Compliance

If you engage a contingent workforce and would rather not be haunted by fines, jail time, and damage to your reputation, this post is for you. When the Biden Administration rolled out a proposal that would make it harder for companies to classify workers as independent contractors, he solidified his commitment to making accurate worker classification a top priority. Take a cue and make worker classification a top focus. Violators can expect to be subject to strict penalties, fines, and negative press.

A Haunted Future For Worker Classification Violators

Big companies make headlines for their classification missteps. Smaller companies should see those big fines as a warning to take a look at their own practices. It can be a costly mistake to think you’re exempt from the consequences. The Biden administration has made worker classification a priority and made it easier for workers to argue for minimum wage and overtime protections/compensation. In addition to having to pay back 100% of the matching FICA taxes they would have paid had they classified the worker correctly up front, employers can end up subject to additional penalties for each W-2 form they fail to file, a percentage of the employee’s wages, and penalties between $5,000 and $25,000 for each worker classification violation.

In addition, class-action lawsuits, failed audits, and negative headlines can damage a company’s reputation to the point where both workers and consumers are hesitant to engage with the company. It’s just not worth it! Perhaps scarier than the possibility of monetary damages, misclassification has landed some business leaders under house arrest. Let’s get to the punch line: misclassifying workers is not good business in the long run.

The Bottom Line

Whatever the structure, every business needs to protect itself by making compliance a major priority. This reduces the risk for fines and unpleasant attention from the IRS. Any company without the capacity to accomplish this in-house should consider working with a partner. In our world, accurate worker classification and top-notch risk management are always top priority. We are the first to be aware when change is in the air. We track rules in every state as well as on a federal level and offer services to help clients stay compliant. Contact us if you have any questions about your own status. 

Anyone with employees needs workers’ compensation insurance. Yep, everyone. Workers’ compensation provides wage replacement and medical benefits to employees injured in the course of employment. Just like any other insurance, you hope you’ll never need to cash in on it. But if you do end up needing it, it’ll save your butt a million ways. That said, the costs associated with workers’ compensation claims can be a significant burden on a business, so it’s best to take proactive measures to create a safe work environment and manage potential liabilities effectively.

5 Steps to Safeguard Against Workers’ Compensation Risk

Step One: Be Proactive

Employers that ensure worker safety and implement best practices before they need them are in the best position to protect employees, keep claims manageable, and maybe even keep premiums down. That’s a good reason to pursue prevention like you would pursue a crisis. If you do, you might end up preventing said crisis all together.

Proactive measures include making regular safety meetings, ongoing education, and performance metrics standard procedure. Encourage open communication about safety concerns. Identify potential safety hazards in your workplace and provide written safety policies and procedures to address them. Regularly update them to reflect changes in regulations or emerging risks.

Keep your workplace clean and organized to reduce slip and trip hazards. Ensure that safety equipment, such as fire extinguishers, first aid kits, and eyewash stations, are easily accessible and regularly inspected.

You know that weird thing that happens when you are so close to a situation that you lose objectivity about it? That’s a good reason to have a third party conduct regular safety audits and inspections whenever it makes sense for your business.

Step Two: Create Airtight Internal Processes to Handle Claims

After you’ve taken measures to prevent workplace accidents, it’s still good business to prepare for the worst. Create a process for employees to report safety concerns, near misses, and accidents promptly. Investigate incidents thoroughly to identify root causes and implement corrective actions to prevent similar incidents in the future.

Implement a plan for how you’ll handle a claim if one does still come up after you’ve put all your preventive measures in place. Make sure reserves are accurate. Have a standard operating procedure. Decide who will talk to the adjuster and within what time frame. Taking the time to lay out your processes while your brain isn’t in crisis mode results in sounder decisions. The added benefit is that it will reassure your adjuster that you’re engaged and motivated to reach a speedy resolution.

Have a “Return-to-Work” Program established to  help injured employees transition back into the workforce as soon as they are medically able. This can reduce the duration of workers’ compensation claims and associated costs. These measures demonstrate a level of professionalism and reassure insurance companies and employees alike.

Step Four: Invest in Accurate Worker Classification

This may not seem related, but an independent contractor filing a workers’ comp claim can easily land a well-intentioned company on the DOL’s radar. This happens with surprising frequency despite the logical assumption that an independent contractor should understand the implications of a business-to-business relationship. One key aspect of a true B2B relationship is that a worker’s business activity exists independent of the employer. Preventing misclassification and communicating clearly with workers is a worthwhile preventative investment.

