Talent management: check out these 5 best practices

We all know that talent is a valuable and profitable resource. Talent is not only about a specific skill set, but also includes intelligence, performance, disposition and creativity, and the level of success an individual possesses or is capable of achieving in a particular area. 

Being talented is easy, but nurturing it and ensuring that you can bring value out of it is not. For instance, you may have a lot of talent for science, but you may have no idea how to enhance it in order to stand out from the crowd. We know it takes regular practice, guidance and support to bring the best value out of the talent of people.

Talent management: check out these 5 best practices

1 | Align talent management with business goals

If your company goals are defined, you should connect talent management and related activities to them. This is because they directly affect the quality and the quantity of the talent you are looking for.

When it comes to a good business strategy, we think about one with clear goals, with clear business needs, types of products or services which bring real value to the customer. 

2 | Plan and attract the right talent

Work on identifying where the gaps are, so you understand where there is an urgent requirement for human capital. After you have identified the need for talent, you can start creating good job descriptions for key roles and later guide sourcing and initiate a workforce plan for recruitment. 

Analyze whether you can fill these requirements internally or externally. Wherever you are going to find talent, make sure that you carry out healthy research and have different talent pools.

3 | Define steps for selection process

This phase usually has a lot of steps you need to follow. Additionally, it depends on the number of people you are interested in hiring . You can utilize different kinds of tests to analyze if someone is the right fit for your organization. 

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4 | Conduct regular employee reviews to check out employee performance

A well defined performance management process is key. First, checking out performance regularly is an opportunity for managers to discuss real goals & competencies of employees. 

On the other hand, giving regular feedback helps employees perform at their best. 

Managers and HR should identify employees who are not performing well and organize meetings to communicate how those workers can do things better or to know what they need to improve their performance. Finally, documenting the history and activities of an employee helps managers make critical decisions in the future.

5 | Measure performance and track activities

You will want to set goals, objectives, and define KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) for your team. These metrics will give an overview in the future so you are going to be able to make changes, adjustments, improve processes or maybe change team members from one position to another. 

Here are some of the benefits of talent management

1 | Improve company performance

2 | Stay Competitive

3 | Decrease Turnover

4 | Increase Productivity

5 | Drive Innovation

6 | Motivate and Engage Your Team

7 | Strengthen Branding

Midtown HR is the company behind a hundred happy companies. We are focused on providing simple solutions for payroll and taxes, proposing benefits that really feel like benefits, keeping up with employment law and also helping protect your team.  Let ‘s talk!

What does human resources do for companies? What are its key responsibilities?

Not everyone in the organization understands the importance of Human Resources (HR), and it might be confusing for workers sometimes. So what does HR do? There is a big difference between a good HR department that contributes to the growth of the organization and a distant HR department which exists somewhere near the basement archives and which only appears once a year for the organization´s holiday party. 

Basically, the HR department is a group of workers responsible for managing the employee life cycle (recruiting, hiring, onboarding, training, and firing employees). It works on administering employee compensations and benefits too.

What does Human Resources do for companies? What are its key responsibilities?

Recruiting

 Attracting prospective new workers to open positions.

Hiring

Finding and hiring the right people for the job after checking out every profile detail.

Evaluating employee performance

Assessing people’s skills, achievements, and growth within the team and the organization.

Revising payroll processes

The process where employees receive their salary and everything related to payday needs. It also includes a number of calculations, taxes, hours worked, workers compensation and reimbursement of expenses.

Providing learning & Development opportunities

Offering options to improve skills in individuals and everything related to personal development and other alternatives.

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Defining disciplinary aspects

Disciplinary matters, grievance, harassment and bullying are some areas that need to be addressed.

Maintaining records and protecting data

Maintaining HR records such as personal staff records, accident books, accident reports, account records, health and safety training, tax records, retirement benefits, maternity benefits, annual holidays is a legal requirement.

This further includes maintaining and protecting personal data such as hours worked, absences, pay details, overtime, personal details and emergency contacts.

