Roundup: This Week’s Popular HR News From Around The Web

This week’s HR News Roundup from around the web: compliance and staying on top of government mandates, do you want to know what your co-workers make, what the healthcare law means for retirement savings and more!

To Protect The Organization, HR Must Stay On Top Of Government Mandates
The human resources (HR) function is at the center of most organizations’ efforts to identify, hire, and retain the people the organization needs to achieve its goals. But it also is up to HR to ensure that hiring, discipline, and termination practices are compliant with the law.

CMS Tax Credit Service on New Legislation – “Hurricane Sandy Relief Act”
CMS tax credit specialists have been tracking legislation on proposed bill H.R. 152 “Hurricane Sandy Relief Act,” which was approved by the Senate and now goes to President Barack Obama. The  amendment makes available $17 billion in emergency funding, including $25 million in funding for ‘Training and Employment Services,’ which will be for the dislocated workers related to Hurricane Sandy.

5 Tips to Keep Your Payroll in Compliance in 2013
With tax season just around the corner, businesses everywhere will be checking to make sure they have reported records accurately for the past business year. Many HR departments and small business owners have struggled with processing payroll. The task can be overwhelming at times, which may result in pay mistakes.

The Health Care Law and Retirement Savings
Because of its definition of affordability, beginning next year the Affordable Care Act may affect retirement savings. Employer contributions to employee pension plans are exempt from payroll and personal income taxes at the time that they are made, because the employer contributions are not officially considered part of the employee’s wages or salary (employer health insurance contributions are treated much the same way). The contributions are taxed when withdrawn (typically when the worker has retired), at a rate determined by the retiree’s personal income tax situation.

What Your Desk Says About You
Look at your desk. Is it scattered with unread papers? Adorned with family photos? Do you have toys that help you think? The way you organize and decorate your desk reveals a surprising amount of information about who you are.

Psst…This Is What Your Co-Worker Is Paid
Office workers have grown accustomed to knowing the intimate details of each other’s lives—from a colleague’s favorite cat video to a boss’s vacation fiasco. Now a small but growing number of private-sector firms are letting employees in on closely held company secrets: revealing details of company financials, staff performance reviews, even individual pay—and in doing so, walking a tightrope between information and TMI, or too much information.

Creating An Offer Hard to Refuse
Considering the current climate that companies and consumers are climbing out of in terms of employment continuity, many candidates have been looking for a while and may feel jaded about the process. Positions they’re applying for now that they may be extremely qualified for were unavailable or incredibly scarce over the past few years. But now that employment opportunities are increasing, once applicants are past the interview it lies in the hands of HR staff to make the call about employing them or not.

Should the boss play favorites? Some say yes
Quick, name your boss’s favorite employees in the office. Chances are you know exactly who they are, or you may think you’re one of them, even though “favoritism” is generally a dirty word in the workplace. But should it be? Some experts think awarding favorite status – for the right reasons – can be an effective management tool.

Do you have a plan for flu season?
Flu season this year is hitting with a vengeance. Google’s flu trends index  is showing intense flu activity across the country, at levels far beyond those of recent years. Obviously, illness is going to take its toll on any business, but there are ways to make it less awful, at least from a productivity perspective.

Sage February Webcast Schedule
Learn all about human resources compliance in 2013 with this month’s must-see webcasts from Sage: The Benefits of Compliance to HR Organizations: Identifying and Adopting Best Practices, The Data-Driven HR Organization: How to Achieve It and How to Benefit From It, and Trends in Compensation Management.

iRecruit Webinar Dates February 2013
Announcing the iRecruit webinar presentation schedule for February 2013. Learn how to take control of your applicant tracking process, and manage your applicants in a centralized, secure, cloud-based database.We have weekly webinar demos scheduled on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 2pm Eastern Time (US). Or contact us at 1-800-517-9099 to schedule a webinar at your convenience.

About CMS

CMS is a Sage HRMS Business Partner, providing Sage HRMS software solutions to the North East and beyond. CMS has been providing Sage HRMS (Human Resource Management Systems), Recruiting, Payroll, Benefits Enrollment, Training, Time and Attendance, Employee Self Service, and Work Opportunity Tax Credits solutions since 1997. Call CMS Today For a Free Assessment of Your HR & Payroll Software Needs at 1-800-517-9099

Looking for more? Check out last week’s Roundup: This Week’s Top HR Stories From Around The Web, or follow @cmsbrian on Twitter for regular updates.

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