What seemed at first like a temporary COVID-19-driven work-from-home trend isn't expected to end when health risks are mitigated, some surveys suggest. For example, one-third of employers expect that at least half of their employees will work remotely in the post-COVID era, though not necessarily every day of the week, according to a recent survey [...]
Have you been working from home during the COVID-19 crisis? Join the club. Approximately 42% of the American workforce is currently working from home full-time, according to a recent study by the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. Only 26% are working on business premises — and many of those are essential workers, such as [...]
Pundits are predicting that even after the COVID-19 pandemic is ultimately brought under control — which might not occur for many more months — work-at-home arrangements will be more common than before the pandemic. "While the experience of working at home during the crisis may not have been ideal as whole families sheltered in place, [...]
Economic fallout from the COVID-19 crisis may cause some cash-strapped individuals to default on loans they've taken out from company qualified retirement plans, including 401(k) and profit-sharing plans. Defaulting on a plan loan will cause adverse tax and retirement-saving consequences. Here are the details. Retirement Plan Loan Basics A participant in an employer-sponsored qualified retirement [...]
Your employees probably have many good ideas. But getting those ideas out in the open and acting on them requires your initiative. Too often management doesn't listen to employees unless there is a structured system.The potential benefits of maintaining a structured system -- a vital employee suggestion program -- far outweigh the costs. Employers with [...]
Identity theft is a growing crime in this country and the liability risk of employers is increasing along with it. The reason is all the sensitive personal information collected from employees, job applicants, customers, independent contractors, business partners, patients and others. The Federal Trade Commission reports that every year, millions of Americans fall victim to [...]
Employers that hire foreign workers may have a hard time filling certain job slots soon, if recent action by the Trump Administration survives legal scrutiny. The affected foreign workers are those who have been able to come to the United States using several categories of work visas. In late June, President Trump signed an executive [...]
The Scenario: Your company issues a final paycheck to an employee who is moving out of town and leaves only a forwarding address. A year later, the check still hasn't been cashed despite several letters your company has sent offering to void the original and reissue the check. You know that your bank won't cash [...]
Increasingly, the most valuable asset of a job applicant isn't a specialized knowledge of one particular field (for example, architecture or engineering). The most valuable assets of a job applicant often are skills increasingly common to all job positions. They include: Computer literacy. Look for the individual who can analyze and interpret computer information, who [...]
The cost of employee turnover is alarming for many businesses. The latest statistic available from the Employment Policy Foundation suggests the average cost of turnover to employers is $13,355 per full-time private-sector employee replaced. Keep in mind, this study was done several years ago so chances are this figure has risen considerably. Still it is enough to be troubling. [...]
