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Wage Garnishment

A friend once said to me, “If you ever feel like no one notices you, stop paying your bills”. While we would definitely not recommend that you stop paying your bills, the idea behind his comical advice is sound. If you stop paying your bills, your bill collectors are going to come knocking. If you don’t make contact with a bill collector when you are behind on a payment, they may do worse than annoy you with constant phone calls, they may go after your wages.

Wage garnishment is when someone to whom you owe money legally has it taken from your paycheck. This can be done by almost anyone who you owe money to. If you owe money on a student loan, child support, back taxes, credit card companies, loan companies, and more. The garnishment is handled by your employer or if they outsource to a company like Vision H.R., an experienced outsourcing Daytona Beach payroll company, and are deducted from your disposable income, meaning whatever is left after the normal deductions that are taken out of your check, such as social security. Luckily, however, there are rules and limitations when it comes to companies placing a wage garnishment against you, as we will discuss in this article.

The first legal aspect of wage garnishment that we will explore is who needs a court order to garnish your wages, and who doesn’t. When it comes to something that deals with the court, or government, a court order is often times not needed. For example, if you do your yearly taxes and end up having to pay money back, yet chose not to, the government can garnish your wages. If you owe child support, and similarly chose not to pay them, the court can garnish your wages without a court order. Finally, student loans have to be paid in a timely manner, or the company that gave you the loan can garnish your wages. Other creditors, such as loan companies or credit card companies, have to go through the court before placing a garnish on your wages. This can also include medical bills that have built up over time.

The second thing we will look into is the legal limits set on wage garnishments. The limitations placed upon it are set by both the federal, and state government. On the federal level, creditors who require a court order can take no more than 25% of your disposable earnings. Depending on where you live, the amount may be lower. Your place of employment also can not take action against you for having a wage garnishment issued against you. This means no getting fired, and no cutting hours. However, if you get more than one company with a wage garnishment placed against you, or one company has more than one garnishment against you for multiple loans, the restrictions your employer has become less and less.

What if no court order is required for your garnishment? Than the laws about how much can be taken from your wages becomes a little bit more complicated. On the federal level, if you owe child support or alimony, you can have up to 60% of your wages garnished! If you are currently supporting a spouse or child that is not involved in the payment, (meaning you have a spouse or child that will not benefit), you can have up to 50% of your wages garnished. If you do not have a spouse or child that is not directly involved in the payment, then up to 60% can be garnished!

For student loans, luckily they can take less than the normal amount in wage garnishment, their limit being at 15% of your disposable income. For back taxes to the government on the other hand, the amount can be rather devastating. The final amount will depend largely on any dependents you claim, and your standard deduction amount. Regardless of the final amount, don’t expect to be going on a vacation anytime soon.

If you are an employer with an employee who has a wage garnishment placed against them and are not sure what to do, you can turn to Vision H.R. to handle it. Vision H.R. has a trained staff of payroll specialist that can handle your ordinary payroll duties, along with things such as garnishments, benefits, and sick leave. Serving as a New Smyrna Beach, Jacksonville, St. Augustine, Deland, and Daytona Beach payroll company that comes recommended by it’s clients, Vision H.R. is ready to handle your payroll.

Daytona Beach Payroll Company

Vision HR | The Human Resource Experts

Duties of a Daytona Beach Human Resources Department

There are three kinds of leaders in this world, ones that hold back their team’s potential, ones that embrace their team’s potential, and ones that are so good at their job, you don’t even know they are there. Human resource professionals fall into the latter category, doing more for a business than most would ever give them credit for. Sometimes they are a powerful asset to a company, even though parts of the company may view them in an antagonistic light. They don’t understand the complexity that rests behind the human resource management job title, nor the stress that it can place on the ones who work in it.

Many of your job positions are pretty straight cut in their requirements. The judgments we make doesn’t have much of an impact on really anything. Even some high paying jobs may be important to a company’s survival without much thought being required for them however. Someone working in human resource management on the other hand, may have to make a decision that will greatly impact a person’s life, supplying them with, or costing them their job.

The list of responsibilities that someone working in a human resource department is extensive, and so are the personal requirements for working effectively. It’s not a position that just anyone can succeed in, an ideal human resource expert must be willing to constantly learn and implement new ideas, make difficult decisions and accept their consequences, while being able to act as a leader that not only guides employees and management, but also works with them. Human Resource departments are responsible for employee relations, creating a productive, conflict free work environment. This means handling any issues that may arise between employees, including, but not limited to, discrimination and harassment. When these situations come up, the human resource department must act quickly and make decisions about the best course of action to take. These decisions can’t take all week to make, production can’t be stopped to wait on them.

