News & Events

COVID-19 has fundamentally altered traditional events in 2020 from cancelled Memorial Day picnics to postponed Fourth of July parades to Halloween touchless trick-or-treating.

With new cases in the United States breaking the 100,000-per day mark and infection rates on the rise across all corners of the country, it appears that the pandemic is ready to play Ebenezer Scrooge next month and say “bah humbug!” to the annual workplace holiday gathering.

2020 has certainly been a year of upheaval for business owners, but there is some status quo, especially when it comes to Texas labor laws where there are no new significant changes planned on the state level for 2021.

That means the major components we highlighted for labor laws for Texas in 2020 will still hold true next year, including a minimum wage of $7.25 hour, and compliance by businesses with the Texas Payday Law, which requires exempt employees be paid at least once a month and non-exempt employees receive a minimum of two paychecks per month.

When it comes to the beneficial services professional employer organizations (PEO) can offer your small and medium-sized business, outsourcing tasks like payroll management, tax reporting, and employee relations naturally comes to mind.

PEOs are also offering business owners an insurance lifeline by providing cost-effective and comprehensive healthcare coverage solutions through the offering of Master Health Plans.

America’s small business owners will find it easier to have Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans forgiven under new rules issued by the Small Business Administration and Treasury Department on Oct. 8, 2020.

The PPP was created under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) on March 27, 2020, with a goal to help businesses maintain payroll during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has touched every phase of the way we do business in 2020 and that includes issues such as your company’s PTO policy.

PTO (“Paid Time Off” or “Planned Time Off” or “Personal Time Off”) is a key benefit companies offer to employees to help with recruitment and retention.

In the best of times Open Enrollment can feel a bit like doing your taxes. You know it is an important task that needs to be completed, but it can be confusing, frustrating, and time-consuming.

Of course, 2020 is far from the best of times with the COVID-19 pandemic, so it may be harder than ever for people to focus on Open Enrollment. It is crucial that companies let their employees know how and when Open Enrollment will take place.

It is no secret that professional football is big business, but some people would be surprised how much NFL teams have in common with big companies such as Google and Amazon when it comes to measuring performances and using scorecards to target success.

Take the NFL 2020 season opener between defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs and the Houston Texans, for example.

Most people have a love-hate relationship with meetings. They love productive meetings, but hate time spent away from their desks.

Then there is humorist Dave Barry, who has a hate-hate relationship with meetings, saying: “If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be ‘meetings’.” With apologies to Barry, meetings are not going away any time soon.

As the coronavirus pandemic enters its sixth month, more companies are embracing remote work as a necessary reality in the post COVID-19 economic landscape.

Outdoor company REI even announced Aug. 12 that it was going to sell its newly constructed 8-acre corporate campus before the first employees ever reported to work at the Bellevue, Wash. location.

While business has been undergoing a change towards digitization for years now, the COVID-19 pandemic forced a rapid transition for many companies to a workforce that can connect, collaborate, and perform their roles remotely for an extended period of time.