The FLSA is a set of federal laws regarding minimum wage, overtime, and other important workplace practices. The rules aren’t always easy to understand, however, and sometimes they get misinterpreted by business owners and even by the courts. (As an example, the supreme court recently had to step in and give the final word on a type of overtime exemption.) This is why the Department of Labor has provided opinion letters to help clarify some of the more confusing scenarios.
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Businesses always feel pressure to do more with social media, whether it’s getting on a new platform, increasing followers, or developing new content. This is for good reason: the majority of consumers are on some form of social media, and it serves as a primary way for them to gather information. Social media marketing has been proven to increase sales and brand exposure.
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While the April 2nd Supreme Court ruling may only apply to a very small segment of workers and probably only affects a single wage and hour lawsuit currently, this departure from the longstanding approach at interpreting overtime exemptions will likely have broader implications and affect more workers in the future.
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Contributed by Dennis Hung
The landscape of the modern-day workplace has evolved over the years. No longer are they gender-biased towards women. According to The 2017 State of Women-Owned Businesses Report by American Express, 43 percent of all U.S. businesses with 50 to 99 employees are run by women. Like their male counterparts, these empowered female entrepreneurs must secure funding to get their business idea up and running. The good news, however, is that women often have an easier time at raising capital than men for the following reasons.
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Contributed by Sophia Conti
Small businesses are used to running on the bare essentials – and too often, those essentials do not include streamlined and well-planned human resources functions. Even larger businesses fail to establish HR protocols and standard operating procedures, believing it to be too expensive to implement for the minimal purpose it will serve. This often stems from a limited understanding of what human resources can accomplish and the benefits it yields for employer and employee alike.
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On March 6, 2018 the Department of Labor launched a pilot program allowing employers to audit their own pay practices and catch and report their own wage and hour mistakes. It’s called the Payroll Audit Independent Determination (PAID) Program and will operate for six months as a pilot program.
Prior to now, wage and hour mistakes would land employers in court where they would have to pay court and lawyer fees, back wages, and liquidated damages. With the PAID program, if mistakes are caught independently and in good faith, employers can avoid the extra costs and simply pay employees back for the mistakes made.
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Contributed by Shachar Shamir
For businesses of all sizes, strong relationships between team members is the most important foundation to the success of team projects. While no one is expected to be best friends with their colleagues, strengthening your team’s ability to collaborate and openly communicate with one another can prevent projects from stalling, while creating a more positive work environment. Here are some of the ways managers can improve team dynamics in order to speed up the workflow, increase overall efficiency, and boost employee morale.
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Contributed by Jackie Roberson
An unusable website is unusable. Sure, it’s a tautology, but it’s also a lesson that many business leaders are unable to accept. The problem is that website usability isn’t well-understood by many business leaders, and their ignorance leads them to develop business websites that look flashy or seem cutting edge but ultimately fail to assist site visitors in accomplishing their goals.
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The gig economy has sparked a lot of discussion surrounding employee rights and, while no steadfast rules have yet to be determined on the subject of gig contractors vs gig employees, the topic is maturing as this new employment landscape continues to develop.
Just this week, in California, a federal judge ruled that Grubhub delivery drivers are indeed independent contractors. However, the case is far from closed. Not only does the plantiff’s lawyer plan to appeal the ruling but the California Supreme court is working on drafting a test for these workers, which should help settle the issue overall.
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Contributed by Micheal Gilmore
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been evolving steadily over the last few decades, causing significant changes in our personal and professional lives. Today, it is almost impossible to think of a business that doesn’t use AI at least to some extent. In terms of recruiting, AI recently emerged in the form of chatbots.
According to a recent study, as much as 80% of companies claim that they already used or planned to use chatbots by 2020. It’s the future of HR business and you should be ready to embrace it soon. In this article, we will show you how chatbots are changing recruitment.
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Contributed by Julie Petersen
Entrepreneurs are well known as passionate and proactive professionals who are able to put business ideas into practice. This is a talent not everyone possesses, just like writing is a talent not all entrepreneurs possess. It is, however, a very important skill to master. Entrepreneurs can be so much more effective when they learn to express their ideas and passions in writing.
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There’s not a whole lot to report with the mileage rate this year. It is up 1 cent from last year. Update your records for reimbursement calculations, including the rate field in the Timesheets.com software. If you need help with this, please contact us!
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