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9 ways to cut costs with strategic work/life & flex benefits

09/04/2009

Amid layoffs, furloughs, pay cuts and frozen salaries, most organizations are holding onto their work/life benefits during the recession. And some of them are using flextime, telework and other employee favorites as cost-cutting strategies. Here are nine ways your organization can make strategic use of work/life benefits to cut costs, save jobs and pump up employee morale during the recession.

Pass your own health care reform with these 4 best practices

09/04/2009

Don’t depend on comprehensive health care reform to significantly cut the cost of the health insurance benefits you provide to employees. Many of America’s best companies have found that a few best practices do a remarkably good job of improving employee health and controlling health care expenses. Here are some of the best practices in health benefits used by America’s best employers.

Federal contractors must use E-Verify starting Sept. 8

09/01/2009

Starting Sept. 8, federal contractors and subcontractors must begin using the government’s E-Verify system to confirm their employees’ eligibility to work in the United States. After a year’s worth of court delays, the Internet-based employment-eligibility verification system is now mandatory for companies doing business with Uncle Sam.

A gentle rejection letter is fine, but document why you chose someone else

08/28/2009

Employers often have many reasons for choosing one candidate over another. You should document all business-related reasons for your decision. But you don’t have to list them all in the rejection letter you send. Feel free to provide just one reason.

Tidewater area boasts most centralized job market

08/28/2009

The metropolitan area encompassing North Carolina suburbs of the Virginia Beach/Norfolk/Hampton Roads region is the most centralized large employment center in the nation, according to a Brookings Institution report titled “Job Sprawl Revisited: The Changing Geography of Metropolitan Employment.”

What’s the latest on the employment of immigrants in the Carolinas?

08/28/2009

Q. My company has about 80 employees spread among four stores in Charlotte and upstate South Carolina. Business is rebounding, and we expect 10 to 15 new hires in the next few months. Proposed changes in immigration laws are often in the news. Is there anything new I should know?

California: The best of sprawl, the worst of sprawl

08/26/2009

It probably comes as no surprise to Southern Californians that the Los Angeles and Orange County region ranks as one of the nation’s worst examples of urban sprawl, according to a recent report by the Brookings Institution. Only Detroit, Chicago and Dallas have more spread-out employment bases.

Know criteria before turning employees into contractors

08/26/2009

Wouldn’t it be great if you could just turn your employees into independent contractors? That way, you wouldn’t have to pay unemployment compensation taxes, provide workers’ compensation insurance and so on. But California courts are quick to zap employers that wrongly convert employees into contractors.

Should we require a nondisclosure agreement?

08/26/2009

Q. Should we require new employees to sign a nondisclosure agreement in order to protect our trade secrets, customer lists, etc.?

Are drug testing programs constitutional?

08/26/2009

Q. An employee says our drug testing program violates his constitutional rights. What can I tell him to prove that we’re well within the law?