In part one of this two-part blog series, we discussed some of the basic reasons why background checks are often carried out by employers on prospective employees during the hiring process, plus some of the common types of background checks used here. These checks are increasingly being used by employers to ensure a few basic things about prospective employees, helping them make ideal hires while also avoiding liability or other concerns.

At WTA Inc., we’re here to help clients around Salt Lake City with a wide range of HR services, from recruitment and hiring to liability management, regulatory compliance and more. Today’s part two of our series will go over some basic legal considerations to keep in mind when conducting background checks, plus some trends in this world and why it pays to work with a qualified third party like our team when carrying out background check needs.

Legal Considerations When Conducting Background Checks

When it comes to background checks, it’s important for employers to understand and comply with federal and state laws related to this practice. The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) is the primary law that governs background checks in the US, outlining requirements for obtaining an individual’s consent before conducting a check, providing certain disclosures and following specific procedures if adverse action is taken based on the results of a background check.

Additionally, state laws may have their own specific requirements and limitations when it comes to conducting background checks. For example, some states prohibit employers from considering arrest records that did not result in convictions, while others place restrictions on the use of credit reports in employment decisions.

Trends in Background Checks

With advancements in technology and data availability, background checks are becoming more comprehensive and detailed than ever before. This includes the use of social media and online databases in addition to traditional sources like criminal records and employment history.

Another trend is the increasing reliance on continuous or ongoing background checks, rather than a one-time check during the hiring process. These ongoing checks allow employers to monitor any changes in an employee’s background that could impact their eligibility for employment.

Working with a Qualified Third Party

Given the complex legal landscape surrounding background checks, it’s crucial for employers to work with a qualified third party like WTA Inc. We have extensive experience in conducting compliant and thorough background checks, helping clients navigate the legal requirements and avoid potential liability. Our team stays updated on any changes in laws and regulations related to background checks, ensuring our clients are always in compliance.

In addition to conducting background checks, we also offer a range of other HR services that can help companies streamline their hiring processes and ensure they are making informed employment decisions. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help your business succeed!

There are a few ways that employers may perform due diligence on prospective employees during the hiring process for any business, and background checks are one of the most common examples. Background checks help employers understand basic information and history about an applicant for a position, and a high percentage of organizations conduct at least some form of background check during their hiring processes.

At WTA Inc, we’re here to offer a wide range of employer HR services to businesses around Salt Lake City, including everything from recruitment and hiring to risk management, liability management and more. In this two-part blog series, we’ll go over everything employers should know about background checks – today’s part one will discuss why they’re done and some of the various types of background checks out there, while part two will go over some legal concerns to be aware of and some general trends in employer background checks over recent years.

Why Background Checks Are Done

There are several key reasons why employers often conduct background checks on prospective employees, including:

• Avoiding liability: In today’s world, employers are often held responsible for the actions of their employees. This means organizations have a vested interest in knowing about any potential red flags or concerning past behavior that could result in legal issues down the line. Background checks can help identify any potential risks before they become a problem.
• Protecting employees and customers: Employers also have a responsibility to create a safe working environment for both their employees and their customers. Background checks can help uncover any previous criminal activity that could pose a threat in the workplace.
• Productivity: Hiring the wrong person can be incredibly costly for a business. Background checks can provide valuable information about an applicant’s skills, education and work history, helping employers make more informed hiring decisions.
• Verifying basic personal data: Finally, background checks can help validate basic information about an applicant, such as their education, work experience and references. This can be especially useful for positions that require specific qualifications or certifications.

Kinds of Background Checks

There are numerous kinds of background checks or other pre-hiring screenings out there, including:

• Criminal history or drug tests: These checks are often part of a standard background check for most employers. They can reveal any past convictions or history of drug use.
• Credit checks: Employers may perform credit checks on applicants, particularly for positions that involve handling finances or sensitive information.
• Employment history: This type of background check verifies an applicant’s work history, including dates of employment and job titles.
• Education and credentials: Educational background checks can verify degrees or certifications claimed by an applicant.
• Others: Other types of background checks may include reference checks, motor vehicle records checks, social media screenings and more.

