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  • Ohio and Republican legislative leaders have reached a compromise for the legalization of marijuana in Ohio vote for next year’s ballot, 2023. The Ohio Marijuana Legalization Initiative (2023) would enact a state law to legalize the cultivation, processing, sale, purchase, possession, home growth, and use of recreational marijuana for adults 21 years of age and older. In addition, the law would impose a 10% tax on adult-use cannabis sales and direct revenue to fund “a cannabis social equity and jobs program” to offer “financial assistance and license application support to individuals most directly and adversely affected by the enforcement of marijuana laws.”

    The legalization process has been quite a challenge for advocates. They’ve needed to turn in a first batch of at least 132,887 valid signatures to the state to initiate a process. Following that, lawmakers would have four months to decide whether to enact the proposal. Unfortunately, the legislature declined to move on to reform for November 2022 ballots.

    To bring the issue before voters in November 2023, advocates must resubmit their petitions on January 3rd, 2023.

    Stay In The ‘Know’ By Partnering With GMS

    Our experts at GMS work with you to create a simpler, safer, and stronger workplace for you and your employees. While the cannabis industry is making its presence in the state of Ohio, GMS will keep you up-to-date on any changes that your business should know in order to stay compliant with state laws. To learn how GMS can benefit your business, contact us today.

  • An ever-changing workplace environment, coupled with the effects of COVID-19, leaves companies with positions to fill and a shortage of qualified candidates. In 2021, more than 47 million Americans had quit their jobs, which was a record for the most resignations in history. The majority of workers who quit a job in 2021 stated that low pay (63%), no opportunities for advancement within their company (63%), and feeling disrespected at work (57%) were the main reasons they quit their jobs.

    The pandemic quickly changed how Americans view the workplace and their expectations of it. As COVID-19 rates are on the decline, offices are starting to enforce employees returning to work in the office as opposed to working remotely. So, how can you make your workplace somewhere employees actually want to come to? Continue reading to see how you can enhance your company culture.

    Evaluate Your Current Company Culture

    The most important step to enhancing your company culture is to evaluate the current state of it. Consider how your employees are working together, the employee engagement, arrival, and departure of your employees, etc. Interview employees or conduct surveys to gather additional information. Once you take all those factors and review them, you need to determine what’s missing in your culture. The most crucial step in this process is actually taking action to improve on the areas needed. This is a long process, but ultimately worthwhile.

    Core Values

    Core values shape your company culture and impact your overall business strategy. They provide your organization with a shared sense of purpose for achieving common goals. Your core values define how your team operates, behaves, and interacts during day-to-day activities. Once you’ve defined your values, ingraining them into the workplace is the challenging part. You must implement accountability mechanisms so your values can be easily united into a performance management system. Taking the time to recognize employees who have positively demonstrated your company values is a simple way to ensure your employees feel engaged and rewarded.

    Conduct Performance Reviews

    Providing constructive feedback is vital to your employees’ ongoing development. The feedback you offer them clarifies expectations, helps people learn from their mistakes, and builds confidence. When things are going well, it can be easy to provide feedback. However, providing negative feedback isn’t as simple. The problem compounds if it isn’t addressed right away, meaning you’ll find yourself dealing with a much bigger issue later. If employees choose to leave your company, be sure to take advantage of an exit interview. This allows for your team to receive constructive criticism from former employees as to why they’re leaving and what improvements they may have for your company.  

    Encourage Growth

    It’s important now more than ever to retain your employees. If you’re looking for a new position to fill, consider promoting current employees before looking externally. Making sure your current employees are given opportunities for growth is one of the best ways to keep them. Consider offering personal development programs, attending conferences with your employees, conducting skills assessments, and creating formal opportunities to try out new responsibilities.

    In today’s job market, you must ensure that you’re investing in your employees. By providing detailed career paths, you will do just that and attract talented employees. Candidates will be more interested and engaged from the very beginning of their career if they see a detailed path laid out in front of them showing the options for movement and growth within your company. According to SHRM, only 29% of employees were satisfied with the career advancement opportunities offered to them. These career paths ultimately help your employees envision a long-term career within your business.