There is also the responsibility of hiring new employees for a company. It is up to the human resource department to post job openings, and screen candidates for consideration. Say a business in Daytona Beach has a new position open, the people in charge of human resources have to get the word out about it, and hire a candidate that not only is qualified, but will be a continuous benefit to the team while also being productive in the business’s work environment. If they hire a candidate that becomes more of a burden than an asset, it could reflect badly on them, not to mention give them more work to do dismissing the employee and hiring someone new yet again.

A perhaps less stressful yet still vital parts of working in a human resource department is the training. Determining what kind of training is an employee or department needs or could benefit from, and find ways to implement it into their work day. They have to find a way to get the training to an employee without interrupting too much of their normal work day. They can call an employee in to do training at a time they are not normally scheduled to work, though this means they are getting paid for something that is not generating direct profit, even if it will help further down the line. This expense has to be approved first, however, and the training has to be scheduled at a time the human resource department, or whoever will be giving the training, will be available. Another option is to give a voluntary training session, such as a seminear. The only problem is since it is something that an employee is not required to attend, all employees may not receive the training. These are all things a human resource department has to consider.

Let’s go back to the business in Daytona Beach that we used briefly, and expand on the scenario a bit, to really get a feel for what someone working in a human resource department has to deal with. For this example, the business will be known as Boxes Inc. In case you were wondering, they make boxes and box accessories. Harry, who has worked at Boxes Inc. for three years decides it’s time to move on to bigger things, so he gives Mary, who works in the human resource department, his two week notice. Mary passes the information onto different departments, including management, payroll, and the owners. Now the fun begins.

Mary needs someone who can take over Harry’s position, and she needs them within two weeks or else production will start to suffer. She places hiring ads around the internet and newspapers, sometimes needing to ask another department for permission when a website requires money in order to post job offerings. Once she has the job offer in full rotation candidates start coming in. Now she has to review all these candidates resumes, backgrounds, decide who will get the interview and who won’t make the cut. Then there are the interviews, making the final decision, putting them into the system, full background checks, drug testing if necessary, and getting them put into training so they can get to work making boxes. This may seem like a bit of work, and that is just for hiring someone new, not counting all of the daily duties that human resource departments have to perform as well. If something goes wrong in the workplace, Mary will have to deal with her daily duties, hiring a new employee, and handling the situation that had developed between two employees. Talk about a stressful workload, and this is just a company that makes boxes. Companies with more complex product lines require even more work.

Luckily human resource departments don’t have to handle this stress alone. Companies like Vision H.R. have human resource experts that can help the human resource department of a company by giving advice, answering questions, and supplying them with online tools they can access regularly. If you own a business and need a hand, Vision H.R. are a Daytona beach human resources and payroll outsourcing company that help guide you, and even take over some departments completely for you, helping you better run your cardboard empire.

Daytona Beach Human Resources

Vision HR | The Human Resource Experts

Resolving Conflict

If there is one thing that we can learn from human history, it is that conflict in any instance, is more or less inevitable. In fact, it can be said that conflict is what opens the path to a new age for mankind. It is often in the aftermath of conflict, that the dust settles and we see the most clear view of the road behind us that we understand the need for change. This doesn’t always have to be a global occurrence however. Conflict can find its way into a busy office, behind the counter at a coffee shop, even onto the factory floor. When two employees, or worse, an employee and a customer gets into a tangle, something has to be done to resolve the issue. Merely stopping a confrontation isn’t going to help. At best it will delay the conflict until later.

Why do conflicts occur in the workplace? There are multiple ways to answer that question.

Stressful Days: No matter how good you are at a job, there are going to be some days you want to throw in the towel, lift up the blankets, and crawl back into bed. There are things you just can’t control at your job, such as equipment breaking down, or the stampede of people at the doors at 4:00 a.m. on Black Friday. When these things happen, our stress levels tend to go up, and the more stress we are under, the more likely we are to explode.

Workplace Mishaps: Mistakes happen, sometimes they can have ripple effects that hinder the work of other employees. These mistakes can cause a group’s project to be late, inconvenience a coworker, in some extreme cases even cause injury if the mistake is related to workplace safety. If these mistakes are not handled correctly, conflict can follow them.

Personal Issues: When you walk through that front door, it’s time to leave your personal life behind and enter work mode. Least, that is what is supposed to happen, sometimes however, the opposite happens. We take our problems into the workplace and let them affect us. When we are dealing with a personal issue, it can definitely hamper our mood. It can make us aggravated, upset, even temperamental. We tend to lash out at people, even when they have done nothing to initiation a confrontation.