Stay tuned for part two of our blog series, where we’ll discuss some legal considerations and trends in employer background checks. At WTA Inc., we’re committed to helping businesses navigate the often complex world of HR and hiring. Contact us today for more information on our services and how we can assist your organization!

In part one of this two-part blog series, we looked at some of the kinds of benefits that tend to hold the most weight for both employees and employers alike. Offering great benefits packages is one major way for businesses to attract and retain quality employees, and a key piece of this process involves selecting the right benefits to offer.

At WTA Inc., we offer a wide range of HR services to clients around Salt Lake City, including employee benefits administration and more. While part one of our series went over benefits like scheduling, compensation, healthcare and fertility options, today’s part two will look at some other key benefits you should be thinking about offering to employees.

Sabbatical Achievements

Especially for businesses that pride themselves on long-term retention of employees, sabbatical achievements can be a great way to reward hard work and dedication. By allowing your employees to choose from different types of sabbaticals, including extended time off or a change in roles, you’ll show them that their continued success is valued and respected.

Perk Stipends

Also known as lifestyle spending accounts or perk allowances, perk stip your employees with a certain amount of money that they can spend on lifestyle benefits like gym memberships, childcare or even an Uber ride home at the end of a long workday. This type of benefit allows your employees to choose what best suits their needs and make them feel appreciated without feeling guilty for “spending” company money.

Continued Education & Training

Investing in your employees’ continued education and training shows them that you value their growth as professionals. This could include attending conferences, taking classes or even having a mentor on staff to guide development within the company. It’s important to provide support for career advancement so that employees feel like their skills are being used and that their hard work is being rewarded.

Wellness Programs

Many employers are getting on board with the idea of offering wellness programs to their staff. This could include anything from providing free yoga classes or gym membership discounts, to hosting regular health screenings or even sponsoring a lunchtime walking club. Having access to these types of offerings can help employees stay healthy and feel more engaged in their work.

Commuter Benefits

Another great way to show your employees that you value their time and resources is to provide them with commuter benefits. This could include anything from providing discounted public transit passes or bike shares to offering reimbursement for parking fees and carpooling.

By offering the right benefits, businesses can show their employees that they care about their success and well-being both inside and outside of the office. Offering a comprehensive package of benefits can increase employee retention, attract top talent and improve overall engagement and morale. With the right combination of benefits, businesses can create a work environment that is both productive and enjoyable.

At WTA Inc., we specialize in helping clients select the best benefits packages for their business. To learn more about our services in this or other HR areas, contact us today!

Prospective employees for your company will be thinking about several things as they evaluate their options, and their potential benefits in various jobs will definitely be on this list. Most employers are well aware that having good benefits is important for drawing in top talent – how do you know which benefits are best to have as part of your program, though?

At WTA Inc., we’re happy to provide employee benefits administration and numerous other human resource services to clients around Salt Lake City. This two-part blog series will go over all the various benefits you might offer and which tend to hold the most weight, from specific parts of their benefits packages to broader topics that also function in similar ways.

Scheduling and Location Flexibility

One of those broader topics that often holds major weight for prospective employees is the ability to have scheduling flexibility or location flexibility. This could mean allowing workers to telecommute, setting up flex-schedules that let them work around their own needs and obligations, or simply making things easier by having shorter commutes for their job sites.

Compensation and Retirement Benefits

For jobs that are already fairly stable, offering good compensation and retirement benefits will often weigh heavily on prospective employees’ decisions. Offering a competitive salary or higher-than-average salaries can be one way to draw in top talent, as well as giving them access to retirement accounts such as 401ks or IRAs that they can contribute to over time.

Healthcare Benefits

Moving to specific parts of the benefits package, healthcare is always a top priority for most employees. Health insurance is an absolute must-have in the modern world; even if it’s simply access to a traditional plan, making sure that your employees have at least some coverage can make all the difference when looking for new hires.