    Employee Engagement

    Enhancing employee engagement is the simplest way to decrease employee turnover, boost productivity, increase safety, and improve the employer brand. Organizations rely on the energy, commitment, and engagement within their workforce to succeed. You must involve engagement from the entire leadership team and a lot of planning in this step. Consider volunteering as a team and have other team outings. Participating in team-building activities builds a stronger relationship within your organization while potentially helping your community. Participating in activities with team members provides your employees an environment where relationship building is encouraged. Use your company values to aid in the decision of what activities your organization participates in.

    Transparency

    Transparency is the practice of being open and honest with your employees. Being transparent within the workplace has many benefits. Implementing an open workplace encourages clear communication, collaboration, and an understanding of others without being afraid to speak up. Your employees want to feel supported and valued. Add transparency to your company policy to ensure all employees follow and respect the order to practice honesty. Ensure you are leading by example when encouraging transparency with your team. You need to be the first to set the standard. In order to enforce transparency effectively, be sure to start in the hiring process. This allows for your employees to know from the very beginning about your culture and policies that must be followed in the workplace.

    Incentives

    It is a common practice for business owners and managers to find effective ways to help keep their employees motivated and engaged. Offering incentives to your employees motivates them and drives behaviors that ultimately result in improved business outcomes. Incentives also create a culture of high performance and retain top performers. Common incentives can include schedule flexibility, home-office days, stock options, team retreats, and tuition reimbursement. Implementing employee incentives comes with many advantages which include improved sales, boosting the morale of your team, and reducing employee turnover.

    Recognize Employees

    Recognizing your employees for a job well done helps employees see that their company values them and their contributions to the success of their team and the company overall. When recognizing employees, be sure you’re tying it to a specific accomplishment or business objective which encourages continued strong performance. However, a simple “great work” goes a long way for some employees to keep motivated. You don’t know how your employees like to be rewarded, so make sure you ask.  

    Embrace Technology

    Technology has become an essential part of our day-to-day lives in the workplace. Implementing technology allows your company to be more competitive, enhances communication and collaboration, increases security, and improves productivity and efficiency. Employees must be able to understand that the workforce constantly changes, and they must be willing to adapt as well. Most organizations that are constantly changing technology platforms realize that employees quickly learn how efficient their job can become with new technology. At GMS, we provide top-notch technology to your business to help with your HR functions.

    How A PEO Can Help Enhance Company Culture

    As an ever-tightening labor market is still relevant, recruiting employees, retention, and enhancing company culture has never been more challenging for businesses. However, GMS can offer your small to mid-sized company guidance on hiring and training, as well as assist in managing the administrative burdens associated with every aspect of the employee life cycle. Our team of experts works diligently with you to provide benefits to attract top-tier employees. We assist in recruiting top talent and providing access to cutting-edge technology including GMS Connect, Time Clock, expense reporting, and our learning management system. Having been named a Top Workplace for over six years, we understand how important creating a strong company culture is. Contact us today to learn how we can assist your business.

  • For the 2023 calendar year, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) raised the contribution limit to a health savings account (HSA) to $3,850 for an individual and $7,750 for a family. Currently, the HSA limit is $3,650 for individuals and $7,300 for a family. These higher limits allow individuals and families to save more money on qualified expenses.

    An HSA is a savings account that allows you to set aside money on a pre-tax basis to pay for qualified medical expenses. With an HSA, you can use untaxed dollars to pay for deductibles, co-payments, and coinsurance which may lower your health care costs. HSAs are available only to individuals with a high deductible health plan (HDHP) which the IRS defines as a plan with an annual deductible that is no less than $1,500 for self-only coverage or $3,000 for family coverages for 2023. It also articulated that annual out-of-pocket expenses including deductibles and co-payments for an HDHP cannot exceed $7,500 for individuals and $15,000 for family coverage.

    There will be no change to the age 55+ HSA catch-up limit rules for 2023 so it remains at $1,000 per year. This allows any individual ages 55 and older to put away an additional “catch-up” contribution up to that amount annually. All adjusted limits will go into effect starting January 1, 2023.

    GMS Is Here To Help!

    Are you a business owner that doesn’t offer any health care benefits, but you think now might be a good time to introduce them? You’ve come to the right place. We understand that health coverage can be confusing. At GMS, our team of experts sits with your employees to explain the different health coverages available to them and determine the right fit. Learn more!

  • Since its beginnings, artificial intelligence (AI) has helped businesses automate important tasks and make their operations more efficient. It has helped companies identify changing trends and consumer habits, automatically detect fraud and irregular behavior, and provide sales and marketing teams with targeted audiences. There are many benefits of implementing AI in your business however, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, viewpoints have changed. We all anticipate a bright future for technology, but we’ve also feared things going wrong.