How does learning the cause help you deal with conflicts in the workplace? When one starts happening in your place of business, you need to counteract it swiftly, yet reasonably. You don’t want to just stop the conflict, you need to stop the cause of it. If your car runs out of gas because of a leak, you can’t fix it by filling it back up with gas, you have to go to the source of the problem.

Now for the most important part, how to resolve the conflict. As we said, you want to resolve these conflicts in a timely manner, yet you have to be fair and reasonable, so we will list some of smart steps to take, and some to avoid.

Be Firm Yet Understanding: When it comes to two coworkers bickering, you can’t resolve the issue with whispers and mumbles. You have to assert yourself and display that you are in control of the situation. At the same time, you can’t seem violent, or aggressive. You are there to uphold the peace, not increase the tension.

Listen Without Bias: To understand the situation at hand, you have to begin with listening more than you talk. Depending on the severity of the disagreement, this may have to be done in separate places. When you listen, make sure you do so with an open mind. Don’t settle on who is right or who is wrong before knowing what is happening. Even if it is obvious that one side started the fight, don’t treat them like they are to blame. Give them the same respect as you would the other.

Don’t Give Threats: When dealing with a conflict, don’t use threats to end it. The situation is already stressful enough without either side worrying about their job or paycheck. At most, you should threaten to send them home until they are ready to resolve this issue. Insinuating that their employment is at risk will only cause panic, which is not something you need in the workplace, especially when there is already conflict.

Fix The Problem, Not The Employees: As we stated below, it is important to find the source of the conflict, and work from there to fix it. By finding the cause of the problem, you can stop the current conflict, and any that would follow it. If the problem is something personal, offer to help the employee as far as work goes. Let them take the rest of the day off to clear their mind, or change their workload to reduce stress.

Create Common Ground: Try to bring both sides of the conflict together and create a common ground for them. If you can’t find common ground in the cause of the conflict, use the business itself. Remind them that they both work for the same company, and by arguing, they are making each other’s job harder. Let them know they are on a team, and a team needs each member working together to make a project work.

Solutions Over Victories: When a conflict breaks out between two coworkers, it is important to search for a mutual solution other than a one sided victory. This means not focusing blame on an employee, and not showing favoritism. If you push for one side being right and the other being wrong, you run the risk of an employee feeling less valuable to the business. They may feel resentment toward another employee, and their productivity may diminish.

Seek Growth from Conflicts: At one point in time in history, the American colonies and the British empires were opposing forces. Today, their modern forms are close allies. While conflict is best avoided, they can become an opportunity for growth and understanding as well. We as a people don’t always take well to the concept of being wrong about something, and many times don’t realize the consequences of our behavior. When we are faced with these things, we can gain new insight into our life, insights that can sometimes have small changes on our life, and other times can change it drastically. Promote this type of growth after a workplace conflict has been resolved.

The workplace is filled with stressful situations that will pop up from time to time. It is important that both you, and your management team are prepared to handle these situations before they begin slowing down productivity. For some help in this area, Vision H.R. a company known for the human resource management and payroll services Ormond Beach business have come to depend on, also offers services such as management training and creating an employee handbook. With the right training, your management team can be prepared for any problems that may come up. By implementing a proper employee handbook, you create a reference for both employees and management to go back to in case they ever need a reminder of company policy.

By taking advantage of the services offered by Vision H.R., including their payroll services and human resource management, you are also opening up your schedule and reducing your stress level. The less stress you have in the workplace, the more calm you can be in stressful situations. It also gives you more time to be among your employees, letting you see and stop issues before they escalate to being problematic. Visit Vision H.R. to get a free quote and let us help you prepare for any situations that may arise. After all, the best way to deal with problems is to be prepared for them.

Payroll Services Ormond Beach

Vision HR | The Human Resource Experts

The Value of Good Employees

When it comes to business, there is one rule that has always been true for both ends of the spectrum. Rather it is the business owner, or the customer buying from them, the fact remains, you get what you pay for. For a customer, the more you pay, the better the quality of the product. On the other hand, a business owner is spending money on a slightly different product. They are spending money on someone’s time and skills. Many see a business interview as just that, an interview, when really it is what could be the most important sales pitch of a person’s life. What is an interview if not a trading of products? The potential employee tries to convince the other that their time and skill set are worth paying them for, while the employer side tries to convince them that their company is worth the cost of their time and effort.

When it comes to hiring an employee, it is usually a simple ordeal. If they are at your business trying to get a job, while not always true, chances still are that they are wanting to say yes to your sales pitch regardless of the details. Keeping a good employee that has already been hired on the other hand, requires a bit more effort. Not just financially, but it also takes some time and motivation. Pay an employee minimum wage and you will get plenty of work out of them at first, eventually though if you don’t promote opportunity and appreciation, you are going to end up getting paid back with minimum work.

