As the year begins to wind down, employers often turn their attention to budgets, performance reviews, compensation planning, and next year's goals. But there's another area worth reviewing before year-end: Employee classification. Specifically, are your employees correctly classified as exempt or nonexempt under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)? Classification mistakes can be expensive. They can result in unpaid overtime claims, back wages, penalties, and employee frustration. The good...

Labor Day is just around the corner. Vacation calendars are beginning to clear. Employees are returning from time away, school schedules are starting again, and many businesses are preparing for one of the busiest seasons of the year. For many organizations, the end of summer marks a natural transition. It's an opportunity to move from vacation mode back into business mode. But simply expecting employees to "jump back in" isn't enough. The most successful organizations use this time...

When business owners hear the phrase "HR budget," many immediately think of large corporations with extensive HR departments and unlimited resources. But here's the reality: Every business has HR costs. The difference is whether those costs are planned or reactive. Whether you have 10 employees or 250, your people are one of your largest investments. And like every other part of your business, that investment deserves a strategy. As organizations begin preparing their 2027 budgets, now is the...