Employer Observance of Fourth of July

The Fourth of July is a federal holiday, meaning all non-essential federal government offices are closed. Federal employees are paid for the holiday, but private employers are not required to observe federal or state holidays, such as the Fourth of July. In fact, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) does not require payment for vacations [...]

Implementing a Wellness Program and Tracking Progress

The last two weeks we have highlighted the benefits of and planning process for a health and wellness program. Before this series concludes, two more hills need conquered: program implementation and results tracking. This week’s blog will look at how to not only implement the health and wellness plan, but will discuss how to know [...]

Planning a Wellness Program

In part 1 of this series we explored how a health and wellness program can be an important part of driving employee success, not to mention the thousands of dollars in health care costs the programs can save. But with schedules filled to capacity, and budgets running close to empty, who has the time or [...]

The Incredible Benefit of Healthy Employees

Part one of this three-part blog series will explore the incredible benefits that a company can realize when implementing a wellness program at work. Aside from the obvious benefit of having happy, healthy employees; companies can save millions of dollars each year in healthcare costs and improve the productivity of their workforce by implementing such [...]

What is SPHR? (…and PHR, and GPHR?)

Many of us have seen these designations after human resource professionals’ names, but do all of us really know exactly what they stand for? These acronyms are certifications that HR professionals receive through the Human Resource Certification Institute (HRCI). The HRCI actually offers four different certifications, including the PHR, SPHR, GPHR, and PHR-CA and SPHR-CA. According to the [...]