1. Stand Out Among Recruiters

With a free lunch plan, you can make your company look desirable to recruitment agencies and job hunters. Apart from offering better work-life balance, the sight of free lunch indicates to prospective candidates that your organization is dedicated to providing a healthy work environment to their employees.

As a perk, free lunch is increasingly gaining popularity. By refusing to add it to your benefits, you may put yourself a disadvantage when attracting the best talent out there. Glassdoor reveals that 57% of job seekers list down perks and benefits as one of their leading considerations while deciding for a job offer.

2. Increase Productivity

Healthy lunch refuels human bodies and rejuvenates them to perform better throughout their shifts. There is a reason why employees eating a healthy lunch can get an increase of 150% in productivity whereas 46% employees focus better during the afternoon.

3. Generate More Value Out of Meetings

It is a terrific idea to schedule a meeting during lunch. It serves as an incentive to make all the employees attend the meeting. It also ensures that the meeting is short and concise, diving straight to the important aspects.

You can also raise the engagement level of your employees with lunch meetings.  Since 65% of employees are busy in other work during a conference call, free lunch can make them avoid from using their laptop or checking their phones.

4. Improve Collaboration across the Organization

The relationships between employees are strengthened when personal connections are formed. During the routine activities, it is difficult to develop this bond. This is where free lunch catering can be effective in improving relationships between team members.

During lunch, employees often sit together and discuss non-work matters. In this way, they can also become friends with individuals from other departments, boosting collaboration across the organization.

5. Control Employee Turnover Rate

The biggest reason behind high employee turnover is job dissatisfaction among employees. You can minimize this issue by providing benefits that employees prefer the most. Interestingly, many employees choose more benefits over a pay raise. Moreover, millennials have shown a special affinity for food. Recently, they went ahead of the Generation X and became the leading generation among the U.S. workforce. Therefore, free lunch can appeal to a large segment of prospective candidates.

Contact us if you need help setting up a free lunch program for your employees.

The post Should Companies Provide Free Lunch to Employees appeared first on PaySoftHR.

When the employee returns to work, they will be refreshed and rejuvenated after having spent time with their newborn. They will bring higher levels of productivity at the workplace and a fresh perspective. It’s a win-win for all.

Only a few states provide paid paternity leaves. These are California, New York, Rhode Island, and New Jersey State.

Paternity Leaves Done Right

Ideally, the paid paternity leaves should be designed around the specific requirements of each worker and their family. The current labor market has gone from full-time employment to a more sensitive labor market where employees, especially those at entry-level positions, work part-time jobs and multiple jobs- some with non-standard hours.

This means it would be futile to enact a one-size-fits-all policy for all employees. You have to take into account the lifestyle of each employee.

Some of the best practices in paid family leaves include the following:

1. Employers can take cues from maternity leaves. A report by the 2014 International Organization Labor suggested a minimum of 14 weeks for maternity leaves. Any period too long or too short was deemed to weaken the mother’s resolve to her job and could cause her to exit the work force entirely.
2. The leaves should be flexible and could be taken part time or throughout different time periods. This,again,depends on the employees’ requirements.
3. All paternity leaves should provide job protection to employees, guaranteeing workers to return to work once their leaves have ended.
4. The company should provide each employee with at least 50 percent wage replacement benefit for their leaves. Higher wage replacement rates will incentivize fathers to take their leaves and could improve productivity rates when they return.
5. If paid leave programs are not affordable for employers, they may experiment with a universally accessible social insurance model that takes a small percentage of pay from participating employees. Everyone contributes from their paycheck to gain eligibility for paternity leave.
6. Studies show that employees become more productive when they take breaks, yet most people are hesitant to avail their paternity leaves because they fear doing so could leave them behind the workforce. In these cases, it is up to the employers to create an environment that encourages employees to take their PTO.
7. Paternity and maternity leaves are comparatively more sensitive and as such, subject to new laws that continue to evolve with time. For obvious reasons, it is important to pay attention to the news as they update to ensure your policy complies with the law. Make should to consult with legal counsel to avoid any liability because the laws vary from state to state.

