Chamber Blog

Mark Your Calendar New Members They’re creating computer code, carting food and passengers around in their own cars, and popping in monthly for a project meeting. What’s their story? Are these occasional workers underemployed, unable to secure a salaried job? Are they Millennials and Generation Zers sampling different occupations before they commit to a career?…

Mark Your Calendar New Members Let’s suppose one of your employees appeared on the game show Family Feud. Host Steve Harvey prompts one of your people with this: “Name something your employer does to make you feel valued, other than a paycheck.” What would he or she say? How do you know? Are you sure? Culture…

Mark Your Calendar New Members Summer is here. That means backyard barbecues, beach weekends, sightseeing trips and the annual reminder from management that ensembles worn for those occasions are likely not office-appropriate. The warmer temperatures mean people wear less clothing, leading to more opportunities to run afoul of the company dress code. The evergreen debate…

Mark Your Calendar New Members The Department of Labor (DOL) plans to seek comments on how to improve the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) to better protect workers and reduce administrative burdens on employers. A request for information is expected by April 2020. The FMLA yields the greatest number of questions to the Society…

Mark Your Calendar New Members About 575,000 employers have received employer correction request notices, also known as “no-match letters,” since March, alerting them about discrepancies between a worker’s Social Security number and government records. The Social Security Administration (SSA) has resurrected the practice of notifying employers with at least one employee whose name and Social…

Mark Your Calendar New Members Business data is more than propriety information. Most small businesses hold customer credit card information on file and maintain electronic employee records, as well as manage their banking online. And a breach of this data disrupts basic operations and damages your reputation not to mention probably costing you thousands of…

Mark Your Calendar New Members Today’s older workers are better educated and living longer than any previous generation. They also want to remain in the workforce longer, but discrimination and outdated assumptions are making that a tricky proposition for many experienced employees, and overt acts of ageism are only expected to get worse as the…

Mark Your Calendar New Members Employees use a variety of excuses to justify stealing things from their employers—a practice whose frequency has nearly doubled in the past 16 years, according to a new report. Why Do Workers Steal? In some cases, a bad experience at work—such as receiving a poor performance evaluation, a demotion or…

Mark Your Calendar New Members Employee retention has taken on a new significance amid one of the tightest labor markets of the past 50 years. The robust job market has given many employees the confidence to seek new opportunities, while employers are wrestling with rising compensation and heated competition for new hires, both salaried and…

Mark Your Calendar New Members A wonderful restaurant owner retired recently, and now the restaurant is empty. Why didn’t he/she/they convert their business to an employee-owned business, so that customers can continue to eat their wonderful food and the original owner could keep a toe in the business? They might have had a reason, or…