In part one of this two-part blog series, we discussed the basics on a workforce and staffing plan within the world of human resources. This is often an important approach taken by those in the recruiting world, laying out timelines and needs to help the organization take the most efficient possible route to staffing.

At WTA Inc., we’re here to offer a variety of recruitment and hiring solutions as part of our broader HR services in Salt Lake City, working with companies of every size to assist them with staffing needs. Today’s part two of our series will continue from part one, laying out the basic steps to formulating a workforce and staffing plan.

Assess the Skills Gap

We left off in part one with evaluation of KSAs (knowledge, skills, ability) of your current employees, which is a vital piece of the puzzle for understanding your hiring needs. Once this is done, it’s time to find the gaps in these KSAs and the needs of your organization.

This is a process known as gap analysis, one that allows you to determine which KSAs will be most important to the company as a whole, and allows for further understanding of your current HR strategy. Once you’ve prioritized your KSAs in detail, you can create a plan to bridge any gaps; this is the first step to creating your workforce and staffing plan.

Setting the Plan in Motion

Once your gaps are identified and you’ve crafted an approach for filling them, it’s time to put the entire plan in motion. This doesn’t need to be anything complex; simply listing out the KSAs you’ll need to fill, as well as your timeline for filling them, is often enough.

This can be done in an organized spreadsheet or chart; some companies prefer to include this information within their job descriptions. Whichever method works best for your company, it’s important that the plan is accessible by all who will play a role in staffing.

This can be any department, from marketing to IT and everything in between. Having this information readily available will save time when it comes to the actual hiring process, allowing for more efficient communication within your company as you search for qualified individuals.

Utilize and Review the Plan Regularly

By no means is this task finished once the workforce and staffing plan is initially implemented. Rather, it should be constantly monitored and updated as necessary.

As you progress through the hiring process, whether it be for one position or ten, use this time to adjust your plan and add in new KSAs and potential hiring steps. You may also want to look at not just current but future needs within your company; while filling staffing gaps is important, don’t forget that you can also use this time to build for the future.

This could mean specific training initiatives, improving company benefits or anything else that will help you attract and retain top talent in your industry. In short, once you’ve established a basic workforce and staffing plan, it’s vital that you continue to monitor and adjust it as needed; otherwise, your recruiting and hiring efforts could be wasted.

For more on the creation and maintenance of a workforce and staffing plan, or to learn about any of our human resources or tax services in Salt Lake City, speak to the staff at WTA Inc. today.

Companies are always looking for ways to save time and resources during the recruitment process, and there are several techniques that may be used for this purpose. One specific method that’s well-used across many industries is the development of a workforce and staffing plan.

At WTA, Inc., we’re here to help with a wide range of recruitment and hiring solutions as part of our overall human resource services. We’ve assisted companies large and small with the organization and processes involved in their recruitment, including the setup of various templates to guide this process. What is a workforce and staffing plan, and how do you go about setting one up? This two-part blog series will investigate.

Workforce and Staffing Plan

While some people use the terms workforce plan and staffing plan interchangeably, they are actually not the same thing. A workforce plan refers to a process that’s on a much longer timeline, typically at least two years and as many as five — it involves strategic planning and a long-term look at the talent and staffing numbers that will be needed to meet these goals.

A staffing plan, on the other hand, is a more specific plan that will help your organization with immediate hiring needs. This is typically a shorter-term plan, and it takes into account the current market conditions as well as any planned changes in staffing. It’s also going to include the overall employment strategy that your organization uses — whether you use temporary or part-time staff, for example — along with specific approaches on how these processes will be handled.

Our next several sections will lay out the steps for developing a new workforce and staffing plan for your company.

Review Current Strategies

First up, you’ll want to dig into your current strategies for recruitment and hiring, plus how these might need to change in the future. In particular, you’re looking for the various skills and knowledge bases you need employees to have, both now and for the future processes you plan to implement.

Review Employee KSAs

While recruitment and new hiring is a major part of a workforce and staffing plan, another important element here involves reviewing the knowledge, skills and abilities of your current employees to determine if some of them are being underutilized. Various human resource management systems will typically have information like this on various employees — if you do not have these in place, you should set up a spreadsheet or document to begin tracking it. Further utilizing the skills of current employees will allow you to limit the scope of your hiring and save money.

For more on developing a workforce and staffing plan that will assist with your hiring practices and other parts of your business, or to learn about any of our human resources solutions, speak to the staff at WTA, Inc. today.