Furthermore, additional perks and benefits such as vision or dental plans often take precedence when employees are looking for a job. Having these extra options available can make a major impact and help you to stand out from the competition.

Shorter Work Week

In other cases, employees are looking for a more flexible and relaxed approach to their job that still allows them to stay employed. Shorter work weeks can be a great way to offer this, along with other perks like paid vacation days or sick leave.

Parental or Fertility Benefits

More and more companies are recognizing the importance of offering parental or fertility benefits to their employees, such as paid leave or access to childcare. These kinds of options can make a major difference in helping prospective parents decide where they’d like to work and can give them peace of mind when it comes to how they’ll be able to care for their children and families.

In part two of our series, we’ll go over additional benefits that can help you draw in the best talent, from educational benefits to employee recognition.

At WTA Inc., we understand how important the right benefits can be when it comes to bringing in top talent. Our experienced staff is happy to answer any questions you may have and provide human resources solutions that are tailored to your needs. Contact us today to learn more about how our services can help you draw in the best employees possible.

In part one of this two-part blog series, we went over some basics on why it pays for many businesses to outsource their human resource (HR) needs to outside professionals. Doing so has several major areas of value, and it should be strongly considered among not just large businesses, but also medium and small ones as well.

At WTA Inc., we’re proud to offer numerous HR services to clients around Salt Lake City, including outsourced payroll services, recruitment and hiring, and more. Today’s part two of our series will look at some other key benefits of outsourcing HR to professionals like ours.

Quality Benefits Access and Administration

Benefits are a huge part of many HR departments, and ensuring that employees are always getting the best quality benefits can require lots of administrative hassle. By outsourcing your benefits to a professional firm, you get access to their expertise in analyzing and administering employee benefit packages from various providers at much lower costs than maintaining an internal department.

This not only helps ensure better compliance across all areas, but it also makes sure that the benefits packages you offer always remain competitive and attractive in the local job market.

Timely Compliance with Regulations

HR is a field of administration that comes with lots of red tape, since most businesses operate across multiple states or countries, each with their own laws and regulations for hiring, payroll, and other HR-related matters. By outsourcing your HR needs to a professional, you get access to a team of experienced compliance and legal professionals who can help ensure your business is always compliant with all regulations in the areas it operates in.

Timely compliance with laws and regulations is crucial for avoiding fines or other penalties from government agencies, so this benefit should not be overlooked when considering whether to outsource your HR needs or not.

Workplace Safety and Risk Management

Another major benefit of outsourcing your HR needs to professionals is the expertise they bring in workplace safety and risk management. They can help you create a culture of safety and implement policies that protect both your employees and your business from any unexpected accidents or incidents in the workplace.

In addition, professional services can also help you analyze potential risks associated with different areas of operations and develop strategies to mitigate or avoid them altogether. This benefit can be especially valuable when there are potential risks associated with a particular project or the industry you operate in.

By outsourcing your HR needs, you get access to a team of experienced professionals who can help ensure your business is always operating smoothly and compliantly, while also helping protect both employees and the business from risks and liabilities.

And at WTA Inc., we’re proud to offer all of these and more. Contact us today to learn more about what we can do for your business!

The concept of outsourcing certain services to third parties is one that’s been around for decades in the business world, and one of the most common areas that tends to be considered here is that of human resources, or HR. Many businesses find it’s far easier and more cost-efficient to utilize outsourced HR professionals, and there are several major areas of value that come with doing so.

At WTA Inc., we proudly offer numerous outsourced HR services to businesses around Salt Lake City, from payroll and recruiting to immigration compliance and much more. In this two-part blog series, we’ll discuss all the major benefits of outsourcing your HR needs to experts like ours.

Optimizing Efficiency

Many business owners prioritize efficiency above all else, and that’s especially true when it comes to HR management. By utilizing our services, you’ll be able to delegate certain responsibilities and tasks to us that you or an in-house staff member would have had to take care of themselves.

Because the job will get done more quickly, you’ll be able to allocate other resources to more pressing tasks or areas of growth. What’s more, our HR professionals are expertise in their field, meaning they can complete any task with a greater level of speed and accuracy than would have been possible without them.