Step Five: Engage The Right Partners

Review and evaluate your insurance coverage to ensure it adequately meets your business needs. Consider working with an insurance expert to identify potential cost-saving opportunities. Seek professional guidance from partners (such as an Employer of Record, like PayReel) that is in position to help you manage the risks associated with having employees. They can provide valuable advice on risk mitigation strategies and legal compliance.

The Bottom Line

If you don’t have the budget to implement every possible safety measure for a project, you don’t have the budget for the project. Protecting your business against workers’ compensation risks is not only a legal requirement but also a smart business practice. By creating a safe work environment, implementing comprehensive safety measures, and actively managing workers’ compensation claims, you can reduce the financial and reputational risks associated with workplace injuries. Remember that investing in safety is an investment in the long-term success and sustainability of your business. The best workers’ comp claim is the one that never happens.

If you’ve worked in an office environment and also watched “The Office,” you can probably recall a Todd Packer type. They speak in innuendos, find themselves incredibly entertaining, and generally make people around them wish they could disappear.

In “The Office,” there’s one exception: Michael seems to find Todd Packer’s behavior aspirational rather than offensive. Still, coming from the guy who can’t resist an opportunity to drop his, “That’s what she said,” line, this doesn’t bode well for ol’ Todd.

In my experience, most of the problematic people are a little more subtle than Todd Packer, but any level of sexual harassment can negatively impact employees’ well-being and even bring down productivity.

California’s sexual harassment training requirements are meant to prevent the Todd Packers of the world from having a captive, highly-uncomfortable audience in the workplace. Whether there are similar laws in your location or not, sexual harassment prevention really is an important subject. Preventing sexual harassment promotes respect, dignity, and equality.

Key Aspects of California’s Sexual Harassment Training Requirements

1. Mandatory Training Requirements: California law mandates employers with five or more employees provide sexual harassment prevention training. All staff, including supervisory and non-supervisory staff, employees and contractors, and even unpaid interns and volunteers. This training is required within the first six months of employment and should be provided every two years after that. The training must consist of at least two hours for supervisors and at least one hour for non-supervisory employees.
2. Content/Method of Training: Employers have some liberty in how they choose to conduct the training (using videos, webinars, etc.), but the curriculum must ensure that employees understand what constitutes harassment, how to prevent it, appropriate ways to report an incident, the potential legal consequences for violations, and what role bystanders can play in preventing harassment.
3. Purpose: Proper sexual harassment training is designed to equip employees with the knowledge and confidence to identify, address, and report any inappropriate behavior. The idea is to empower individuals to contribute to a healthy work environment and ensure a level of accountability at all levels of the organization. When it works as designed, this ensures workplaces remain free from harassment, discrimination, and toxicity and also promotes a more equitable and productive working environment.

Bottom Line For Employers

Complying with California’s sexual harassment training laws is not just a legal obligation, but also a way to create a respectful and inclusive workplace culture. While we do want to bring a little bit of levity with GIFs from “The Office,” we do know that nothing about sexual harassment is funny.

When you partner with PayReel as the Employer of Record (EOR) on your project, you can be assured we’re on top of sexual harassment training requirements on your behalf. When we hire employees in states with these requirements, workers must take the state’s training, download the certificate, and upload it into PayReel Online so we ensure compliance.

Whether it’s a part of your state’s regulations or not, fostering an environment where employees feel safe and valued reduces a business’s risk of legal disputes, negative publicity, and loss of productivity. In short: just do your part to send the Todds of the world packing.

We talk a lot about what to do when you’re running a business–things like accurate worker classification, paying employees properly, and generally just doing right by your workers. What we don’t always address is what not to do.

