Horizon Payroll Blogs

If the words “payroll fraud” make you cringe, you’re not alone. Perhaps you’ve seen a recent story in the national news, but unfortunately, it’s not an isolated incident, as seen in Maryland and Indiana. If you’ve recently started to outsource this task or are just starting to consider it, you might be wondering if it’s a smart, and safe, decision.

If you’re like many employers, you’ve been following the developments about the DOL’s long-anticipated final rule regarding overtime eligibility. The law is critical to correctly classifying exempt and non-exempt employees, and many employers have been left in a holding pattern since updates were first suggested in 2016.

As the start of 2020 approaches, 25 states and a list of local municipalities will raise their minimum wage. Businesses of all sizes in these regions should prepare to update their payroll as the new year draws closer. Annual minimum wage increases are quite common in many parts of the country; many update their wages based on inflation each January 1^st on an ongoing basis. But in the past several years, many states have also seen more significant increases due to recent legislation to reflect the modern cost of living. As ordinances slowly raise the minimum wage over the next several years, businesses should keep close attention on the upcoming changes for 2020.

After the recent management shift at the Department of Labor, experts are encouraging businesses to prepare sooner than later for upcoming changes to overtime laws. Many suspect that the white-collar exemption salary threshold could increase with only several months’ notice. What does this mean for businesses? Employees that meet certain job duties and fall within a specific salary range will be reclassified to non-exempt employees, making them eligible for overtime hours.

Managing an active HR office is demanding work on a typical day. When a new employee arrives for orientation, an already-hectic day gets a bit busier. So how can you simplify the onboarding process to handle these transitions with greater ease?

Employees depend on your payroll system to be concise and on time every pay cycle, but avoiding issues is not always easy. Business owners—especially of small and mid-sized companies—often have too much on their plate to double back and check their work or fix mistakes. Precision is not always possible without a little help.

Every new employee wants to make a strong impression on their first day. The HR team plays a key role in setting each new worker on the right track so they can succeed. At the same time, hiring managers rarely have the time to organize an official onboarding process. Doing so, however, could save significant time, energy and transition complications. It welcomes the new team member with a sense of efficiency and enthusiasm that would otherwise get lost without a plan.

Supporting a strong team of employees can be just as challenging as finding a new candidate. Even top employees can steer off course and require guidance to do their best work. In some cases, encouraging the employee to move on may be the best course of action. But disciplining or terminating an employee is never an easy job for a manager. There are the personal delicacies to consider – hurt feelings, damaged work confidence and office morale – as well as the feared legal retaliation should the firing not follow the right process.

Accurate timekeeping is undoubtedly one of the top ways to ensure your company’s financial health. Small errors, even those that affect several dollars each week, can accumulate into a significant loss in just a few months. Though manual timekeeping has served companies for years, our digital world provides a much more professional and succinct solution to tracking employee compensation.

Making the Connection Between Data, the Cloud, and Cybersecurity

How many of these situations are familiar?

• You write down a password so you won’t forget it
• You wonder where your documents really go when you back them up to the cloud
• You receive an unexpected email from your supervisor or CEO asking for personal information
• You share your login with a coworker because one of you is in too much of a hurry to look up the info

What is Workplace Culture?

• Rules
• Traditions
• Personalities

Rules are the formal procedures, policies and expectations your company creates. Often these are categorized in employee manuals or other official documents, and they illustrate how the company views itself as a business and an employer. Examples of written rules include your sick leave policy or dress code. You probably have unwritten rules too, like the proper way to answer the phone or the understanding not to discuss client details outside of the office.

Great management is just as much about guiding your employees as it is about inspiring them to come together. Team building activities help coworkers find common ground, generate new ideas and bridge the gap between their unique learning and communication styles.

Attracting and retaining the best employees goes beyond competitive pay. In the modern job market, employees set out to achieve work-life balance with the help of a supportive health and benefits package. A 2018 study found that over half of employees consider their employer-sponsored health benefits when making a long-term commitment to their company. How do you design an attractive insurance package? Flexible health plans can be the key.

You don’t need a crystal ball to see the latest trend in employment law today: Fair work scheduling. Also called predictive scheduling, it means employers must give their employees stable, predictable hours and compensate them for last-minute changes to their work schedules. While municipal-level legislation has been on the books in California since 2014, the list of state and local laws is growing. 

How did your 2018 taxes turn out? Hopefully you were able to check withholding allowances and make any needed adjustments to avoid a tax liability. If not, you might be wondering how to end up in a better position next year, especially if owing taxes came as a surprise.

No one enjoys employee termination: there’s bad news to deliver, unpleasant and awkward conversations to notify coworkers, paperwork to sign and file. Once the tasks of termination are finally finished you’re probably anxious to move forward, reassign job duties, and begin the search for a replacement. But few things derail that momentum like receiving notice that a former employee has filed an unemployment claim against your company.

You probably know that onboarding correlates to employee retention. In fact, according to Wynham Group research, new employees who went through a structured onboarding program were 58 percent more likely to still be with the organization after three years. Thoughtful, comprehensive onboarding is one of the best ways to get new hires engaged and integrated into your company culture and community fast.

Facts about the FLSA, state requirements, and OT exemptions

Is hiring seasonal employees part of your strategy for surviving your busy season? Chances are you’ve come to depend on these workers each year, and they probably rely on you for the opportunity to earn extra money in a set period of time.

There’s no doubt it’s a profitable, if short-term, relationship between employee and employer. Don’t damage it by failing to pay overtime when it’s due. Read on to see if your seasonal employees qualify for overtime pay.

You’ve probably heard of Industry 4.0, the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Often accompanied by tech buzzwords about optimizing production, becoming more agile, and predictive analytics, the term comes from a manufacturing strategy developed by the German government to increase computerization in factories. Digital automation in industry and manufacturing has also been discussed at the well-known German trade and technology show Hannover Messe since the early 2010’s.