Updating HR Policies

HR manages official policies, updates and other changes in a registered document. This document offers guidance on how issues should be handled with a detailed description of principles, legal rights and responsibilities of owners, managers and employees. Documenting policies and procedures give consistency and ensure every process is treated the right way.

Midtown HR is the company behind a hundred happy companies. We are focused on providing simple solutions for payroll and taxes, proposing benefits that really feel like benefits, keeping up with employment law and also helping protect your team.  Let ‘s talk!

What is workers’ comp insurance?

Basically, workers’ compensation insurance is a coverage that pays for employees’ medical expenses and a part of lost pay after work-related injuries. In the United States, most states require some form of workers’ comp insurance for organizations with employees. These organizations include small and medium enterprises.

Each state is in charge of its own workers’ compensation program. This means state laws for workers’ comp can be different depending on your business location.

What is workers’ comp insurance?

You can rely on workers’ comp if you or an employee needs medical care or time off due to a workplace injury or if an injured employee sues you for failing to prevent an accident. If you do not use workers’ comp, your business will be responsible for any and all medical bills and legal fees. Furthermore, most states impose costly penalties for non-compliance.

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Importance of workers’ compensation

Employers need to ensure that the workplace in which their workers spend most of the time throughout the day is safe. Even in the safest spaces, accidents happen. Workers’ compensation insurance provides financial benefits for employees who have experienced job-related injuries or illnesses. This insurance reimburses medical expenses and lost wages. 

The policy provides benefits whether the fault is that of the employer, the employee, a co-worker or a customer. By taking advantage of a workers’ compensation policy, the employee could have a limited ability to sue for additional damages.

Workers’ compensation insurance is important for small and medium companies because it helps them avoid the actual cost of medical expenses and lost wages.

1 | In the majority of states, workers’ compensation is considered a requirement. Be sure to check out what is required by the law in your specific area by visiting the U.S. Department of Labor’s State Workers’ Compensation Officials webpage and clicking through to your state’s site.

2 | Workers’ compensation protects organizations by helping avoid the actual cost of medical care and lost wages. A major claim can generate big problems for you and your business operations. 

Having access to effective loss control resources can help avoid accidents.  With sound claims management, your injured employees can return to work sooner – thereby improving productivity and saving your business money.

3 | Workers’ compensation helps protect your most valuable asset, your workforce. If your injured workers get the help they need, they can get back to full strength and help your business continue to succeed.

Midtown HR is the company behind a hundred happy companies. We are focused on providing simple solutions for payroll and taxes, proposing benefits that really feel like benefits, keeping up with employment law and also helping protect your team. Let ‘s talk!

Is addressing mental health issues part of your company strategy?

People may have lost loved ones. Also, they may have lost contact with friends and family in the past two years. Further, their social lives may have been affected. The pandemic has also imposed a set of stress on workers. They feel the risk of losing their position. Moreover, adjusting to working from home and making changes to their daily routines may have a negative impact on them. 

Employees could be suffering from mental health issues without being aware of them. Therefore, as an employer, this is a key issue to address. People who do not feel well may miss more work or not perform as well as they are able to. What is the solution then? The answer is that a lot can be done to those in need.  

Is addressing mental health issues part of your company strategy?

When it comes to strategies, a good idea is to design a wellness program for all members of the company. The discussion can include recommendations to define decision-making, to track participation, and to emphasize the culture of wellness within the organization. Let’s check out some strategies you can implement to start supporting mental health.

1 | Make Communication Regular

While it is not always the first thing we think about with regard to workplace wellness, isolation can be one of the most difficult aspects of the whole pandemic situation for people. Especifically for those who are used to going to work, the lack of the normal socialization at work everyday, can leave them in discomfort.

For this and other reasons, businesses should also look to emphasize interactions and communication throughout the day.

2 | Recognize employees’ good performance

This is an easy and simple way to help employees with mood problems. There are lots of reasons bad feelings can get triggered. These include depression. Another one could be the lack of work recognition. If employees do not feel recognized for their accomplishments, they are most likely to feel upset, sad or overworked.

