Resource Center

FLSA Regulations on Internships: Paid vs. Unpaid

Tue, 08 May 2012 07:22:00 -0400

As we approach the summer, one of the hot topics you may be facing is summer internships. When determining the role of interns, your company must decide whether they will be paid or unpaid. A few lawsuits filed by unpaid interns against their former employers have made the news recently. It is important that your company understands the criteria defined by the Fair Labor Standards Act when determining whether to hire an intern as paid or unpaid.

Recently, the Fair Labor Standards Act was updated by the Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor to define clear rules for an internship to qualify as unpaid.

The below are the criteria for an unpaid intern, as directly defined by the FLSA:

1. The internship, even though it includes actual operation of the facilities of the employer, is similar to training which would be given in an educational environment.

2. The internship experience is for the benefit of the intern.

3. The intern does not displace regular employees, but works under close supervision of existing staff.

4. The employer that provides the training derives no immediate advantage from the activities of the intern and on occasion its operations may actually be impeded.

5. The intern is not necessarily entitled to a job at the conclusion of the internship.

6. The employer and the intern understand that the intern is not entitled to wages for the time spent in the internship.

If the role of your intern does not meet all six of these requirements, then the law requires their position to be paid. Paid internships have certain recordkeeping standards under the FLSA. These standards include capturing specific personal information from the intern and an accurate work schedule. Recently, Paycor’s Arlene Baker posted some tips on best practices for proper record retention that may help you stay organized as the summer approaches.

Remember, be sure to follow the FLSA guidelines when determining an intern’s role and whether to pay them. Spending time evaluating their role will save you a headache and potential litigation in the future.

Register Now: Paycor May Webinars

Thu, 03 May 2012 12:22:00 -0400

Paycor will host 4 free, 30-minute webinars in May that will walk you through several products and services that can make your job easier. Read below to register.

Create 5 Key Reports with Custom Web Reporting

Paycor’s newest reporting tool, Custom Web Reporting, helps you ditch the paper reports and create customizable payroll reports online with only the data you need, when you need it. During this insightful meeting you will learn how to create reports on new hires, 401k, workers’ compensation, employee benefits, and overtime.

Time Is Money. Save Both With ReadyClock

Find out how ReadyClock, Paycor’s simple web-based time keeping solution, allows managers easy access to verify hours, find errors, correct mistakes and load the data directly into payroll.

If you have any questions or would like a personal demo or a pre-recorded webinar, please email clientsales@paycor.com.

Paycor Narrows Choices for New Headquarters Building

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 01:33:00 -0400

Jon Newberry of the Business Courier published an update on the Paycor headquarters relocation this morning.

Click here to read the full story.

Tips from a Paycor Expert: Record Retention

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 08:00:00 -0400

Arlene Baker has worked in payroll for 34 years and has been one of Paycor’s leading payroll experts since 1992. Arlene has been a member of the National and Greater Cincinnati and N. Kentucky Chapter of the American Payroll Association for 20 Years. She has served as president-elect, president and a member of the board for the Greater Cincinnati and N. Kentucky chapter.

While working in payroll, I’ve always believed that it is important to have a system to properly manage and retain your records. The IRS and the Federal Department of Labor have requirements for retaining certain records, while state and local agencies often have different requirements. Based on these laws, employers are required to keep certain payroll related records for a specific period of time. Keeping track of information for the mandated period of time is crucial for a payroll or HR manager. Here are some tips on ways I ensure proper record retention.

Life Span of Records – It is important to know the agencies retention requirements for payroll related documents. The defined period includes the life span of each record – from creation to final disposal. Be sure to verify current federal, state and local agencies record maintenance and retention requirements. Being proactive will save you a lot of time and money in the future. Create a master list of all payroll tax and government agencies for which you are required to provide payroll documents. Include the agency name, required records and the length of time you must retain records.