Of course, not every employee is going to perform the same. Some employees are going to be more adept at a job than others. While these employees are going to do more for a business, it is important to remember that every employee is vital to the inner workings of a company. The steps you would take to keep your best employees, should be spread to the rest of your company’s employees to some degree.. It may take a little extra time, but compared to the productivity lost when a team member leaves, and the time spent looking for a replacement, in the long run it becomes worth the effort. So what can you do to show appreciation and promote growth among your employees?

Stay Interviews

What is a stay interview? Much like any other interview, it is a meeting between an employee and an employer, or member of management. The objective of a stay interview is finding out what it is about a job that makes an employee stay there, along with show some things they may dislike about a company. Picture it as a performance review for the company. You get to learn the strengths and weakness of the company’s employment, while finding target areas to focus on. For example, if an employee says that they enjoy the sense of teamwork that the business promotes, encouraging projects that require employees working together could help boaster that asset. There are some things to consider when analyzing the data from these stay interviews.

Too Much of a Good Thing: While you focus on strengthening the areas most employees reacted positively to is a good idea, don’t push it too far. Bringing too much attention to it can cause employees to get worn out on it. Going back to the coffee example, if everyone agrees, having coffee in the break room is great, and you react by putting a K-Cup coffee maker in the break room, employees will appreciate the notion. If you decide to redo the break room with coffee themed wallpaper and decor, employees may start asking questions about your recent caffeine addiction.

Comfort and Understanding: It’s typical for an employee to get nervous during an interview. For some, it’s a borderline heart attack simply getting called to the boss’s office. Before conducting a stay interview, make sure employees understand what a stay interview is. Explain to them it doesn’t affect their overall job, and nor will what they say impact their employment. Some employees may have a complaint that they are afraid to share, fearing it may put their job at risk.

Work with Available Time: While it is best to interview all employees when performing stay interviews, that may just not be possible. You may have too many employees, or too many responsibilities to dedicate enough time for it. This is when you have to use selective interviews instead. When selecting certain employees for a stay interview, remember to include ones from each department, and choose employees that tend to get along with their coworkers. They can help inform you of the thoughts shared by other employees. This task can also be performed by your management team. It can be included in their management training.

All in all, stay interviews are simple things that don’t take up too much of your time, and show that you are interested in the opinions of your employees. It promotes a sense of unity in the company instead of having a wall between management and employees. They also give you a new perspective about how your company is operating. It can be difficult to see the same image from two angles with one set of eyes, by using stay interviews, you can see it from multiple angles. If you don’t feel you have enough time to do these kinds of interviews, maybe it’s time to outsource some of your most time consuming responsibilities.

By contacting Vision H.R. you can place some of these work areas in their hands, freeing up your time to interact more with your employees. Vision H.R. is the trusted source of payroll services and human resources that places like Melbourne depends on, along with management training, employee hiring and recruiting, human resource management, and business insurance.

Human Resource Management

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Avoid Discrimination in Payroll

If you have been keeping an eye on current events, you will know that discrimination is a major issue that many American’s are actively involved with. Discrimination, or the act of negatively treating another person because of race, religion, sexuality, or social standing, has been present for as long as anyone can remember, and has been the grounds for major lawsuits that have been filed against both people and businesses in the past. It has even gone as far as to be the cause of a business shutting down completely. This is why it is important to take steps to ensure that discrimination does not occur in your own company.

How do you make sure this doesn’t happen? The simple answer would seemingly be not to discriminate against anyone in your company, but that is not enough to ensure you have a discrimination free workplace. There are steps that can be taken to protect yourself and your company from any major lawsuits that may occur.

1. Know the Laws: There are laws set forth by the Equal Pay Act, that requires that all employees get paid equal wages regardless of race or gender. In this instance, pay is not just payroll, it is also employee benefits such as overtime, vacation pay, bonus pay, stock options, and so on. When it comes to issuing equal pay, two employees do not need the same job position for the law to take effect, it is the effort and skill required that decides if two employees must have equal pay. For example, when it comes to hiring cashiers, both would be required to have equal pay, but one could be paid less than someone who was hired as a butcher in the meat department. A butcher is working in cold temperatures and dangerous equipment, making their job require more skill and effort.

2. Create an Anti-Discrimination Policy: We discussed in an earlier article that an employee handbook is an important part of any company. In an employee handbook one of the policies listed should be on anti-discrimination both in wages and in employee behavior. Make sure employees understand the consequences of showing discrimination against any customer or fellow employee. An employee represents their company when on their job, and if one shows prejudice toward a customer, it could come back to the company. By having an employee handbook that each employee signs, they are aware of the company policy.

