Why Your Company Should Have Business Insurance

Insurance is a type of financial protection product that helps to cover losses. Many people have life insurance to help cover the costs and financial losses associated with death, and all drivers in the United States must carry auto insurance to cover damages that result from causing a car accident. While personal insurance for life, health, and auto may be common, you may not realize that business owners should carry insurance as well.

What is Business Insurance?

Business insurance is an insurance product that helps to protect businesses in the event of certain losses or damages. There are several sub-categories of business insurance that are available to protect different facets of running a business. For instance, business interruption insurance is a type of business insurance product that helps to cover losses suffered as a result of a business being temporarily shut down for various reasons.

Employees insurance is another type of coverage that may protect your business’ workers in the event of a health matter. Employees insurance may also be considered health insurance, depending on how your company’s benefits are organized. The goal of this type of insurance is to protect your company's bottom line by helping employees maintain good health.

Why Business Insurance is Important

Business insurance is important because there’s often a lot riding on the stability and health of a company’s finances. When a business is sued and loses in court, the business may need to pay out huge sums of money that could ultimately end up bankrupting the business. If a fire or other disaster strikes and shuts down a business for days, weeks, or months, that lost time could mean that the business will not have the capital needed to survive until repairs and restoration have taken place.

Finding Business Insurance

To find the right business insurance products for your company, you may consider working with an independent insurance broker. These are professionals who represent products from multiple insurance companies, and brokers can impartially shop policies to help business owners find the right coverage options for the specific needs of the business.

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How Digital Signatures Improve Onboarding Efficiency

Digital signatures revolutionized many consumer-focused processes. Think about how it transformed banks, insurance providers, lawyers, and other document-heavy organizations. But despite its benefits for consumers, companies are slow to adopt it internally.

There are many ways to use digital signatures in your organization's daily operations, but it's most convenient during the onboarding process. Software for employee onboarding can distribute, save, and manage digital documents, changing the game for HR professionals.

Not convinced? Here are three reasons why digital signatures could make your onboarding process more efficient than ever.

Time Savings

Contrary to popular belief, onboarding a new employee isn't as simple as signing a handful of documents. It's more complex and often involves multiple stakeholders.

The biggest hurdle is getting documentation through those stakeholders. Everyone's busy, and it's often a waiting game to deliver, sign, and validate documents. It's hard enough with a single employee. But can you imagine the time it would take to get through that with a bulk recruitment event?

Digital signatures create a level of automation. You can deliver documents, get them signed, and keep everything organized without a single printout.

Better Security

Another perk of using digital signatures is the level of security you get. Paper documents are easy to forge, steal, or lose. Unless you're on top of physical file management, there are always risks.

But when you use software for employee onboarding, you can make those issues a thing of the past. The files are all digital, making them easier to transmit and keep safe. Signers also create their own protection barriers with PINs, passwords, and even biometric security measures.

Pure Convenience

Of course, we can't forget to bring up the convenience of it all! Most companies these days have a well-defined tech stack. Things might evolve and change, but technology is here to stay. Some holdouts still use paper documents, but that number is dwindling daily!

Digital signatures are far more convenient. You don't have to worry about the costs of printing documents out. Plus, there's no need for physical storage, regular upkeep, and confusing organization. With digital signatures, accessing and completing documents for your new hires is a breeze.

Read a similar article about employee training management software here at this page.

Five Reasons Why You Should Allow Your Employees Flexible Work Schedule

A decade ago, the idea of having a flexible work schedule was unheard of unless you worked freelance. But thanks to changing attitudes and access to a feature-rich employee scheduling platform, more companies are giving their employees more flexible work hours.

Not convinced? This blog will give five reasons you should allow a flexible schedule.

Incentivize New Talent

For many modern workers, having the opportunity to achieve a comfortable work-life balance is at the top of their career wishlist. It's a valuable benefit that will make your organization stick out from the competition. Instead of losing out on top talent to some of your corporate rivals, you can attract the best employees in your industry.

Improve Employee Retention

Of course, flexibility goes beyond onboarding. Once you get those top-talent employees, you need to keep them. Luckily, work flexibility is one of the best ways to retain employees.

Many studies show that workers become more loyal to employers with flexible work schedules. That can reduce onboarding costs and help you boost the long-term bottom line.

Create More Workplace Diversity

Did you know that limiting positions to specific locations and hours severely impacts workplace diversity? Studies show that having diverse employees can lead to better-performing teams. Your organization needs those unique perspectives to reach peak levels of productivity.

When you open up work schedules and offer flexibility, you're casting a wider net and allowing more diverse people to join your team.

Boost Productivity

Having more say in their work schedules can significantly increase productivity. But it goes beyond employee loyalty. When your team chooses when they work, they can do so when they're ready to be productive.

That means less wasted time, fewer lost hours, and more strategic use of company resources.

More Employee Engagement

When you use an employee scheduling platform to provide more work flexibility, your team will become more engaged than ever. It's a simple fix that can leave a lasting impression.

People feel more respected when you trust them to choose how they work. As a result, you might notice fewer missed days, less employee turnover, and more people wanting to turn their jobs into careers.

Read a similar article about process employee payroll here at this page.

How the Labor Shortage Has Affected Benefits and Pay

The recent labor shortage that began in 2021 and has continued into 2022 may have started because of Covid-19, but its momentum has been in large part due to an increasingly skeptical view of modern wages and wealth equality. Workers these days have begun to notice a large gap existing between the pace of wage growth versus productivity output.