Record Retention Methods – The site and method you select for storing payroll records should be carefully chosen. Several basic ways to retain your records are:

• Paper files, micro film, Microfiche or storage files.
• Back up to a CD or a remote location.
• Integrated Payroll/Human Resources applications.
• Any combination of the above or other method.

When evaluating the best method for you to maintain your records, keep in mind that you will need easy access to provide documentation to answer notices or prepare for an audit. To protect your records from physical damage, include the backup of all payroll documents, paper and electronic in the company’s disaster plan. Labeling all of your records in storage will protect the files from being accidently destroyed or over written. Record the details of how and where the documents are stored on your master list.

Disposal of Records – Records may be disposed of when the retention period stated in your master file has elapsed and the department does not need the records for future administrative, legal, research/historical or fiscal purposes. When selecting a method for disposing of payroll records you will want to protect the company’s liabilities and your employee’s identities. Therefore, be sure to select a method that is secure and will protect the information you are disposing. Record the dates and methods of how records are disposed on your master list.

Records are the evidence of all of your company’s activities; they capture the business transactions, correspondences and personnel files. If you have questions about record retention, contact the governing agency or consult with legal counsel prior to removing or disposing of any records.

Don’t forget, that Paycor can help you with record retention guidelines through our HR Support Center. HR Support Center is a comprehensive, low-cost, online resource that can save you time and money while protecting you and your business from costly HR mistakes. You will have access to valuable facts, forms and advice, developed and updated by experienced HR professionals. Also, one full year of HR Support Center costs less than one hour of legal counsel. If you have any questions about payroll or suggestions for future topics, please email PaycorPayroll@paycor.com.

Altius Education and Ivy Bridge College

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 08:14:00 -0400

Altius is a higher education client with over 50 employees located in San Francisco and Toledo. They use many areas of Paycor’s HR and payroll applications but wanted to take advantage of the HRIS’s open enrollment functionality.

During a training call, Kelly Causey, a Paycor HRIS Consultant, and Stacey Boise, Altius’ HR Generalist, were working through all of the benefit plans Altius had to offer. Stacey mentioned that she would only need to capture employee paid benefit plans. Kelly questioned why Stacey didn’t want to include the company paid benefit plans, (i.e. Life, Disability, etc.). Stacey was not aware Paycor’s HRIS had this functionality. Kelly explained that regardless of the type of plan (employee and/or company paid), all of Altius’ plans could be loaded into HR Performer. Stacey mentioned how time consuming it was to reconcile Altius’ benefit plan invoices each month, as they use Excel to track their spending internally. Kelly showed Stacey how to compare a vendor invoice to benefit reporting within the system and how to run reports on Altius Education’s plan costs.

Stacey was really excited to use Paycor’s HR application reporting capabilities to eliminate a few more steps out of her day. She was appreciative of the training on benefits and open enrollment and is eager to roll out this feature to Altius’ employees.

HR Performer Reports and Customization

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 12:39:00 -0400

Paycor’s HRIS, HR Performer is easy to customize to fit the specific needs of your business. HR Performer’s powerful and intuitive report writing capabilities make managing your human resources simple.

Customize HR Performer to fit your needs.

Custom employee portal.
The home page through which employees access their payroll, time and attendance, and HR data can be customized with links to news items of interest to all company employees, information such as your employee handbook and printable forms, and useful websites.
Performance reviews.
With HR Performer, managers are reminded when performance reviews are due, and the process is handled electronically through online evaluation forms that can be custom-designed for different jobs. Weighted averages can be assigned to each job performance category, and supporting documents can be attached to the review electronically.
Work flow processes.
It is simple to create customized work flow processes in HR Performer so that an employee leave of absence, transfer or termination, for example, can be automated and handled online. Requests and other actions are automatically routed to those who need to approve and notifications are automatically sent.
Benefits enrollment.
HR Performer is programmed with your benefit rules. Employees can review information for eligible plans, enroll for the benefits of their choice and make changes to plans or beneficiaries. Correct deductions for the benefits chosen are automatically sent to payroll.