3. Keep Organized Documents on all Wage Related Items: When it comes to giving a pay increase to an employee, or offering them any form of benefit, keep proper documents showing why they got the raise, how much the raise was for, and how much their pay was before the raise. This includes performance reports. Make sure your reports are as detailed as possible. If your company is ever accused of wage discrimination, you will have these documents to show why a certain person did or did not receive a raise or any form of benefit.

4. Aim to have an Effective and Diverse Workforce: When it comes to hiring an employee, focus solely on the aspects that matter for employment. Consider their work history, education, merit, if required their physical fitness.

It should be noted that discrimination laws also cover those with disabilities, who must be considered for a job if they have the base requirements such as education, and are physically capable of performing the job with or without reasonable accommodation. Reasonable accommodation can mean modifying equipment, job restructuring, alternate work schedule, and adjusting training that will not bare overwhelming issue or expense.

The workplace functions best when everyone works together. Anti-discrimination laws and policies help to ensure a work environment remains friendly and welcoming to all eligible applicants. If you have questions about anti-discrimination laws and policies, or about hiring in general, the talented staff of Vision H.R. can help answer your questions, or take over the hiring process all together. Along with being a human resource management, Vision H.R. is also a trusted partner and welcomed aid for Melbourne Payroll Services and Staffing Solutions.

Melbourne Payroll Services

Vision HR | The Human Resource Experts

When to Give an Employee a Raise

The human mind is a fascinating thing, doing more work than we can possibly imagine and much more than we ever think about. The conscious part of the mind that controls our decision making abilities is itself controlled by many forms of biases operating both in the conscious and unconscious parts of the mind , many of which we never realize are even there. These decision affecting biases can be the difference between making a wise decision and a bad one. One such instance this holds true for is when deciding rather it’s time to give an employee a raise or not.

We like to reward an employee when they stand out for their extra effort in the workplace, but a raise is not always the best idea. Payroll is a vital part of a company that has to be maintained There are several things that must be considered, and some of those mental biases we mentioned that we have to look over. So when is it practical to consider a raise for an employee? Well first let’s look at why they would deserve one first.

They have been Employed for a considerable amount of Time: Some employees believe that a company is obligated to give them a raise after one year of employment. While some companies do follow this idea, it is not a requirement. When an employee has been with a company for a considering amount of time however, chances are they are being productive for a company otherwise they would have been let go by now, so a raise may be in order.

They out-perform in either work or sales: Some people just have natural talents when it comes to a job. They may have a charming and welcoming personality that makes selling products simple for them. Maybe they have an acute eye for detail that benefits them on a factory floor, making their work top quality. They may not have any natural talent, but be determined or dependable, always willing to work overtime or come in on a day off.

They Have a Special Skill or Knowledge: Unlike our previous entry about natural talents, here we are talking about a skill or ability that can be gained from previous work experience or special learning. These are skills learned that will benefit the company directly, and can be learned while currently employed. Many employees seek to further their education so they can earn more in their job, or seek a promotion. This skill may not be commonly found in employees, and a raise can help ensure they stay with your company.

Now that we know three of the most common reasons to give an employee a raise, we can look at if you should give them a raise. A key thing to remember is that giving one employee a raise may affect other employees as well, along with your overall finances and payroll. To better explain these points, let’s envision a business in Melbourne, Fl that has five employees, plus the owner and sells a certain type of product.

How will it affect other employees?

While all of the employees work hard at their job, one of them stands out from the others, tending to sell the most products each week. After a couple of months of this, the owner decides to give the one selling the most a raise. Another employee finds out and tells the others. Two of the employees in question feel it is unfair that the one employee got a raise and not anyone else, so feeling underappreciated, their productivity slows down. Now you have rewarded one employee and possibility motivated them to work harder, but two other employees feel underappreciated and are now selling less products, which could end up lowering the stores overall productivity.

Can your payroll afford It?

You have to set so much aside from your revenue to cover your payroll, and giving someone a raise will require more to be set aside. If the owner decided to give each of the five employees a small five cent raise, it may not seem like much at first, but if they each work 40 hours a week, that five cent raise will turn into an extra 480 dollars spent on payroll each year. That is just for one year, what if they got another raise the following year? Payroll could increase even more than it did the previous year.

Is the employee consistent?

