“Just take it out of HR’s budget.”If that’s a common refrain among your execs at budget-setting time, it’s time to fight back. “It’s more critical than ever for you to be able to create and defend your budgets,” says Valarie Grubb, VP of Operations and Initiatives at NBC Universal, who spent much of her career building and justifying budgets at large U.S. companies.
There’s one huge group, often overlooked, that
wields a massive influence on consumer spending in just about every
category: mothers. So how can a business go about reaching this influential group? Here are four key areas to pay attention to:
Ever had the C-Suite rubber-stamp your HR budget with nary a question or challenge? Neither has Valerie Grubb, who spent most of her career building and justifying budgets in large manufacturing and entertainment companies, most recently NBC Universal. Here are her 10 tips for negotiating with those who make the final budget decisions.
A podcast can turn a morning commute into a chance to work on your professional goals. And it’s completely free. Here are some of the best for administrative professionals.
Q. I own a construction company. We require all employees to wear a company shirt. If an employee does not wear a company shirt, he or she is assessed a $25 per day penalty, which is deducted from the next paycheck. Is this penalty legal?
Don’t rely on old job descriptions or résumés to prove you have properly classified an employee as exempt from overtime. Instead, make sure employees’ job descriptions actually reflect the day-to-day work they’re performing. Little else counts.
Instead of preparing a 12-month budget for your company all at once, do a “post mortem” at the end of each month while everything is fresh in your mind.
Your boss asked you to prepare a spreadsheet for a meeting the next day. It took a couple of hours and some shuffling of priorities, but you did it. When you arrive at the meeting, though, your boss handed you a spreadsheet that someone else created. Should you tell your boss how frustrated you are?
On the money front, it’s time to get back to basics. An oft-repeated piece of advice is to keep better track of the money we spend and save. To help with expense-tracking, tap into online tools. The best of the breed recently chosen by Money magazine and Slate.com are Mint.com and QuickenOnline.com.
Health care costs are expected to increase on average 10.6% in the next 12 months, the lowest percentage increase since 2001. That’s what Aon Consulting Worldwide found when it surveyed more than 70 health care insurers, representing more than 100 million insured individuals ...
Election Day could usher in enormous changes to the world of labor and employment law. Here are the three potential scenarios for change, the eight key legislative issues in the hopper and what you can do right now to prepare ...
Employee training represents an act of faith for many organizations. They know it’s important, but few can quantify the return on investment (ROI). Still, HR is pushed to prove that training pays off.Use a formula to prove to senior managers which training produces results and which doesn’t ...
Employee training represents an act of faith for many organizations. They know it’s important, but few can quantify the return on investment (ROI). Still, HR is pushed to prove that training pays off.Use a formula to prove to senior managers which training produces results and which doesn’t ...
A small business today faces many of the same technology challenges as larger companies. However, for a variety of reasons, many small businesses have not implemented any type of comprehensive network monitoring tools. Be proactive, implement a 24/7 monitoring solution in your environment today and sleep easier at night!
Health care costs are expected to increase on average 10.6% in the next 12 months, the lowest percentage increase since 2001. Here are the stats you need to make smart business decisions about the health plan you choose for your employees.
Question: “I am interested in knowing how other firms handle vacation and sick
accruals, and if accrued sick leave hours are paid out at termination.”
— Peggy
It may be tempting to refuse to hire an applicant who could raise your health insurance costs. By the same token, it may seem like a good idea to terminate employees who keep filing expensive health insurance claims for themselves or their dependents. Don’t do it! The penalties for such discrimination can be high ...
A trio of closely watched national salary surveys say that employers plan to dole out annual pay raises of about 3.8% in 2008. The biggest trend: Employers are devoting an increasing amount of their salary budgets to bonuses. Here's how to keep your bonus programs fair and legal...
HR Law 101: When a new hire comes on board, you must determine whether to classify him or her as exempt or nonexempt under the FLSA. The key consideration: Exempt workers aren’t eligible for overtime pay. Rather, they’re paid for the job they do, not the hours they keep ...
A hundred years ago, the average person was expected to live to only age 50. These days, that number is closer to 80. That means, if you retire at age 62 (as many people do), you’ll need enough savings to last you nearly 20 years. Are you financially ready to forgo work for that long?
When it comes to health insurance premiums, the good news is relative. It's true that premiums rose less in 2005 than the previous four years. This year's 9.2 percent average ...
Ever so slowly, brothers Michael and Brian McMenamin have built up
their pub chain, McMenamins, to 50 locations across Oregon and
Washington. But profit isn’t the point: it’s having fun. Starting with Oregon’s
first brewpub in 1985, the brothers created the McMenamins chain to
indulge their passions for art, history, food, drink and conversation.
Issue: It's more important than ever to know if you're budgeting too much, too little or the right amount for employee benefits. Risk: By ignoring industry ...
Employers may be seeing some signs of an improved economy, but they're not ready to commit to higher pay increases just yet, according to a new compensation-planning survey of 1,600 employers ...
Issue: So-called "fractional attorneys" allow you to buy a few hours of a lawyer's time each month. Benefit: Put out legal fires before they become infernos ... without incurring steep ...
Issue: A solid return-on-investment (ROI) analysis helps your organization buy more for its training dollar. Benefit: ROI can help you prove, or disprove, that training is improving the bottom line. ...
Savvy managers have exceptional “b.s. detectors.” They usually know when someone is lying to them, and this insight give them a more accurate sense of an individual’s character.