    Studies show that nine out of ten leading businesses invest in AI technologies, but only 15% deploy AI capabilities within their own business. Executives of businesses say that AI makes their business more competitive than ever before. Unfortunately, HR professionals have faced challenges adapting to the potential AI can provide them. It is difficult to implement AI in your business due to the fact that it’s complex and ever-changing. Today, the main challenge for HR professionals is finding AI technologists.

    Reign, an application development firm, conducted a study that showed a 21 percent increase in the number of AI jobs available in the U.S. Research also showed that there was a 27 percent increase in job wages associated with AI-related jobs. Felipe Silberstein, Vice President of Strategy for Reign, said job positions that require AI or machine-learning skills are projected to increase by 71 percent within the next five years.

    You may ask yourself what the problem is if the demand for AI jobs is increasing. Individuals found that the root of the problem is the COVID-19 pandemic and the Great Resignation, based on research and surveys that were conducted. It was reported that 48 percent of executives began utilizing AI at the very beginning of the pandemic. Millions of employees started quitting their jobs in 2021 which left most companies short-staffed and struggling to find good talent. Due to these pandemic-related issues, executives put maximizing their AI capabilities at the bottom of their list of importance.

    Individuals have stated they feel AI imposes a negative impact on their industry because it requires more training or upskilling of workers. It has become increasingly common for executives to say that AI does not improve their businesses’ competitiveness. Negative impacts of AI on businesses that you may want to consider include:

    • AI bias
    • Loss of certain jobs
    • A shift in human experience
    • Global regulations
    • Accelerated hacking
    • AI terrorism

    Upskilling the workforce is a much-needed task that needs to happen amongst the majority of companies. There is a portion of individuals who said they would consider learning tech skills relevant to working with AI technology in the future. However, the number was less than 50% of individuals. This means that individuals with substantial financial resources now have an advantage. Businesses are concerned that once they retrain their employees and invest all this money, these employees will be picked up by their competitors.

    Human resources are one of the most time-consuming components for any small business to manage. Between recruiting and retaining employees to payroll to tracking vacation time, there are many functions when it comes to human resources management. However, you didn’t start your business to become an HR expert, did you? When you outsource your HR functions, it allows you to spend more time focusing on growing your business, and less time on human resource management. Our clients trust that despite our advanced technologies, they’ll receive dedicated GMS experts handling their needs. Learn how outsourcing human resources to an HR outsourcing company like GMS can help.

  • Recruiting must be more strategic than ever, and you need a combination of creativity and diligence to recruit top talent. Most companies are in the same situation as you; the demand for great talent is skyrocketing, while there aren’t enough candidates available. Knowing this, connecting with qualified candidates and driving excitement about your company and each specific role must be done differently than your competitors. Continue reading to learn how to recruit different types of employees.

    How To Recruit Employees

    As we approach another year of an unprecedented labor market, talent acquisition professionals face recruiting and hiring challenges. The first step in recruiting employees is to create a recruitment strategy if you haven’t done so already – and, if you already have one in place, then – consider fine-tuning it to reflect the challenges facing the hiring process today.

    What Is A Recruitment Strategy?

    A recruitment strategy is a plan that is put together to help improve your current hiring process to accomplish the following goals:

    • Improving job offer acceptance rate
    • Attracting more qualified candidates
    • Reducing new employee turnover rates
    • Streamlining application process

    Now, you may be implementing the goals listed above already however, there are ways in which you can improve them to make your hiring process more effective. Consider refreshing the candidate experience, post on different job boards, attend career fairs, or utilize an applicant tracking system.

    Once you improve your recruitment strategy, take the following steps to further help your recruiting efforts.

    1. Write appealing job descriptions

    As you are writing job descriptions for open positions, ensure they are direct and specific, free of buzzwords. The summary should only be a couple of sentences, providing the candidate with an understanding of the job. It should also include basic job functions of the role, qualifications, and your company culture.

    2. Offer incentives for employee referrals

    By offering incentives to current employees, you open the door to talent you probably won’t find elsewhere. Your employees are most likely already sharing open positions with their contacts. That’s great! To make it more worthwhile, offering a well-developed employee referral program can encourage even more employees to refer the best talent. Hiring this way also allows the candidate to get an understanding of your business from an inside perspective, both positive and negative.