One of the five employees has been putting extra effort into their work lately, and over the last couple of weeks have sold more products than usual. This is a topic where one of the mental biases we spoke of earlier comes into play. The human mind recalls recent events in a sequence most clearly, followed by events that occurred at the beginning of a sequence. Finally, events in the middle are commonly the most difficult to remember. Instead of judging an employee on recent work, look at their work history. Do they tend to go up and down in their performance? Are you about to give them a raise for working harder just to have them slow down again?

Do you want to Reward, or Motivate?

A couple of these points have included rewarding an employee, but what about motivating an employee? While a reward can definitely motivate an employee, a raise can also be used solely for motivation. The promise of a raise can cause an employee to steadily work harder and be more productive, especially if the promise of more raises down the line exists, whereas a reward may only motivate them for a small amount of time. Of course, this idea also falls beneath the question “can you afford it?”. You don’t want to make a work based promise without certainty that you can keep it. You could end up losing an employee.

These are the basic questions that will form a good foundation for deciding rather or not you should give an employee a raise. Using this as a guide, our little Palm Coast business can continue to prosper while rewarding it’s employees accordingly. Your company can follow this example and prosper as well. Giving a reward to an employee such as a raise is more than just a matter of payroll, it also falls under the scope of employee management and human resource management. When it comes to matters such as this, you can place them in the hands of an experience team such as the one at Vision H.R., who have a highly trained staff that can handle any Melbourne Fl payroll services you may need and make your decision making simpler and stress free.

Melbourne Fl Payroll Services

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Daytona Beach Retirement Planning

Let’s take a moment and consider a concept that we often overlook. There are over seven billion people alive on our world right now, and that means with each minute, over 7 billion different possibilities are all happening simultaneously. That is a lot of different outcomes to imagine, and each one is just as unpredictable as the other. There are 1,440 minutes in a day, and 365 days in a year. Simply put, there are so many variables that go into the future, that it is a virtual impossibility to know what is going to happen tomorrow. This is why it is important to start preparing for it today. Luckily preparing for the future is not an endeavor you have to take on alone, and it it is simple to help others along as well. We are talking about of course about retirement planning.

Often times, an company offering a retirement plan sounds good on the surface, but the idea usually ends up in the back of our minds soon after. It doesn’t really benefit us immediately, so more pressing matters will take precedence over it. Why worry about retirement in 40 years when your phone bill is due in four days? When you wind up at your retirement party with not even half of what you thought you would be getting, realizing you don’t remember what phone you had 40 years ago, you may wish you had a different set of priorities. This isn’t to say that your retirement should be at the front of the line of course, simply that it should be a concern that gets some form of attention from time to time.

Not only is retirement planning good for yourself, it is also good for your employees and business as well. From a business standpoint, a retirement plan can lure in applicants when your business or company is looking to hire someone. It also can help boost morale and strengthen relationships between employees and employers. A workplace where employees feel confident that their managers or business owners believe they see them more than just expendable labor will have a more positive outlook on their job. When an employee feels more positive about their work, they tend to be more productive and more pleasant to be around.

Even more appealing is the ease that you can implement a retirement savings plan into your employee’s benefits packages. While you can do it on your own, there are companies like Vision H.R. that you can outsource your payroll and benefit planning to instead. They can analyze your payroll and revenue to create a retirement plan that is tailored to your needs. The way they can do this is with a multiple employer plan.

How Does a Multiple Employer Plan Work?

A multiple employer plan is a 401K that is sponsored by one single company that allows other employers to join as adopting employers. This allows multiple companies to adopt their own retirement savings plan, while the federal government views it as one single plan. Even though it is sponsored by one company, each employer that joins can have their retirement savings plan tailored specifically to their needs.

So why should you go through a multiple employer plan instead of an individual based one? For starters, with a multiple employer plan you get more buying power. The more money you have the more you can do, and the pricing of a multiple employer plan is based on the combined assets of all the companies involved. By using a multiple employer plan for retirement savings, you get more flexibility when choosing a retirement plan that benefits both you and your employees. By using a multiple employer plan like the one offered by Vision H.R., you gain the potential to have lesser costs, and more options at your disposal.

Doing this through Vision H.R. also makes the entire scenario simpler and cost effective. Vision H.R. takes care of most of the important paperwork and day-to-day maintenance, leaving you with less work, less stress, and less costs to worry about. Along with all this work they will put into your retirement savings plan, they can also effectively handle your payroll and human resource management as well, giving you a trifecta of relief when it comes to handling your company. You will have a competent team handling your here and now, along with your down the road.

Isn’t it time to stop leaving the future in tomorrow’s hands and worry about it today? The first step to securing your future retirement only requires a few minutes of your time and a little information, you just have to visit Vision-hr.com and request a quote.