Reducing Costs

One of the most attractive aspects of outsourcing your HR services is the cost savings that come along with it. By hiring an HR specialist or team, you’d have to pay for their salaries and benefits on top of office space and equipment.

On the other hand, by utilizing our services, you can avoid all these costs while still having access to HR specialists who are just as knowledgeable and skilled as any in-house team. In addition, we’ll be able to provide comprehensive guidance and advice regarding any HR-related issue you may encounter with your business.

Increasing Morale

Another key benefit of outsourcing your HR needs is the potential for increased employee morale. By utilizing an experienced HR professional who specializes in this area, you’ll be able to quickly resolve any employee issues or questions more effectively and efficiently than before. This will create a better working environment, reduce turnover rates, increase productivity and satisfaction among your employees.

For instance, our HR professionals are adept at providing comprehensive onboarding advice and training to ensure that your new recruits feel comfortable in their roles. They can also support existing team members by helping them learn new skills or find better ways of dealing with challenges they may face.

Stay tuned for the second part of this blog series, where we’ll discuss more about the advantages of outsourcing HR services to WTA Inc.! In the meantime, if you’re interested in learning more about our services and how they can benefit your business, reach out to us today. We look forward to hearing from you!

In part one of this two-part blog series, we went over some of the basic differences between HRM and HCM for companies. HCM, or human capital management, deals with broad areas of employee management, while HRM, or human resource management (technically often considered a category of HCM), tends to focus more on the specific functions required to carry out that management.

At WTA Inc., we’re happy to offer a wide range of services in areas like these, from recruitment and hiring to immigration compliance and more. Today’s part two will dig a bit further into the key ways HRM and HCM differ, plus why it’s typically very important to manage both sides of this coin for optimal performance.

Objectives in Approach

As we lightly touched on in part one, one of the key differences between HRM and HCM lies in their respective objectives. Generally speaking, HRM is more focused on the day-to-day processes and procedures related to employees, while HCM takes a longer-term approach, aiming to build and retain an ideal workforce for the company’s present and future needs.

For instance, both these approaches have a role to play in training of new employees – but the HRM side of things will be more focused on making sure everyone is aware of the process, is familiar with the system being used to track progress and so on. On the HCM side, meanwhile, those same training materials are likely part of a larger plan for attaining certain goals or qualifications over time – such as ensuring all staff members have a certain degree of knowledge about the company’s products and services.

Scope of Services

Another key difference between HRM and HCM can be found in the scope of their respective services. As mentioned, HRM is typically more geared towards specific functions required to manage employees – so you’ll often find tasks like payroll, performance reviews and scheduling all falling into its domain.

HCM, meanwhile, takes a wider view – looking not just at the tasks related to managing employees, but also how those tasks fit into the company’s overall objectives and goals. Appraisals of employee performance might be part of HCM activities too, for instance – but in this case they’d be done with a view to helping the company reach its strategic objectives, rather than just ensuring individual employees are getting the most out of their job.

Absolutely Not Mutually Exclusive

If you take one thing away from this two-part blog series, it should be that HRM and HCM are absolutely not mutually exclusive. They’re both essential components of any comprehensive employee management strategy, and they should always be used in tandem to ensure maximum performance from your team.

At WTA Inc., we understand the importance of getting both sides right – which is why our services cover everything from recruitment and payroll to long-term employee development. If you’d like to learn more about how we could help your business, get in touch with one of our friendly representatives today. We look forward to hearing from you!

There are a few key acronyms that human resource professionals and business owners or managers will often have to be aware of, and two great examples that are often used interchangeably here are HRM and HCM. Short for human resource management and human capital management, it’s true that these two terms can bleed into one another in some ways – but it’s also important to know their differences.

At WTA Inc., we’re here to serve as Salt Lake City’s top professional employee organization (PEO), offering numerous services that range from broad themes like these all the way to specifics like liability management, immigration compliance and more. How should you be thinking about these two terms, how do HR professionals manage each of them, and what else do you need to know here?