    3. Utilize social media

    When recruiting new employees, consider utilizing social media platforms. Recruiting on social media allows you to share your open positions with an entire network of users. Sharing photos and videos from company events, the day-to-day life of employees, and company culture provide potential candidates with a glimpse into your company.

    4. Prioritize hiring internally

    Consider hiring current employees first. Do not underestimate the power of passion over experience. Interviewing current employees has many benefits for your company. Your employees already know your culture and company. Having an inside perspective from another role within the organization provides them with a fresh take on any business challenges you are looking to resolve.

    5. Conduct great interviews

    Interviews are meant to be informative and a pitch about your company. However, it’s also the candidate’s first experience with your company. Consider making your interview process unique and memorable to attract top talent. Create a welcoming environment and involve current employees that were in the same spot as the candidate not too long ago. Stand out by showing your company culture early in the interview process.

    How To Recruit Entry-Level Employees

    Recruiting entry-level employees can oftentimes be a challenge however, these employees can become the future of your company. Underestimating how important the process of hiring these employees can lead to trouble in the long run. It’s important you follow specific recruiting guidelines to find top entry-level employees.

    Know Who Your Ideal Candidate Is

    Writing out a description of what characteristics you are looking for in a candidate is probably the most important step when recruiting for entry-level positions. It’s difficult for both the employer and the candidate to determine if the position is the right fit. Sit down with your team and create a list of characteristics the perfect employee for this role must possess. What strengths and traits would this person need to have in order to be successful and bring value to the team? Today, the majority of companies are hiring for entry-level positions, and there is a large supply of job seekers. However, the labor force of people ages 16-24 is projected to shrink by 7.5%.

    It is likely that you will receive a lot of applications. Knowing your ideal candidate from the beginning will help you weed out the wrong candidates quickly.

    Create Targeted And Engaging Job Ads

    When creating job ads, make sure you are writing clear and realistic job descriptions. Remember, shorter job posts receive 8.4% more applications per view than average. List what required skills the candidate must possess instead of focusing on previous experience. You also want to include the benefits candidates have working for your company. Create an ad that makes candidates excited to work for your company. Most applicants will only spend 14 seconds deciding if they should apply or not.

    Establish Career Paths

    Establishing early on in the interview process what the future could look like for the candidate is important. You want to show entry-level employees you are interested in a long-term career for them. Provide the candidate with a detailed list as to what the next steps can look like, what performance needs to look like to move up, and provide a timeline. Also, providing entry-level employees with ongoing training will allow these employees to learn new skills and be successful in the longevity of their careers within your business.

    How To Recruit Minimum Wage & Seasonal Employees

    Most minimum wage and seasonal employees are students, individuals looking for a side job, or those in the agricultural sector who have busy seasons. Since these employees only stay around for a short period of time, recruiting these individuals can be a challenge. Putting in the time to train and teach these employees needs to be worthwhile and you need to make sure you’re hiring the right candidate.

    Offer Competitive Perks

    If you don’t currently offer competitive perks to your minimum wage employees, consider developing incentives to help with your recruiting efforts. Right now, companies are offering high hourly pay. Perhaps you give them a pay increase after they hit 90 days or additional bonuses for hitting certain goals. Consider comparing yourself to competitors and observe if you are in line with what they are paying per hour. You’re much more likely to attract candidates by offering benefits to minimum-wage employees.

    Be Proactive

    If you know you’re hiring students who can only work within specific time frames, be proactive with your recruiting efforts. Students typically look for jobs in the summertime when they have the most amount of free time. Consider recruiting and interviewing these individuals prior to summer so you can be prepared when they come onboard.

    Flexibility With Scheduling

    If you’re hiring students or individuals looking for a side job, it is most likely known that scheduling will be a concern. If students are on summer break, vacations are already planned, and activities are scheduled, leaving limited time to work. Adults who have children that are looking for a part-time job have responsibilities that could lead to complications in the future. Allowing individuals to work from home (if applicable) or creating their own schedule is a possibility when recruiting these employees.