Daytona Beach Retirement Planning

Vision HR | The Human Resource Experts

The Proper Employee Handbook

One of the most vital inventions of mankind is the written language. You can verbally tell a story a thousand times, and a thousand details in it could change. Write the story down however, and the story will survive unchanged and unaltered. Some written language dates back as far as 3,200 B.C., and has been the foundation for civilization ever since. Even in today’s world, one dominated by technology, the written language is the life giving roots that power the data found in the technology’s programming. It is also a major part of an employee handbook, which is a vital part of an organized business structure. An employee is best able to follow the rules when they are easily accessible to them. An employee handbook will also help explain the different policies such as medical leave, paid time off, and other important issues.

What goes into an employee handbook though? There is a lot that can be put into one, some information that is required and some that is optional. Deciding what to put into your company’s handbook making it as optimized as possible will most times fall on your human resources department, or to yourself. So let’s get to basics and explore what information should be put into your employee handbook.

Equal employment and Non-discrimination policies: It is required that many businesses follow a non-discrimination policy when it comes to hiring and promotion of employees. This includes groups based on race, religion, disabilities, and sexuality.

Worker’s Compensation Policies: It is often required that a company inform its employees of their compensation policies. These can include workers compensation in the case of an injury, and compensation for work related expenses.

Family Medical Leave Policies: Many states have different policies when it comes to family medical leave. The main idea of such is that an employer of a certain size must allow an employee up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to care for a child, or for a family member with a serious health condition.

Company History: Starting an employee handbook off with a quick history of the company is a good way to set the tone for the rest of the handbook. It is a good area to include the company’s mission statement and goals for customer relations.

Paid Time Off: Who doesn’t love getting a paid day off from work? It is inevitable that eventually you are going to be asked about getting paid for a certain holiday. By including it in the employee handbook, the employees will know ahead of time about what will warrant paid time off.

Employee Behavior: Employees are the main ones responsible for both interacting with customers, general safety in the workplace, and the company’s productivity. While a manager or company owner is responsible for making sure the workplace is safe, and productive, it is the basic employees that have to follow the rules to optimize the results. So include a section that includes appropriate behavior, how to interact with customers, and a proper dress code. It is also a good idea to include disciplinary actions for when these rules are broken.

Family Medical Leave Policies: Many states have different policies when it comes to family medical leave. The main idea of such is that an employer with a certain number of employees must allow an employee up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to care for a child, or for a family member with a serious health condition.

Pay and Benefits: In this section, include how often an employee will be paid, rather it will be every one or two weeks, once a month, etc. Also include items such is rather or not you offer direct deposit, paperless statements, and how the payroll generally operates. Close to this section, you should also discuss benefits with the employee. Explain to them what benefits are available, how they work, and how to apply for them.

Disclaimers: It is important to state what the employee handbook actually is. Such disclaimers can include noting that an employee handbook is not a contract guaranteeing prolonged employment, and that the policies stated within the handbook are subject to change. An acknowledgment page is also recommended, stating that with the employee’s signature, they have read and understand the material included in the employee handbook.

If you are unsure on how to create your own employee handbook, or how to best transcribe the various policies and regulations into a handbook, contact Vision H.R. a trusted outsource company that handles Palm Coast human resource management needs, along with payroll and employment.

Palm Coast Human Resource Management

Vision HR | The Human Resource Experts

Issues Surrounding Final Paychecks

When an employee leaves your company, the complicated issue of the final paycheck arises. And how your company handles the check depends on state and federal laws, which can make it difficult for businesses operating in more than one state to come up with a uniform nationwide policy.

State laws generally determine the timing of final paychecks based on whether the employee was fired, laid off, or quit. Depending on the state, deadlines for issuing the last check might be the employee’s last day of work, the following business day, three business days, or the next scheduled payday.

What your company includes in the final paycheck can depend on whether you pay the employee an hourly wage or a salary, as well as on your company’s written policies regarding:

Severance pay;
Expenses;
Vacation, sick and personal days;
Bonuses;
Commissions; and
Other pay and benefit arrangements.

It’s important to know the laws because your company could be assessed interest and penalties for non-compliance. In some cases, companies wind up paying legal fees if the employee resorts to legal action.

One complex area in writing final paychecks involves employees who owe money to your company for any number of reasons, including:

Payroll advances;
Tuition payments;
Employee loans;
Unreturned equipment such as a company cell phone or laptop computer;
Purchases through payroll deductions; and
Prepaid leave.

You might be tempted to withhold the amount an employee owes, figuring that’s the only way your company will collect the debt. That could be a mistake.

Withholding money for employee debts also falls under state laws – unless there is a conflict with federal law, which prohibits withholding if it reduces the final payment to below minimum wage. There is an exemption for withholding amounts for debts stemming from payroll advances.