3 | Address your organizational culture

Another important thing is to address organizational culture around mental health. This is  key to creating progress. 

You can start by giving a voice to mental health. It should be one of your biggest priorities. So, start using stigma-free language regarding mental health within the workplace and make it o.k. for people to talk about it. Use vigilance and train your leadership or managerial teams on policies and protocols to address mental health issues with employees.

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4 | Promote Work-Life Balance

Balancing the demands of life at home with family and friends and g work can be challenging no doubt. If people do not feel that they can keep these demands balanced, one of the consequences could be that they start to feel stressed and frustrated. 

If employees have a lot of workload, they could feel like they do not have enough time to manage their life at home. On the flipside, it is also true that employees with a lot of demands at home could feel overwhelmed at work.

5 | Measure the impact of your efforts

Once mental health and well-being practices on your company are running, it is essential for you to measure the impact of those efforts  both qualitatively and quantitatively. It means continuing to conduct pulse check surveys, encouraging managers to have personalized check-ins as an indicator of valuable qualitative feedback from workers, or reviewing medical and pharmacy claims for a more quantitative approach.

Midtown HR is the company behind a hundred happy companies. We are focused on providing simple solutions for payroll and taxes, proposing benefits that really feel like benefits, keeping up with employment law and also helping protect your team. Let’s talk!

What is a co-employment agreement?

Improving operational efficiencies, minimizing organizational risks and strengthening talent are key for employers. But, achieving them might require a co-employment relationship with a Professional Employer Organization (PEO).

Co-employment partnerships with a PEO are unique relationships in the business environment. This kind of relationship can sometimes bring confusion, especially when swapped with other terms such as “employee leasing,” which are totally different. So what is the definition of co-employment? Where exactly do PEO companies participate? Let’s check it out in this article. 

What is a co-employment agreement?

This agreement happens when two or more parties share legal employer responsibilities. A co-employer usually takes over its client’s administrative and employment tasks.

Hired employees work for the client’s organization and not the PEO, so new employees carry out the designated roles and responsibilities they were hired for while reporting directly to the client’s organization. The PEO comes into play only as an outsourced management resource taking care of (employee) HR, accounting, benefits and compliance activities.  

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How does co-employment work?

Despite some misconceptions, co-employment does not mean that the client employers cede ownership or lose total control of their organization. In reality, the client continues to manage its employees and the day-to-day operations, while the PEO focuses on HR-related tasks. In general terms, we can see it as follows:

Organization and business owners have control over:

• General business decisions.
• Key operations taking place within the company.
• The daily activities and main responsibilities of the employee.

Professional employer organizations have control over:

1. Responsibilities that are common to employers and that have previously been defined and agreed on, such as: managing payrolls, payroll deductions, payroll taxes or the provision of benefits to employees. 
2. Managing the worker’s claims and compensation coverage. Basically, PEOs provide the client company with HR related advisory.

Midtown HR is the company behind a hundred happy companies. We are focused on providing simple solutions for payroll and taxes, proposing benefits that really feel like benefits, keeping up with employment law and also helping protect your team. Let’s talk!

PEO benefits: how do PEOs operate?

If you are asking yourself about the Professional Employer Organization (PEO) benefits you can leverage today for your company, it would be worth reading this entire article. The PEO usually counts on HR, payroll, legal and tax experts to partner with different businesses to minimize administrative costs, to improve payroll operations management and to help those businesses expand to international markets.

Furthermore, PEOs are helpful in mitigating health insurance and providing cost benefits for companies. Working with a PEO could be an excellent business strategy to get higher return on investment in different areas. This is why, currently, it is a popular and effective way to outsource human resource functions.

PEO benefits: how do PEOs operate?

Usually PEOs operate as professional employers of their clients’ workers. The client’s company reports its wages using the PEO federal employer identification number, and from that point onward employee liability shifts to the PEO. This kind of alliance makes employers gain a better economy and scalability because they will receive lots of benefits and alternatives at lower rates in most of the cases.

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PEO operations

If you work in close association with a PEO, you can outsource Human Resources (HR) functions. There is also an agreement called Administrative Service Outsourcing (ASO) that gives options to organizations.