    The Benefits Of Outsourcing HR

    Considering all the factors that go into recruiting and hiring specific employees, it takes a considerable amount of time and money. Since COVID-19, companies have seen a huge increase in open jobs but not enough candidates to fulfill those positions. Professional employer organizations (PEOs) like GMS provide guidance on hiring and training efforts and will also manage the administrative burdens that are associated with all aspects of the employee life cycle. Outsourcing your HR responsibilities to an HR outsourcing company like GMS can help your business:

    • Save time and money
    • Grow
    • Retain control
    • Retain employees

    Do what you do best and outsource the rest!

  • On April 21st, 2022, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania dropped its reinstated mask requirement for businesses located within the city. Philadelphia originally reinstated a mask requirement for businesses on April 18th which only lasted three days. A handful of reasons led to the requirement being dropped so quickly.

    Dr. Cheryl Bettigole, the city’s Health Commissioner, announced that hospitalizations unexpectedly dropped 25 percent in a matter of days. When Philadelphia announced the reinstated mask requirement on April 18th, the Pennsylvania Restaurant & Lodging Association called it “deflating.” Ben Fileccia, Senior Director of Operations for the association expressed that restaurant workers have suffered a significant amount of backlash from the very beginning of mask mandates. He believed this time would be no different.

    The Southeastern Transportation Authority (SEPTA) announced on April 18th that they would no longer require masks to be worn on public transportation. This announcement impacted Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney’s decision to withdraw the requirement days after it was reinstated. However, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on April 20th that it has appealed the ruling. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) urged the DOJ to continue its appeal. Since there has been an increase in the Coronavirus Omicron variant, the CDC requires masks on public transportation until May 3rd, 2022.

    When partnering with a PEO, you will have access to an HR specialist who keeps you informed of ever-changing rules and mandates. Because COVID-19 has impacted businesses in ways business owners could never have imagined, let us take the burden of HR responsibilities off your shoulders. Contact us today!

  • Many organizations steer their focus towards reducing turnover. However, they fail to realize the importance of onboarding. The connection between employee retention and onboarding is not always evident. Research shows that an employee’s first day is the key factor that determines whether or not they will stay with the company.

    Every employee remembers their first day on the job, which is why it is very important to focus on the onboarding process. A strong onboarding process not only helps with employee retention and turnover but also alleviates administrative pressures on hiring managers.

    Onboarding For Retention

    When hiring new employees, you must make sure to provide them with clear expectations around their specific roles. These expectations happen to be one of the most important, yet least common elements of an effective onboarding process. An effective onboarding process can increase employee retention by 82%.

    Having a comprehensive system of expectations allows HR managers, recruiters, and new employees an agreed-upon and predictive course of action. To obtain this type of consistency, managers need to align the list of expectations they have from every new hire.

    Optimizing Onboarding

    Throughout the onboarding process, communication is vital. Having a predetermined system helps expedite the process. The average new hire onboarding experience alone can consist of 54 different activities. A growing business can’t afford to take on all that administrative work.

    Partnering with a PEO allows for a smooth onboarding process. Having a cloud-based human resources information system (HRIS) in place allows businesses to have a predetermined plan to attract, hire, onboard, and manage employees. Electronic onboarding is a digitized process for onboarding new employees. The new hires can simply log in from wherever and fill out all the information needed in order to get them enrolled in your system. This process puts the information into the hands of the person who knows it best, the employees themselves. When onboarding an employee by hand, it can simply leave a business open to human error when it comes to compliance. Onboarding electronically helps make the process easier and more accurate for employers and employees.

    Final Thoughts

    GMS provides paperless onboarding, benefits enrollment, payroll, and training to support each employee up for success. Having a smooth onboarding process supports not only the employee, but your business. By implementing a process like this, you can ensure the employee’s long-term success while removing numerous administrative burdens.

    Learn more about how you can streamline your onboarding process.

  • The U.S. House of Representatives has approved a federal bill that would decriminalize cannabis use. However, this bill’s fate in the Senate is unclear right now. If this bill is signed into law, the act would resolve any conflict between federal and state law that causes any confusion for employers. State laws associated with the use of medical and recreational marijuana still vary from state to state.

    The Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act, H.R. 3617, passed the House in a 220-204 vote on April 1. All but two Democrats voted for the measure and all but three Republicans voted against it.

    The Senate is currently split 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans. When the Senate is divided, Vice President Kamala Harris serves as the tie-breaking vote. With that said, the bill would need a total of 60 Senate votes to break a filibuster.

