Everyone knows the way to a person’s heart, but who knew the way to attract employees and keep them healthy is also through their stomach? With the relationship between and diet and health so closely related and well known today,…
Compensation & Benefits
Your Bonuses May Be Widening the Gender Pay Gap
As 2018 comes to a close, year-end bonuses are top of mind for both employers and employees. What will they be? When will they be awarded? Who will receive them? It has been widely reported that there is a significant…
The Important Benefit No One Talks About
When candidates are weighing job offers, employer-covered benefits are often a deciding factor. In fact, Glassdoor reported that nearly 60% of workers place benefits as their top consideration when determining a job offer, and 80% would even choose additional benefits…
5 Steps to Managing Your Benefits Program Like a Business
For the average organization, employee benefits can consume up to 30% of payroll. This spend is one of the largest on a company’s income statement. Yet, this area is often the least aligned with organizational objectives. Put simply, benefits are…
Survey Says Cold, Hard Cash Is Your Workforce’s Favorite Holiday Perk This Year
Ah, the holidays. A time in business to tie a bow on the past year and exhale from what was hopefully a time of prosperity. And according to a new survey, it’s a time when your employees want to get…
How Analytics Can Help You Decide Pay Increases
According to Aon’s 2017 U.S. salary increase survey, more than two-thirds of employers were taking some kind of action to increase merit pay differentiation, with 40% reducing or eliminating increases for lesser performers. This suggests that spreading pay raises across the…
With Paid Leave Laws Expanding, You Need to Update Your Attendance Policies
Minnesota might not stand out as a trendsetter (plaid shirts aside), but three cities have recently jumped on the national trend of paid sick leave laws. Last May, Duluth joined its counterparts Minneapolis and St. Paul in passing an ordinance…
Every Cellphone Is a Security Risk, So What’s Your BYOD Policy?
In the space of just a few years, Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) has transformed from an irregular practice to an integral part of the modern workplace. By 2016, 59% of surveyed businesses allowed the use of personal devices for…
The Complicated Role Comp Plays In Retention, Engagement and Satisfaction
Here at PayScale, we conduct ongoing research to understand the complicated relationship between compensation, how people feel about their salary and the many other factors that impact employee satisfaction. Over and over again, we’ve learned that nearly no one is…
Labor Department Ends 20% Rule for Tipped Workers
Last week, the United States Department of Labor (USDOL) issued a FLSA-related opinion letter of special significance to hospitality employers. FLSA2018-27 addresses the tip credit employers may take for certain types of employees under certain circumstances. This opinion letter is an…
What Do You Say If Your Contractor Wants to Be Paid In Bitcoin?
Note: The use of cryptocurrencies — a digital or virtual currency — is far from common, though interest is growing particularly among digital sophisticates concerned about financial transaction security and privacy. As companies increase their hiring of remote independent contractors,…
This Company Makes Every Day a Bring Your Dog to Work Day
Dolly goes to work every day, greets her coworkers in the break room, exhibits enviable people skills and offers much-needed support to anyone having a rough day. But Dolly is no ordinary employee. She’s a lovable mix of Yorkie Terrier…
October’s Hourly Earnings More Closely Watched Than Jobs
When the US Labor Department releases its monthly jobs report this morning, one number will be of special interest to economists as it should be to comp specialists, too: The average hourly earnings. The expectation by many economists is that…
Job-Based Pay Scales Make More Sense to Employees and Managers
The last time you looked at your company’s online reviews, did you notice any entries where someone listed “pay” as a downside of working at the company? Or, how many alumni have mentioned they would not recommend your company because…
Employers Moving Away From High-Deductible Plans
With workers harder to find and Obamacare’s tax on generous coverage postponed, employers are hitting pause on a feature of job-based medical insurance much hated by employees: the high-deductible health plan. Companies have slowed enrollment in such coverage and, in…
Don’t Wait For a Lawsuit to Close Your Pay Gaps
The era of employers avoiding public consequences for disparate treatment of women and minorities in the workplace is over. Employers that neglect internal issues on gender face severe legal and reputational risk in the age of #MeToo and Time’s Up….
It’s Not Just the Benefits You Offer, But How They’re Accessed That Matters
As the competition for talent intensifies, companies are desperate to discover what they can do to attract the best employees. As a result, many employers are revamping their benefits offerings to better support current employees to improve retention, as well…
Here’s How to Get to Yes Faster When You Make an Offer
Hiring the right people at the right time can make or break a business. Unfortunately, most businesses wait to hire until it’s almost too late. This makes it essential to bring new hires on quickly and efficiently. You don’t want…
Retiring at 65 Is So Last Century
Have you heard about this group yet? Respectful Exits calls itself the “organized voice of aging workers,” and it aims to give voice to a group that is often forgotten (except in the most legalistic way) in the whole question of…
3 Tips for Maintaining Morale If You’re Changing Benefits Again
It’s open enrollment season again, and if your benefits are changing considerably, it could cause an engagement dip! A Towers Watson benefits study found – perhaps not surprisingly – that employee health and retirement plans are strongly correlated with engagement and retention….