Want to know more? JS Benefits Group offers consultancy to businesses about the best benefits packages that work for their specific circumstances. Click here to learn more.

The post Paternity Leaves Done Right appeared first on PaySoftHR.

What is Maternity Leave

Maternity leave is when a mother stops working following the birth of a baby. Employers should expect time off requests once their employee expects of a pregnancy. It is common for mothers to request maternity leaves before the child is born, when they undergo complications in their pregnancy, or after birth.

Maternity leaves can cause workload issues for small and medium sized businesses because covering shifts can be difficult. However, the pros of granting maternity leaves far outweigh the initial shock of having an employee suddenly leave. In fact, research shows that there is positive impact for paid parental leave for women, families, the economy, and businesses

The Center for Economic and Policy Research found that 99% of employers reported an increase in employee morale. In order to nurse their newborns, it isn’t uncommon for mothers to quit the workforce entirely, a fact that has far more greater repercussions for the company than if the employee was to take temporary leave.

It comes as no surprise that when Google increase their paid maternity leaves, the rate at which employee quit their jobs following a pregnancy dropped by up to 50%. And in the long run, it is good for business too. In fact, Patagonia reported that paid family leave helped the company make three times as much profit as they did before parental leave.

Which States Require Maternity Leave?

For most women in the workforce, maternity leave is not required by law. This could be due to the size of the business, those with fewer than 50 employees are not required to provide paternity leave, or due to the length of time served on the job.

For now, employees are entitled to paid family leave in five states: California, Rhode Island, Washington, New York, and New Jersey. The amount paid to employees and the leave time depends on the state. Make sure to check in with your state for guidelines, or consult an expert.

What is the Ideal Length for Maternity

Mothers in California are entitled for up to 52 weeks of paid leave after they give birth. Similar policies can be found in other states.

For the rest of women, parental leave depends on their employer. For obvious reasons, it is best practice to create maternity leave policies for your employees. According to a report reported by SHRM, at least 60% of employers offer maternity leave, and with 33% committing to longer leaves.

The bottom line is, maternity leave is good for workers and businesses. It attracts new employees and gives new mothers incentive to stay as part of the workforce.

Want to learn more about employee benefits and create a package for your specific circumstances? Get in touch with experts at JS Benefits Group for help.

The post The Benefits of Maternity Leaves for Businesses appeared first on PaySoftHR.

It may not always be a wise idea to set up a game room if you’re on a limited budget. It’s worth considering the pros and cons of a game room before you make a decision.

Pros: Why Your Office needs a Game Room

Employees want to break free from the never-ending cycle of work and prefer to do fun things that let them decompress. Sometimes all one needs to do is sit back, relax, and enjoy a few games. A game room encourages team activities and improves the overall culture of your office by letting employees bond and play games.

It’s a very effective way to promote that all-too-essential work-life balance and shows your staff that you care about their mental health and wellness. Most companies that have game rooms make it a point to showcase their game room, and that could be a major selling point.

Why Your Office May Not Need a Game Room

A game room is not a silver bullet when it comes to tackling serious cultural problems in the office or the fact that workers are simply not happy with the company direction. Then there is the fact that a fully fleshed out gaming room requires time, money, and effort.

Sometimes you can get away with by tossing in a few comfortable chairs or just a gaming console, but if you really want to stand out, you’re going to have to go all-in with foosball, ping pong tables, pinballs, and other game tables. Setting aside the space can be a costly venture and you’ll also need maintenance teams to clear out after everyone’s done using the place. It’s important to keep the game room tidy and clean.

And here’s why it could even backfire. Some employees may find one-too many excuses to hang out in the game room, which could lead to lower productivity levels. Also, some workers will get more enthusiastic than others and won’t let others participate in the popular activities, this could lead to some friction. Then there is the embarrassing scenario where the gaming space won’t be used at all.