    States Still Regulate Cannabis

    Since marijuana is still listed as a Schedule I drug under the federal Controlled Substances Act, marijuana is still considered high for abuse and serves no medical value. The MORE Act would remove marijuana and criminal sanctions, and provide some relief for previous convictions.

    For the workplace, states would continue to regulate cannabis and would not be required to legalize its use. Thirty-seven states have currently approved medical marijuana use with 18 of those states also approving recreational use. Employers are still able to create policies that prohibit any cannabis use by their employees.

    How To Adapt To Changing Attitudes

    Cannabis laws will continue to expand at the state level regardless of whether the federal government approves this bill. About 68% of Americans believe that marijuana should be legalized. 31% of Americans feel that marijuana should be legal only for medical use with 8% saying it should not be legal at all.

    There’s an increasing number of people in the workplace who have failed drug tests. In 2021, positive drug tests reached the highest level in two decades. In light of COVID-19, many employers are struggling with staffing shortages, so testing for marijuana is no longer a main priority for companies. Despite these unprecedented times, employers need to focus on training managers and supervisors on proper ways to approach employees when they might be working under the influence. With that being said, any employee that goes through the drug screening process must be thoroughly documented.

    Take A Proactive Approach To These Ongoing Changes

    As the cannabis industry continues to evolve, partnering with GMS will benefit your business. The experts at GMS work with you to make your company simpler, safer, and stronger. GMS will keep you up-to-date on any changes whether industry-specific or government-related. Contact us today to learn how GMS can help make your job easier.

  • The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is ending its temporary COVID-19 related policy which allowed employers to use expired List B identity documents when it came to I-9 forms. As a result, expired identity documents will no longer be accepted to verify an employee’s eligibility to work beginning May 1, 2022.

    Authorities were unable to renew List B identity documents in a timely manner after COVID-19 became active in 2020, which allowed employees to temporarily present expired identity documents. Any employee who has provided employers with expired documents from May 1, 2020- April 30, 2022, will now be required to update their I-9s by July 31st, 2022.

    According to DHS:

    • Any employee who previously presented an expired List B document and is currently still an employee, must provide an updated document establishing their identity.
    • No action is required if the employee is no longer employed by the company.

    There is separate COVID-19-related guidance that allows employers to review Form I-9 documents virtually, which is different than this DHS announcement. Reviewing Form I-9 documents virtually is in effect until at least April 30th, 2022. Dawn Lurie, Senior Counsel in the immigration practice group stated, “The announcement signals to us that we are nearing the end of the COVID-19 relaxation of the in-person review policy, which means that companies should start to address the population of folks that were virtually completed.”

    A violation in this regard could cost anywhere from $234 to thousands of dollars. Stacey Larotonda, GMS’ Vice President of Client Services, shares, “While some business owners think they are being cost savvy by keeping their HR functions in-house, they’re actually gambling on how expensive an overlooked error could be. All too often we see business owners being slapped with large fines, simply because they didn’t know better or weren’t keeping up with these legislative changes.”

    Regulatory compliance is complex and ever-changing. For our 2,000+ clients across the country, GMS handles these responsibilities so the business owners don’t have to. Get in touch today.

  • Following a series of high-profile digital intelligence campaigns and disruptive ransomware attacks, any company that is critical to U.S. national interests (finance, transportation, and energy sectors) must report when they are hacked or pay ransomware. Reporting these incidents will provide the federal government with more visibility into hackers who target private companies. Any substantial cyber incident will need to report to the government within three days and any ransomware payment to be reported within 24 hours. This reporting requirement legislation has been approved by the House and Senate on March 10th, 2022, and will be signed into law by President Joe Biden.

    A ransomware attack is an act in which criminals hack targets and hold their data hostage through encryption until ransoms have been paid. According to reports last year, hackers disrupted the world’s largest meat-packing company and the largest U.S. pipeline, putting lives and livelihoods at risk.

    As the war in Ukraine continues, government officials are concerned about the threat of Russian cyber and ransomware attacks against the U.S. Many ransomware operators reside and work in Russia. The Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is designated by the legislation as the main agency to receive any notification of hacks and ransomware payments.

    As an employer, it’s vital you communicate these concerns with your staff to best safeguard your organization against any attacks. We recommend utilizing a cybersecurity refresher course within your learning management system as a quick and efficient way to convey this information.

    Contact us today for any questions or concerns you may have.