Until recently, tattoos were popular among just a few select groups and piercings were typically limited to the ears. But, times have changed. Now, tattoos and piercings, also known as body art, are being worn all over the body by all demographics.

The increased prevalence of body art can create a conflict of interest in the workplace since many employers consider visible body art to be inappropriate. A well-crafted dress code policy can be an effective means for dealing with the issue.

The following are 9 guidelines for addressing body art in a dress code policy:

Base the policy on your business needs. When developing a dress code policy, it’s important to consider company culture and the image that you want to project to clients, the public, as well as current and potential employees. As with all policies, your dress code should be based on legitimate business needs.

Evaluate possible restrictions. In general, employers have a lot of latitude in imposing restrictions on body art. After considering company culture, you will want to decide what you deem to be appropriate adp payroll service and inappropriate for your workplace. For instance, will you permit visible body art, or will you require employees to cover tattoos and piercings? You might also decide that you want to place different restrictions on employees who have contact with the public versus for those who don’t.

Consider state and federal anti-discrimination laws. Employers are required to provide a reasonable accommodation for an individual’s sincerely held religious beliefs or practices, absent undue hardship. Since some religious practices involve tattoos and/or piercings, employers may be required to provide a reasonable accommodation for an employee’s body art. Although employers have paycheck broad discretion in creating and enforcing dress code policies, they must be sure to provide a reasonable accommodation as appropriate and avoid policies that are significantly more burdensome on a protected class of employees.

Provide examples of inappropriate body art. However stringent you decide your policy will be, it’s important to provide examples of acceptable and unacceptable forms of body art. For instance, graphic, violent or otherwise offensive tattoos should never be visible. Encourage employees to ask questions if they have any doubts with regard to what is and is not appropriate.

Provide guidelines for covering body art. If you wish to restrict visible tattoos and/or piercings, consider requiring that employees conceal them. Most body art can be covered with some type of clothing. For example, an employee with a tattoo that runs the length of her arm can conceal the tattoo by wearing a long-sleeve shirt while at work.

Promote safety. Identify jobs in which body art may pose a safety risk and establish safety guidelines as appropriate. For instance, employees who work with equipment should be required to remove jewelry, including piercings, payroll service prior to beginning their shift.

Explain the reasons for adopting the policy. Employees who have body art most likely see it as a form of self-expression and may initially object to any sort of restrictions. Explaining your business payroll express reasons for adopting the policy may help when implementing it. In doing so, it is important to communicate that the policy is part of your efforts to maintain a professional and safe working environment.

Consider the effect on recruiting. If you do impose restrictions, ensure that your policy still gives you the flexibility to recruit and retain qualified employees. After implementing your policy, check to see if it has resulted in higher turnover, lower employee morale, or greater difficulty in recruiting talented workers.

Be consistent. Establish procedures for enforcing surepayroll your dress code policy and train supervisors how to enforce it. Remind supervisors that they have a duty to enforce all policies consistently, regardless of their views on body art.
While body art has grown in popularity, employers may have legitimate business reasons for establishing restrictions on their visibility within the workplace. Unless adp otherwise prohibited by law, several options are available for addressing body art, including banning inappropriate body art, prohibiting employees with regular customer contact from having visible piercings and tattoos, or requiring all employees to conceal their body art.

Terminations cost money, and while layoffs are intended to save the company money, the expenses associated with a layoff can add up quickly. While there are some instances in which layoffs are unavoidable, they should typically be considered as a last resort.

Before making a layoff decision, consider some of these cost-saving strategies:

Restrict overtime. You are required to pay all non-exempt employees overtime for all hours worked in excess of 40 in a given week. Overtime is payable at one and half times an employee’s regular hourly rate (and in some states, and under some circumstances, it’s two times an employee’s regular hourly rate). The extra expense of paying overtime can add up very quickly if you’re not keeping tabs on employee hours. Require your non-exempt employees to receive written authorization from their manager before working any overtime hours and instruct managers that overtime should be authorized only when absolutely necessary.

Limit un-necessaries. Take time to evaluate the areas in which you may be spending money unnecessarily. For example, do all of your employees need company-issued cell phones, laptops, or other similar equipment? Determine which employees would benefit the most from these types of resources before making blanket purchases.