Do Your Research

Providing a game room to help your workers unwind is a great idea. You could just as easily set up a wellness room or a gym instead of a game room. It all depends on the officer culture and worker expectations. Conduct surveys to help you pick up on the biggest sources of stress in the office and create a game room centered on those pain points.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to gaming rooms, you have to work with your resources and design a space that works best for your employees’ needs.

Stay informed about employee benefits and all the latest trends by signing up to the JS Benefits Group newsletter!

The post Does Your Office Need a Game Room? appeared first on PaySoftHR.

Your people make your company successful, which is why you need to invest in their professional advancement and personal growth. Employee development is a long-term initiative, which should be improved time and time again to get positive rewards from the process.

Here we look at some of the techniques you can follow to improve employee development within your organization:

Professional Training

Employee development will help train your employees for what is to come. Formal employee training cannot just be used for imparting knowledge in employees, but can also be used for professional training.

Training manuals are obsolete for almost all important roles in the workplace. You need to develop the professionalism and skill set of your employees so that you can get the best results possible from them. To begin with, you will have to teach your employees the basic stuff and would want them to acclimate with the culture inside your organization.

The acclimatization can be done through conversations as well, but overall professional development will require bigger investments.

Coaching and Mentoring

A recent article by Harvard Business Review has mentioned that employees are currently overburdened and feel stressed out because of job responsibilities. This eventually leads them to fail at performing their job responsibilities satisfactorily. The best way out of this mess is to make sure that coaching and mentoring is available for everyone. A simple session of coaching can do wonders when it comes to de-stressing employees and improving their attitude to life.

Cross-Departmental Training

The monotony of a single job can seep the life and thrill out of you. Managers who want to keep their staff motivated and challenged should try job rotating techniques. This is only possible if you have methods of cross-departmental training in place. This training includes creating a healthy environment where all employees are equipped with basic information over cross-departmental work.

Develop Soft Skills

Employees need to be taught vital soft skills that can help them out in managerial roles down the line. Information and training on emotional intelligence can come in handy as well. These skills will not just make better employees but better humans.

At JS Benefits Group, we can help discuss and identify the ways to improve employee development in your organization. Get in touch with us to know more about what we offer and how we can help you.

The post Ways to Improve Employee Development in Your Organization appeared first on PaySoftHR.

If we look at it, a typical HRIS system can help your organization with a wide variety of functions. However, all of these benefits can be best enjoyed when you install the system at the right time. Letting traditional HR systems continue for long can damage rapport in the market and lead to a mess in HR management.

In this article, we look at some of the signs indicating that you need an HRIS system installed within your computers almost immediately.

HR Overload

This is perhaps the first and most important sign that you need a human resource information system. Your HR department is tasked with handling more tasks than what you imagine, and traditional processes can be tiring and exhaustive. If your HR department is going through similar exhaustion, then an HRIS system is exactly what the doctor ordered. The system takes away the burden from the shoulders of your HR team and gives them the time to relax.

Managing Benefits

Employees love benefits like crazy. In fact, a recent survey on this subject found out that 90 percent of all employees would leave their current employer if the benefits provided were to be stopped. Managing benefits without an HRIS can be difficult for HR personnel. As a result, your HR team might mess up bonuses and other benefits-related payments. Avoid this mess by giving your employees what they need in an organized manner.

Errors in Compliance

Errors in compliance can cost you big bucks. With the new rules and regulations coming out in compliance, it can be hard for HR departments to keep up. There’s just so much happening, and the ramifications of non-compliance can be far beyond what you imagine. To put an end to this, it is best that you get a human resource information system. The system will help you manage policies in a better manner without the risk of non-compliance.

Costs You Can’t Find

HRIS can do a good job at tracking costs; hence your HR would never enter a conundrum where they aren’t able to locate costs. This aspect of an HRIS can help you identify the costs of maintaining different aspects of your business.

