Human resources (HR) compliance is crucial to running a business successfully. Whether you need to manage payroll, ensure employees have the proper licensing, protect personal data, or stay up-to-date with labor laws, meeting regulations is essential. For small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) with smaller HR departments, compliance can seem overwhelmingly time-consuming. So how can businesses save time on tasks like labor law, payroll and benefits compliance?
With the proper systems and partner platforms, you can automate repetitive tasks. Outsource tasks that take the most time to save hours each week. Utilize new technology to simplify reports. Automate reminders to avoid missing deadlines and incurring costly fines. Here are the top compliance tasks you can streamline, along with resources to reduce your workload in tracking down the best tools in each category.
1. Labor Law
Companies must follow federal, state and local laws. Because regulations change frequently, keeping posts current and tracking changes becomes intensive.
How Can Businesses Save Time on Labor Law Compliance Tasks?
Smaller organizations with only a few HR employees may struggle to keep up. Rather than hoping you’ve covered all your bases, you can outsource labor law compliance to a dedicated provider specializing in it. The service will ensure your posters are up-to-date and that any digital resources are updated effectively.
Best Service for Labor Law Compliance Time-Saving: Poster Compliance Center
Poster Compliance Center is a trusted provider that works alongside your company to update workplace posters automatically whenever a law changes. No more scrambling to figure out what documentation to display. You’ll get an immediate update to implement and avoid fines. Rather than trying to remember to print or order posters, you’ll receive them automatically and customized for each location.
2. Payroll Compliance
A common pain point for companies often occurs in the area of payroll. When HR handles it, they wear multiple hats, including ensuring tax compliance, meeting minimum wage standards, and properly handling family medical leave.
How Can Businesses Save Time on Payroll Compliance?
Paying employees on time is easily automated with a time clock or payroll system. However, conforming to tax laws, overtime rules and reporting requirements causes headaches for HR staff. Although you can use multiple tools to handle paying employees, tracking taxes, and ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements, finding a single tool to complete all tasks saves time on switching between programs.
Best Service for Payroll Compliance Time-Saving: Gusto
Gusto has an intuitive user interface and covers a multitude of payroll tasks. The all-in-one platform oversees hiring, payroll and team management. It also offers compliance reminders, tax tracking and reporting. You can also utilize the system to gain insights that improve a business’s cash flow.
3. Employee Classification
If your team is hybrid, with remote contractors and in-office employees, it could become even more complex. Contractors are a specific class in the tax code, with many companies improperly classifying individuals as one and then treating them like employees. The differences may seem minor, but misclassifying workers can result in millions of dollars in fines and back pay. Companies with employees in some states may face laws like California’s AB5.
How Can Businesses Save Time on Worker Classification?
Instead of spending untold hours trying to understand the nuances and determining whether you are placing employees in the correct category, embrace digital HR tools that flag risks during onboarding. Many tools check contractor status against federal and state guidelines to ensure you are using it appropriately.
Best Service for Employee Classification Time-Saving: Remote
Remote handles HR and payroll tasks on a global scale, ensuring you remain compliant with all relevant regulations. It will also align with country regulations when you work with staff outside your jurisdiction to ensure you don’t encounter issues with laws such as the General Data Protection Regulation Act for European Union employees.
4. Benefits Compliance
Keeping up with COBRA demands and Affordable Care Act reporting can consume your valuable time, making it impossible to complete everything promptly. Small businesses can face hefty fines and can’t afford to let even minor reporting errors slide.
How Can Businesses Save Time on Benefits Compliance?
In addition to health insurance, 401(k) plans and the intense legal requirements of ERISA, ACA and COBRA, companies must file reports on time. To avoid fines, you should discard any manual tracking, which can consume your time, and rely on benefits administration platforms that centralize records and automate notices.
Best Platform for Benefits Compliance Time-Saving: Bamboo HR
Bamboo HR, like most HR digital platforms, handles multiple tasks, including benefits administration. The platform handles enrollment, error-free deductions and comprehensive reporting. The system automates deadline reminders for events such as open enrollment and gathers signatures. Approvals are easier. The system can also handle FSA accounts.
5. Workplace Safety Compliance
Most employers want to protect their employees, but safety compliance includes standards that the organization might not have considered. OSHA commands businesses to log incidents, train workers on safety protocol and regularly inspect areas of concern. Managers may struggle to track everything manually. A serious violation may incur a penalty of $1,221 per incident, making it crucial to track and address problems effectively.
How Can Businesses Save Time on Workplace Safety Compliance?
Training sessions can consume a significant amount of time, as can preparing for frequent inspections. When you use a central safety management platform to track incidents and schedule sessions, you’ll free up your days for other tasks. Many of the platforms also generate reports and deliver them to the designated department heads for access by OSHA or other regulatory organizations.
Best Software for Workplace Safety Compliance Time-Saving: Safesite
Safesite provides digital checklists, offers mobile reporting options, and simplifies OSHA compliance through training modules and reports. It also tracks incident reporting and document management.
6. Harassment Training and Compliance
Preventing harassment and discrimination is a legal requirement and ethical responsibility. Keeping track of mandatory and voluntary training requires a significant amount of time. Tracking down which employees have completed what modules is also time-consuming.
How Can Businesses Save Time on Harassment Training Requirements?
Creating modules once and using them again saves companies time. Some platforms even create introductory courses for you on topics such as avoiding sexual harassment, respecting others, and avoiding ageism.
Your state might require harassment-prevention training. The healthcare and finance industries must also meet federal training mandates. Hosting sessions and coordinating employee time is a scheduling nightmare. Thankfully, online training platforms track which modules employees have completed and send out automated reminders.
Best Solution for Harassment Training Compliance Time-Saving: Traliant
Traliant offers a range of compliance training solutions, including an anti-harassment course. The company has an in-house legal team that ensures the courses align with best practices and comply with current laws. The story-based training is entirely online, keeping employees engaged and smoothly progressing through the modules.
Simpler Compliance and Fewer Mistakes
Knowing how businesses can save time on labor law and other compliance tasks puts HR ahead of potential issues. However, just making sure things look good on paper isn’t enough. Companies must work hard to keep employees safe, their data private, and payroll and benefits running smoothly. By leveraging the power of streamlined platforms and partners, organizations can save time and achieve a more positive outcome.