A recent survey, conducted by Towers Watson, indicates that the majority of companies around the world are becoming savvier with the use of social media tools to communicate with their own employees. Over half of the companies responding to the survey indicated they will use more social media tools over 2012. These tools are being used extensively by both communication and change professionals to meet the demands of the workforce, which is anticipating the use of new media tools as they form a more diverse and globalized workforce. As a business owner, it’s important to understand that the survey notes that the largest communication programs in companies result in improving the ability of leadership and managers to effectively get their ideas across. And, the best communication programs use the same tools to gather feedback from the employees. That kind of feedback is used to monitor the effectiveness of the communications program. Yet, finding the return on the investment (ROI) in these tools can be ...

A California couple that owned three roofing contractor businesses were arrested in 2010 for fraud. Recently, they were ordered to pay over $2,8 million in restitution. In 2006 one of their employees fell from a roof and submitted a payroll stub to California’s State Fund Compensation Insurance. After realizing they did not insure the company indicated on the stub, SCIF notified the authorities. During the investigation, it was revelaed that the couple, Devon Lynn Kile and Michael Vincent Petronella, submitted 42 claims that turned out to be fraudulent. In addition, they underreported over $10 million in payroll expenses to avoid paying workers’ compensation insurance premiums. This totaled to over $30 million in workers comp insurance premium fraud. In addition, during raids on several properties owned by the couple, the authorities found over $50,000 in cash, $500,000 in jewelry and three luxury cars worth over $100,000 apiece. They also found over $2.1 million in credit card debt used on ev ...

With the proliferation of all kinds of ways to research job candidates available through the Internet, the use of these tool is on the rise. But, it’s not always obvious that these tools can expose you to unnecessary risk to lawsuits from rejected candidates. eBossWatch.com has recently received some media attention because of the research tools it has on its website. The site, founded in 2010, is used by both job candidates and employers. The website has two main tools: A tool for employees to rate their supervisors on communication skill and general “niceness”. A look-up screen to a self proclaimed “National Sexual Harassment Registry”. The website owner states all of the information on the site is either submitted by visitors, or attained through public sources. The site software also utilized a news monitoring tool called Google Alerts to cull information from many sources around the internet. From the employee point of view, the site proposes to help ident ...

A recent study by Bersin & Associates, an HR research and consulting firm, shed light on some global employer trends. Social Networking for recruiting Companies are mining the online social networks to present their brands, spread news about job openings and to target candidates. Candidates are using the social networks to learn about companies and what they are like to work for. They can connect and communicate directly with current, and former, employees to ask questions about your workplace. They see how adept your company is with utilizing social media. They may “follow” your social media news feeds. This effect is dramatically changing the process for recruiting for the best talent. Performance Management will utilize shorter time cycles The way of the annual goal review is going away. The report noted a 30% greater impact derived from performance management processes when company goals were reviewed on a quarterly basis. This goes contrary to the traditional practice of creating an ...

Trying to figure out how to pay your employees for travel time is, unfortunately, a complex issue for many companies. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) travel time pay guidelines have been a popular topic with employers since their inception. Do you know the legal answer the the following?: My hourly employee is attending a business convention out of town this weekend. Do I have to pay her for travel time? What about the weekend time that she’s away from her family? If she were an exempt employee, would the answer be the same? My employee drives from client to client each day. Do I have to pay him for travel time from his home to the first client? What about the time from one client to another? My employee was called in to work over the weekend, do I have to include her travel time to work as part of her overtime pay? I have to ask my employee to attend a tradeshow event on a Saturday night, is this overtime pay? As a business owner, these kinds of questions can be endless. Yo ...