Today more than ever, it’s getting difficult to find good candidates to fill your open positions. The labor market is definitely shifting, and you need a plan to survive. WTA, a top PEO in Salt Lake City, can help you find, hire and retain the kind of employees you’re looking for.

Outsourcing HR Services in SLC

Small and medium-sized businesses often don’t have the budget — or even the need — for a full-time HR department. At the same time, assigning HR tasks to your employees doesn’t always work either.

Many employees resent being given tasks to do that are not part of their job description. Worse, they may be unqualified to do the work. You may wish you could do it yourself, but the more time you spend on HR tasks, the less time you have to run your business.

Get the best of both worlds with human resources services from WTA in Salt Lake City.

Hiring New Employees

One of the services our PEO in Salt Lake City offers is help recruitment and hiring. While it’s true that a new hire is a personal decision often made by the owner or CEO of the company, there are many steps to go through before the hiring stage, and WTA helps with all of them.

When you’re looking to hire, you must:

• Write a job description: It’s important to include all relevant details of the job without overwhelming applicants by making it too long. You also want to be clear about the duties and try to stay away from rhetoric and corporate jargon. If prospective candidates can’t understand your posting, you may end up with all the applications you don’t want and none that you do. We work with you to draft a foolproof job description.
• Sift through resumes: When we work with clients who get hundreds of applications for a single position, we often use software to narrow the field. This software looks for certain words on resumes and cover letters to identify the most qualified candidates.
• Compile a list of viable applicants: At this point, we give you the list of candidates whose skills we believe most closely match your job description. You review the resumes and cover letters and toss out the ones you don’t like.
• Set up interviews: This is a time-consuming process you’ll be happy to be rid of. Oftentimes when you contact a candidate for an interview, they are no longer interested in the position, so there is a lot of work involved in scheduling only a few candidates.
• Extend an offer: If you conducted many interviews, you might want to have callbacks for two or three candidates. If not, now is the time to extend your offer.
• Do a background check: Once your prospective employee accepts the offer, WTA does background checks to ensure your new hire is safe and trustworthy.

WTA not only frees up a lot of your time with our HR services, but you also get the benefit of our experience. We have operated as a PEO in Salt Lake City for many years, and our clients appreciate our expertise and efficiency.

When you need help with new hires, payroll services or PEO employee benefits management, contact the team at WTA. We provide the best human resources services in Salt Lake City.

A workers’ compensation issue can throw your small business into a tailspin. You have to have workers’ compensation insurance — it’s the law. But when claims get complicated, dealing with them — and your lawyers — can take up many hours of your time. Designate this job to the professionals at WTA. We’re the experts to turn to in Salt Lake City when you need help with workers compensation claims management.

Workers’ compensation is paid to workers who are injured on the job. Workers’ comp will usually pay for your employee’s medical bills related to their injury as well as lost time from work. While workers’ comp is a type of insurance that you pay for — partly so that these costs don’t come out of your own pocket — it’s still best to try to avoid having to deal with any worker’s compensation claims.

Most Common Workers’ Comp Claims

The top five workers’ compensation claims are (in order): strains and sprains, cuts and punctures, contusions (bruises), inflammation and fractures. These are medical diagnoses and do not refer to how the employees suffered these injuries. However, the top professions that see the most workers’ comp claims are laborers, truck drivers and nursing assistants.

While the Occupational Safety and Health Administration sets rules for workplace safety, accidents can happen even when workers follow these rules carefully.

Further, each workplace is different, and your physical plant or office may have risks or dangers present that others’ do not. Ask your local chapter of the Small Business Administration if they have recommendations for experts who can do a walkthrough of your premises with you to make suggestions for improving safety. This can help cut down on workers’ compensation claims at your Salt Lake City business.

What to Do When You Get a Workers’ Comp Claim

Workers compensation claims management is a highly specialized field. Those who deal with workers’ comp claims must thoroughly understand federal, state and local laws, including OSHA, labor law and laws pertaining to your particular industry.

Without the proper knowledge, your company may make an error on a workers’ comp claim that may cause the government to impose fines on you. Even in the case of routine or standard claims, you must keep a close eye on workers compensation claims management to ensure bills are being paid on time and in full, and that you are not erroneously paying for bills or services that are not related to the claim.