Small and medium enterprises can receive significant advantages. This is because at times they do not count on the team with the right expertise or system capabilities to achieve goals needed for different functions such as payroll, workers compensation management, or do not have the time and resources available to focus on many of the HR functions.

PEO services may vary depending on providers 

Common services include: payroll, workers compensation, employee benefits, HR compliance, and custom solutions.

If you are starting or if you have been around for several years, it is important to know that you can rely on a partner in some of the more complex matters of the business. 

A PEO partnership brings incredible value to businesses of all sizes, especially small and medium enterprises, without the need to hire a good human resources manager or a benefits coordinator. 

Midtown HR is the company behind a hundred happy companies. We are focused on providing simple solutions for payroll and taxes, proposing benefits that really feel like benefits, keeping up with employment law and also helping protect your team. Let’s talk!

Workplace safety: 5 tips everyone should take into account

Nowadays it is common to come across sudden and unexpected cases of accidents and casualties that can occur anywhere, altering the course of the lives of particular persons as well as groups too. We all know that workers who don’t care about the rest of the people around them are considered irresponsible and negligent. 

Workplace safety is of primary importance in any profession, and a trouble-proof secure work atmosphere would raise the morale and confidence of everyone, especially those at work in more risky conditions.

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Workplace safety: 5 tips everyone should take into account

1 | Don´t forget to report every unsafe condition

Any unsafe conditions or workplace hazards need to be fixed as soon as you notice them. If it is dangerous for you to remove the risk, notify a supervisor right away.

Fixing unsafe conditions and preventing bad things from happening starts with YOU. Employees must report that kind of situation to their managers as soon as they notice something isn’t right. Managers are legally obligated to create a safe working environment.

2 | Practice good posture when sitting or lifting

It is very important for people to use ergonomic desks and keyboards to avoid straining wrists and arms. Remember to sit up straight, keep your shoulders in line with your hips and lift with your legs when you are moving different objects. Poor posture can cause strain on your back, neck and shoulders, which can lead to serious injury.

3 | Take a break every once and a while

Taking regular breaks is not just required by OSHA but it’s just common sense too. When workers are tired, they’re more prone to incidents because awareness of their surroundings is blocked by exhaustion, so taking breaks on a regular schedule helps keep employees fresh and active.

4 | Don’t take shortcuts and pay attention to procedures

There’s A reason why workplace procedures exist: it is to keep employees safe. It’s important to always use every tool and machine you’re working with according to instruction. Shortcuts lead to injury and aren’t worth the small amount of time they might save you. Make sure you’re always using the right tool for the job, and using it the right way.

5 | Ensure you give or receive proper training

Any employee tasked to handle tools, equipment, or machines should go through proper training first. Anyone who isn’t trained should never be assigned to handle or work with any equipment or machines.

Besides, training is not enough for high risk work involving heavy equipment and machinery. Your workers need to have appropriate licenses or certifications to work in certain conditions. Once acquired, this license needs to be renewed when needed.

Why is workplace safety important?

Organizations need to provide a safe work environment for everyone, because that’s the only way they are protecting themselves, their employees and their customers. It is essential to follow guidelines and procedures to stay compliant with local and national occupational safety authorities.

We hope this information is helpful for you to make decisions. Midtown HR is the company behind a hundred happy companies. We´re focused on simple solutions for payroll and taxes, propose benefits that really feel like benefits, keep up with employment law and also help protect your team. 

PEO solutions help you with workers compensation

Let’s start defining what’s Workers’ compensation insurance, often called “workers comp,” and this is a state-mandated program consisting of payments required by law to be made to an employee who is injured or disabled while on duties.

The federal government does offer its own workers’ compensation insurance for federal employees, but every state has its own workers’ compensation insurance program.

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PEO solutions help you with workers compensation

As we have said, this insurance covers the costs of work-related injuries and different illnesses. You need to know that these systems also provide employers incentives to reduce work-related injury and prevention practices in order to reduce the possibility of workers getting sick.

