Employee Handbooks - Should Your Company Policies Be in Writing?

Employee handbooks are useful for several purposes, but most importantly, for helping you avoid costly liability in employee lawsuits. Other important reasons are communicating your policies, procedures, and expected standards of performance and conduct. Policies addressing discrimination, harassment, workplace bullying, procedures for termination along with all other applicable employment laws should be included in your employee handbook. Policies addressing Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO), employment and compensation policies, time-off policies, employee benefits, employee safety policies, and corrective/discipline/termination policies should be included. Employees should have access to employee handbooks at all times via employee on-boarding, employee bulletin board, HR department, company intranet, etc. Each employee should sign an acknowledgement that they have been provided with a company handbook. Keep all acknowledgements on file with the HR department. Creating a handbook can be a daunting task with the quickly changing state and federal employment laws. TrendHR provides our clients with an employee handbook addressing current employment laws, and can draft a custom handbook at the client’s request with company specific policies.

Obama May Turn to Community Policing for Company Violations

Obama May Turn to Community Policing for Company Violations

The Obama administration may seek to augment the work of government investigators with input from unions and community organizations.

Following an appearance before the House Education and Labor Committee earlier this year, Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis endorsed the idea of enlisting outside groups to blow the whistle on companies that fail to pay employees what they’re owed and/or or to provide a safe work environment.

The Wage and Hour Division plans to add over 90 new investigators and has been given a $20 million increase to their budget now at $244 million. 

OSHA is also adding 25 new inspectors and has been given a $14 million increase to its current budget of $573 million.

Attorneys encourage wage-and-hour suits because they are less costly and much easier to pursue than other discrimination categories.   Lawyers for workers may now enlist the assistance from average citizens.


TrendHR assists our clients with compliance of state and federal laws - very important now more than ever with all the changes being made to both.  TrendHR provides online training and helpful guides along with employment law updates to keep clients informed.  Please visit our website at http://www.trendhr.com/ and/or call 214-553-5505 for more information.   The government is building momentum in its efforts to police small businesses...are you ready?

Are You in Violation of the FLSA?

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) estimates that nearly 70% of employers are in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). It’s not surprising that the DOL hired 250 new auditors last year and plans on hiring 177 new investigators.   Please visit this link for a handy guide to FLSA...http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/hrg.htm. 

Another Cute Payroll Barbie Video....Enjoy.

We hope you will start your day with a smile when you watch another cute video by Payroll Barbie.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBQiUkB-5O0&feature=channel

Payroll Barbie Makes Her Debut.

Payroll Barbie makes her debut on YouTube.  Check back frequently to hear more about Payroll Barbie's adventures.

Common Form I-9 Mistakes

Here are several mistakes employers make when completing the Form I-9:




•failure to fully complete the Form I-9.

•failure to use Section 3 for updating and reverifying an employee's information.

•using an outdated Form I-9.

•failure to photocopy both sides of documents or failure to photocopy or not photocopy for all employees.

•Section 2 errors - If you have a document for List A, then do not complete list B and C.

Trend provides clients with helpful resource guides on Trend Online under Documents-->News/Notes. Trend also keeps the most up to date version of the Form I-9 on Trend Online under Documents-->New Hire. Completion of the Form I-9 is mandatory for employers. You must have a completed Form I-9 on file for every employee. Please feel free to contact Trend for more information at 214-553-5505.

TrendHR Receives "The Dallas 100"

Nov., 2009 - Trend Personnel Services, Inc. receives the prestigious Dallas Business Journal’s “The Dallas 100”. This is a special honor given by SMU’s Cox School of Business for being one of the top 100 fastest-growing private companies in North Texas.