Shorter workweeks & telecommuting. Consider flexible work arrangements, such as compressed workweeks or work from home programs, to reduce overhead costs. When more employees work offsite it means your facility can save money in energy costs, phone bills, and workspaces.

Cut hours. Rather than having your full-time employees work 40 hours per week, consider making full-time status 35 hours per week. Those working 35 hours per week would still be entitled to the benefits you already offer full-timers, but you’d save big. Let’s say you have 10 full-time employees, all making $10 per hour. Reducing the amount of time they work per week by 5 hours could easily save $500 a week! Although cutting hours is a great cost-saving solution, be sure to comply with FLSA regulations, especially if you are considering a reduction in hours for exempt employees.

Salary freezes. Consider foregoing any sort of pay raises for awhile. If you do choose to implement a salary freeze, be sure to do so in a consistent manner. Giving your managers and upper level staff members a raise, but not your other employees, will not be well received. If merit increases aren’t possible this year, let employees know the reason why and that you hope it gives the company an opportunity to offer raises next year.

Hiring freezes. Hold off hiring any additional staff members if at all possible. Cross-train existing employees to take on different responsibilities, rather than creating new positions. If you do need to bring on the extra help, use cost-effective recruiting methods, such as employee referrals and network contacts.

Increase premiums. If you offer group health insurance consider increasing your employees’ share of the premiums. Most companies pay 50%, but there is currently no requirement for employers to pay anything. Employees may not like the additional expense, but if it means that they’ll have some added job security, they may be open to the idea. You may also want to consider cutting employer contributions to retirement plans and other similar benefits.

Pay cuts. Pay cuts are another option, though they probably won’t be well received and should be considered after all other alternatives have been exhausted. If you plan to implement a pay cut, be sure to do so in a consistent manner and make sure that you comply with FLSA requirements, especially if you plan to reduce the pay of exempt employees.

Negotiate with vendors. We’re all having a tough time financially right now, your vendors included. You may find that now is an ideal time to re-negotiate vendor contracts. They don’t want to lose your business and they may be willing to lower their rates. Even if they can’t lower their prices they may be willing to throw in some additional services. It can’t hurt to ask!

Improve efficiency. Make sure you are getting the most “bang for your buck” by ensuring employees are as productive as they can be. Spend time developing employees’ skills, setting performance goals and working with employees to reach specific targets. And when employees meet those goals, don’t forget to recognize their achievements. Employees who are recognized for their hard work are often more satisfied and productive.
Before jumping into a layoff decision, consider some of the above-mentioned options to help your business cut costs. While there may be some instances in which a layoff is necessary, these cost-saving strategies may help to avoid the aggravation of having to make a layoff decision. If you ultimately determine that a layoff is the right decision for your company, be sure to review and comply with all federal and state laws regarding reductions in force, which vary depending upon the size of your company and the number of effected employees.

Cell phones have become a ubiquitous part of life, both for personal and business use. In the business setting, cell phones allow for employee access in and out of the office. However, such use can create wage and hour concerns if non-exempt employees are attending to work-related matters outside of their regular work hours. Cell phones within the workplace also raise privacy and security concerns and they can create the potential for increased distractions.

Because of these factors, many employers adopt rules governing the use of cell phones during and, in some limited cases, after work hours. The following are ten points to consider when developing cell phone use policies:

Define cell phone use. First and foremost, a cell phone policy should define exactly what constitutes cell phone use. Without a clear definition, some employees may not understand the breadth of the policy. Your definition should not only include placing and receiving phone calls, but also activities such as text messaging, emailing, using video or camera features, playing games, and surfing the internet.

Use of personal phones at work. Next, determine whether or not you will permit the personal use of cell phones while at work. Because cell phones can pose a distraction, both to the user and to co-workers, many employers choose to restrict them entirely. Others limit the use of cell phones to emergency situations or to certain areas of the workplace, such as private offices or breakrooms. When developing your policy consider the potential effects on productivity as well as employee morale.

Personal use of company-provided phones. If you permit personal use of company-provided cell phones, consider polices that limit your exposure of incurring additional costs. For example, where permitted by state or local law, employers may want to consider requiring employees that exceed their allotted minutes due to personal use to pay their portion of the phone bill.

The FLSA. The Fair Labor Standards Act requires that non-exempt employees must be paid for all hours worked. If, for example, a non-exempt employee checks work email from home using a company cell phone, the time must be counted as hours worked. If you provide cell phones to your employees, it’s important to have mechanisms in place that account for all hours worked.