At JS Benefits Group, we can help discuss and identify the ways to implement an HRIS in your office. Get in touch with us to know more about what we offer and how we can help you.

The post Signs It Is Time for a Human Resource Information System (HRIS) in Your Organization appeared first on PaySoftHR.

The trend for casual dressing is currently a hit in workplaces because of how it helps organizations to prepare for diversity and especially for millennials. With diversity in the workplace, setting a formal dress code would require people to step out of their comfort zone. Giving your employees an option to dress up casually would allow them to wear what they are most comfortable in.

With all crosscurrents in consideration, we take a look at 11 of the best tips you can follow for setting a dress code at work.

Define Through Example

Giving broad definitions of how employees are allowed or expected to dress can be a bit vague. For instance, if you want employees to dress casual, try to elaborate on it by giving examples. What is considered casual in another workplace might not really be considered casual in your organization. If khakis and polo shirts are considered casual in your workplace, another company might require people to wear cotton pants under casual.

Acquire clarity in your dress code and tell workers directly what exactly is acceptable dressing.

Respect Individuality

Respect the individual dressing sense of employees and do give them some wiggle space to try that out. Employees are able to best perform when they are in their comfort zone. You can give them just that through relaxed dressing policies. If someone wants to wear hot pants, you should respect their individuality and allow them to express themselves.

Dress Up for Big Clients

Regardless of how relaxed your dress code is, you shouldn’t compromise on one part; dressing up for big clients. It is a norm in most American workplaces that employees should dress up when they are expected to meet big clients. This attire upgrade will help set a good impression for you and would get you the kind of response you expect from the client in question.

Give Guidance to Less-Experienced Workers

If you hire fresh graduates in the workplace, make sure that you guide them kindly with time. There are times when a fresh graduate might consider the office to be their college and will turn up in a t-shirt with explicit content all over it. Such workers shouldn’t be ostracized immediately, but should be kindly guided towards a more acceptable dress code.

At JS Benefits Group, we can help discuss and identify the tips to set a dress code at work. Get in touch with us to know more about what we offer, and how we can help you.

The post Tips for Setting a Dress Code at Work appeared first on PaySoftHR.

Lately, many organizations have started celebrating National Employee Recognition Day, but we don’t think it matters. Rather than just celebrating your hard-working employees for one day, you should look to give them recognition across the calendar. Employee recognition knows no calendar, which is why it should be made an important part of your culture across the year.

Your company culture should be one where hard work is appreciated and the employees putting in that hard work get rewarded and recognized accordingly. If you want to foster decent company culture, you have to prioritize recognition at some point in time.

In this article, we mention some of the reason why recognition can be good for your organization and your company culture:

Recognized Employees Remain Happy

Not every employee takes their office workload home with them. However, almost all employees do take the feelings that they go through in the workplace home with them. This goes to prove that if you make your employees feel special, it will surely make them happy inside and outside the organization. Employees that are recognized for their efforts would serve as decent ambassadors outside as well and will help improve your reputation.

To make sure employees feel special, you have to show and tell them that you appreciate whatever efforts they are putting in. Tell them the kind of impact they are having on the workplace and how it translates into success for the organization as a whole.

Appreciative Leaders are Appreciated Leaders

All leaders and managers that appreciate employees are almost always appreciated back in return. If you want to build trust with your employees, you need to start appreciating them and should celebrate their hard work. The hard work that employees put in at work should never go to waste and, in fact, be celebrated.

Employees Stick Around

Employees would love to stick around a company with a culture of recognition. Whenever employees feel recognized, they want to stick around and give back to the company that appreciated their work. Companies with high turnovers are never able to gain momentum, which is why it is best for you to have loyal employees that stick around.

At JS Benefits Group, we can help discuss and identify the ways to deliver good employee recognition. Get in touch with us to know more about what we offer and how we can help you.

