HR

On the surface, sustained low unemployment rates appear to be a good thing. In the past year, unemployment claims have been below 300,000, which hasn't happened in more than 40 years. In a March 3, 2016, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution article, Georgia labor commissioner Mark Butler said, "Georgia employers continue to add jobs at a stronger pace than the national over-the-year job growth rate." The state saw job growth in nine of the eleven major job…

As MarathonHR grows, so does the need for larger office space. We recently moved to new office space within our current building in Athens, GA. Same physical address, but double the space. The move allows for more private offices, easier access and a separate entrance. In short, we now have more elbow room! Visit us at 565 Research Drive, Athens, GA 30605.

The Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) announced earlier this month that January marked the 71st month of increased job growth. 151,000 new jobs were created in January and the unemployment rate remained at about 4.9%. Additionally, there was "solid" wage growth with average hourly earnings for all private-sector employees increasing by 12 cents.

Last month, U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez made a statement regarding September's Employment Situations report. Perez said, "The recovery continued in September, with the economy adding 142,000 new jobs. It was the 67th consecutive month of private-sector job growth, with 13.2 million private jobs created since early 2010. The unemployment rate held steady at 5.1 percent, and the number of people employed part-time for economic reasons has fallen by one million over the past…

A comprehensive performance appraisal process, widely known as 360-degree feedback, provides employees with feedback from people that surround them in the organization – supervisors, co-workers and subordinates. There are many benefits that may result from this kind of appraisal including: Offers multiple perspectives Fosters teamwork Diminishes fear of retribution Increased job satisfaction and loyalty However, 360 reviews, also known as "peer reviews," aren't always sunshine and roses. I read a recent The New York Times…

When your data is breached, it is most often as a result of a security gap in your network as well as a human gap. According to a report from the Ponemon Institute, companies are attacked an average of 16,856 times a year. Further, "43 percent of U.S. companies experienced a data breach in 2014," according to the institute. You heard about them in news reports last year – Target, Home Depot, Staples and others.…

Last March, President Obama directed the Labor Department to make overtime pay an option for millions of additional workers by narrowing the "white collar" exemption under the Fair Labor Standard Act (FLSA), which would more restrictively define the duties test and raise the threshold for the salary basis test. Originally intended to go into effect this past November, it now looks as if it will be the first quarter of this year before it is…

sometimes have trouble sleeping. On a recent night of tossing and turning, I got up to check my phone and found an article that had been emailed to me about, you guessed it, sleep deprivation. I have a friend who calls the many things that keep business owners up at night "entrepreneurial insomnia." There is a real impact on entrepreneurs when they don't get enough sleep. "The negative effects of sleep deprivation are so great…