Author Archives: CorpStrat News

Everything You Need to Know About California’s Sexual Harassment Training Laws

On September 30th, 2018, California enacted a series of laws that strengthened the state’s protections against workplace harassment. California previously required employers with 50+ employees to complete required training every other year. This has changed and the deadline to complete the training is fast approaching. Read on to learn more.

What are the requirements?

Starting January 1st, 2021 the new law:

Requires employers with five or more employees in the state to provide sexual harassment prevention training to all employees.
Expands and clarifies employer liability for workplace harassment
Prohibits employers from entering certain agreements related to sexual harassment and other unlawful acts in the workplace.

How does this affect me?

All California employers should become familiar with the laws and ensure that each of their employees receive the required training. Sexual Harassment Training is required within six months of when each employee assumes a position. Employers must provide the initial training after January 1st, 2019.

What does this mean for temporary employees?

There are also requirements for seasonal and temporary employees. For these employees, the employers must provide the required training within 30 calendar days after the employees’ hire date or before the employee has worked 100 hours, whichever comes first. These rules went into effect on January 1st, 2021.

What is the expanded employer liability for workplace harassment?

Employers may also be held liable for nonemployees’ acts of any type of unlawful workplace harassment. An employer may be held liable if:

A nonemployee commits harassment against any of the employers’ employees, applicants, unpaid interns, unpaid volunteers or people providing services pursuant to a contract in the workplace.
The employer knows or should have known of the conduct
The employer fails to take immediate and appropriate corrective action.

Make sure you’re up to date with all the requirements so your company remains compliant. Sign up for CorpStrat’s Sexual Harassment Training today!

At CorpStrat, we offer affordable Sexual Harassment Training for every company size, from 3-300+. If you’re interested, let’s talk! Call us at (818) 377- 7260 or email us at marketing@corpstrat.com.

3 Things That Set Us Apart

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At CorpStrat, we’re not just insurance brokers, we’re business advisors with extensive knowledge in Payroll, Employee Benefits, and Human Resources. We want to become your go-to advisors and we’re in it for the long haul — we’ll help you find and maintain state-of-the-art HR and Workforce solutions, tailor-made for your company. We promise to always go the extra mile for you and your business.

<< Click to download our Capabilities White Paper to learn more about the CorpStrat Experience. >>

Here are three key things that set us apart:

1. We Think Differently

We’re all about tackling old problems with new approaches. From creative tax planning ideas to out-of-the-box Benefits solutions, we’re always going to push the limits of the industry standard. We think that complacency in our industry absolutely means money down the drain. We work hard every day to find the best possible solutions for our clients, we don’t settle for anything less than the apex of both quality and value.

2. We Simplify the Complex

Human Capital and Benefits management is a layered and complex business. We’re fortunate to have a team with a variety of strengths that can help you no matter the issue. Our experts will always take the time to explain things plainly and transparently. If anything goes over your head, we get it, it’s a confusing business. We’ll loop back together until things are clear. We promise we’ll always be available to you. This means you’ll never get stuck with 800 numbers, instead you’ll always reach a team member that knows your name and everything about your business. We’ll work tirelessly to take care of the nitty gritty so you can focus on running your business.

3. We’re Multidisciplined

We don’t just think of solutions for specific aspects of your business, we consider your business as a whole. Our team of experts have specialties ranging from time and attendance to insurance to employee benefits to compliance—no matter what it is, we’ve got you covered. This means no more piecemeal hires, you’ve got a full house at the ready to help you no matter what the issue happens to be. Also, we’re not in it for the short term, we want to be your long-term partners and we truly view your success as our success.

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We’d love to help you. Contact us today and schedule a FREE consultation.

When Recruiting Meets Tech—A Perfect Partnership

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65% of candidates say they never, or rarely, receive notice about their application. It’s easy to see how this can occur, especially if HR teams aren’t set up with technology that helps them streamline and automate their workflow.

Successful recruitment is about more than blasting a job listing and expecting a bevy of qualified candidates. It’s about utilizing current technology to make your recruitment workflow easier for your HR team and seamless for the candidates. That’s why we love Workforce Ready’s built-in applicant tracking. Standalone applicant tracking apps can quickly lead to errors and duplicate information. With Workforce Ready’s applicant tracking, everything is in the same database which improves the candidate experience, eliminates data transfer error, reduces time to hire, and allows you to attract and nurture the right candidates for the position.

Once you’ve attracted applicants from various channels, you want to make sure it’s easy for them to intuitively find and apply for the jobs that are right for them. Remember, you want your job portal to be technologically advanced and imbued with marketing savvy. Workforce Ready allows you to set up a job portal that:

1. Is Embedded & Branded

Align the look and feel of your career site with your company branding — this helps reinforce your company values and establishes brand authority.

2. Is Mobile-friendly and Responsive

86% of active candidates use their smartphones to begin a job search. This is why it’s important to create your portal using responsive design so it can be viewed on all types of devices, including mobile.

3. Able to Filter Applicants

It’s important for you and the applicants you’re considering to know quickly when something’s not the right fit. This lets applicants move on to the next opportunity and lets you focus your efforts.

4. Tracks Candidate Progress

With automated process tracking, you can view the stage each candidate is at, understand if the processes have stalled, and respond quickly to get things back on track.

