This is the usual reaction I find when a small business of twenty employees or less is approached about employee health, dental or vision benefits.

Many believe it’s too expensive. Well, it may be. But too expensive for who? The employer? I think not. The employee, maybe, but let the employee decide that for themselves. Offering benefits can only enhance an employer’s image to recruits regardless of the expense to either side.

Employee benefits, in the last five years, have become much less stringent on the rules regarding what an employer must contribute, how much paperwork an employer must complete and who can enroll, save for the ACA guideline regarding husband and wife groups but we’ll get to that later.

In today’s benefit marketplace many carriers have relaxed the regulations regarding employer contributions to be so minimal it allows for any employer to at least make a benefit offering. For example, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield,...

Do You Need a Recruitment Tip? Here Are 9 Tips From the HR Pros

Does your company have a successful recruiting strategy? If you think you need a recruitment tip or two, click here! Here are 9 recruiting tips from the HR pros.

Statistically speaking, every corporate job opening gets 250 resumes for a single job. For your business, this means a lot of CVs and resumes to sift through in order to find the one stellar candidate that fits the role.

How exactly does your business go about recruiting for job openings in order to find that perfect candidate? Have you always attracted the right type of people you're looking to hire, or do you need a little bit of extra help when it comes to creating the best staff you possibly can? Do you need a recruitment tip or two to get things going?

Read on for 9 awesome recruitment tips from some of HR's best.

1. Use Social Media to Promote Job Openings

Nearly 2 in 3 employees stated that their employer did not know how to use social media in...

6 Things Small Businesses Need to Know About HIPAA Compliance

If your small business deals with sensitive patient/client information, then you're going to want your staff to be well versed in HIPAA laws and regulations. Here are 6 things you need to know about HIPPA compliance and your team.

In your role, you have access to plenty of sensitive information. Your colleagues are trusting you to keep it safe. But what does the law say about privacy rights?

One of the most highly protected types of information is health-related data. Some HR records only contain scattered pieces of health information in employees' employment records, like sick notes and workers' compensation claims. Others small businesses that use a self-insured method to pay for employees' medical expenses have much more information.

How much of this information is protected by HIPAA, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability? The information below will help you abide by HIPAA compliance laws.

What Small...

5 HR Tasks That Need to Be Done By Every Company

Every company has human resource issues they need to sort out, even if they don't have an HR department. Here are 5 HR duties every company should stay on top of.

It's 2018, and your small business needs to get with the times. No offense to the dedicated and kind people who work in small business now, we mean the industry as a whole.

Within a small business, there are still HR duties many companies aren't doing and some that needed to go a long time ago.

Is your company with the times? How are you using employee programs? Do you still have punitive programs in place?

What about new technology? All these things need a makeover or at least an upgrade. Lucky for you, we've done most of the research.

Learn how to get HR modern below.

See our recommendations for HR software that will make your life easier: HR Software

Start Internal

Before you go and use our expert tips, you should start with your experts: your current...

7 Ways In Which HR Solutions For Small Business Can Save Your Company

When running a small business, it's as difficult to stick to your budget as it is essential. HR solutions for small business can help you pinch those pennies. Here are 7 ways in which HR experts can save you money.

A small business is only as good as its management and budgeting when it is first getting started. No matter what kind of industry you operate in or how good of a product you have, these are the things that keep you on track. You can easily find yourself in some serious trouble without such leadership to guide the business and the resources to fund everything.

These skills develop as time goes on, leading you to more opportunities to make your business increasingly efficient and profitable. A great opportunity to look into is how you manage your small business human resources. Rethinking how you approach HR can save you a significant amount of time and money, in more ways than you might...

How Can An HR Guide Help Grow Your Small Business?

Can a human resource guide help grow your small business? Yes, it can. While you're busy being a superstar in your industry, an HR solution can help you hire the right people, screen workers, and much more. Click here to learn how your business can thrive when you entrust your HR work to the experts.

For many companies across the world, their biggest challenge is managing employees. It's also difficult for them to manage the costs that come with hiring new employees as they grow.

But, keeping teams happy and informed is essential if you want your business to prosper.

Outsourcing your human resources services can help you offload important and time-consuming tasks. Better yet, you'll be handing these over to an expert in the field that can offer you tangible results. But, the cost is high. Most outsourcing firms will charge you between $20 and $200 per employee, per month.

Many small businesses are able to self-administer...

Every business has confidential information, both in terms of their employees and their clients. Your small business is no exception. Here is what you can expect from an HR professional in terms of human resource confidentiality.

In August of 2017, an employee of an independent State Farm agent was facing multiple charges. It seems she was billing customers of their cash. The initial amount was $38,000.

As a customer-facing employee, the processing of premium payments is standard. And, some of her processing was gracing her checking account.

But, both she and the State Farm agent are not employees of the insurance giant. All agents are independent, and their employees are their responsibility.

The giant State Farm HR department does not work for Independent Agents. So, human resource confidentiality isn't a benefit for them. Soon after her arrest, the office shut down.

The confidential information employees often have access to can, for some, be tempting. And, it's not credit...

6 Small Business HR Nightmares You Should Try To Avoid At All Cost

Human resource errors can be costly, and some of them may even be completely out of your control as a startup owner. It helps to be on the lookout for situations that can turn into small business HR nightmares. Here are 6 situations you should try to avoid at any cost.

Small business HR can be a nightmarish experience. It's an area often wrought with legal issues and the potential to damage your hard-earned reputation.

Small businesses and startups don't usually have a huge HR team to help them. Rather, they're forced to navigate the complexities of workplace politics and legal requirements alone. They must rely on research or learning the hard way.

From hiring to firing and everything in between, a single error in the HR department could prove costly.

Don't let these six small business HR blunders become your worst mistakes:

Mistake #1: Not Prioritizing Your Small Business HR Needs

HR in small...

HR positions are among the fastest growing in America with an expected hike of 9% between 2016 and 2026.

This is due to the value a quality HR team can bring to a workplace. HR professionals are in charge of many administrative functions within companies. They oversee recruiting efforts, conduct interviews and are instrumental in the hiring process.

If you own or help manage a small business, one of the main questions you may have is how to incorporate a quality HR presence into your company in a cost-effective fashion.

A solution to this that many companies have explored is HR outsourcing services. By outsourcing HR, small businesses are able to delegate some or all essential HR functions to external parties.

The focus of this article is to discuss some of the advantages of HR outsourcing as well as some of its pitfalls to determine if it's right for you.

1) Consider The Size of Your Company

How many employees you have should inform your thought process when considering outsourcing...

Everyone knows that starting a small business is never easy. Between hiring new employees and keeping up with payroll - owning your own business can get hectic if you don't have everything in order.

A functioning Human Resources department is perfect for preventing this kind of chaos.

It's no secret. Behind every successful business is a solid human resources department. A good HR department is able to set the moral, find the right candidates, and set the culture for your small business.

But what does it take to develop a solid HR department structure? What steps should you take when wanting to implement an HR department in my small business?

Here the ultimate list of what it takes on starting an HR department.

1. Be Deliberate With Your Descriptions

Job descriptions are everything when it comes to your human resource startup.

A job description is going to be a list that describes the general tasks and duties that inform applicants and current employees what skills are required in...