Ascentis Blog

Information to help HR and payroll managers, recruiters, and compliance officers become more effective.

Category Archives: tips

Employee’s preparing for a wage and hour lawsuit? Now there’s an app for that.

Today, the DOL released an iPhone application geared at employees who want to independently track their own hours and wages, to make sure their employers are compliant with appropriate regular and overtime pay.

According to the iTunes page for this FREE application, “This is a timesheet to record the hours that you work and calculate the amount you may be owed by your employer. It also includes overtime pay calculations at a rate of one and one-half times (1.5) the regular rate of pay for all hours you work over 40 in a workweek.” The DOL adds a disclaimer for the application, stating “DOL is providing this App as a public service. The regulations and related materials reflected in this App are intended to enhance public access to information on DOL programs. This App is a service that is continually under development and it does not include every possible situation encountered in the workplace. The user should be aware that, while we try to keep the information timely and accurate, there will often be a delay between official publication of the materials and their appearance in or modification of this App.”


With an average of 450 employment related lawsuits every single day, and with 57% of companies being named as defendants in at least one employment related lawsuit in the last five years, applications like this make it even easier for employees to know if and when they are not being paid properly, and gives them easier access to report violations. This iPhone app is free to download, but for employers who don’t have a timekeeping solution in place, not having that solution could cost them millions.

STOPPING POTENTIAL VIOLATIONS IN THEIR TRACKS

Employers: It is critical that your company have in place a timekeeping solution like Ascentis Time which prevents violations of wage and hour laws by ensuring that requirements are automatically monitored and fulfilled. The best defense against an alleged violation is an accurate reporting system and automated documentation of everything related to each employee.

READ: Google Sued over unpaid overtime.

READ: AT&T settles class action misclassification suit for 12.5 MIL

READ: Apple settles Enginners FLSA suit for 1 MIL

Ascentis Time is a part of Ascentis’ full suite of fully integrated human capital management solutions, including Ascentis HR, Ascentis Payroll, Ascentis Recruiting (soon to be released), and Ascentis Self Service.

SWOT Away your Labor Issues

When you put together your annual business plan, you probably do a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis to determine how your company is different from your competition and what actions will keep your business going and growing. But, the biggest threat to your business may be the one thing to which you are paying the least attention.

Based on recent regulatory and court activity, wage and hour litigation is the single greatest threat to your continued business success according to this article on compensationcafe.com.  Misclassification, wage theft and other issues require as much attention from businesses as product, pricing and promotion.

Wage and hour litigation is expensive – costing companies up to double and triple damages plus fines plus attorneys fees. While income from operations usually comes in incrementally, wage and hour settlement payouts are a large sum hit on the bottom line. This can not only devastate an organization it can bankrupt it, affecting every single member of that company.

So, how much attention are you paying to your employment practices? Have you performed a SWOT analysis? What are your strengths? Your weaknesses? Where do you have opportunities? What issues pose the greatest threat?

Conducting a compliance audit is a great opportunity to identify and eliminate your unwritten employment policies and practices. Research best practices through discussions with human resources professionals and your legal counsel and make a plan to implement them.

Stay informed about the latest in HR and payroll news, trends, best practices and evolving legislation. Sign up for the monthly Ascentis HR, Benefits and Payroll News.

Retaining Great Employees

Retaining skilled employees is a significant issue for any business. A high rate of employee turnover can result in a loss of knowledge and skills, as well as have a direct impact on a company’s bottom line. The cost of losing an employee includes not only lost productivity, but also the expense of recruiting, selecting and training a new employee. Consider the ideas presented in this article to help reduce turnover and increase satisfaction among your company’s valued employees.

Why Employees Stay
Some of the factors affecting employee retention include:

  • Compensation
  • Strong leadership
  • Challenging and fulfilling job
  • Relationships with immediate supervisors and staff
  • Recognition

Ways to Increase Retention
The following are strategies that may help to increase retention:

  • Acknowledge and reward your employees’ contributions and provide regular, constructive feedback.
  • Make sure your compensation package is fair and competitive.
  • Provide a forum to encourage new ideas and open communication.
  • Provide training programs and mentoring to enhance skills development, learning and career growth.
  • Provide employee assistance, wellness and health programs.
  • Support work-life balance.
  • Offer flexible work arrangements, such as varied hours and the possibility of telecommuting.
  • Provide leadership opportunities.

Employee Attitude Surveys
Employee attitude surveys allow your staffers to give confidential feedback on their opinions of your company in terms of satisfaction with their jobs and how their jobs and work environment might be improved. Responses to the survey can provide you with key information on how to strengthen workplace processes, policies and morale to retain existing staff and attract new employees. The results of your survey should be acted upon by your company, if possible, to help build a relationship of integrity and trust among your employees.

There are a number of different ways to conduct an employee attitude or satisfaction survey–from simply filling out a paper survey to taking an online survey or hiring a consulting firm to do all the surveying and analysis work for you. If you decide to work with a consultant to administer the survey, make sure you have access to the data. By personally reviewing the data and analysis, you’ll be able to make a better assessment of employee satisfaction.

Some of the topics that can be covered in a survey include:

  • Job satisfaction
  • Senior management
  • Functional expertise
  • Compensation
  • Customer service
  • Communication
  • Mentoring
  • Leadership
  • Teamwork
  • Staff development

Developing a Health and Wellness Program
A company health and wellness program refers to activities or initiatives undertaken within the workplace that are designed to support your employees’ general health and well-being. Programs will often differ from business to business in terms of the range of initiatives offered. Some simple initiatives to consider include:

  • Providing filtered water.
  • Having your air-conditioning and heating systems checked and maintained on a regular basis.
  • Increasing the nutritional quality of food available in the workplace.
  • Providing desk chairs that are ergonomically designed to support the back.
  • Empowering employees to include physical activity into their working day, such as encouraging walking at lunch.
  • Providing incentives such as subsidized memberships to local health clubs. Be sure to check with your local health clubs to see if they offer corporate rates.
  • Providing flexible work hours.

Stay informed about the latest in HR and payroll news, trends, best practices and evolving legislation. Sign up for the monthly Ascentis HR, Benefits and Payroll News.

Tax Help for Small Businesses from the IRS

The IRS Small Business and Self-Employed Tax Center, available on the IRS website, offers extensive resources and online tools designed to help small businesses and self-employed persons. Among the information and resources available on the website are:

The site provides important tax information for all stages of owning a business. Other resources available on the IRS website include the following:

The IRS Video Portal: Learn about tax topics through video and audio presentations. The video portal contains archived versions of live panel discussions, archived webinars, video clips, and audio archives of national phone forums.

IRS Audits Video Series: “Your Guide to an IRS Audit” takes the viewer through the steps of an audit from notification to closing. The video series is composed of scenarios that demonstrate the stages of each type of audit: correspondence, office and field. The scenarios address issues that are common to audits of small businesses.

Virtual Small Business Tax Workshop: An interactive resource to help small business owners learn about their federal tax rights and responsibilities. The workshop contains nine stand-alone lessons that can be selected and viewed in any sequence. The workshop is available online 24 hours a day, seven days a week from any computer. It can also be ordered
on CD.

Tax Calendar for Small Business Taxpayers: This 12-month calendar is filled with information on general business taxes, IRS and Social Security Administration customer assistance, electronic filing and paying options, retirement plans, business publications and forms, and common tax filing dates. Each page highlights different tax issues and tips that may be relevant to small-business owners, with room on each month to add notes, state tax dates or business appointments. You can also download the tax events into your calendar or subscribe to the tax calendar events.

To access the IRS Small Business and Self-Employed Tax Center, please click here.

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