A majority of employers buy workers’ compensation insurance coverage through private insurers or state-certified compensation insurance funds. These systems are complex and guided by state laws.

What type of company needs workers compensation?

If your company has at least one employee, you need workers’ comp insurance. In fact, many state laws require organizations to offer this coverage as soon as they hire their first employee.

However, there are a few exceptions, because there are states where workers’ compensation insurance is optional for employers, and in some other places workers’ compensation laws don’t require the coverage until a company hires its second or third employee.

If the case is that your business is located in a state that doesn’t require a workers’ comp insurance policy for just one employee, our suggestion is that you should still consider a policy for all your workforce since the very beginning of your operations.

Workers compensation insurance can also provide what follows

1 | Domestic assistance

2 | New employment assistance payments

3 | Education or training assistance payments

4 | Property damage claims

5 | Work break and journey claims

6 | Hearing impairment claims

7 | Uninsured employer claims

8 | Exempt worker claims (by police officers, firefighters and paramedics)

9 | Payments in the event of death

Now you understand more about workers compensation. We hope this information is helpful for you to make decisions. Midtown HR is the company behind a hundred happy companies. We´re focused on simple solutions for payroll and taxes, propose benefits that really feel like benefits, keep up with employment law and also help protect your team. Let’s talk!

US mandates vaccines or tests for big companies by January 2022

Millions of Americans who work at companies with 100 or more employees will need to be vaccinated against COVID-19 by Jan. 4 or get tested for the virus weekly under government rules that took effect recently.

Those new requirements will apply to about 84 million workers at medium and large businesses. It’s not totally clear how many people in these groups are not vaccinated. People who work in nursing homes will receive money from Medicare and Medicaid, and also those working in hospitals and other facilities, tougher rules will apply for them.

OSHA left open the possibility of expanding the requirement to smaller businesses.

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President Biden said he would have prefered not to come up with those new rules but today there’s a lot of people unvaccinated around the country.

Vaccines or tests are mandatory for big companies

OSHA has less inspectors than they might need to oversee millions of workers in different workplaces, but the agency said they will respond. The release of the rules followed weeks of regulatory review and meetings with business groups, labor unions and others.

These rules are made to protect workers from health hazard 

The rules set up potential legal battles along partisan lines between states and the federal government. Senate Republicans launched a petition to force a vote to overturn the vaccine mandate, but with Democrats controlling the chamber, the effort is nearly certain to fail.

The rules will require workers to receive either two doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines or one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine by Jan. 4, the other alternative is to be tested weekly. Employees testing positive must be removed from the workplace.

Companies won’t be required to provide or pay

Organizations won’t be required to pay. Companies just need to give paid time off for employees to get the shots and sick leave to recover from side effects that prevent them from working. Requirements for masks and paid time off for shots take effect Dec. 5.

Employers covered by the requirements must verify their workers’ vaccination status by checking documents such as CDC vaccination cards, records from doctors or even an employee’s own signed declaration.

Employers covered by the requirements must verify their workers’ vaccination status by checking different documents such as CDC vaccination cards, records from doctors or pharmacies.

Something important to mention is that companies are worried because of employees who are hesitating about getting vaccinated, they might quit and their workforces will be reduced. 

If you want to know more about details just visit here

Midtown HR is the company behind a hundred happy companies. We´re focused on simple solutions for payroll and taxes, propose benefits that really feel like benefits, keep up with employment law and also help protect your team. Let’s have a conversation!

HR compliance: 4 facts companies should know

HR professionals handle different issues every day, and they know there are a couple of rules we can break in life or within the company, but when it comes to HR compliance related situations you need to be sharp and follow the regulations to stay compliant, there are no rules to avoid.

There are different laws and stipulations that HR managers need to follow to ensure their organization avoids penalties, including the potential harm to its own reputation. To keep up to date on these rules, the company probably needs a strategy centered around HR compliance, but there’s some key facts you should revise as well, let check them out.

