Hr consulting
Innovative Launches Employee Lifecycle Tool Kit
Innovative is excited to launch our Employee Life Cycle Tool Kit! Today’s tight labor market and the broad range of flexible work/life options make it more important than ever to properly manage each step in the employee lifecycle. Addressing their emerging needs means employers must engage their teams at each...
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7 Low-Cost Initiatives Employers Can Incorporate in Their D&I Programs Now
Countless studies show that employers who focus on diversity and inclusion policies and practices help increase employee engagement and boost overall happiness in the workplace, thus improving retention. Research shows that companies with diverse, inclusive teams generate 19% more revenue and perform 35% better than their industry average. While integrating...
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Utilizing Pulse Surveys and Stay Interviews for Retention and Culture
Keeping your employees engaged in their work is an ongoing component in the employee life cycle. This directly leads to their retention and success in the organization. Retaining your employees and how that impacts overall culture are important to stay on top of. For many organizations, conducting exit interviews has...
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Solutions for Recruiting in a Candidate-Driven Market
Employers recruiting top-quality talent face new challenges as they navigate the current candidate-driven market. During 2020, the pandemic gave us an employer-driven market, where high unemployment rates and reducing hiring meant more candidates competed for fewer openings. By mid-2021, the dynamic shifted to a candidate driven-market, as the economic recovery...
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Important Steps to Approach 2022 Strategic Workforce Planning
More employers are turning to workforce planning to provide the necessary information to better manage their talent pool to meet their organization’s strategic needs. The events of the past two years have encouraged more organizations to pay attention to workforce planning as they prepare for the opportunities and possible disruptions...
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Innovative’s 2020 Consulting Highlights
Innovative’s 2020 Consulting Highlights 2020 was a challenging year for many, but here at Innovative, we were dedicated to delivering the best value and results for our clients. Not only were we successful in reducing costs for our clients, but we were able to provide them with a number of...
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Fostering Company Culture in a Remote Environment
Fostering Company Culture in a Remote Environment It has been a challenging year for all of us, to say the least. Many businesses were forced to make the move to a remote environment, while others have maintained in-person operations with serious restrictions on gatherings. While business as we know it...
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How to Host a Virtual Company Holiday Party
How to Host a Virtual Company Holiday Party This holiday season may be different for many organizations than it has in the past, but that doesn’t mean that the holidays need to be disregarded all together. One thing is for certain, and that is that your team has worked diligently...
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Free Child Education Resources
Free Child Education Resources As most children are learning virtually as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, many parents are looking to compliment their education with additional resources. Especially now, there are a great deal of free resources available for all subject matter. Check out some of the most popular...
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Return to Work Training Kit
Return to Work Training Kit Bring your employees back to work safely with our “Return to Work Training Kit.” Innovative has developed two training tools that you can use in conjunction with each other to educate your employees on what you are doing in response to COVID-19, understand what they...
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DOL Launches Online Tool to Help Employees Determine FFCRA Eligibility
DOL Launches Online Tool to Help Employees Determine FFCRA Eligibility The U.S. Department of Labor launched an interactive online tool to help workers determine if they qualify for paid sick leave or extended family and medical leave to cover time away from work for reasons related to the coronavirus. The tool guides...
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IRS Releases Two New COVID-19 Notices
IRS Releases Two New COVID-19 Notices To provide additional relief to Americans during these challenging times, the IRS released Notice 2020-29 and 2020-33. These notices provided new relaxed rules for 2020 for making elections under Cafeteria plans, using amounts during a grace period or carryover period changes to the method...
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Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act
Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act In response to the spread of the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19), President Trump signed the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act (PPPHCEA) into law on April 24, 2020. The PPPHCEA is phase 3.5 in Congress’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic...
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COVID-19 Employer Considerations Regarding Employment Decisions and Plan Coverage Changes
Due to the recent national health crisis in our country, many employers are considering the best way to handle a temporary economic turndown to best position themselves for recovery once the pandemic ceases and businesses can begin to return to some sense of normalcy. In addition, many employers are also...
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COVID-19: Leave Donation Program
Leave donation programs have been considered and implemented by employers for years to allow employees to donate accrued paid time (PTO), vacation or sick leave to a general pool. The time available in this pool serves to be used by fellow employees who have medical emergencies or who are affected...
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COVID-19: 7 Important Employer Considerations
COVID-19: 7 Important Employer Considerations As employers prepare for COVID-19 accommodations, Innovative has developed a checklist that offers specific considerations for employers in planning for emergencies like COVD-19. Examples include policies to review, communication strategies to consider and benefits that may be impacted. The Innovative team is here to support...
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COVID-19 Communicating With Employees
COVID-19 Communicating with Employees March 12th, 2020 As part of their efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the workplace, employers should implement an employee communication plan about the illness to employees. The CDC, WHO and OSHA have all created informational material on the virus and its symptoms, prevention...
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Coronavirus And The Workplace
Coronavirus And The Workplace March 12th, 2020 Dealing with Epidemics and Communicable or Infectious Diseases As the number of reported cases of the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to rise, employers are increasingly confronted with the possibility of an outbreak in the workplace. Employers are obligated to maintain a safe and...
