It’s 2011, and with a new year brings a new way to steer your small business toward success!  One strategy you might not have considered: enlisting a professional employer organization (PEO) like Global Human Resources Outsourcing to take care of your business’ Human Resources needs.  By partnering with a PEO like GHRO, your business will benefit from a skilled and efficient Human Resources team at a fraction of the cost of maintaining an internal HR department.

So what can GHRO do for your business?  Our experienced specialists provide all the services of complete HR and payroll departments.  We’ll act as your personal staffing agency; start to finish, from developing a customized recruitment strategy, to screening potential candidates, to assisting with employee selection and negotiations.  Additionally, we’ll function as your payroll department, keeping abreast of the latest payroll laws and regulations.  We’ll also act as HR consultants and risk managers, monitoring safety and workers’ compensation law, government compliance, and employee benefits.  We can also help you establish an employee wellness plan, an employee handbook, and other strategies to best fit your business’ unique needs and goals.  With GHRO, you can efficiently outsource the employee relations that can stress your business’ time and budget.

With GHRO on your side, you’ll be gaining a trusted business advisor, just like your CPA or attorney.  So let us assume the risks and responsibilities of maintaining your employees while you concentrate on your core business.  We have a package to meet the needs of any small business.  Contact us today to see how your business can benefit from GHRO!

Ah, December—a busy and tumultuous time for many businesses . . . a time of holiday office parties, secret Santa exchanges, and most important to many—time off to spend with family and friends.  When December rolls around and employees are itching to clock out, does your company’s holiday pay policy look more like It’s a Wonderful Life or does it look more like How the Grinch Stole Christmas? Much of how your company shapes its policy will depend on the needs of the business (and of course, the holiday spirit!), but when it comes to legal requirements for holiday pay, this employer’s guide to common questions and answers can help.

Q: Must employees get paid time off for nationally recognized holidays?

A: No.  Federal law doesn’t require employers to provide holiday time off, paid or unpaid.

Q: What about accommodating a religious holiday?

A: In short, yes, employers must accommodate their employees’ religious practices unless the business would suffer an undue hardship.

What is reasonable accommodation?  Allowing an employee to use a floating holiday, a vacation day, or unpaid time off are all reasonable ways to accommodate religious observances.

Q: Must employees be paid for employer-provided holiday time off?

A: This answer depends on the employee’s classification.  Employers are not required to pay hourly employees for holiday time off; employees must only be paid for time they actually worked.  On the other hand, employers are required to pay salaried employees who work without regard to overtime for holiday time off if they worked any hours in the holiday week.

Q: Must paid time off be included in determining an employee’s entitlement to overtime?

A: No.  Employer-provided paid holiday hours are not required to count toward an employee’s hours worked ,for the purposes of determining overtime eligibility.  Typically, an employee must work 40 hours in a week to become eligible for overtime.  This may be overridden, however, by collective bargaining agreements.

Q: Can conditions be attached to holiday pay?

A: Yes, but those conditions should always be in writing.  As examples, an employer may prorate holiday pay for part-time employees or may require a certain amount of service time before an employee becomes eligible for holiday pay.

Q: If an employee works a holiday, must they get premium pay?

A: While a common practice (and a kind gesture) to pay a premium to employees who work holidays, it is not a legal requirement.

Q: Must the same holiday benefits be extended to all employees?

A: No, as long as any differences are not a result of potential discrimination, such as age or gender.  Employers can, for instance, grant holiday pay to full-time employees only, or to office workers instead of field workers.

Q: What happens if a holiday falls on an employee’s regular day off or on a non-business day?

A: No legal requirement governs this area; however, a popular practice is to allow employees to take another day off during that pay period.  This is typically seen when holidays like Christmas fall on a Sunday and employees are given the following Monday off.

When it comes to managing your company’s payroll services, GHRO can help!  Our seasoned professionals have years of experience in Human Resources and can help you develop the best policies for you and your employees.  For more information about how GHRO can meet your business needs, visit our website.

Brandon Carl, our Business Development Manager, chatting about Human Resources outsourcing and GHRO with Ciaran Foley on LookSee.TV!

2010-08-10 Brandon Carl and GHRO Discuss Outsourced HR from Ciaran Foley on Vimeo.

As a small business owner, how much do you enjoy thinking about payroll management?  Let’s face it—getting payroll just right requires time and effort.  Upcoming federal health care reform is about to create more payroll work while you’ll already be worried about W-2 distribution and year-end figures.  That leaves less time to stay on top of other changing regulations and to make sure your numbers are accurate.  Whether you think payroll isn’t so bad or whether you call it the dreaded P word, wouldn’t you rather concentrate on your already busy schedule and let GHRO take care of your payroll needs?

