Rewarding employees with gift cards and other “fringe benefits” can be a reward in and of itself but did you know that the free holiday turkeys you just handed out may be considered taxable income?
Yep.
Unfortunately, it’s not as easy to dole out cool benefits as many of us originally thought without getting taxes involved. That doesn’t mean you should eschew the fringe benefits—it just means you have to be smart about them! Continue reading
Saying thanks. Giving thanks. We talk a lot about gratitude around the holidays, especially on Thanksgiving; but how far does the season spirit reach? Does it go beyond your dinner table and family? As an employer, it definitely benefits company morale to show your thanks for the people you work with every day. Now, that doesn’t mean you have to shower them with physical gifts—it could be an extra kind word or two in passing, or even telling them how appreciative you are of the work they do.
The point is that it pays to consider how you might be thankful for your employees and then communicate that to them. Continue reading
While it’s likely been years since most of us were in high school, there’s one thing that even adult employees face today that harkens back to their school-age days: bullying. No one is getting into fistfights in the parking lot (hopefully) or pulling hair, but that’s because workplace bullying is subtler in nature. It’s psychological and verbal bullying that today’s workforce must contend with.
It may not be outright illegal, but it’s counterproductive and an extremely poor way to treat people you work with. Continue reading
By now, many of us have heard about the Equifax breach. It came as a shock when the company responsible for credit monitoring and identity theft protection was the victim of a data breach. It’s been reported that at least 143 million people have had their personally identifiable information stolen, but the real number, experts say, can’t truly been known. Continue reading
The workplace is often full of parents, new and seasoned, so when the school year starts, it’s not uncommon to see flyers or emails asking others to support a sports team, school trip, or club with the purchase of some food or snack item. Fundraisers and the like are simple part and parcel with having kids, and even if you don’t have any, you’ve probably been asked if you want to buy stuff from the parents you work with.
It’s kind of unavoidable. Continue reading
This country has seen its share of hardships over the past year, with two of the most recent ones being Hurricane Harvey and the Charlottesville Riots. We can’t avoid talking about them or hearing about them. Even if you aren’t in Houston or weren’t in Charlottesville, VA, maybe the cause affected you in other ways; or you know someone who was personally and immediately affected by the events. Either way, these are topics of conversation that are dramatically influencing how we as citizens—as human beings—act in the face of adversity, and how we come to the aid of those who need it most. Continue reading
At the June ‘17 Society for Human Resource Management Conference, VP of Government Affairs Michael Aitken, presented “The Trump Administration and the 115th Congress: The Washington Outlook for HR Public Policy.” How could anyone in good conscience not attend that session? Mr. Aitken raised some excellent, non-bashing points, that we should all consider, whether we work in HR or not. Continue reading
I heard a rumor this week from a publishing group that I contribute to on occasion. They were seeking professional opinions about the “fact” of there being no driver shortage. I immediately asked myself, “what world are they living in?!” Continue reading
For the last couple of years, it’s been a trend among the Baby Boomer generation to mock Millennials. Endless comments about how they’re lazy, entitled, ‘the generation that needs safe spaces,’ etc. Many insults have been hurled at Millennials but they certainly didn’t take it sitting down, at least not when it came to the twitter war sparked by #HowToConfuseAMillenial. What started out as a way for Baby Boomers and others to levy insults and ‘witty’ barbs turned against them shortly after Millennials started using the hashtag in sarcastic and ironic ways.
That right there should illustrate that while they have no problem fighting back, we’re the problem—not them. Continue reading
Just as employers are finally getting comfortable with the most recent version of the Form I-9 that rolled out late last year, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) announced yet another revised Form I-9. This latest version bears a revision date of “07/17/17 N”, and – like it’s prior iteration – expires on 8/31/2019. Both the online version and the printable version can be found on the USCIS website. Continue reading
