Human Capital Management Blog

For employers processing payroll across one or more collectively bargained union contracts, maintaining an accurate payroll week-to-week can be a laborious task. With different pay rates, shift differentials, deductions, and overtime rules, payroll and HR departments can become inundated with collateral spreadsheets and scratch-note calculations. For employers seeking a more audit-proof and scalable solution to process payroll across their collectively bargained employees, here are some helpful technology features to investigate.

We aim to keep our blog focused on healthcare compliance news and developing trends in health benefit products and HR technology, but once in a blue moon we like to step into the spotlight to share some of our own developments. In April of 2017, Benetech began statewide promotion of its Municipal Workforce Management Package. The HR tech package targets the needs of those towns, villages, and cities that still perform much of their personnel administration though antiquated paper-based and manual tracking processes.

The House of Representatives passed the American Health Care Act (AHCA) on May 4. So what? Taking a “we’ll make some changes, then the Senate makes some changes” approach to repealing and replacing Obamacare, the Senate assures that the bill is far from earning the simple majority required to pass in the Senate and land on President Trump’s desk. To the contrary, many in the Senate called the bill “dead on arrival.” What are employers to take away from it all? We are a far cry from repeal and replace. For at least another year we can expect the Employer Shared Responsibility Mandate to remain intact, to include annual 1095-C reporting for employees and the IRS.

The demands of Human Capital Management (HCM) are rapidly expanding the roles of HR professionals beyond the traditional areas of employee welfare and compliance. Strategic HR Partners are expected to leverage HCM strategies to impact organizations in key performance areas of productivity, employee engagement, and skills development. But every strategic development comes with an administrative requirement to track investment and success. Yikes! This could mean yet another spreadsheet, but who has time for that? This blog explores the benefits of training management software, and how this tool can help strategic HR professionals focus on employee development and avoid getting caught up in further administrative tracking?

At the Capital Region Human Resource Associations 2017 One-Day Conference, nationally recognized labor attorney, John Bagyi, Esq., provided a brief overview of the draft NY Paid Family Leave regulations released last February, and discussed how the regulation will interact with FMLA. Always amazes me how Mr. Bagyi can take the dryest of regulatory topics, pepper them with story, and make them sticky for the audience.  In this brief blog, I've pulled some tables and notes from his March 23rd presentation for readers to have a quick-fact sheet on what to expect for NY Paid Family Leave come next January. Of note, the NY Workers' Compensation Board will be receiving comments on the draft regulation through April 7, 2017. Final regualtions are anticipated this June, as participating insurance companies will need ample time to finalize new products to bring to market. 

Swapping payroll providers can be an administrative headache, but the real pain happens when the right communications fail to make it down to the employee level. The ripple effect of a total workforce management system shift, when not managed properly, can cause employees to quickly form a mile-long queue outside of HR’s door. The following items are the three must-have employee communications when changing payroll service companies.

Yes, it’s true, the House Ways and Means Committee has released their portion of the Affordable Care Act “repeal and replace” bill. Already, this is generating a lot of churn and discussion in the media regarding individual and employer mandate reporting requirements for 2017. This is where we advise everyone to pause, and take a breath.

While a necessary accountability measure, there are few things municipalities dread more than a visit from the State Comptroller. If unprepared, a routine audit can quickly monopolize the resources of already short-staffed town, village, and city administrative departments. So how can municipalities best prepare to for their next state comptroller audit? Auditor and Senior Examiner, William Naylor, of the NYS Comptroller’s Office shared a few insights at the 2017 New York Towns Conference.