Internships can be beneficial to both the student and employers. The student gets the opportunity to explore a career interest, apply what they’ve learned in the classroom in a professional setting and develop new, transferable skills. Employers gain new, innovative perspectives to their small business, help with project work and increased productivity. However, the big question employers may have is, whether to pay or not to pay for internships. (more…)
One of our new clients explained his reason for outsourcing his payroll during one of the initial meetings he had with me here at The Payroll Department. We often hear how small business owners are eager to have someone else take care of payroll, payroll taxes and the payment and reporting of it to the government. They want to be sure they don’t make a mistake and end up paying out fines and penalties for an oversight. However, when Sam* talked about the problems of handling payroll in-house with his small business, he made no mention of those issues.
He talked about whispers and personnel problems.
Whispers between co-workers may indicate an issue. Co-workers spend more time together on a daily and weekly basis than most families. Certain people become close and sometimes, cliques or unofficial groups are formed. When employees become close, they share confidences and confidential information.
Confidentiality inside organizations, especially small business operations, can be a real challenge. When personal issues become community knowledge employees can be embarrassed, ridiculed and judged. And those type of situations can have a direct impact on production – quality and quantity – and therefore, the bottom line.
Sometimes alliances are divisive and “sides” are taken. That’s when things tend to spiral downward and confidential matters become valuable collateral.
One of the most difficult areas to manage confidentiality is in payroll. It’s not just keeping pay rates confidential, but keeping personal matters such as garnishments for child support or other court ordered payments private.
It’s not uncommon to discover that private information is shared with the general office in the form of gossip, whether it is intended to be malicious or not, gossip always ends up hurting the organization.
Outsourcing your payroll is one easy and affordable way to manage the confidentiality of payroll. In fact, at The Payroll Department it is a policy to only discuss payroll matters with specified people within an organization. We respect the private matters of each individual on your payroll as well as the overall payroll and payroll tax matters of your business.
Sam saw his outsourcing payroll as being a proactive step to eliminate the potential of divided employees. He said there are enough issues with personalities without adding the potential for explosive situations around very personal matters in the workplace.
We like his thinking and I bet his employees would like it, too, if they realized he was working to protect them. But he keeps that confidential.
I recently gained a new client through what might seem one of the oddest situations. The client showed up at my office and I could tell she had obviously been crying. Sporting moist eyes and blotchy patches on her cheeks and neck, I could tell the emotion behind the tears was strong. The story she told made me cringe – and it wasn’t even about payroll or payroll taxes. Not only did I cringe because it was so painful, but also because it was one that I have heard all too often. (more…)
“Oh, it was just an honest mistake!” How many times have you heard (or said) that phrase? It is often used to describe a small error that was done with no malice or ill will and even conveys a sense that there was no real harm done. And sometimes that is true. But sometimes even what seems like a small mistake or an error that was not made due to recklessness or spite can have far-reaching consequences, especially when it has to do with payroll. (more…)
Many small businesses find that hiring a payroll company to manage payroll responsibilities is a great way to make efficient use of their employees, ensure duties are handled correctly and promptly and often enjoy an overall savings of time and money. But handing off that important responsibility is a really big decision. No business owner should make the decision lightly since the business owner remains legally responsible even when delegating these duties to a payroll service. So how can you evaluate a payroll service to be sure that they are worthy of your trust? Here are a few questions that you want to ask: (more…)
The IRS recently published data saying they handed out 6.8 million fines to U.S. employers as of the end of September, 2013, because of botched payroll taxes. According to an article in The New Entrepreneur, these penalties amounted to $4.5 billion that employers owed the government. (more…)
Did you know that there was an actual National Payroll Week? There is, and in 2014 it is celebrated September 1 – 5. According to the American Payroll Association, there is a lot to celebrate, especially “the hard work by America’s 156 million wage earners and the payroll professionals who pay them.” All of us here at The Payroll Department think you should break out the champagne and make a toast! Let me share why… (more…)
Nearly all employees agree – they love getting that paycheck! So it’s good to know that Indiana has laws in place that protect workers’ rights to receive payment for work done. One area addressed by state law concerns what can and cannot be automatically deducted from a worker’s wages by the employer. (more…)
Why would you outsource something as seemingly simple as payroll processing? I hear that question when the topic of outsourcing comes up. The reason to outsource comes down to essentially one of three important points: (more…)