The post Why Recognition Is Important for your Company Culture appeared first on PaySoftHR.

Mobile phones have also changed the way we work. We can always shoot a co-worker a text whenever any help is needed. We can view the mobile interface of a competitor’s website. We can perform research on any of our new ideas and can also jump into the HRIS when needed. Keeping this in mind, you must study your workplace’s mobile phone policies and see if they are keeping up with the changing times or not.

Mobile Phone Bans Aren’t Realistic Anymore

Telling people to not bring their phones to work is a sure shot recipe for creating a toxic environment in the workplace. This kind of autocracy almost always leads to discontent in workers and will scare them away from you. If you want your workers to remain dedicated, you need to understand the important role played by mobile phones in the life of your average worker. Treating employees like children can harm loyalty and cause an increase in turnover.

Productivity and Cell Phones

While the presence of cell phones can be distracting for workers in the workplace, not having one at all can also put them off. Most employees tend to feel extreme anxiety when their mobile phones aren’t within their reach. Thus, you need to allow employees the luxury to use their cell phones in some capacity, as asking them to cut them out can lead to de-motivation.

Smartphone Policies to Follow

Here we have a few suggestions you can follow when setting your own smartphone policy:

• • Employees shouldn’t view or share any offensive pictures, videos, or texts in the workplace
• • Cell phones shouldn’t be used while operating company machinery, heavy equipment or company vehicle
• • Personal calls and personal messages should be attended to discreetly. Safeguard your personal info
• • Passwords must be used appropriately whenever you are accessing data related to the company
• • Attending too many calls during a given day should be discouraged. Employees that are always using their mobile phones during working hours should be warned.
• • Employees should not share important company info through their smartphone

When implemented, these suggestions will form a comprehensive policy for you to follow.

At JS Benefits Group, we can help discuss and identify the ways to set decent mobile phone policies. Get in touch with us to know more about what we offer and how we can help you.

The post Is Your Mobile Phone Policy Outdated? appeared first on PaySoftHR.

Terminating employees is something that you have to do at some point in time. There will come a time when you will realize that there is no way around terminating a said employee. Regardless of whether you are downsizing or if it is because of downsizing, you would want to terminate the employee in a way that doesn’t lead to a wrongful termination lawsuit.

How you handle your employees during the termination process can have a significant impact on their decision to file a claim. Sometimes an employee might love conflict and will turn litigious, leaving you without an option but to face the lawsuit.

However, as an organization, the best you can do is try cutting down on these lawsuits. Here we are some of the tips and techniques you can follow to keep out and avoid wrongful termination lawsuit:

Document Everything

If you’re terminating an employee because of poor performance or misconduct, you should make sure that everything is documented. From complaints to official warnings, you should have a record of everything with a stamped date. This will prove to the court that everything was documented, and the proper rules and regulations were followed during the termination process.

Terminate with Empathy

Even a small amount of empathy can work magic here. Whenever you are terminating an employee, make sure to tell them just how hard a decision it is for you and how you wouldn’t want to be in their shoes. But, do tell them how this termination could benefit them and might lead to decent growth opportunities in the future. Compassion and empathy might not surely work, but both of them can go a long way in satisfying employees.

Follow the Law

Being accused of unlawful termination is not fun and will damage your reputation in the market. To avoid any such instances, you should follow the law in detail and make sure that you have given as many warnings as outlined in your policy. Also, provide the required severance to employees during periods of downsizing.

Employee Handbook

If you don’t have an employee handbook ready as of yet, start working on one immediately and make sure that you have your policies on paper. The handbook should be accessible to employees as well so that they can decide how much of it is being followed.
At JS Benefits Group, we can help discuss and identify the ways to safeguard your company from a wrongful termination lawsuit. Get in touch with us to know more about what we offer and how we can help you.

The post Tips for Protecting Your Company from ‘Wrongful Termination Lawsuits’ appeared first on PaySoftHR.