What is HRM?

Human resource management refers to various processes that focus on administrative human resource functions. For instance, things like payroll, benefits, compliance, policy enforcement, and employee relations all fall into the HRM category.

For many, it’s easier to consider HRM the “specific” category here. It deals with all the various functions and processes that a business needs to perform when it comes to taking care of its employees.

What is HCM?

Human capital management, meanwhile, deals in broader areas – in fact, most consider HRM to be a sub-category of HCM. The broad goal of HCM is finding ways to maximize the value of employees for a business.

This isn’t to say that employees are treated impersonally or like robots within the realm of HCM – that’s why HRM is a key component here. It’s about taking a high-level look at the people who work for your business, and finding ways to ensure that their skills and talent are utilized in an effective manner.

History of Both

Both of these approaches to workplace environment have existed for decades, but HRM is definitely the original of the two. In the early 1960s, it was clear that the American workplace was trending toward a more level playing field for employees, from the Equal Pay Act of 1963 to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. As a result, HRM arose organically due to the need for employers to properly manage the employees that they were hiring.

HCM, meanwhile, is a slightly more modern approach. It started gaining traction in the later parts of the 20th century, as corporate America started to realize the value of their employees as a whole.

By understanding the differences between HRM and HCM, employers can more effectively understand how best to manage their workforce – and that’s where WTA Inc. comes in! Our team is here to help navigate these waters with ease, providing Salt Lake City businesses with any number of services that are designed to help maximize the value of their employees. Reach out today for more information!

In part one of this two-part blog series, we went over some of the basics and major benefits of what’s known as the skills-based hiring approach. Skills-based hiring involves prioritizing skill and competency requirements for employees rather than less impactful areas like education status, and it’s gaining popularity across numerous industries and has several benefits.

At WTA Inc., we’re happy to help with recruitment and hiring, plus numerous other outsourced payroll and HR needs for your business. While part one of our series went over all the benefits of skills-based hiring for many employers, today’s part two will look at some of the best practices employers should be maintaining if they plan to utilize this approach in their hiring processes.

Identifying Your Needed Skills

Naturally, one of the first and most important steps in skills-based hiring is to identify which skills are most important for your employer or organization. It’s important to go beyond the basics here, and really dig deep into what will be needed from your employees or staff members in order to achieve success within your company.

Think about the job roles you need filled and what specific duties each role requires. What competencies are most important? Are there any special requirements needed in order to do the job well? Taking time to really consider these questions and think through the answers can help you create a comprehensive list of skills needed for each role. Once you have an idea of which skills are the most important, take it one step further by defining how each skill will be measured and evaluated.

Creating a Fair Evaluation Process

Once you have your list of skills and metrics in place, it’s time to move on to the evaluation process itself. This step is all about creating an environment in which potential candidates are being judged fairly and objectively based on their skills alone. To ensure fair evaluations, consider implementing a scorecard system in order to rank and evaluate candidates’ skills.

Every candidate should receive the same scorecard, which should include all of the required skills or metrics they will be judged on. This way, no one candidate is receiving special treatment during the hiring process; rather, everyone is being assessed based solely on their qualifications and merit.

Building a Talent Pipeline

As you’re well aware, the job market is constantly changing and evolving. It can be difficult to stay on top of trends, especially when it comes to hiring new employees or staff members. That’s where building a talent pipeline comes in – this strategy involves maintaining an ongoing relationship with qualified candidates whose skills match your company’s needs, so that you have a pool of potential employees you can draw from when needed.

When building your talent pipeline, it’s important to cast a wide net in order to identify the most qualified candidates for each role. This way, you’ll have a variety of candidates with different experiences and skill sets who may be a good fit for various roles within your organization.

Overall, skills-based hiring is a great way to ensure that your company is recruiting and hiring the best of the best. By following these best practices and utilizing WTA Inc.‘s recruitment and HR services, you can rest assured that you’re finding the candidates who are most qualified for each role. Contact us today!