However, there can be a thin line between a payroll advance and a loan. In some cases, courts ruled that advances became loans at some point.

State withholding laws range from extremely restrictive to very liberal. When there is a statute, allowable withholding amounts can depend on the circumstances surrounding the debt and whether you pay the employee a salary or an hourly wage.

Even if the individual receives a salary, if the debt stems from loans, prepaid leave, or unreturned equipment, it can be unclear whether an employee was actually salaried and exempt from overtime.

One common misconception is that a company can withhold amounts owed from the final paycheck if an employee signed a blanket authorization. But withholding authorizations must generally be voluntary and free from coercion. If your company, like many others, has all new hires sign blanket authorizations about policies, they can be interpreted as a requirement of employment and thus not voluntary.

One consideration is to ask an employee to sign a withholding authorization for a specific debt at the time the employee incurs it. That form should include a statement that the employee can revoke the authorization any time with two weeks prior notice.

Caution: When it comes to final paychecks, the laws are complex. Consult with a professional who is knowledgeable about payroll laws, and state and federal labor department regulations.

(Source: www.bizactions.com)

All-in-One Outsourcing

Do you remember being impressed because you could buy a TV that came with a DVD player installed into it, or the first time you watched a full video on an MP3 player? Thanks to this “All-in-One” style pattern of design, not just our technology is changing, the evolution of business, entertainment, and life as we know is becoming both simpler and more complex. If ever there was a perfect sample of this, it would be either the internet capable refrigerator with touchscreen interface, or the dynamic world of company outsourcing.

As impressive as a refrigerator that can send tweets is, the outsourcing aspect is the most practical and important of the two. We have spoken extensively on the various services we offer, talking about the helpful implications they can have in various scenarios, yet have not really brought all our services into one single place to show the full possibilities that outsourcing can create. Let’s take this time to put together all the options that are available to you, and how they can benefit a single company.

Let’s first explore the two primary focus areas of our own company, Vision H.R. along with other areas that fall under each. While we do have a wide range of services, there are two that make up our main business structure. The first being,

Payroll: The ground floor of employee motivation. Payroll is what keeps us coming into work everyday, it also is what lets us afford to come into work everyday. Payroll is a substantial part of a company’s expenses, especially when they have a lot of employees, and something that can have hefty legal fines if done incorrectly. Outsourcing to a company like Vision H.R. will take you straight to a talented team of payroll experts, ensuring that your payroll is done properly, effectively and on time. Along with paying employees, other responsibilities that fall under Payroll include W-2s, Tax Reporting, Federal, State, and Tax Withholding, Direct Deposits, and Wage Garnishment or Child Support Management.

Along with paying employees and doing taxes, payroll can also include the following.

Benefits Packages: Create a benefits package such as vacation or sick leave from your own company, or let us browse and find providers to supply Medical, Dental, and other related benefits.

Timekeeping: Vision H.R. can supply the necessary tools to allow employees to clock in and out of work using various mediums such as passwords, barcodes, even mobile capabilities such as smartphones for when they are away from the office. We can also help keep online records of employee’s time.

The second main area of focus for Vision H.R.?

Human Resource Management: Keeping employees focused and organized is a big part of a Human Resource department. Other responsibilities involve keeping up to date on new employment laws and regulations, creating an employee handbook, and are heavily involved with both current employees and new hires. They are responsible for background checks, drug screenings, progressive discipline, and Management Training while also being on hand for any urgent H.R. Support issues that may arise. When outsourced, you don’t have to worry about your human resource department being involved with another issue when the unexpected comes up, the Vision H.R. team is always ready to help you with any questions you may have about Human Resources.

Vision H.R. isn’t limited to just payroll and human resource management of course, they can also help you find the right Business Insurance provider. They can work with various companies to get the best deal, with the best forms of coverage to fit the needs of your own company. Employment and Staffing fall under their wide range of services as well, including temporary staffing, temp-to-hire, and direct hire.

Put all these together into one single business, and you may find more than half of your stress has been lifted off your shoulders. Payroll, human resources, and hiring can take up hours if not days if your time, and now that is time that can be spent finding ways to move your company forward. The room for error to occur also closes exponentially compared to training someone or having a single person handle any of the aforementioned departments. When something goes wrong in payroll, it’s not just the employee that suffers, the company can face legal fines as well.

When you are ready to lighten the load and move your company forward? Contact www.Vision-HR.com to get a free quote from the H.R. outsourced company Daytona Beach trusts the most. You have nothing to lose, and limitless possibilities to gain by inquiring today.