Q. I have employees who are literally accidents waiting to happen because they never seem to think before they take action. We have way too many Workers' Comp claims. However, our foremen and supervisors don't seem to be able to solve this problem. Can we discipline -- or even terminate -- employees for "no brainer" [...]
Employers in the restaurant, hotel, casino and other service industries must comply with laws associated with tips, including the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Internal Revenue Code. To assist them, the IRS issued Fact Sheet 2017-8 that explains the differences between tips and service charges for tax purposes. Are the Payments Discretionary? The IRS [...]
Recently HR&P was recognized for the 4th consecutive year by the University of Houston as one of the fastest-growing Cougar Alumni Owned or Operated businesses. Mike Holley ’90 and HR&P were celebrated at the 2017 Cougar 100 Awards Luncheon for the company’s continued growth and leadership in the Human Resource and Payroll community, and their [...]
Employees respond positively to positive recognition. Assuming that statement is true, a question follows: Does positive recognition to employees have to cost a lot of money? Debra Sikanas, an expert in the field of employee recognition, answered that question by first drawing a distinction between "reward" and "recognition." "Rewards are higher-priced incentives such as money or [...]
Imagine you’re a business owner that matches aspiring homeowners with all the various services they’ll need to buy a house—from mortgage brokers to lawyers to inspectors. You even find contractors for various home improvement projects once your clients move in. When you first opened for business, the housing market was just recovering from the great [...]
Every year the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) releases detailed data on the number of discrimination cases received and the disposition of those cases. For the first time, in a recent release of stats from its 2016 fiscal year, it included LGBT-based sex discrimination charges in a data summary. This follows on the heels of [...]
The first part of the new OSHA "illness and injury" reporting regulations is straightforward enough. It states that those who are already required to file these reports must now submit the forms electronically, via a secure OSHA website. Companies not currently required to file injury and illness reports aren't affected by the new rules. Electronic reporting, [...]
Promoting non-supervisory employees to management roles can be a morale-booster for the promoted employee, and for others. Seeing a fellow employee move up the ladder gives coworkers reason to expect that, someday, they could rise to that level as well. Also, homegrown talent can be more economical, both by avoiding recruitment costs and because the [...]
A U.S. Appeals Court recently ruled that the outsourced employees of a staffing company did count for purposes of determining whether the company met the small employer exception of the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA). Therefore, the court found the company was subject to the law, and imposed penalties due to the company's failure [...]
Bonuses: They're not just for senior executives anymore. Many companies now offer performance-based incentives to rank-and-file personnel, too. But serious problems can occur when these incentives are too strong, poorly designed or insufficiently monitored. For example, in a widely reported recent case, a large national bank set aggressive sales goals that came with financial rewards. [...]
