HIRE Act – Are you taking advantage of it?

The Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act, is aimed at economic recovery and enacted in to law on March 18, 2010 However, employers need to act quickly; this is a time-limited program that expires December 31, 2010.

The Instant Savings (Payroll Tax Exemption):

The HIRE Act of 2010 provides a payroll tax incentive for employers to hire workers who have been unemployed for 60 days or more, which in turn promotes job growth. Employers, who hire unemployed workers this year, qualify for a 6.2% payroll tax incentive that, in effect, exempts them from their share of Social Security taxes on wages paid to workers after March 18, 2010. The reduced tax withholding has no effect on the employee’s future Social Security benefits, and employers will still need to withhold the employee’s 6.2% share of Social Security taxes, as well as income taxes.

The Rebate (Retention Bonus):

In addition to the 6.2% Social Security tax savings, businesses can claim an additional general business tax credit, up to $1000 per worker, when the new-hires are retained for at least one year. This tax credit is taken when the business files their 2011 income tax return. For each unemployed new-hire, that completes 52 consecutive weeks of employment, the employer can claim the income tax credit equal to, the lesser of $1000 or 6.2% of the wages paid during the 52 weeks. This $1,000 maximum credit is equivalent to about $16,130 in wages per new-hire. Therefore, if an employer has 10 new hires that are paid at least the minimum of $16,130 each, the income tax credit would be $10,000.

Restrictions Apply:

As with all sales, there are certain restrictions and regulations that apply. To obtain this instant savings and rebate, first, qualified new-hires:

1. Must be unemployed for 60 continuous days or more, prior to being hired; or, if working part-time, could not have worked more than 40 hours total during the 60 days prior to being hired.

2. Must sign and Affidavit (Form W-11), which is their statement to item number one.

3. Must not be a relative of the owner of the company

Second, employers:

1. Must hire qualified new-hires between February 3, 2010 and January 1, 2011

2. Can receive the tax credit when replacing a current employee, but only when that employee terminates voluntarily or is terminated for cause.

3. Cannot claim the payroll tax exemption and the work opportunity tax credit (WOTC), but can claim both the WOTC and the retention bonus.

The HIRE Act, can provide a huge savings to mid-market and smaller companies.

Lisa Pettigrew

Human Resources Manager

The InSource Group

www.insourcegroup.com

In Praise of Feedback

We firmly believe that we don’t praise people enough. Yet even the smallest positive remark can be genuinely rewarding and act as a powerful motivator. Everyone likes to know if they are doing a good job, and it’s easy to pass on positive information to deserving workers; you just have to recognize the opportunity and take the time to do it.

Providing frequent, truthful and direct feedback helps people understand how their work is being evaluated and what is expected of them and feedback is a key component in motivating and retaining employees. For companies that employ contractors, this can be difficult since the client manager typically supervises the contractors work. Through our years of IT staffing and recruiting, we have developed a simple yet effective system to recognize and provide feedback on performance while it is still timely.

All of our employees’ weekly time sheets have a “Performance Assessment” section that all client managers complete. Simple, yet it is an extremely powerful tool and an effective vehicle for communicating positive performance quickly and efficiently and also highlighting any issues that may have arisen. This capability provides an excellent vehicle for sharing information among all parties. Collecting the information is only part of the process; the real key is evaluating and disseminating the information in a timely manner. Positive feedback is communicated as quickly as possible, and in the rare event that a corrective action needs to be taken, it can be easily identified and managed accordingly.

Client managers develop a level of comfort with specificity in regards to performance related matters knowing that they have a vehicle to use for communication that will be acted on rather than flowing into a black hole. Contractors appreciate the fact that their performance is being honestly evaluated by the people they work for on a daily basis. Our job as the staffing firm is to facilitate communication, for the most part, good news.

Below are a few client comments we have had the privilege to pass on to our contractors:

• “(contractor) continues doing a super job as we transition to final prototype build. He has helped drive the group in task and completion that has supported successful product demonstration. I personally appreciate his flexibility, positive attitude and adaptability when day to day priorities are modified based on near term needs.

• “(contractor) has really been quick to pick up new tasks and is a real self starter. He finds the resources that he needs to get the job done.”

• “(contractor) has excellent customer service skills. He has been the fastest person I have ever seen come up to speed in our very complex environment.”

In these instances we make sure the contractor receives the accolades and feels appreciated. In the few instances where client managers have identified areas of concern, which may have not been communicated otherwise, we address those areas specifically with our consultants to ensure improvement. This has played an important role in The InSource Group maintaining its extremely high level of client satisfaction.

A simple concept enabled by a repeatable process has given us the opportunity to give praise where praise is due. Now that is genuinely rewarding.

Brett Schaefer& Mark Stevenson

Sales Managers

The InSource Group

www.insourcegroup.com