Combined with rising prices on just about everything and inflation looming large, more and more workers have simply walked away from jobs, and in some cases, the labor market altogether. While some of these workers have moved to different jobs, others have decided to make a hobby a career or have started their own businesses.

How This Affects Employers

Employers are feeling the effects of the labor shortage, especially when it comes to productivity. Without qualified employees, it can be more difficult to get work done. This means delays in getting goods and services to customers amid an already stressful supply chain environment.

You may also be facing tough decisions about pay and employment benefits. As you may be generating less revenue because you don’t have employees to produce and provide goods and services, employees are asking for higher wages and more benefits. This can be a catch-22 situation where you’re going to have to make some difficult decisions regarding your operational scale.

What Can You Do?

For employers, a labor shortage means a lot of things. First and foremost, it means that you have fewer workers available to staff open positions, so you need to be doing everything possible to attract the right talent. Second, it means you may need to re-evaluate your pay and employment benefits offerings to attract and retain talent. Once again, this may require some changes to your organization's management strategy and your operational scale.

This may also be a good time to take a closer look at your company culture and take stock in the human capital you currently have in order to do more with less. It’s a challenging task to be sure as you don’t want to add more work to an already short-staffed workplace, but if you’re going to make it through these difficult times, some reassessment is in order.

Read a similar article about employee payroll services here at this page.

What to Include in an Employee Code of Conduct

In the workplace, as in virtually all facets of life, there need to be rules to ensure that everyone understands what is expected of them and how to behave. Most employers will create a set of rules for the workplace referred to as a code of conduct. This code is one of a series of documents that guides employee behavior on the clock.

Creating a code of conduct, however, isn’t as simple as it may sound. Not only do you need to account for the various behavioral challenges an employee may encounter at work, but you also need to approach the creation of your code with caution. How things are worded can create legal pitfalls, and you also run the risk of violating civil rights laws by barring certain practices.

Think About the Environment

While your employee code of conduct should include the obvious things like don’t sexually harass coworkers, don’t engage in threats and violence and other self-evident problematic behavior, your work environment can make a difference. For example, if you own an entertainment venue, the dress code portion of your code of conduct will likely be different from the dress code of an investment banking firm.

What About Enforcement Actions?

Aside from outlining what is expected of employees, your code of conduct also needs to include enforcement actions. What are the potential consequences for violating the code of conduct? Are all violations viewed as equal, or are some more serious than others? When employees understand the consequences of their actions, you create an atmosphere of mutual respect.

Include an Acknowledgment Page

You also want to include an acknowledgment page that each employee signs. This page states that the employee has been provided with a copy of the code of conduct, that they have read the materials and that they agree to abide by the code.

Having a signed copy of this page is important if a situation ever warrants the need to prove acknowledgment in court. This page should be securely filed with other documents pertaining to each employee’s account with the company.

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Liberals Call For Vaccine Certificate Expansion – What Does This Mean For HR?

Ontario Liberals are calling on the government to expand the use of vaccine certificates to the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBOs), cannabis stores, and non-essential retail to avoid further business closures in the province – a move that could impact hundred of employers read more

Important Data Your HR Team Should Be Tracking

Your HR team is responsible for many important tasks. From completing payroll and creating recruitment processes to implementing employee policies and managing employee benefits, HR has a huge impact on the efficacy and productivity of your organization. In addition to these tasks, your HR team should also be tracking key information about your staff. Not only is record-keeping often required by law, but it’s also an essential aspect of an efficient and healthy workplace for all employees.

Generally speaking, to comply with legal requirements and run a successful business, you should always include the following items in your HR analytics reports.

Compensation data

Keeping track of current employee compensation is important to ensure your payroll is accurate. However, your HR analytics reports should also include historical compensation data for your company. This information may be important if your organization is ever investigated for minimum wage or overtime payment practices or you need to justify your wage-setting practices for any legal reasons.

Number of employees

You’ll need to know how many employees your company has to negotiate group health insurance rates and determine the size of your HR team. After all, your HR staff could quickly become overwhelmed and begin making mistakes if your staff grows too fast.

Professional development expenses

Your HR team should also be keeping track of all expenses related to staff training and ongoing education. That way, you  can identify your overall ROI as it pertains to employee professional development and determine if you’re spending too much or too little to help your team advance into new positions within your organization.

Voluntary EEO

Government contractors are legally required to keep track of employee data like age, sex, race, and disability. While applicants voluntarily provide this information, some organizations visually assess their staff to get the data. Regardless, your organization should maintain this data to provide evidence of equal employment opportunity practices. You can also use it to determine how you can improve diversity within your organization.

Employee eligibility

According to the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, your organization has to keep documentation of your employees’ eligibility to work for at least three years. If you fail to do so, your company could face serious consequences!

Retention rates

Your HR analytics reports should also include the number of employees who stay with your company, as well as your turnover rate. Not only will this information inform your hiring and recruitment practices, but it can also help you calculate your cost-per-hire.

Recruitment costs

And finally, don’t forget to track valuable data on recruitment costs, such as the number of applications you receive for various positions, the number of interviews you conduct, and the hiring outcomes. This data will enable your organization to accurately assess the effectiveness of your recruitment strategies and make changes as needed.

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