Given the continuing concern and uncertainty around COVID-19, we at Bennett/Porter have decided to postpone our Connections 2020 Conference. We believe that this is the right and responsible course of action to protect the health and well-being of our employees, vendors, event personnel, and, of course, our attendees. The conference will now be held on Thursday, October 22. All the current session tracks will still be available, and registration for the event will remain open at Early Bird pricing until Thursday, October 1. We will resume regular email updates with information about the conference as we get closer to that date.

You may have previously considered, or even had plans for, giving your employees the ability to work remotely. Due to the recent social changes in response to COVID-19, those considerations may have accelerated into a necessary reality to keep your business running during this time that we're all supposed to remain at home.

A few days ago, our I.T. Manager, Dionne, published a blog post about the various technologies that you might need to rely on so that your employees can get their work done seamlessly and securely from a remote location. That post addresses how people can stay connected to your organization. But how does your organization stay connected to them...informationally, culturally, practically?

A cloud-based Human Capital Management system offers many built-in solutions to keep your organization aware of your employees' activities and help them stay informed in the face of rapid change. The following features keep everyone working together, even when they're in different places.

Who is dreaming about the days of getting back to a normal version of crazy? You know, kids back in school, too many scheduled social gatherings, a day packed with back-to-back in-person meetings, watercooler talk with co-workers, sporting events to cheer at, too many toilet paper options at the grocery store, and bumper-to-bumper traffic in the morning and afternoon. Okay, maybe not so much the traffic.

These are definitely uncharted times that we are going through. It’s such a strange feeling to take that pause that keeps our family members, friends, co-workers, and even total strangers a little safer by staying distant from them. 

With all the constant, fast-breaking news pertaining to COVID-19, you may not have heard that yesterday, President Trump signed the “phase two” stimulus legislation. The Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) provides paid leave for certain workers, enhances unemployment insurance, and ensures free testing for infection by the Coronavirus. Unemployment eligibility requirements have been eased by waiving the work search requirements as well as the waiting week before benefits can be claimed. This measure also helps take care of small businesses (those with fewer than 500 employees) by providing reimbursement through tax credits for offering the qualified paid leaves.

Following his a very high overview of the paid leave benefits. For additional, detailed information, we encourage you to refer to the H.R. 6201 Act passed by Congress.

If you’ve considered the option of working from home or been given the option to do so, here are a few ways to accomplish that.

Using a VPN

You may have heard of VPNs but didn’t know what it meant. Without getting too technical, a VPN allows you to use a computer to connect to your office, with encryption, without physically being there. There are tools that need to be in place to accomplish this. Typically, you’ll need some or all of the following items:

Employee benefits has to be one of the industries with the highest number of acronyms. Things like ACA, COBRA, ERISA, HIPAA, STD, LTD, HSA, HRA, FSA, EOB, and so many more are common in conversations. Most HR professionals need a cheat sheet just to talk the language. Imagine trying to help employees understand each of the terms, not to mention understanding and administering the compliance and regulations that go with each of these.

Have you heard? A new version of the Form I-9 has been issued. On January 31, 2020, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) released the new version of the Form I-9, which provides employment eligibility verification. This new version includes minor changes to the form and instructions. The new Form I-9 has version date of '10/21/2019' which is located in the lower left corner of the form. Now that you know about it, you may be asking the following questions:

“Diversity: the art of thinking independently together.” -Malcolm Forbes

On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is workplace diversity to you? Now on that same scale of 1 to 10, how diverse do you feel your organization is?

What does workplace diversity mean?

Happy New Year! And not only a new year but a new decade. Is anyone else finding it very hard to believe how fast time is flying by? Just a year ago, many of us were saying, “This is going to be the year.” Perhaps it was going to be the year to make big changes, get organized, create efficiencies, focus on learning and education, implement new systems, add additional resources, or just really be on top of things. Congratulations to those who actually made 2019 “The Year”. And for the majority of us who are once again saying, “This! This is going to be the year,” let’s work together to make many of those wonderful things actually happen as the 20s get underway.

Did you know that you can export to Excel from look-up screens and any Grid in Sage 100? Here is a Bank Reconciliation example of exporting from a Grid: