New and Newsworthy
Using Remote Workers? Protect Sensitive Company Data from Exposure
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 by the HR consulting firm Mercer. That's a ten-fold increase compared to before [...]
Home Office Deductions in the COVID-19 Era
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 public servants and health care workers, who can't work from home. People who [...]
Managing Risk for Remote Workforces in a Post-COVID-19 World
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, it will give people a taste of what could be. The genie is [...]
Beware: Retirement Plan Loan Defaults Can Be Costly
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 plan can borrow money from the plan if it allows loans. Under the [...]
Tips to Tap Employees’ Ideas
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 suggestion programs save $70,000 to $100,000 per 100 employees per year. (Statistics are [...]
Handling Sensitive Employee Data and Identity Theft
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 identity theft. And according to some studies, improperly handled employee records were the [...]