HR Performer can simplify your report writing.

All employee data is constantly accessible in HR Performer. A powerful and customizable report writing system makes it easy to create and manage the reports you desire. Reports can be built from the ground up, or can be modified from one of more than 65 standard reports. The data reported can be limited and filtered in a variety of ways. Report templates can be saved for future use, and the reports generated can be exported to a PDF or Excel file or emailed directly to another manager. HR Performer can be set up to automatically run selected reports at a regular interval and to email those reports to individuals or a distribution list.

HR Performer saves administrative time.

We’ve surveyed new clients and asked them how much of their time they spent on various HR-related tasks before and after implementing HR Performer.

Before using HR Performer:

70% of time was spent on administrative tasks
20% spent with people
10% spent on developing strategic initiatives

After implementing HR Performer:

50% on administrative tasks
35% with people
15% on strategic initiatives

Give us a call to improve your HR efficiency today.

South Florida Auto Auction of Fort Lauderdale, LLC

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 07:30:00 -0400

South Florida Auto Auction’s payroll contact, Nadia Lee, was in the middle of processing payroll for approximately 60 employees when she suddenly lost her internet connection. Her internet going down, caused her to be kicked out of the Paycor Payroll application. Nadia called Paycor, fortunately for Nadia, Mandy Henson was there to answer her call.

Mandy was able to work with Paycor’s IT group to get Nadia logged back in to finish her payroll. The big problem was that Nadia really needed to process that day even though it was almost 5:00 pm and her specialist was already gone for the day. Not to worry – Mandy worked with her supervisor, Pat Bosse, to have another specialist in the department pull the files through and process the payroll on time.

Even without her dedicated specialist being available, Nadia’s payroll was still completed on time. Nadia was very appreciative of our efforts to get her payroll processed and delivered on time.

Register Now: Paycor April Webinars

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 10:11:00 -0400

Paycor will host 4 free, 30-minute webinars in April that will walk you through several products and services that can make your job easier. Read below to register.

Create 5 Key Reports with Custom Web Reporting
Paycor’s newest reporting tool, Custom Web Reporting, helps you ditch the paper reports and create customizable payroll reports online with only the data you need, when you need it. During this insightful meeting you will learn how to create reports on new hires, 401k, workers’ compensation, employee benefits, and overtime.

Time Is Money. Save Both With ReadyClock.
Find out how ReadyClock, Paycor’s simple web-based time keeping solution, allows managers easy access to verify hours, find errors, correct mistakes and load the data directly into payroll.

If you have any questions or would like a personal demo or a pre-recorded webinar, please email clientsales@paycor.com

Paycor named a Cincinnati Business Courier Fast 55 Finalist

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 09:01:00 -0400

Paycor has been listed by the Cincinnati Business Courier as a 2012 Fast 55 finalist. The Fast 55 ranks the fastest-growing private companies in the Greater Cincinnati area.

To see all the finalists click here.

Custom Web Reporting March Enhancements

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 01:32:00 -0400

At Paycor, we take our clients’ feedback seriously. The enhancements to our products are based on your feedback and suggestions. The most recent build, Wednesday, March 14, 2012, was driven by feedback a client gave through the product, asking to be able to easily filter on specific department codes. Other clients then voted this request to the top signaling its importance.

Below are two key enhancements that were just added to our Custom Web Reporting product:

Point and click department filtering. Users can run a report for a specific department simply by clicking on that department rather than requiring advanced filters. Search functionality allows the user to find departments by either the number or name of the department.
Substring columns. Larger clients are set up with complex department codes in order to properly classify employees. Users will be able to break up their department codes by creating substring columns. No matter how complex a client’s structure gets, they can easily create custom groups, sort and subtotal in a simple three step wizard.

Look for the feedback tab in our products to help drive future enhancements.