 HR compliance: 4 facts companies should know

1 | Anti discrimination laws

There´s a big list of anti discrimination laws that includes color, race, sex, ethnic origin, disabilities, age, and veteran status.  Basically, these laws prohibit owners of companies and employers from taking not positive employment actions. In a few words, they always need to follow actions based on these main factors.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

It is about the discrimination bans regarding race, color, sex, and ethnic origin in organizations with 15 or more employees.

The Americans with Disabilities Act

Bans discrimination against individuals with disabilities and limits the questions employers can ask workers regarding disabilities. This act also protects those who have a record of a disability, are regarded as having a disability, or are associated with another person with a disability.

The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967

Protects individuals who are 40 years of age and older from discrimination based on age.

If you want to know more visit this link

2 | Wage and hour laws

It’s about the requirements associated with minimum wage, overtime pay, hours worked, child labor laws, and also break time requirements.

About the Fair Labor Standards Act

It’s a federal law that establishes minimum wage and overtime requirements. There’s a minimum wage, but different states have adopted stringent requirements using their own wages. The other thing to take into consideration is that ​​ some states may have different rates within the state, based on city, country or even size of the business.

One important fact is that The U.S. department of Labor ensures that workers are paid in compliance with the federal wage and hour law.  Under this law, employees are classified as either exempt or non-exempt from some or all of the provisions of the FLSA. 

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3 | Inmigration laws

These laws serve to ensure that employers only hire candidates eligible to work within the united states of america, including citizens, non-citizen nationals, lawful permanent residents, and other people authorized to work. While organizations verify employment eligibility following these statements, they remain mindful of anti-discrimination laws in place.

4 | Safety laws for people at workplaces

In order to ensure employees are afforded safe working conditions, there’s a law called Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA). There’s also another area of legislation that aims to protect everything related to safety for employees in the workplace which are workers compensation laws, and to know more details you can visit this link.

Midtown HR is the company behind a hundred happy companies. We´re focused on simple solutions for payroll and taxes, propose benefits that really feel like benefits, keep up with employment law and also help protect your team. Let’s talk!

Check out this practices to avoid non compliant in your company

Compliance is an area that has its origin in the core functions of human resources and today it continues being a key area, because there are different regulations and laws that cover the employment relationship. 

Human resources managers and related professionals should understand every law in order to help their organizations stay far away from non compliant and also avoid having to pay penalties.

Check out this practices to avoid non compliant in your company

To ensure the successful management and always take into account all the compliance rules and regulations, the human resources professionals need to use the best practices to inform and hold employees accountable to HR compliance. Some of these best practices include education, constant training, the right documentation and also audit. 

If HR compliance has been integrated in the organization’s business strategy, and the organization’s managers and directors have taken steps to ensure employees can understand the importance of HR compliance, way to go!, kudos for the company and the team. 

Here you can find some basic principles organizations should follow to avoid non compliant:

1 | Conduct regular compliance training

Maybe you regularly hold employee training sessions but, the key to their effectiveness lies in training your HR team, especially when dealing with compliance matters.

The training you conduct needs to directly reference and reinforce all the policies. They need to work hand in hand, so employees get the principles provided in the policies and the practical steps provided in the session. An HR general audit can also reveal areas for improvement. 

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2 | Create an employee guide for compliance

An organization’s employee handbook or guide might be the right document to communicate the organization’s policies and all the procedures and also explain step by step how business should be conducted, it needs to be done in order to have legal counsel before distribution.

3 | Organice and follow an HR compliance checklist

The checklist can be used by human resource professionals to prepare for an HR audit. Government agencies are required to have formal HR audits, but businesses can also benefit from yearly audits. Take into account what follows:

• Recruiting and interviewing processes
• Hiring procedures
• Policies and procedures
• Safety section
• Employee handbook
• Social networking
• Sexual harassment, bullying and drugs
• DiSC Program
• Affirmative action, EEO and veterans lists
• Management training

If you want to know more details about the checklist you can check out this link

Midtown HR is the company behind a hundred happy companies. We´re focused on simple solutions for payroll and taxes, propose benefits that really feel like benefits, keep up with employment law and also help protect your team.

