Ascentis Blog

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

Tag Archives: hr tips

Model Employer Children’s Health Insurance Program Notice

On February 4, 2009, President Obama signed the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (CHIPRA) of 2009. CHIPRA includes a requirement that the Departments of Labor and Health and Human Services develop a model notice for employers to use to inform employees of potential opportunities currently available in the State in which the employee resides for group health plan premium assistance under Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). The Department of Labor was required to provide the model notice to employers within one year of CHIPRA’s enactment.

Through a notice in the February 4, 2010 FEDERAL REGISTER, the Department’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) announces the availability of the Model Employer CHIP Notice. The notice provides the “form and content of notice” as well as the “timing and delivery of the notice” while outlining the requirements for addition of state-specific information.

To quickly generate and send this (or any future) notices to your employees, use the Employee Correspondence Wizard (ECW) in Ascentis HR.  Create your notice or use the template provided by the Department of Labor here for the Model Employer CHIP notice. Once your notice has been built, open ECW from Employee Manager and create a new correspondence batch. By walking through the ECW you can print or email the notice to all employees you select. Lastly, select to attach the notice to each employee’s record through the ECW as a note. Now your work with this notice is done!

For detailed instructions on using the ECW see the “Employee Correspondence Wizard” section of the Help documentation included in Ascentis HR.

Do you need a social media policy?

media

The boundaries between personal and professional have become increasingly blurred due to the growing prevalence of internet-based social media, including Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and Twitter. While social media outlets may be excellent platforms for employees to network and promote their employer’s business, a myriad of problems may result from an employee’s improper or unlawful use of a company’s name, reputation or confidential information while using such social media.

If an employee uses an employer’s name or a company e-mail address to communicate with or otherwise use social media, a third-party may be led to believe that the employee is speaking or writing on behalf of the company. A third-party may think that the employee is acting in an official capacity with authority to bind the employer, or that certain views espoused by the employee are also the views of the company.

For this reason and others, the FTC has implemented rules effective Dec. 1, 2009, regulating the use of testimonials in advertising. Under these rules an employer may be held responsible for employee maintained blogs or other employee postings about the employer’s products and services. In an effort to avoid these problems, a social media policy may direct employees in such situations to use a disclaimer explicitly stating that his or her views are not those of the employer. Continue reading →

12 New Year’s Resolutions for HR and Payroll – Concluded

11. Use proper and complete sentences in all business e-mails

We all get those emails from colleagues – the short, quick answers. They return half a sentence in response to our question from a month ago.  Now you have to go back and read the full e-mail string to be able to decipher the meaning of the answer and figure out what that abbreviated sentence is supposed to indicate. If your goal is to save time this year, help those around you save some of their time when reading your e-mails.  A short, precise answer is much easier to read then a cryptic, abbreviated response.

 

12. Find 10 ways to reduce your costs

“What a great idea … like we haven’t already done that.” In the current economy we have all been looking at ways to cut costs. Sometimes some fresh eyes can really help. Ask the receptionist if she has an idea or call on contracts that have been running with vendors for awhile. You might be due for a price reduction; most vendors are not going to alert you to that fact. Stop printing out documents for files; this could save substantial money overtime. Rather than printing e-mails from employees, attach them to their files in your HRIS/HRMS or payroll software.  Don’t have the ability? Go back and read resolution #1, and make life easier for you and your team!  Creating a paperless, or near paperless, office could save your company substantial money and time.

Remember to keep checking back, we are full of ideas!

Download the full list here

12 New Year’s Resolutions for HR and Payroll – Continued

9. Create daily work habits and stick to them

Start every day the same and end every day the same. Giving some predictability to a hectic day could be the difference between a great hair day and bald spots. Try to maintain these newly established routines, but don’t beat yourself up if you have to skip a part of your new routine.  Flexibility in goal setting is important. A positive attitude and support will make it much easier to try again the next day.

 

10. Set aside one time slot for reading e-mails or news

How long has that magazine been on your desk?  You know the one (or two or 10) that have kept that corner from gathering dust. You want to read it, you keep saying you will, but who has time to sit and read? Make the time! If you don’t do it now, you probably won’t do it tomorrow.  Set aside a part of your day or week and reward yourself with downtime to read the articles, journals or Web sites.  At the end of the week, before starting your weekend, read an article or two; at the beginning of the week over coffee read an article or two. Just make a space in your schedule. It is already there, but you will have to claim it.

Download the full list here!

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