The best thing to do when you get a claim is to enlist the help of professionals experienced in workers compensation claims management in Salt Lake City. WTA has helped hundreds of small businesses deal with workers’ compensation claims. We save you both time and money. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help your Salt Lake City business with workers compensation claims management, or with one of our many other services for small-business owners.

Are you the owner of a small business? Have you considered how helpful it could be to outsource your human resources needs to another company? WTA provides HR services to small businesses in Salt Lake City and across the country. We offer a suite of human resources services from which you can pick and choose to suit your needs.

Payroll and Tax Administration

This is one of our most popular services. Most small businesses have employees, and paying them even twice a month takes precious time away from running your business.

Concentrate on growing your company, and leave the payroll and tax chores to the experts at WTA.

Workers’ Compensation Administration

Don’t wait until someone files a claim against you to set up workers’ compensation guidelines for your company. While some safety rules are mandated, you can create others to help mitigate accidents and claims at you company.

With our HR services, we help you set up a workers’ comp prevention plan, and we also help you deal with claims, should any arise.

Risk Management

Especially if you run a business that involves potential danger, such as roofing or farming, you need an appropriate risk management plan in place.

We help you develop safety manuals and videos, run safety training sessions and undertake other precautionary measures.

Immigration Compliance

With WTA, you won’t have to worry if your employees’ paperwork is in order. We take care of all documentation, visas and work permits so your company is never at risk for fines.

Recruitment and Hiring

Finding the right people to help run your company in Salt Lake City is a huge job. WTA can narrow down your options, saving you countless hours spent placing ads and reading resumes.

Employer Liability Management

Ensuring that your employees know the guidelines you have set up and that they follow them are the mainstays of liability management. Rely on WTA to get this job done for you.

Regulatory and Government Compliance

The sheer number of local, state and federal laws that pertain to running your company can seem overwhelming. Ignorance of the law is no excuse, but how could you possibly have the time to learn about all these rules? You don’t have to when you work with WTA, because we already know them.

Employee Benefits Administration

A good benefits package is a huge draw for quality employees. While there are plenty of pre-fab benefits packages available, you may prefer to design your own, unique to your company and situation. We can help you with that.

Best HR Services

As a small-business owner in Salt lake City, your job is to manage your company so that it remains profitable and has an opportunity to grow. It’s hard to do this if you spend hours every week on human resources tasks. Plus, your expertise lies elsewhere. When you depend on WTA for HR services, you’ll never have to worry — you know you will be in compliance with all laws and regulations.

Contact us today to learn more about how our HR services can help your small business.

As a Salt Lake City small-business owner, you may ask yourself, “Should I hire a payroll service?” This decision can make a big impact on not just small businesses, but also medium and large companies as well. When you work with WTA, you can opt to receive one or more of our outsourced human resources services, including managing your payroll.

How can WTA help your business?

Payroll Services Take Time

Small-business owners often want to handle as many tasks as they can in-house. This helps keep expenses down and allows you to put more money back into the business. However, it’s best to do a cost/benefit analysis when it comes to outsourced payroll services in Salt Lake City.

Think about how much time it takes you to complete your payroll. Even if you only do it twice a month instead of every week, it’s an investment. How much is your time worth?

When you’re an employee, you can answer that question more easily than when you own your own business. But you must take into consideration not only what your time is worth monetarily, but what other important tasks you could be doing to grow your company instead of completing payroll.

For instance, if your billable hour rate is $50, you may conclude that that is what your time is worth. But what if you spent that hour landing new clients or devising new ways to save your company money? Then it’s worth much more.

Payroll Services Require Specified Knowledge

Thus far, you may have been doing your own payroll for your Salt Lake City business, but are you sure you have been doing it correctly? Deducting the right amounts for taxes and FICA is important. And not only do you need to make these deductions faithfully, you need to pay in to the correct government agency by predetermined dates. Further, the rules are different for employees and independent contractors.

At WTA, we are experts in payroll services. When a business owner is new to payroll, they might make a mistake that could cost them thousands in government fines.

Payroll Services Make Tax Time Easier

WTA keeps careful, meticulous records of all the payroll services we perform. This makes it infinitely easier for business owners come tax time. They don’t need to hunt around, searching for the paperwork required to file their taxes. We provide everything up front, so you have it when you need it.

WTA for Payroll Services in Salt Lake City

For 20 years, WTA has been the preferred provider of HR services and payroll services in Salt Lake City. We also help Salt Lake City companies with workers’ compensation claims management and PEO. Call us today for a quote on any of our HR services.

