For retailers, November 1^st signifies the beginning of the winter holiday season, namely putting out the Christmas and Hanukkah decorations and playing multiple versions of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” over the loud speakers. But if you own a company that is not in the retail business, the way you approach the holiday season may come into question and potentially open you up to legal repercussions if your employees perceive that they are being discriminated against or are not allowed the freedom to practice their religious beliefs.

Simple questions such as whether or not to decorate, how to allocate days off, and hosting parties or gift exchanges can become tricky when an employer looks to accommodate all of his or her team members. The issues occur when an employer seems to be favoring one religion over the other by only referring to the Christmas holiday or displaying overtly religious decorations, such as a Menorah. A better approach, if you choose to decorate or host a party, is to opt for secular decorations and call the gathering an “end-of-year celebration” or other PC title.

Make any events or activities optional for all employees, and be sure that everyone knows that your work policies are fully in effect throughout the holiday season. Sexual harassment is not tolerated, regardless of how much alcohol one has at the company party, and gift exchanges should always be focused on work-appropriate gifts. Also, if you allow one person to take off a day or two to celebrate Christmas, be sure that the employee who wants a day off for Hanukkah enjoys the same opportunity.

The holidays can be a great time to celebrate with your employees, as long as you maintain a focus on your team and their perceptions. Just stay neutral and PC and you’ll coast through without incident.

The leaves are turning, the air is cooling down, and no matter where in the country you live, you can notice the distinct feel of fall in the air. That can only mean one thing: Open enrollment season is here!

This is the time when your employees have an opportunity to choose their insurance coverage for the coming year. If you’re working with a Professional Employment Organization (PEO), such as Human Capital Strategies, all you need to worry about is scheduling time for your representative to come and speak with your employees. That rep will share with your team their options and help to guide them through the process of choosing the appropriate coverage.

However, if you’re doing it on your own, there are a lot of things that go on behind the scenes that you’ll need to do to protect yourself, your company, and your employees.

This is the perfect time to start planning if your renewal date is January 1. You should be looking 60-90 days out so that you can be sure to have everything complete in time. Some of the items on your checklist should be:

• Considering your company goal, including why you want to offer insurance benefits, how much you’ll contribute, and if employees will share costs.
• Taking a census of employees to determine who is full time or part time and who is eligible for benefits.
• Creating healthcare questionnaires to share with employees to determine their needs.
• Identifying your renewal rate with your current carrier after providing them with any updates in employee coverage.
• Meeting with a group health insurance broker to provide options.
• Setting up payroll with the new deductions.

Once you start educating your employees on their options, one of the things that often gets overlooked is an option to decline coverage. If this form is not offered—and signed—the employee may choose to come back to you at a later date and argue that coverage was never offered. This is a huge liability risk.

When working with a PEO, all of these components are handled on their end. A PEO is proactive in determining your insurance coverage needs, soliciting bids for coverage, and creating a marketing plan to share that information with your employees. Why are they so involved? Naturally, they want to provide the best customer service, but another important component is that, because the PEO is handling your payroll, it shares liability for those benefits and deductions.

If you have questions about group health insurance and how it affects your company, please contact Human Capital Strategies. Now is the time!

Is your corporate culture obvious to new employees—and pervasive to the entire team? Creating a strong corporate culture isn’t always an inherent task when launching and growing your business; you need to be deliberate and ensure that your message is easily understood and adopted.

In a recent post by Jesse Lyn Stoner, she clearly laid out the five factors that define whether or not a company is values driven. While it isn’t mandated that your corporate culture be linked to values, it is a great way to be sure that it’s “sticky,” meaning that employees take it to heart and begin to embrace—even live and breathe—the culture.

Stoner suggests the following ways to identify a values-driven company:

1. Employees remember what the company’s values are.
2. Employees can describe specific activities and behaviors that demonstrate what the values look like in action.
3. The company’s values are visibly integrated into how it does business.
4. The company’s public message matches your own experience as a customer.
5. You can use your own personal experience to identify the real company values.

When you’re establishing and evaluating your company’s culture, look at the companies you admire and see how they’re doing things. You’re not likely to create one that is completely new, and it’s okay to adopt approaches from other places to make something that is unique to your company, employees, and customers.

The most successful companies have a clearly defined culture that is obvious no matter from what angle you’re observing the company. It’s never too early or too late to establish an effective culture and get everyone on board for success. One additional benefit is that a pervasive culture will make your company more attractive when it comes time to sell. For questions about the value of your organization and preparing it for sale, contact us.

When you went into business, you probably had the thought that you’d be able to sell it someday. But before you put up the signs and start to count your returns, you need to begin with a plan. Businesses are primarily sold when the owner is looking to retire, wants to fund another venture, or sees the “writing on the wall,” as it were, and chooses to get out early. Whatever your reason, it’s best to start planning early.

First, you’ll need to evaluate the business to determine its value. This includes all assets, liabilities, revenues, expenses, systems, and procedures, among others. This evaluation will help a potential buyer understand both the tangible and intangible value of the business as an ongoing business concern. This crucial first step enables you to set a price for sale based on current market value.

It’s a challenge to prepare a business for sale on your own since there are many fiscal and legal considerations. Your best bet is to work with a business brokerage firm. The firm will conduct the initial evaluation of the business and assist in having an independent third-party valuation completed. Legal safeguards need to be established as your exit plan moves forward. Some things to consider and prepare when selling a business include:

• The future of the company. Do you want a specific buyer who will maintain the brand identity?
• Legal dissolution documents. They need to be provided to government agencies (such as the IRS) to close down taxes levied on the company.
• Canceling registrations, licenses, and permits.
• Clearing all pending payments to employees, vendors, and lenders.

Just like when you started your business, you’ll need support in closing or selling it. Human Capital Strategies can help. Contact us to get the process rolling and know that your investment will get the return it deserves.

A PEO, or Professional Employer Organization, supports businesses’ HR and administrative tasks such as payroll, insurance, taxes, reporting, and all-around human resources management. In this age of outsourcing, a PEO does those things small business owners and office managers don’t like to do, don’t know how to do, and, often times, don’t even know they are supposed to do.”

Hiring one in-house HR person can cost $35,000 a year—at minimum, plus tax and benefits—and you still have to deal with people going on vacation or being sick. The more employees a company has, the more HR professionals are needed, slowly bumping up that salary cost. A PEO, however, costs significantly less because it can provide a one-stop shop or simply a la carte options. This frees your staff to focus on their core business rather than human resources. Even recruiting and training staff can be managed by a PEO.

Sometimes, fear can stagnate a business’ growth. But that doesn’t need to be the case! Even risk management falls under the auspices of a PEO. Diseases, disasters, and other challenges can all be managed on an outsourced basis, relieving much of that litigation fear. Workers’ compensation and insurance are routed through the PEO as opposed to being handled inside the business.

Convinced yet? What about an increase in your profit margin? That’s what you can expect when fewer resources are devoted to the adminstrative tasks in your business. You can’t go without them and you need professional support, but you don’t want the headache. That’s why Human Capital Strategies truly is “the next best thing to no employees.” Contact us to learn more about how a PEO can help improve your bottom line.