5. Automates the Hiring Lifecycle

Define the phases you want your candidates to go through and how long you want each of these phases to take, then build the infrastructure for them into your HCM platform using checklists, automated actions you can assign, and notification workflows to make sure the right people are in on the right conversations

6. Communicates Consistently with Candidates

Set up touch points that keep your candidates informed at every stage of the application process, so they don’t start exploring other options. Use automation to keep your communications timely and reduce the manual overhead.

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Want to learn more about our Workforce Ready workforce management platform? Schedule a call with us today!

SBA and Treasury Simplify Forgiveness for PPP Loans Under $50K

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On October 8th, the U.S. Treasury Department issued new rules simplifying forgiveness for businesses who took out PPP loans of $50K or less. Back in March, Congress passed the CARES Act, which established the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), an SBA loan designed to help small businesses maintain their workforce during the COVID-19 crisis. It offered SBA-backed loans that could be forgiven as long as the business met conditions such as retaining full-time employees for eight weeks and using a minimum of 60% of the loan towards payroll costs. However, a number of amendments and seemingly conflicting rules have left many business owners confused about how to go about getting their loans forgiven.

Prior to last week, no loan forgiveness applications were being approved by the SBA. This past Thursday night, a new forgiveness application, Form 3508S, and a new Interim Final Rule regarding loan forgiveness was unveiled.

What this means:

The SBA and the Treasury Department intends that this new application will simplify the forgiveness and loan review process. Under the new rule, PPP borrowers of $50,000 or less won’t have the amount of their loan forgiveness reduced based on reductions in full-time-equivalents or reductions in employee salary or wages. This means that borrowers who received small PPP loans likely won’t be penalized for laying off staff members or cutting employee hours due to financial hardship. The changes are estimated to cover approximately 9 million forgiveness applications. It should be noted that even with the new rule, borrowers are still required to provide additional information to the lender, certify how it’s reviewed, and calculate their payroll and non-payroll costs .

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Have questions about your PPP Loan Forgiveness? Call us at (818) 377-7260 or email us at marketing@www.corpstrat.com

Is Better Workplace Tech the Secret to Higher Employee Retention?

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Chances are your employees have the latest phones packed with futuristic apps that work seamlessly to support their daily tasks—from working out to purchasing meals. It’s no secret, modern workers have come to expect the same flexibility and convenience in their professional lives as they encounter in their personal lives. Unfortunately, Human Capital Management (HCM) technology hasn’t exactly kept up, leaving employees with subpar apps that are neither intuitive nor effective.

This can quickly lead to a lackluster employee experience. In fact, 48% of employees surveyed said they wished their workplace technology performed the same way as their personal technology. Technology is a major component of the employee experience and being able to deliver well-designed solutions where and when your team needs them is becoming essential to maintaining high retention rates. Better workforce automation technology is linked to better work/life balance, increased job satisfaction, and stronger feelings of team unity.

Why is it important to learn from the success of popular apps?

Many popular apps feature a savvy combination of convenience and problem-solving. Many current HCM solutions are neither convenient for employees nor do they actually solve a problem leading teams to revert back to outdated solutions. For example, if a mobile app isn’t robust enough, HR teams can often be forced back into relying on paper or asking employees to stop what they’re doing and sit down at a desktop computer. With many “deskless” workers, like those in manufacturing or retail, this can become a huge hassle and cut into valuable work hours.

Delivering a consumer-grade, responsive HR experience to your employees is a must-have in today’s competitive employment environment. With a diverse workforce that includes remote employees, contractors, gig workers, and more, responsive HCM solutions let you reach and engage workers in a meaningful way — whether they’re in a traditional office, coffee shop, vehicle, or working on site. When all employees have access to modern, flexible solutions to common HR questions and problems, organizations can realize demonstrable increases in productivity and engagement.

**Why our Workforce Ready platform can improve your employee experience:**

We believe that our Workforce Ready HR solution is able to deliver your team responsive, convenient, and robust technology that aligns with your company goals, will improve your employee experience, and increase your bottom line. Here’s what’s great about Workforce Ready:

1. It simplifies and streamlines tasks.

We believe that no matter what device is being used, it should be easy for employees to find specific, day-to-day actions they need to complete. Workforce Ready’s easy to use mobile app ensures there isn’t any confusion about which area of the app does what or how to get there.

2. It empowers employees.

With Workforce Ready, employees are able to carry out all tasks on any device, giving them autonomy and making them feel engaged in their work

3. It keeps teams unified.

Having a slew of different apps and separate systems is confusing for you and your employees. Workforce Ready offers a unified platform for all your HR activities that can translate seamlessly to any device.

Giving employees convenient access anytime, anywhere to key processes like benefits enrollment, direct deposit, timesheet submission, and vacation requests allows them the flexibility to make requests and submit important information in a timely manner, rather than having to wait for access at the office. It’s great on the managerial side as well, managers can quickly get actionable, visual displays of key workforce metrics, letting them catch and address changes quickly and reward top talent immediately. It also frees up HR to focus on bigger strategic company goals rather than administrative tasks and push forward innovative employee programs rather than becoming bogged down by approvals and paperwork.

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Want to upgrade your team’s HCM tech? Schedule a call with us today.