Nearly all of us have filled out a job application at some point in our lives, but for certain industries or companies, recruiters or hiring managers may wonder whether requiring applications is really necessary. Even if you’re in a unique industry or operate differently from a normal company, however, we’re here to lend you a major tip: Job applications are beneficial for several reasons, and you should almost never consider eschewing them for any reason.

At WTA Inc., we happily assist numerous clients with recruitment and hiring solutions, along with numerous other HR services in Salt Lake City. We’ve been asked plenty about certain scenarios where avoiding job applications or simply not requiring them for an open position is a viable option – generally speaking, unless there’s some sort of planned internal promotion taking place here, this is not the way to go. This two-part blog series will look at all the different ways job applications benefit not only the applicant, but also the company doing the hiring.

Keeps You Organized

For starters, many processes companies take to fill their open positions will involve seeing a large number of applicants – and job applications are an ideal initial way to separate them into various bins based on qualifications, years of experience, education and more. Having the ability to quickly look up and reference this information for all your applicants will make numerous parts of this search simpler and easier.

In fact, many hiring managers have begun requiring job applications in an online format as a way of standardizing their internal records. With basic hiring software, this method allows even simpler computerized tracking of all your applicants and their qualities, plus the ability to make notes for each candidate during the process.

Limits Bias, Encourages Diversity

By requiring all job applicants to complete the same application with the same information on it, employers help themselves encourage diversity while also being compliant with equal opportunity employment laws. If you use only resumes, or if you go only by word of mouth or references, you risk unconscious bias in the hiring process that will not only damage your ability to find the best candidates, but also often break laws.

Limiting Liability

In addition, a job application signed by the applicant becomes a legal document that gives the employer recourse later on if it’s found the applicant (or employee, if hired) falsified any information. In other situations, this application can be used as consent for background checks or employment verification. On top of this, you also limit your risk of discrimination claims by emphasizing key at-will and equal employment policies on the application itself.

For more on why it pays to require job applications for all open positions regardless of circumstance, or to learn about any of our human resources or other services in Salt Lake City, speak to the staff at WTA Inc. today.

In part one of this two-part blog series, we went over some basics on how employers should be navigating the upcoming COVID-19 vaccine landscape. Specifically, can employers require the COVID-19 vaccine for employees who work in close proximity with others? Can employers face liability suits or related risks if they allow non-vaccinated individuals to work alongside potentially at-risk people?

At WTA Inc., we’re happy to help with a variety of these and other HR needs, from employer liability management services to hiring, payroll services, worker’s compensation and many other areas. While part one of our series mostly went over the normal approach to vaccines during public health issues, today’s will focus on certain laws and regulations specific to the COVID-19 vaccine situation many employers will be entering in the near future.

2009 EEOC Guidance

In 2009, the US Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued guidance known as the Pandemic Preparedness in the Workplace and the Americans with Disabilities Act. These sets of guidelines contained several specific areas, but the ones pertinent to this conversation surround potential pandemics.

Specifically, both the ADA and Title VII prevent employers from compelling employees to be vaccinated for influenza regardless of their medical condition or medical beliefs. This prevention even extends to pandemic situations.

2020 EEOC Changes

In March of 2020, however, during the current COVID-19 pandemic, the EEOC updated its Pandemic Preparedness for the Workplace guidelines. They stated a few things here:

• The EEOC stated that the COVID-19 pandemic met the ADA’s “direct threat standard,” which allows for more extensive medical inquiries in the workplace than the areas we went over above would have allowed. That is, having someone in the workplace with COVID-19 or its symptoms creates a “significant risk of substantial harm” to others in the workplace.
• As a result of the above, employers have been able to put medical testing in place in the workplace that would not otherwise have been acceptable, such as temperature testing.
• In addition, the EEOC noted that during March, no vaccine was available for COVID-19 – now that such a vaccine is available, many expect the EEOC to further update these guidelines for mandatory vaccinations. Until then, employers should follow present guidance for any vaccine plans.

State Laws

Finally, employers must follow any state law that’s more stringent than federal law when it comes to employee regulations. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention keep a list of various vaccination laws throughout states that helps employers understand exactly how they may have to alter their program here, specifically for laws related to healthcare workers and educational requirements.

For more on employers and mandatory COVID-19 vaccination, or to learn about any of our human resource services, speak to the staff at WTA Inc today.

