Returning Value Blog

Imagine this scenario: A company’s controller is hospitalized, and she’s the only person inside the company who knows how its accounting and payroll software works. She also is the only person with check signing authority, besides the owner, who is in lockdown at his second home out of state. Meanwhile, payroll needs to be processed soon, and unpaid bills are piling up.

Since 2005, remote work has soared 173%, according to 2018 data from American Community Service. Whether you recently adopted this remote work model because of the pandemic or have been utilizing it for years, you should know your wage-and-hour responsibilities.

Even though your employees are working from home, they still need good, open communication channels between you and them. As a manager, keep the flow of information transparent and available for everyone to see.

Alabama is one of several states that does require employers to use a federal program designed to stop them from hiring people in the U.S. illegally.  The Alabama legislature passed in both houses legislation prohibiting employers from knowingly employing unauthorized aliens. The law is known as the Beason-Hammon Alabama Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act. The law requires all employers to enroll in and utilize E-Verify. 

As a business owner/manager, you have many processes and tasks involved in your day-to-day workload. Scheduling, timekeeping, payroll, etc...How about new hire onboarding?

While February typically has 28 days, in leap years—such as February 2020—it contains an extra day. Employers who pay their salaried employees every week or every two weeks will encounter a year in which there is one payday more than usual. These employers should plan ahead to identify and address these "payroll leap years" in advance. It has been our experience that it is best to keep clients informed of pending leap years so that they can keep their employees informed as well. 

When you read the word “mentor,” you might envision an older individual patiently and eloquently passing along decades’ worth of knowledge to a wide-eyed young student. Indeed, this is a kind of mentoring relationship that still exists and can prove beneficial to many organizations.

It’s no surprise that 360-degree performance evaluations have grown in popularity. We live and work in an age of data — the more, the better, to avoid inaccurate assessments based on biases or small sample sizes.

The Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) covers both defined-benefit and defined-contribution retirement plans. If your organization offers its employees either, you may feel like you’re constantly walking on eggshells trying to oversee all the regulatory details involved. One critical way to stay in compliance and avoid costly penalties is to ensure your plan operates consistently with its plan documents.

When an employer decides to sponsor a retirement plan for employees, it takes on great responsibility. Anyone who exercises discretionary authority over any vital facet of plan operations likely will be considered a plan fiduciary. In turn, these individuals face a significant risk of liability if anything goes seriously wrong with the plan.