Privacy expectations. If you provide cell phones to employees, it’s a good practice to indicate within your policy that the cell phones are the property of the company and, where permitted by state or local law, that there’s no expectation of privacy with regards to their use.

Use of cell phones while driving. Several states prohibit drivers from using handheld mobile phones while operating a motor vehicle. Even if your state has no such ban, prohibiting employees from using company cell phones while driving may be a good safety precaution. Remind employees that business calls can wait until they reach their destination, or if a call must be made or received, encourage employees to safely pull over to the side of the road before using their phone.

Protecting workplace privacy and security. A growing number of mobile phones come equipped with cameras and a large amount of memory, which could pose a risk to workplace privacy and security. As such, it’s important to determine what restrictions you want to establish in order to protect the company’s privacy as well as the privacy of your employees. Some restrictions that can help to limit security and privacy breaches include banning the use of cell phones in restrooms and prohibiting employees from connecting their personal cell phones to USB ports on their computers.

Lost or damaged cell phones. You may choose to include within your policy whether and when employees are responsible for lost or damaged company-provided phones. Before doing so, make sure that you are familiar with applicable federal and state laws governing pay deductions as federal law restricts, and many state laws prohibit, an employer from making pay deductions for lost or damaged equipment.

Return of cell phones. Include company expectations with regard to how and when employees are to return company-provided cell phones. Like with lost or damaged equipment, federal law restricts, and many state laws prohibit, making pay deductions for failing to return company property. As such, it’s best to take the phone back and cancel service well before the employee’s separation.

Other policy considerations. Consider whether changes are necessary to other policies to reflect the presence of cell phones inside, and outside, of the workplace. For example, you may want to review your anti-harassment policy to prohibit the use of company-provided cell phones to threaten or coerce others. Your policy on electronic monitoring may also need to be updated if you would like to reserve the right to monitor employees’ cell phone use, where permitted by law.

The performance appraisal meeting is a time in which managers are asked to evaluate and communicate employee success and shortcomings throughout the review period. When ratings are anything less than stellar, the performance review meeting can be uncomfortable for a manager. That’s why some rush the process, gloss over important incidents, and even inflate ratings – all to avoid the discomfort that can sometimes come with delivering an honest evaluation of an employee’s performance.

While performance appraisal meetings can be difficult for some managers, they are an important part of the performance management process. The meetings serve as an interactive way for managers and employees to discuss past performance and identify goals for the next review period; goals that align with the overall goals of the company.

Below are 10 steps managers can take to help facilitate an effective performance appraisal meeting:

Plan and prepare. Encourage both managers and employees to prepare well in advance of the performance appraisal meeting. This will give both parties the time necessary to reflect on past performance and think about their goals for the next review period.

Take your time. To foster commitment, the employee should feel as though the proper time and consideration are given and that their manager is truly invested in their professional development. Plan the meeting for a date and time in which both parties are available. To circumvent the propensity to rush, try to avoid scheduling the meeting before an important deadline.

Confirm expectations. To put the employee at ease, start the meeting off by stating the goals and objectives of the appraisal meeting. Goals should focus on the exchange of performance feedback, the clarification of expectations, and the joint development of performance action plans. Employees should also be aware that the purpose of the review is to improve performance and foster professional growth.

Stay positive. Beginning the meeting with negative statements about the employee’s performance can lead to defensiveness. That’s why it’s important to start the meeting off on a positive note. Think of examples of when the employee impressed you and start with those before jumping into the areas that are in need of improvement.

Cite examples. When reviewing past performance, always refer to a specific situation or course of conduct to ensure the employee is aware of exactly what behavior is being praised or what behavior needs to be corrected. When citing examples, base it on a measurable job element. For example, a statement such as “three major projects were delivered two weeks before deadline” is more likely to strike a cord with the employee than “you did a great job turning around those three projects.”

Reinforce and motivate. The performance meeting should reinforce positive behavior and motivate employees to perform to their fullest potential. In doing so, managers should recognize employees for all of their hard work. Just remember that employees may be motivated by different things. For some, praise may be enough to motivate employees to achieve upcoming goals. For others, increased challenges, extra time off, or monetary rewards may be necessary. Before the meeting, think about individual motivators so that you can help to ensure motivation is sustained throughout the next preview period.