Does a PEO help with the HR Payroll company strategy?

The term payroll has been used in different ways, sometimes it refers to the money that is paid to employees who receive a salary for the work they do and It can also refer to the department that manages payroll or the software that is used to process all activities related to this area, the last one is the most common and is an essential part of every organization.

It’s not very common to read payroll and strategy in a single sentence, actually most of the time payroll is just considered a back office support function to make sure employees are paid accurately and on time, but nowadays companies of different sizes know there must be a change. 

Does a PEO help with the HR Payroll company strategy?

Strategic means using different insights in order to make better decisions, it’s about using the data to help in important business decisions so, having a PEO as a partner means you will be checking out and pulling the data and after that you´ll have a better idea at the time you need to give an answer to questions like which are the best profiles, performance, retention and careers evolution.  

The fact is payroll can provide a lot of value to organizations, delivering meaningful operational statistics and identifying actionable trends, also delivering key business information.

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Examples of strategic actions organizations can make

1 | If the company is looking for expansion and more collaborators, the right payroll data can provide good information about the cost of the new workforce, information about different salaries needed and if it’s sustainable over the time.  

2 | With HR and payroll working together you can get accurate salary projections (compensations ranges and trends).

3 | Analyzing data the right way can help us have a clear scenario so you know if you need to hire new staff or not in the near future. On the other hand, you can predict employees reaching burnout levels, among other projections.

5 | Maximice reporting capabilities to improve the company payroll process. Payroll strategy decisions can be driven by understanding how your organization’s payroll process measures activities, which are the main metrics considered and more.

Working with a PEO means you can spend extra time and resources on compliance. HR Payroll professionals don’t have to worry about keeping up with all HR actions throughout the day, like payroll management, taxes or other activities.

Midtown HR is focused on simple solutions for payroll and taxes, propose benefits that really feel like benefits, keep up with employment law and also help protect your team, ¡Let’s talk!

What is the form W4 and why did it change?

The employee’s withholding certificate or form W4 is one of the documents you need to complete once you get a new job. Employers will ask new collaborators to fill out this form in order to determine the amount of taxes that are withheld with every paycheck in the future.

After filling out this paper the employers send the information related to the money that’s going to be withheld from paychecks to employees to the IRS (International Revenue Services) with all your personal information and also the security number.

What is form W4 used for?

It is very important to fill out this form the right way because the IRS will ask you to pay taxes on your income gradually at different times throughout the year. In the case you don’t retain enough taxes, the IRS could charge you later with interest and penalties for incomplete payment of taxes.

On the other hand, if you withhold too much taxes you will get your overpaid taxes next year by sending a file for tax return in order to receive a refund.

Why did the 2020 form W4 change?

It has changed to simplify its own use and to offer a more transparent withholding system. However, the change is really significant and we all need to get used to it.

Among all changes the form includes more questions that help employees determine more accurately how much they’re going to withhold. Truth is people are not totally happy with the new form W4, but hopefully it will be easier to understand in the near future. 

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Who needs to fill out the new form W4?

Not all the employees need to fill out the form W4.

Employees who need to complete it:

1 | All new hires.

2 | Employees who completed a form W4 before 2020 and are looking to make changes to 

their withholding in 2020.

Employees who don’t need to complete it

1 | Existing employees hired before 2020.

It´s o.k for employees who don’t need to fill out the form because their employers will continue to determine their withholding, taking into account the information people have sent in previous forms.

How to explain to employees how to complete the new 2020 form W4?

If your employees need to fill out the new form W4, it is not about just handing them the form and expecting everything goes o.k. This can lead to inaccurate completion or different errors.

Our suggestion is to plan a date for employees to receive support as they complete the form, whether that’s being present with them or offering a pre-recorded training.

We hope now you understand more about the form W4. Midtown HR is focused on simple solutions for payroll and taxes, propose benefits that really feel like benefits, keep up with employment law and also help protect your team.

How do tax deductions work? How do PEOs help with it?

