Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Employers must offer health insurance or be subject to penalties.


Employers must offer health  insurance that is affordable and provides minimum value to their  full-time employees and their  children up to age 26 or be subject to penalties.

This is known as the employer mandate. It applies to employers with 50 or more  full-time employees, or full-time equivalents, and will be phased  in during 2015 and 2016 based on employer size. Employees who work 30 or more  hours per week are considered full-time.

To learn more, click here.

Starting in 2015, all employers are required to report the following to OSHA

Safety & Health

OSHA has developed an updated record keeping rule. The rule was effective on January 1, 2015 and requires that establishments in states under Federal OSHA jurisdiction must comply with the new rule as of the effective date. Starting in 2015, all employers are required to report the following to OSHA:
  • All work related fatalities-Within 8 hours of finding out about them.
  • All work related inpatient hospitalizations of one or more employees-Within 24 hours.
  • All work related amputations, with or without bone loss-Within 24 hours.
  • All work related losses of an eye-Within 24 hours.
For any inpatient hospitalization, amputation, or loss of an eye, Employers only have to report if the action occurs with 24 hours of a work related incident. Employers have three options to report the event and are required to:
  • By phone to the nearest OSHA area office during normal business hours.
  • By telephone to the 24-hour OSHA hotline at 1-800-321-OSHA (6742).
  • OSHA is developing a means of reporting events electronically, which will be available soon.
When reporting the event to OSHA, be prepared to provide as much information, in detail about the event being reported. Information regarding this new requirement is available in detail on the OSHA website at www.osha.govor you can contact Jess Carrillo, Safety & Risk Manager at Fortune Business Solutions.

Human Resources
Giving thanks for good performance 

Employees respond to recognition and rewards

According to U.S. workers, the most common form of recognition their employer provides is salary increases based on merit (39 percent). Less than a third (31 percent) said that direct supervisors express verbal or written appreciation, and only about 1 in 4 (24 percent) reported that their organization uses performance-based bonuses or promotions as a form of recognition. These were some of the findings of a survey released by the American Psychological Association (APA) Center for Organizational Excellence.

Employees who said that recognition practices are fair, that direct supervisors provide recognition effectively, and that they value the recognition they receive reported a variety of positive outcomes. They reported higher levels of job satisfaction, a greater likelihood to work harder because of the recognition they receive, stronger motivation to do their best, and a greater sense of feeling valued. In addition, employees who received recognition more recently also reported higher levels of satisfaction, motivation, and work effort.

Additional findings from the survey include:

  • More than a quarter of working adults (28 percent) said that written or verbal appreciation from their direct supervisor is important, but when it comes to the types of recognition that working Americans say are important to them, money tops the list. Six out of 10 employees (62 percent) cited merit-based salary increases as important, followed by fair monetary compensation (47 percent), performance-based bonuses (43 percent), and promotions or advancement (38 percent).

  • Men and women reported that recognition in general is equally important to them (87 percent), but men were more likely than women to report being satisfied with their employer’s recognition practices (54 percent vs. 46 percent), to believe that recognition is provided fairly in their organization (52 percent vs. 42 percent), and to say their supervisor provides recognition effectively (56 percent vs. 47 percent).

  • Although 4 in 10 employees reported working remotely at least sometimes (30 percent sometimes, 5 percent often, 6 percent always), no significant relationships were found between employees working remotely and their satisfaction with recognition or how long they plan to stay with their current employer.

Source: BLR