Here’s a look at the many ways your small business can benefit from outsourcing payroll management.

Cost Reduction

Does your small business pay a premium for an in-house payroll service?  Perhaps you have one employee saddled with all your business’ payroll operations.  However you manage your payroll, is that method the most efficient and cost-effective choice?  If your business has fewer than 20 employees, outsourcing your payroll operations could likely save you money.  Crunch the numbers for yourself.  Calculate the wages dedicated to payroll-related activities and be sure to include time and money spent on paycheck printing, paycheck distribution, and tax document preparation.  Compare your business’ numbers to the payroll service packages offered by GHRO.  You might be surprised!

Accuracy

Payroll errors can wreak havoc on your books, anger your employees, or worse—cause you to receive a certified letter from the government.  With over one hundred years of combined HR experience, GHRO’s experts will keep your payroll error free and will help your business avoid costly IRS penalties caused by late or incorrect filings.

Consistency

Government forms, regulations, and withholding rates are changing at a pace that makes it tough to keep up!  Something as simple as using outdated tax tables can mean hefty penalties for your business.  GHRO’s staff works to stay on top of the latest federal, state, and local requirements.  You can feel confident the latest knowledge will always be at hand; it won’t rotate out with your business’ bookkeeper or payroll officer.

Cost reduction, accuracy, and consistency are just a few ways that outsourcing can improve your business’ payroll management.  Most important, outsourcing with GHRO provides peace of mind that your payroll services are in good hands.  If you’re ready to spend less time worrying about the dreaded P word, contact GHRO today.

Health care changes are afoot—lots of them.   We’ve all heard about the health care reform passed by the Obama administration, dubbed “ObamaCare.”  Such reform includes sweeping changes like mandatory health coverage, extended dependent coverage, and limited spending on flexible spending accounts, to name just a few.  But what do all these changes really mean for your small business?

To start, by 2014, small-business owners and their employees must purchase a government-approved health insurance policy that offers unlimited lifetime and unlimited annual coverage.  New guidance issued by the administration mentions a potential waiver for businesses whose compliance would result in a significant increase to premiums or decrease in service availability.  Still, according to Obama administration estimates, these mandates could increase health premiums by seven percent.

The impending health care changes not only affect employees, but also employees’ children.  Under the new system, coverage must be provided to dependent and nondependent children up to age 26, regardless of children’s employment or marital status.  One estimate figures this mandate could cause a two-percent increase to premiums, if not more for small-business owners.

And what if the small-business owners switch health plans are no longer grandfathered?  Then the owners and their employees must bear the entire cost of preventative-services coverage.  This mandate is expected to increase premiums by roughly 1.5 percent; however, the administration is considering allowing employers to shop for less expensive health plans without penalty.

What’s more, by 2012, employers must begin reporting the cost of employer-sponsored health coverage on their employees’ W-2s.  These amounts aren’t taxable, but reporting them could put a tax on your payroll department!

These mandates are just a sample of changes expected for health care in the coming years.

To combat rising premiums, under the reformed health care system, small businesses that pay at least 50 percent of their employees’ health insurance premiums may qualify for a tax credit.  In 2010, the maximum credit is 35 percent of employers’ contributions to health insurance premiums.  By 2014, the maximum credit increases to 50 percent.  However, by 2016, businesses may no longer claim the tax credit and must shoulder the health care changes alone.

With so many health care changes on the way, who’s to say what these new mandates will cost, what additional insurance benefits must be provided, or even what kinds of insurance will be available to provide those benefits?  As a small-business owner, you’re already juggling so much paperwork.  Don’t get lost in the shuffle.  GHRO is here to guide you through the health care changes as they happen.  As the ultimate partner for HR outsourcing, we’ll help you make smart decisions for your small business.  We can even reduce your employee benefits costs by customizing the right package at the right price for your small business.  To discover a complete solution to your employee benefits needs, call GHRO at 888-308-0338.

By Susan M. Heathfield, About.com Guide

Looking for ways to potentially cut costs and unburden your shrinking Human Resources staff members? Do you have staff working until six and seven at night? Are you going home each day feeling as if you will never catch up? If so, join the crowd – or choose not to join. Outsource instead.

“The current economic climate is forcing organizations to explore tactics to remain competitive. Business process outsourcing of certain functions is an increasingly popular way to improve basic services while allowing HR professionals time to play a more strategic role in their organizations.”

In a recent survey by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), HR professionals were asked if they outsource any HR functions. Additionally, if they do outsource, they were asked what functions they outsource. HR professionals were asked to select all that apply.

“Reason for Outsourcing

• 26 percent – Save money
• 23 percent – Focus on strategy
• 22 percent – Improve compliance
• 18 percent – Improve accuracy
• 18 percent – Lack experience in house
• 18 percent – Take advantage of technological advances
• 17 percent – Offer services we otherwise could not
• 15 percent – Focus on core business
• 5 percent – Other
• 47 percent – Do not outsource[/li[

Functions Outsourced

• 84 percent – 401 (k) administration
• 84 percent – Employee assistance/counseling
• 74 percent – Retirement planning help
• 73 percent – Pension administration
• 72 percent – Temporary staffing
• 68 percent – Background checks
• 57 percent – Training and management development programs
• 54 percent – Executive development and coaching
• 53 percent – Health care benefits administration
• 49 percent – Employee benefit administration
• 49 percent – Payroll
• 46 percent – Risk management
• 44 percent – Executive staffing
• 41 percent – Employee relocation
• 40 percent – HRIS selection, training implementation
• 32 percent – Recruitment
• 17 percent – Executive compensation and incentive plans
• 15 percent – Policy writing
• 14 percent – Administration of compensation/incentive plans
• 11 percent – Wage and salary administration”

The Professional Employer Organization (PEO) industry’s primary market is businesses with 5-2500 employees. PEOs are in demand because:

• Business must comply with over 60 different employment-related governmental regulations. These obligations are beyond the ability to be done cost effectively by most mid-size businesses.

• Insurance providers charge small and midsized employers more for employee benefits than they charge larger employers. In addition insurance agents who are paid on commission are not interested in pursuing these smaller companies.

• Small and mid-sized businesses are substantially underserved by the insurance industry for workers’ compensation insurance. While required by law in all states (except Texas) many companies find that coverage is difficult to obtain and the cost of coverage to be exorbitant when available. PEOs provide work comp coverage and allow business to eliminate up-front fees and deposits. In addition PEOs provide guidance for improving workplace safety and managing workers’ compensation claims.

• Small and mid-sized businesses are at a major disadvantage in competing for talented employees because they typically cannot afford the cost and complexities of obtaining and administering a comprehensive health insurance and employee benefits package. PEOs allow cost effective access to an array of employee benefits that may be otherwise difficult to obtain.

Because a PEO offer relief from many of these business related challenges, thousands of companies across the USA are now using a PEO to help make their business more successful.

IRVINE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–GHRO has expanded! We are happy to announce a new service offering to our existing and new clients: GHRO Total Solutions.

As a leading Professional Employer Organization (PEO) GHRO Total Solutions provides integrated services designed to streamline the cost and complexities of HR management, employee benefits, payroll, workers’ compensation and more. We offer this through a unique and seamless co-employment model that provides the benefits of a highly skilled HR team, without the overhead costs.

Located in Southern California, GHRO Total Solutions is different from our competitors. We saw what the competitors were missing. We listened to what our clients had to say and we developed our PEO services to be flexible and customized, with our customer’s needs in mind. When you outsource your HR management to GHRO, you get expert support and guidance in all areas of HR, including employee relations, health benefits, 401(k), payroll and taxes, risk management, workplace safety, compliance, and more.

Why GHRO Total Solutions? With nearly 100 years of HR experience, our dedicated staff has the expertise, flexibility, and price to meet any HR challenge your company can encounter. Focus on what matters. Let GHRO take care of the rest.

We offer three different HR service levels depending on your needs:

• HR Essentials – for basic HR support with payroll, workers comp, benefits, and compliance: this package provides Asset Protection, Cost Containment Strategies and HR systemization including unemployment filings and claims and government-required paperwork.
• HR Plus – an additional support resource for your HR team, HR Plus has all the benefits of the HR Essentials package, plus it provides you with a customized turnover reduction strategy, employee productivity/leveraging resources and four hours of consulting time per employee.
• HR Total Solutions – a complete and comprehensive HR partnership that including incentive pay plans, employee surveys, health and wellness programs and unlimited on-site HR support.

Call GHRO Total Solutions at (888) 308-0338 or (949) 797-2001 or check out our website at http://www.ghrogroup.com.

GHRO Total Solutions
Julie Edwards, +1-949-797-2012
jedwards@ghrogroup.com