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Proposed Mandatory Anti-Harassment Policy Development and Training Delivery in the State of New Jersey
Proposed Mandatory Anti-Harassment Policy Development and Training Delivery in the State of New Jersey March 4th 2020 On February 18, 2020 New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy presented a new bill to the State Legislature that would require all public and private employers in the state to develop anti-harassment policies and...
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4 Concepts to Construct Company Culture
4 Concepts to Construct Company Culture February 25th, 2020 When we think of employee retention, it often seems like we think of the same few strategies: employee benefits, PTO, food, etc. However, the company culture surrounding a team seems to matter just as much. Your employees spend a considerable amount...
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4 New Year’s Resolutions for an HR Department to Consider
The start of January brings with it the start of a brand-new year, with endless opportunities to be and do better than years past. Often, we consider what goals we would like to set for ourselves personally rather than professionally. Why not set goals for both? Here are a few...
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Avoiding and Correcting Common Mistakes on the I-9
Let’s talk about I-9s. You probably filled them out for each employee, filed them away and never thought about them again, right? This can be problematic as there are several common mistakes made on the I-9 form. An audit can be a very costly experience if your forms aren’t all...
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Diversity Discussion: Terms to Know
The concept of diversity is often presented to employees only in the negative – employees are told not to discriminate, or not to harass. But diversity is much more than that – when embraced and fostered, it promotes creative, engaged, happy workplaces. Beginning the diversity discussion with your workforce can...
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9 Employee Handbook Essentials
There are so many things that are essential to the employee handbook that it can be tough to know where to even start. We’ve got you covered. Below are 9 key components that every good employee handbook should include. 1. Introductory Statement This statement introduces the handbook, describes the purpose...
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Do’s and Don’ts When Creating an Employee Handbook
The employee handbook is an important communication resource for your employees that also limits your company’s legal liability. It can be tough to decide what does and does not belong in the employee handbook, but these tips can help you along the way. Read the full article, here.
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Cybersecurity: The Need for Both IT and HR
Businesses face a multitude of risks throughout their daily operations. One of the most complicated risks that organizations confront is cybersecurity risk. Cybersecurity is defined as the protection of internet-connected systems, including hardware, software and cyberattacks. When businesses hold sensitive data on the cloud or shared servers, you must address...
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Four Tips for Managing Five Generations in One Workplace
As organizations become more age diverse, business leaders find themselves managing a multigenerational workforce. Five generations in the workplace can mean more opportunity for success or more challenges, depending on how an organization deals with the generational differences. Each generation has grown up in very specific times in history and...
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HR Person of the Year Awards Dinner
Last week, Innovative attended the 19th Annual Delaware Valley HR Person of the Year Awards Dinner as a proud Silver Sponsor. Our very own Ryan Kastner was nominated as HR Consultant of the Year! A lovely time was had by all. It was truly a successful event, raising $9,290 to benefit...
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Gen Z is Coming. Is Your Workplace Ready?
While it may feel like businesses are still reeling from adapting to the working millennial, the next generation is already knocking on the HR door. The Society for Human Resource Management went straight to a 16-year old source to see what is on the workplace horizon. Here are a few trends...
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Happier Holidays, the HR Way
Most people, according to a new survey featured in HR Dive, have the greatest sense of belonging in their own homes. That may not be surprising news, but what is interesting is that one-third of respondents felt the greatest sense of belonging in their workplace. A significant percentage, 40 percent, attribute...
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Preventing Sexual Harassment in the Workplace
As you may have noticed, with an increase in media coverage regarding sexual harassment in the workplace, now is a good time to think about your company’s practices. Does your company have a sexual harassment policy? Are you confident that the sexual harassment policy has been recently updated and that...
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Ryan Kastner Moderates NPDC HR Breakfast Panel
This morning at Adelphia Restaurant & Lounge in Deptford, NJ the Nonprofit Development Center of Southern New Jersey held a breakfast panel discussion for Nonprofit Human Resource professionals. The panel discussion focused on various talent management issues in the nonprofit community. Innovative’s Employee Benefits Consultant, Ryan Kastner, had the pleasure...
Read MoreCompliance Alert! – DOL Appeals FLSA Overtime Rule Injunction
As we expected, last evening, the Department of Labor filed a notice of appeal in the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. The Department of Labor’s appeal indicates plans to challenge the injunction that put the changes to the federal overtime rule on hold by a Texas...
Read MoreFLSA Overtime Rule Blocked by Federal Judge
On Tuesday, November 22, 2016, a Texas federal judge blocked the Fair Labor Standards Act Overtime Rule by issuing a nationwide preliminary injunction. The regulation was scheduled to take effect on Dec. 1 and would have raised the salary limit for which workers could be exempt for overtime pay from...
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Innovative Attends United Benefit Advisor’s Fall Conference in Chicago
The Innovative team headed to Chicago this past weekend for the United Benefit Advisor’s Fall Conference September 18th-20th. “UBA is the nation’s leading organization of independent benefit advisors who are bound by a code of conduct to actively cultivate, validate and share wisdom with busy benefit decision makers nationwide who want...
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