Develop an action plan for future performance. While it’s important to review past performance, the meeting should also focus on future performance and development. A forward thinking approach is often much more motivating than focusing on the past. To further cultivate motivation and commitment, managers should involve employees in developing a plan for the upcoming review period. In doing so, be clear about expectations and allow the employee to come up with their own solutions for meeting their goals. Also develop a contingency plan in case a problem arises. At the end of the meeting, the employee should be clear on the plan of action.

Give the employee time to speak. It’s important to give employees an opportunity to express their input regarding their own performance. Encourage employees to respond during the meeting by asking open-ended questions about their performance as well as their career development interests. If employees disagree with the evaluation, let them share their opinion and don’t get defensive.

Confirm understanding. At the conclusion of the meeting, confirm that the employee has fully understood what was discussed as well as the agreed upon plan for improvement. Recap the problems and solutions discussed and schedule a follow-up meeting to further assist the employee in reaching their goals.

Understand that the meeting is just the beginning. Performance appraisals are most effective when the manager follows up with the employee and makes the employee’s performance their priority. Check in with the employee regularly and provide feedback on a reoccurring basis.
Performance review meetings should never be one-sided. Managers should be encouraged to seek employee input regarding past performance and work with employees in setting future goals. Taking the time to plan the performance appraisal meeting and involving employees in the process can be an especially effective performance management tool.

One sign of better economic times is when more people start finding jobs. Another is when they feel confident enough to quit them.
More people quit their jobs in the past three months than were laid off — a sharp reversal after 15 straight months in which layoffs exceeded voluntary departures. The trend suggests the job market is finally thawing.
Some of the quitters are leaving for new jobs. Others have no firm offers. But their newfound confidence about landing work is itself evidence of more hiring and a strengthening economy.
“There is a century’s worth of evidence that bears out this view that quits rise and layoffs fall as the job market improves,” said Steven Davis, an economist at the University of Chicago.
Still, the number of people quitting their jobs is nowhere near what it was before the recession. Economists expect the improvement in the job market to be fitful, rather than consistent. In May, for example, private employers added only 41,000 net jobs after adding 218,000 in April.
Yet the long-term trend points to an improving job market. The economy has created a net 982,000 jobs this year after a recession that wiped out more than 8 million of them.
The government said Tuesday that the number of people quitting rose in April to nearly 2 million. That was the most in more than a year and an increase of nearly 12 percent since January. That compares with 1.75 million people who were laid off in April, the fewest since January 2007, before the recession began.
During the depths of the recession, workers were hesitant to quit — and not only because jobs were scarce. Even if they found a new job, some feared that accepting it would leave them vulnerable to a layoff. At many companies, layoffs follow a simple formula: Last hired, first fired.
Many clung to their jobs out of fear, said David Adams, vice president of training at Adecco, a national staffing agency. When Adecco tried to recruit workers to fill open positions, it frequently ran into the same obstacle: Few workers felt like betting on a new job that might soon disappear.
Not so much any more. Adecco is seeing more employed workers seeking interviews, rather than laid off workers searching for a lifeline.
“The hangover is kind of over,” Adams said. “It’s really starting to move toward a market where the employee can have a lot more confidence making a move.”
That’s why Katie Charland just quit her job at a parenting magazine in Phoenix to take a position with a nonprofit that supplies children’s educational programs.
Charland, 27, says the position is a dream job. Still, it carries a cost: She’s abandoning seniority at her old job. But she thinks the economy is expanding enough that her company will be able to attract state and corporate funding.
“I don’t see leaving my current job to pursue this as a risk,” Charland says. “I do feel like the economy is getting better, and there’s more opportunity out there.”
Such optimism was rare in 2008 and 2009, when employers cut more than 8 million jobs, sending the unemployment rate to a 26-year high of 10.1 percent. The number of people who quit fell 40 percent to 1.72 million in September 2009. That was the fewest since the government began tracking the data in 2000. It was down from nearly 2.9 million in December 2007, when the recession began.
Studies have shown that worker morale fell during the recession. Productivity rose as companies squeezed more work out of their employees. That points to a reason quits may keep rising: Overworked employees could jump at the chance to switch jobs as new opportunities arise.
“There is going to be a mass exodus of the top performers as the economy starts to turn around,” predicts Razor Suleman, a consultant who helps companies retain their best workers.
About 25 percent of companies’ top performers said they plan to leave their current job within a year, according to a survey published in the May edition of the Harvard Business Review. By contrast, in 2006, just 10 percent planned to leave their jobs within a year. The survey questioned 20,000 workers who were identified by their employers as “high potential.”
Companies retained those workers during the recession but heaped more work on them, said Jean Martin, the study’s co-author and executive director of the Corporate Executive Board’s Corporate Leadership Council in Washington. At the same time, employers cut back on awards and bonuses, she said.
Now, top performers at some companies are heading for the exits as hiring picks up. It means companies will feel more pressure to retain them.
“These rising stars know what they’re worth,” Martin said. “They feel somewhat neglected.”
Phil Edelstein can attest to that. He spent two years on his first job at an advertising agency gaining more responsibility but no pay raises.
Edelstein, 25, worked for an agency in Philadelphia that was stretching its budget as clients cut back their spending. After researching clients’ brand names and marketing strategies, he moved on to directing study projects.
Bosses kept promising a pay raise commensurate with his workload. It never came.
“There’s this intense frustration that comes with that, because you basically feel like you have no control over how much money you’re making and how much work you do,” he said.
Edelstein hung tight through 2009 as the economy shed jobs. But this year he began sending out resumes to other ad agencies. Then a prospective client called. The CEO of a Colorado-based tea maker needed a marketing director. Edelstein didn’t need long to say yes.
“It felt good, because I was initiating the change,” he said.
More people are now taking a leap that few dared just a few months ago: Quitting without a new job waiting. The improving economy has given them confidence.
Robert Dixon is among them. He was consulting with companies doing business in China, helping them establish supply chains with factories there. But he tired of spending weeks at a time away from his wife in Massachusetts. So in May he quit — without a backup plan.
“Somebody the other day said to me I was the first person they’d met who quit a good-paying job without another one to go to,” Dixon said. “I know there are other companies out there. I just need to find them.”