For all of us around the world, recent positive developments regarding the COVID-19 vaccine are fantastic news, signaling our best method yet for fighting this disease. At the same time, employers and HR staffs around the country are asking themselves similar questions, generally focused around one primary query: Can and should we require employees receive the COVID-19 vaccine when they are eligible?

These and many more are the kinds of issues we assist with at WTA, Inc. We cover a variety of human resource services, including employer liability management and several others that might be involved in the topic we’re discussing here. While there’s still a bit of time here, as it’s not expected that the vaccine is available to the general public for at least another few months, many businesses are already looking to prepare here, including looking into vaccination laws for their state and the role these might play. This two-part blog series will go over all the ins and outs of this important question from an HR perspective.

COVID and Vaccines

There remains significant debate regarding vaccines, and this is at the heart of many of the issues we’re discussing here. There are a wide number of people who report that they will not get the vaccine immediately upon it being released, whether due to fears of safety or other concerns.

Naturally, this is of particular concern to employers. There could be issues on both sides of the coin: Can employers mandate COVID vaccines, or are they infringing upon personal rights? If they cannot mandate vaccination, are they putting other employees at risk by allowing non-vaccinated people into the workplace? This could turn into a somewhat fraught issue in many cases.

Comparison to Recent Vaccines

For those who have been employers or in the HR world for any significant period of time, this potential issue may look familiar. For many years, there’s been push and pull on whether employers can require the flu vaccine among their employees.

This issue is usually relatively straightforward: Title VII of the Civil Rights Act prohibits religious discrimination in the workplace, and this is the top reason many employees resist the flu vaccine. However, this law states that the employer must accommodate religious employees in this way only if doing so requires a minimal cost to the employer – in the case of COVID-19, where non-vaccinated employees may risk the safety of others and may cause significant impacts on the workplace as a whole, the argument can easily be made that this is not a “minimal cost,” and therefore that the law will be different in this case.

In part two, we’ll go over some other laws that may be more prudent for COVID-19 specifically. For more on this or any of our payroll services or other HR solutions, speak to the staff at WTA Inc. today.

In part one of this two-part blog series, we went over some of the basics on the “Final Rule” and Fair Labor Standards Act, and how these relate to exempt and non-exempt employees. The FLSA plays a big role here, and those recent changes also made some significant alterations to how exemption works within many businesses.

At WTA, Inc., we’re here to provide numerous payroll and tax-related services to our clients, including assistance with all FLSA or employee exemption needs or determinations you may face. Today’s part two of our series will get a bit more specific, looking at some of the tools you can use to determine whether an employee is exempt, plus some examples of special scenarios where exemption comes into play.

Tests to Determine Exemption

There’s a simple way to remember the most basic difference between exempt and non-exempt employees: The former are those who cannot be paid overtime, while the latter can. Exempt employees are paid via salary, not hourly, while non-exempt employees get an hourly wage and can enter into overtime anytime they exceed 40 hours worked in a week.

However, simply relying on a job tile or similar description is not enough to determine exemption. Rather, you must use the “salary and duties” test, which involves confirming that an exempt employee receives at least $684 per week (or $35,568 per year) – if the employee is below this, they are non-exempt. In addition, exempt employees must meet certain job duties standards, including meeting FLSA guidelines for administrative, professional, computer or outside sales exemptions based on duties. If these are not met, even an employee over the requisite weekly compensation level will be considered non-exempt.

Specific Examples

There are a few situations where exemptions become a tricky game. Here are a few examples to be aware of:

• Vacation: If a non-exempt employee takes a vacation or sick day within a week, these days do not count as work days when calculating overtime.
• Leaving early: If a non-exempt employee leaves work early for any non-work-related reason, they do not have to be paid for a full day and will not count a full day for overtime. For exempt employees, however, a full day’s pay will be required here.
• Comp time: Employers who run compensatory time policies, allowing employees who go over their number of regular hours in a work week to take those hours off as comp time later on, may run into to some issues with the FLSA. Non-government employees must be paid in money here, and time off in exchange for cash is not allowed for those in the private sector. However, if a non-exempt employee in a different field normally works below 40 hours in a given week, but exceeds their regular number while not exceeding 40 hours in a given week, they may be eligible for this kind of comp time.

For more on exemption status, the FLSA and other related payroll areas, speak to the staff at WTA, Inc. today.