10 terrible workplace violations and the lessons we can all learn from them

1. A lesson from Packers Sanitation: There’s no place for having kids cleaning dangerous equipment.
2. A lesson learned from Miami: If you don’t have the resources to ensure workplace safety, you have no business having a business.
3. Lesson learned from this Virginia Home Care Provider: Overtime pay is not optional.
4. Lesson learned from the saw mill: If OSHA tells you to fix something, just do it.
5. Lesson learned from Dollar General: Repeat violations cost more than a dollar, in general.
6. Lesson learned from this North Carolina home care operation: Misclassifying workers to “save money” turns out to be expensive!
7. Lesson learned from Baltimore: Shortchanging your people on their retirement will end up costing you more than chump change.
8. Lesson learned from Georgia: Suspend operations if your suspension operations aren’t safe.
9. Lesson from Delaware: Retaliation against whistleblowers will come back to haunt you.
10. And finally, three lessons learned from thousands of greasy pennies: Pay your employees up front, don’t call your employees weenies, and if you’re gonna pay them in greasy pennies, at least own it. You just end up looking worse when you say you “don’t really remember” your petty behavior.

The Bottom Line

It’s in your power to be a good employer. If you don’t have the in-house resources (i.e. a dedicated department that specializes in these matters) to ensure you’re in compliance with overtime rules, worker classification guidelines, and benefits eligibility, you can ensure you stay in good standing by engaging a partner! Contact us to chat about what solutions we can provide for your business.

Employers are busy working out their policies around labor laws and fair pay as the economy changes. In turn, worker classification challenges and employer missteps seem to be finding their way to the headlines more often. As we know, wherever money is on the line and laws are unclear, you’ll find controversy right behind. If you’re looking to engage an Employer of Record (EOR) or a partner for your compliance issues and freelancer management, watch out for these warning signs.

3 Red Flags That Should Send You Running

Promising to Find Legal Loopholes

This article points to a California politician who has called for an investigation into an employer of record company and accused it of “advising its clients on how to misclassify workers and avoid taxes.” Whether the allegations prove true or not, we know it’s common practice. Let’s just get this straight right away: trying to get around the law does you no favors in the long run. Even when those laws are a real pain.

It might be tempting to look for a way around the rules, but paying employees fairly and classifying them correctly needs to be an absolute baseline for doing business with an Employer of Record. What you should be looking for is a team that keeps up with ever-changing contractor / freelancer payment and compliance issues on your behalf. 

The most effective partners will adjust to changes on both the state and federal level and will be proactive about ensuring compliance. With the right partner, you won’t have to think about the frequent changes in policy around freelancer payment and compliance regulations because they’ll be thinking about it for you. Find a partner that you can be confident is in position to mitigate compliance risk and educate you on practices that could compromise you legally.

Lax or Nonexistent Payment Processes

You know how people care about their paychecks? You should, too. If your partner doesn’t have a standard, well-established set of processes to make sure employees are paid accurately and in a timely manner, run. Just get the heck out of there.

If they have their act together, your payroll company will offer online management for employees to log hours and supervisors to approve them, fast/accurate payments, and automated overtime tracking. They’ll also provide you with consultation for overtime and benefits policies that will keep you in good standing. Their automated systems will track changes in minimum wage and sick leave policies. Don’t settle for anything less. You’re worth it.

Anytime you’re dealing with payroll, there is risk involved. Workers understandably care a lot about it because their livelihoods are involved and the government cares because they have rules and regulations in place both to get the taxes they are due and also to protect workers. The two most important factors of a successful payroll program are accurate/on-time payments and compliance with federal, state, and local regulations. 

What Makes Compliance Challenging?

States and localities are constantly introducing new legislation, and with each change, payroll procedures change, too. Mistakes in income tax withholding rates, unemployment tax rates, minimum wage and labor laws can lead to costly penalties. The more states a business operates in, the more risky the compliance aspect becomes because the rules vary from place to place.

As the employment landscape has changed and many workers have shifted to more of a hybrid or remote situation, it has only complicated the matter further. If an employer doesn’t have an established entity to pay employees appropriately in a given state, they aren’t in position to have employees there at all. 

What Can Employers do to Prevent Problems?

We all know that prevention is the best policy, but some companies are quick to start auditing their process and procedures only after they see a problem. The businesses with the smoothest processes have proactive auditing measures in place to stay on top of changes, identify and solve gaps in their processes, etc. 

Manually managing all of these complex details is impossible. Businesses should take compliance very seriously to reduce their risks. If their internal team doesn’t have the bandwidth or tools to manage it accurately, they should engage a partner with the tools, methods and processes to help. They should also be in position to address the concerns that come up when employees have questions about their paychecks. If you’re wondering if a partner would help with your situation, let’s chat. This is our speciality.