Anchor Payroll Blog

Anchor Staff

Recent Posts

What Employers Should Know About Generative AI

Posted by Anchor Staff on Jun 2, 2023 7:02:15 AM

A generative AI system (artificial intelligence software that answers questions), like ChatGPT and Bard, provides immediate responses to prompts based on the information it knows—much of the internet or a smaller content library if that’s what it’s been told to use. These responses usually look and sound authoritative—like a real human wrote them—although the responses are not always accurate. As a result, you may not be able to tell when an employee has incorporated AI-generated text into their work. Without realizing it, you may be relying on AI to make important decisions.

Read More

Topics: hr, Technology

When Not to Worry About Turnover

Posted by Anchor Staff on May 30, 2023 11:58:27 PM

Most HR professionals would agree that turnover is a source of stress. Losing an employee can feel like losing an investment, and replacing that person has its own costs—advertising, onboarding, training, and coverage to name a few. But we also know that turnover is a manageable cost of doing business, and sometimes even welcome. In short, turnover is a metric to take seriously, but also realistically.

Read More

Topics: leadership, hr, turnover

Three Pillars for Successful Employee Relationships

Posted by Anchor Staff on May 5, 2023 4:01:15 PM

Think of all the employee-related relationship problems you’ve observed and experienced. Whether you considered them as trivial annoyances or business-killers, such problems often result from three factors: poor knowledge, poor communication, and poor recognition. By recognizing these factors and understanding how to avoid them, you can dramatically improve your employee relations.

Read More

Topics: leadership

Five Steps for Effective Employee Coaching

Posted by Anchor Staff on May 5, 2023 2:47:30 PM

 

New employee orientation and job-specific training serve important purposes.  Coaching, however, is a critical key that is set aside unfortunately all too often.  A business owner may think that spending the time to coach is too difficult, but it is his or her leadership that helps create a great team of inspired, productive, and loyal employees.

Read More

Topics: leadership

Six Ways to Encourage Employees to Set Work-Personal Life Boundaries

Posted by Anchor Staff on Apr 28, 2023 7:51:48 AM

Most everyone knows what the “hustle” is. It’s been a part of work culture since the early 19th century, when the word was first used to mean “gumption” or “hard work.” Depending on the context, hustle may be a virtue, the antithesis of laziness, or a necessity, the extra effort one must perform to overcome bad luck, oppression, or structural barriers. 

Read More

Topics: leadership, hr

Q: How do we handle pay for an employee out on military leave?

Posted by Anchor Staff on Apr 28, 2023 7:41:20 AM

Answer: Employees on military leave are due the same rights and benefits (when not determined by seniority) as nonmilitary employees who take any comparable form of leave. Comparable is not well defined, but generally, you should look to other leaves of a similar duration. For instance, if you’d generally pay someone for one to five days of jury service leave, or up to a week of bereavement leave, you’d want to also pay for a military leave of that approximate duration. If you provide longer paid leaves, e.g., a four- to eight-week family wellness leave, then you should consider paying for a military leave of that approximate duration as well. If you aren’t sure whether the other leaves you offer are comparable and you are considering not paying for a military leave, we recommend speaking with an attorney.

Read More

Topics: hr, Military

What You Need to Know About Lactation Accommodations

Posted by Anchor Staff on Mar 24, 2023 11:57:26 AM

Breastfeeding employees who are returning to work usually know how much extra work pumping is going to be. They’ve thought about the bulky pump and its multiple attachments, how they can bring it into and out of the workplace inconspicuously, whether they’ll have time and a private spot to express milk, and where they’ll be able to store the equipment and their milk.

Read More

Topics: hr

FMLA Turns 30: Let’s Get Back to Basics

Posted by Anchor Staff on Feb 19, 2023 6:01:13 PM

For 30 years, HR professionals have been working with the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), a federal law enacted to protect employees’ jobs and medical insurance when they need to take unpaid time away from work for certain family and medical reasons. 

Read More

What a Good Enough Hiring Process Looks Like

Posted by Anchor Staff on Jan 31, 2023 6:27:37 PM

The last few years have proved challenging for employers trying to fill positions. Low unemployment, among other factors, made the job market much more friendly to jobseekers than to employers keen to hire them. In this highly competitive environment, some organizations upgraded their compensation packages or experimented with other attractive perks, hoping to stand out as the best. Others re-examined their recruitment and hiring processes or sought help from consultants or vendors. Struggling employers may have been tempted to look for a “magic bullet,” that one thing sure to get them more candidates.

Read More

Federal Pregnancy and Lactation Accommodations Expanded

Posted by Anchor Staff on Jan 31, 2023 4:08:02 PM

While federal employment law changes are generally few and far between, the budget bill that was just passed by Congress and signed by the President includes two sections that provide new protections for pregnant and lactating employees and applicants. 

Read More

Topics: hr