There probably isn’t a person anywhere who can say the coronavirus pandemic has not in some way affected them. I think we are all a little - or, more realistically, a lot - tired of it. While we might wish we could bury our heads under our pillows and not come out until it’s over, employers and HR professionals alike know that this is not a realistic response. We must continue to keep up with all the latest news and required enforcements and to make decisions that will keep our employees, their families, our customers, and businesses as safe as possible. To help, we've compiled the following updates. Hopefully, some of the resources below will help make everyone's work life a little easier as we get through this together.

Mask mandates may soon be going away in cities and counties throughout the country. Viruses - Covid or otherwise - certainly are here to stay. One positive effect of the pandemic for many companies is that more attention has been brought to the physical health of their overall workforces. At workplaces where employees have already returned or will do so soon, allowing a few potentially ill employees to interact with lots of healthy ones in close quarters has become a true threat to conducting business. Employers can't afford to have large groups of employees out sick for an unspecified amount of time, especially in such a challenging hiring environment. Increasingly, companies are looking for contactless technologies that will help protect the wellbeing of their employees, their customers, and their business operations alike. Touchless timeclocks are a key component of this health-maintenance strategy.

Did you survive year end and getting all those W2s into the waiting hands of your employees? If you answered "Yes!", then a big CONGRATULATIONS to you...and welcome to 2022! We have all hit the ground running and, believe it or not, we are well into February already. With April right around the corner, we thought now would be a good time to remind everyone about two new taxes that went into effect in Oregon and could require filing.

With a new year come many new changes and updates to payroll requirements. 2022 will be no exception, and with the new year quickly approaching, we've compiled the following extensive list of items that may initiate some payroll changes in your organization. We understand that this is a very long list to review, but we hope it provides a valuable reference guide for your organization. You might start thinking about these and act sooner than later.

You never know when exactly you’ll find out you need to have a Disaster Recovery Plan in place. Last Friday, the Portland area experienced significant rainfall amounts, which caused widespread flooding and damage. Although rain in the Pacific Northwest is rather common, receiving it all at once is not nearly as common.

On October 5^th, this newest version will begin coming pre-loaded on new PCs and, much like Windows 10 was for Windows 7 and 8 PCs, it will be available as a free upgrade for Windows 10 PCs. You may not see this update on your PC immediately, since Microsoft usually chooses chunks of devices to roll these major feature and version updates out to in phases. It’s also possible that your IT department or provider may have blocked the update from applying—just to avoid any unexpected incompatibilities from an unforeseen auto-update!

You hear a constant whirring or beeping sound when you walk past the server room that may be just annoying. Or it might indicate that something is failing. Or maybe you’re feeling the pain of having been told that it’s time to upgrade the server again in order to continue running your Sage software, and you ask yourself: “Didn’t we just upgrade that server a few years ago?” There is a chance you have been tempted to move everything to the Cloud, or maybe you’re being forced to because of changes to the work environment. Now is as good a time as any to make the switch for your Sage 100 software. But how do you know where to begin - or whether this solution even makes sense for you?

On March 11, the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) of 2021 was passed and signed into law by President Biden. There are several provisions in the law that could have an impact on employers and specifically on their employees' payrolls.

Earlier this week, we announced a change in our February HR webinar topic, which will now address the high-demand subject of COVID-19 Vaccinations and Your Workplace. If you or someone you know may benefit from current and critical information relating to the current legality of workplace vaccination mandates, ways to encourage rather than require vaccinations, employees’ rights to speak out against your policies, and much more, we invite you to attend our webinar.

Okay! It is time to mix things up a little in your day. Grab your cup of coffee, tea, water, or beverage of choice, and let’s play a game. This game is designed to test your knowledge of employee classification. It will only take a few minutes, and hopefully you will even learn a thing or two along the way. At the very least, it will be a good refresher.