How do tax deductions work? Let’s start this article with the definition of tax deduction. In simple words we can say deduction of taxes reduces the amount of money you pay for taxes, and when we talk about deduction it’s just about a subtraction, which means the company is subtracting the amount  of your salary that’s taxable. 

How do tax deductions work? 

There are two ways when it comes to claim tax deductions: standard deductions and itemizing deductions. 

The standard deduction is kind of easy because it’s an automatic process, so using this one means the taxable income of employees is reduced by a set amount based on a couple of things: it depends if you’re single or married, because the current situation determines the amount of taxes the worker has to pay.

Itemized deductions are different, because it’s necessary to define them in a list, for example, including each deduction one by one. If you go with this option the person needs to fill out a form with the tax return and then later go through the records to back up the claims.

You might be interested in: What are the best PEO company services in 2021

How do PEOs help with tax deductions?

When your company works with a PEO the agreement indicates which employment taxes are going to be withheld, reported and paid, because the PEO is responsible on behalf of the client.

In the common agreement between a company and a PEO, this one takes over some or all  the duties of an employer, for instance, employment tax withholding, reporting, and payment functions as mentioned before, under its own name and employer identification number (EIN).

What expenses are tax deductible?

Here we mention some of them:

• Medical expenses

• Student loan interest

• Mortgage interest

• Retirement

• Home office deductions

Something important you need to know is that PEOs are a viable and reasonable payroll option to lower employer cost, and it’s fundamental to create a good relationship after selecting the right partner, because these decisions could have a real impact on your employees, maybe in professional or personal levels.

MidtownHR’s is focused on simple solutions for payroll and taxes, propose benefits that really feel like benefits, keep up with employment law and also help protect your team, ¡Let’s talk!

Payroll taxes: 4 basic things you need to understand

In simple and brief words payroll taxes are those that employees and employers must pay based on wages and salaries paid to employees. The employee pays part of these taxes through a payroll deduction, and the employer pays the rest. 

Basically these taxes are used to finance social insurance programs like medicare and social security. Payroll mistakes are common, at the same time it’s an area where companies don’t want to make them. Let’s check out why MidtownHR assigns every client a dedicated payroll specialist, as the single point person for different important activities related to payroll. 

4 basic things you need to understand about payroll activities

Taxes and risk mitigation

Risk management is an important component of running a business. Partnering with a PEO can help ensure you have all potential risks covered. 

For instance, if you work with Midtown HR as your co-employer, we submit all taxes on your behalf under our federal ID. This relieves you of both the risks and responsibilities of properly tracking and meeting your quarterly tax obligations.

Time and attendance

With this option it’s possible to manage alerts and reporting that can help improve absenteeism and help safeguard against wage and hourly lawsuits that implement timekeeping rules which are compliant with wage and hours laws.

So one online time-tracking portal for hourly workers that gives both employees and management instant clarity about time worked and money earned would be an advantage for the whole organization.

You can also read: What is a professional employer organization (PEO) and how does it help my company?

Employee payroll platform

A system that handles payroll services including payroll taxes, compensation, benefits management and also organizes employee records it is a tool or a resource you would like to leverage.

Streamline payroll and go paperless with PEOs online platform. It lets workers self-manage their tax elections, download pay stubs, track PTO, set up direct deposit rules, submit digital tax documents and more.

Reporting

Create a range of useful reports on salaries, taxes, paid time off, employee hours and more. Accurate reports are essential for compliance, budget planning and accountability across your organization.

What’s the difference between employee and employer payroll taxes?

As said before, payroll taxes are paid by both employees and employers, but there’s one big difference, which is that payroll taxes paid by employees affect employees’ net pay, but payroll taxes paid by employers don’t.

Taxes that employees pay are subtracted out of an employee’s gross pay, which lowers the net pay for that paycheck, on the other hand payroll taxes paid by the employer do not affect an employee’s paycheck. 

MidtownHR can help your company with simple solutions for payroll and taxes, propose benefits that really feel like benefits, keep up with employment law and also help protect your team. MidtownHR is on a mission to create a world of optimistic entrepreneurs.

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