise. The risk management experts at GMS can manage Workers’ Compensation programs, unemployment claims, and OSHA safety regulations. 

    When you outsource your administrative duties to a PEO like GMS, your small-to medium-sized businesses can experience the benefits of a big business HR department. You can offer the very best benefits to your employees while saving your company time and money.

    Think you could benefit from a PEO provider? So do we. Let’s talk.

  • The end of the year is an extremely busy time for most business owners and your attention is pulled from managing one task to the next. One of the most important responsibilities business owners face – and one of the most stressful to manage – is payroll tax management.

    Let’s take a minute to review two major tax obligations that are of critical importance as the calendar year comes to a close.

    Prior to the last payroll of the calendar year

    Verify employee data: Accuracy is critical when preparing your payroll taxes. Confirm all active and terminated employee data is correct, especially his or her social security number. Check to ensure all wage figures, benefits, sick time and vacation time has been accurately reported. 

    Check the wage, tax and benefits information: Ensure special tax information has been collected and correct withholdings have been made for taxable fringe benefits like third-party sick pay, tips, bonuses and any non-cash payments.

    Check for special considerations: Schedule any payments for bonuses, track and confirm that all checks are accounted for in the system. Have your employees complete a new Form W-4 if their situation has changed. Now is also a good time to restock your payroll supplies like blank checks, payroll forms and blank W-2. 

    Prior to the first payroll of the next calendar year

    Verify employee data: Correct any discrepancies including a missing or incorrect mailing address or social security number. Ensure any employees who are no longer with the company have been removed from the database. 

    Check the wage, tax and benefits information: Verify the new state tax rates for disability insurance, unemployment insurance and the taxable wage limit. Compare your payroll register totals to form W-3 totals and verify if the Earned Income Credit (EIC) coding has been submitted correctly.

    Check for special considerations: Ensure the new year’s month-end close-out dates are accurate and that all necessary management reports are scheduled. Confirm the schedule of pay dates, period end dates and quarterly closing dates. While you check these schedule of dates, make sure they do not fall on any holidays or during weekends and make any adjustments as needed.

    Tax management can be time consuming and complicated. But utilizing automated payroll management services can eliminate some of your burden and can help reduce the time you spend generating the reports you need for tax filing. 

    If you find yourself facing end-of-year payroll challenges, understand that you don’t have to face it alone. Turning to a PEO like GMS – which offers online, 24/7 automated payroll management support, can reduce your payroll burden and save you time and money you would have otherwise spent trying to remain compliant with various (potentially confusing) tax laws.

  • 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?

    Wrong!  Large corporations, with large HR budgets, have long been able to control costs in those area by self-insuring or doing better documenting of employee issues that lead to terminations.  Small business owners general don’t have that same luxury, unless they work with a PEO.

    How PEOs Make Your Business Stronger

    According to a recent white paper put out by the National Association of PEOs, companies that use a PEO have 10-14% lower turnover of employees than comparable companies. With employee replacement costs equaling 150% of that employee’s wages according to the Society of Human Resource Managers (SHRM), that is a cost that is a potentially large cost that can be cut or altogether avoided. These numbers are even higher for companies in the white collar world.

    Companies that use a PEO that has a self-insured Worker’s Comp and/or Healthcare program automatically have mechanisms put in place through those programs that monitor and manage costs tied to those programs. By having specialists working exclusively in those areas, every conceivable way to manage those costs is reviewed for its viability and cost effectiveness.

    Additionally, companies that use a PEO are 50% less likely to fail compared to other similar companies in their industries.  According to that same white paper “Data broken down by specific industries  point to ‘Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services’, ‘Construction’ and ‘Finance and Insurance’ as being three industry categories that disproportionately benefit from PEO services in both lower employee turnover rates and lower business failure rates.”

    To see how a PEO like GMS can benefit your business, give us a call at 330-659-0100 or fill out our online form today.

  • 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.”

    At the base of this memo is the administration’s desire to transform employees exempt from overtime hours (salaried employees mostly) into non-exempt employees.  This will have enormous financial repercussions on businesses everywhere.  If a salaried manager is working 50-60 hours/week and suddenly becomes a non-exempt employee, one of two things will have to happen.  The employer will have to either cut that employee’s hours to save money (making him/her less productive) or will have to swallow the increased costs associated with more overtime.  A third option would be to hire additional help, potentially adding additional employee-related costs.

    Unlike the initial rules for the Affordable Care Act, there is no exemption based on a company’s size.  This could create extra pressure on small businesses.  Not only would there be the cost of additional overtime, but there would also be the additional costs associated with the auditing employers will have to undertake to make sure they’re compliant with the new regulations.

    Of course, larger employers already have many of the mechanisms in place to take on this added regulatory burden.  What about small businesses?  Where can they go for help?  

    You guessed it. GMS. Give us a call at 330-659-0100 or contact us online to learn more.