As a full service payroll processing company, we know the value of Accuracy, Time and Money. The ever changing world of Technology can help maximize these assets, but it can also hurt. That’s why it is of upmost importance to have the right balance of Technology AND Service. Too little or too much of one can tilt the service to an inconvenient and sometimes detrimental level.Many of our clients have come to us after experiencing extreme frustration with Payroll Services that do nothing more than provide a new and complicated software program to learn. Many times we have heard, “We did all the work, and all they did was push a button and collect a fee!”

Payroll Express understands these frustrations and challenges. That is why we have been careful to keep up with technology while never forgetting that we are truly providing a SERVICE. Each of our clients has a personal payroll specialist assigned to their account. This is a person that be contacted at any time with questions or concerns. Technology can’t tell you what to do with an IRS notice, or direct you with unique situations that inevitably arise in business. However, technology can help by providing convenience and flexibility in Submitting, Processing, and Receiving your payroll. Payroll Express has just launched state of the art online Client Access and Time Clock services. If our clients find convenience in these tools, they use them. If not, they don’t. Balance and flexibility is what keeps Payroll Express leading the pack in the Payroll Processing arena.  Visit us at www.payrollexpress.com to learn more.

Personnel and payroll management duties can drain as much as 43% of a small business owner’s time.  With Payroll Express that time can be cut down to less than an hour a month!  

Once you are a client of  Payroll Express, payroll becomes as easy as sending an email, or even making a phone call.  We customize the process to make it as easy and convenient as possible for our clients.   Our clients choose how they want to submit their payroll information.  They can email it, submit it through their client account, Fax it, or even call it in to their payroll specialist.   Our clients can choose to use the Payroll Express time tracker or their own.   Payroll Express does not force its clients to learn a new payroll software program.  After all, shouldn’t that be the job of the Payroll Service provider?   Our service becomes the most efficient by providing flexibility to our clients. 

 Many of our new clients can’t believe how easy Payroll can be.  We get comments like “Ok, so what else do I have to do?”  or  “What’s the catch?”.  However, they soon realize that it IS that easy, and the comments change to, “This is amazing!”, and “I’m telling all my friends!”.

 A successful business owner should spend his or her time focused on business and not on unproductive tasks such as payroll management.   Payroll Express makes this a breeze by providing the easiest most convenient payroll service on earth!

Michael Hastings

President / CEO

Payroll Express