The HIRE Act, an $18 billion dollar bill that was passed by the Senate today and the House in February, will provide incentives to those organizations that are looking to hire in 2010.

The Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act will offer tax credits and exemptions to companies in an effort to reinvigorate the workforce. Here is a summary of what will become a law once President Obama signs the legislation:

• Employers who hire people who have been unemployed for at least 60 days will get an exemption from Social Security payroll taxes through December for each of those workers.
• Employers can take an additional $1,000 tax credit on their 2011 tax return for every new worker retained at least 52 weeks.
• Small businesses can write off $250,000 of the cost of new equipment purchased this year, instead of having to depreciate those costs over time.

Do you think the HIRE Act will be a positive change to our economy? How do you think this will effect your hiring decisions?

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We here at HRMG Solutions are practicing what we preach, that is, we are actively involved in a number of Social Media outlets. Here are some ways we are working to better communicate and collaborate with our customers.

• We have a company site on LinkedIn. From our company page, you can connect to each of us!

• We’ve partnered with others to create an “Alliance for Workforce Management”. Join our discussion group.

• Follow us on Twitter.

• We also have a YouTube channel, where we discuss Abra and provide tutorials.

How are you using Social Media?

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As I travel along the webiverse, I always look for ways to better the advancement of Social Networking in organizations. Truth be told, Social Networking is here to stay, and unfortunately the majority of companies in the U.S. are not harnessing the potential power of Social Media.

Manpower Research released a terrific whitepaper that outlines research on social networking, and itemizes positive business uses for this emerging technology.  The whitepaper suggests that organizations should develop policies that, rather than controlling employees social networking behavior, channel social media in positive, creative ways that can help both the employee and the company. They provide a number of business uses for social networking, each with examples of Fortune 500’s that have moved in this direction.

You can download the whitepaper here.

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Social Networking is an ever increasing subject for Human Resources professionals. I am speaking to various local SHRM organizations throughout the year on this very topic, and hope to educate, enlighten, and enrich organization’s capabilities in this arena. HR departments, now more than ever, need to embrace this major shift in the way we do business in order to increase value to employees, provide increased knowledge to those that need it in the organization, and become more efficient at their jobs.

As I continue my research on social media in the workplace (this thing evolves daily!), I am continually amazed at the speed of growth of social networking sites. There were 250 million Facebook users in September 2009, today there are over 400 million. And what these users say about companies and their brand determines who will win and lose in this experience economy. Whether people like it or not, the future is here – social media is as big a business revolution as the industrial age.

You might tell already I’m a social media activist. I enjoy visiting organizations of all sizes and discussing this topic, and as I question them on their current social media strategy, I sometimes hear a pang of disbelief to the pro’s of social media in the workplace. “Is social networking really necessary in the workplace?” “Won’t social media hurt an organization more than it will help?” “How can I deter the plague of social sites from our company?” Yes, there are potential negative side effects to social media, but when harnessed properly, social media is a very powerful and useful tool.  In reality, whether you like it or not, your company’s customers and employees are already using social networking. What are they saying about your brand?

Throughout the next few months, I’m going to leave tools, tips, and advice on social networking in HR. Hopefully as you read my commentary on the subject, you can take at least one idea and begin implementing it immediately.

In the meantime, test your initial knowledge on social networking sites. Can you name the nine social sites from their icons at the top of this entry?

Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn.

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Valuable Tips From the Q & A session at the January GVFHRA Dinner Meeting.

10 Things Which Raise “C” Level Respect for HR – Part 1

1. Support your organization’s bottom line goals. Attend executive meetings or ask to read meeting reports to get a clear understanding of the current goals.

2. Understand what generates revenue for your organization.

3. Learn the business
Who is the competition?
What are the biggest risks and liabilities?
Find out what makes your business tick
Find out what you don’t know about your business
Volunteer to go out on a sales call or visit departments to understand the goals of the “C” team.

Part 2 – Coming Soon – Ascertaining Your Organizations Risks and How HR Can Help

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Expert Predicts 6 Future Trends in Training

There will be a significant change in how workers learn on the job in the near future, according to experts leading a webcast presented by the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD).

The “Future Trends in Training and Development” was led by Don Cook, Senior VP of Learn.com; Paula Ketter, Editor of T&D Magazine; Pat McLagan, Chair and CEO of McLagan Internationaland; and Marc Rosenberg of Marc Rosenberg & Associates.

The experts said that in the future, there will be a change in who is in charge of training. In the past, learning involved 1) a professional who managed learning and 2) a learner who implemented it, McLagan said. In the future, the learner will manage the learning and the professional will support the learner.

Rosenberg identified 6 future trends that will change how employees learn on the job:

1. Learning will evolve beyond training. Under the current paradigm, the training instructor is the center of information (typically in a classroom setting) and every worker learns in the same environment. As training evolves, the focus will shift to the employee as the seeker of knowledge, with learning taking place at the moment of need. Employees will draw on many sources for their learning needs (see next item).
2. Blended learning will be redefined. Traditionally, blended learning was simply a combination of online training and classroom training. The new definition will involve using a variety of sources, including online training, classroom training, mentoring, communicating with experts, knowledge repositories, etc.
3. Learning will move to the workplace. In the past, training often involved many disruptions of work as employees left their work space or workplace to complete it. The new scope of learning will involve only minimal time away from work combined with work-based learning and support.
4. Learning and e-learning will be less course-centric and more knowledge-centric. Instead of relying on courses alone, training will include multiple sources of knowledge, including experts, virtual communities, live events, webcasts, and information repositories to go alongside of online and classroom courses.
5. Learning strategies will adapt differently to different levels of mastery. A novice and an experienced employee have different learning needs. A novice will need a more structured training format and will benefit from classroom and online learning. An experienced employee, who may even be an expert, will benefit from an informal, on-the-job training, and will use knowledge management, collaboration, and performance support. A learning program needs to be able to accommodate these learners and everyone in between.
6. “Web 2.0” will revolutionize learning. Web 2.0 will make learning more interactive and personal.

To help our customers better align with these trend HRMG is launching Express Training in January 2010. Express Training  is comprised of knowledge centric, 5-10 min videos, which are task specific.

Express Training In Action!

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With consumer prices down over the past year, monthly Social Security and Supplemental Security Income benefits for more than 57 million Americans will not automatically increase in 2010.  This will be the first year without an automatic Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) since they went into effect in 1975.

The Social Security Act provides that Social Security and Supplemental Security Income benefits increase automatically each year if there is an increase in the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) from the third quarter of the last year to the third quarter of the current year.  This year there was no increase in the CPI-W from the third quarter of 2008 to the third quarter of 2009.  In addition, because there was no increase in the CPI-W this year, under the law the starting point for determinations regarding a possible 2011 COLA will remain the third quarter of 2008.

Some other changes that would normally take effect in January 2010 based on the increase in average wages also will not take effect, even though average wages did increase.  Since there is no COLA, the statute prohibits an increase in the maximum amount of earnings subject to the Social Security tax as well as the retirement earnings test exempt amounts.  These amounts will remain unchanged in 2010.

This fact sheet provides more information on 2010 Social Security changes.

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Abra Compatibility with Windows 7.

Microsoft Windows 7 was recently released.  Sage has not yet determined when Abra will be supported to run on Windows 7.  They are currently in the process of evaluating compatibility.

If you are currently running Abra on Windows 7 please leave a comment to this blog on how it’s working for you.

Should you have any questions and/or require additional information please do not hesitate to contact a Sage Customer Support Representative at 1-800-829-0170 or email them at AbraTechSupport@Sage.com . You can also contact HRMG Solutions .

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The purpose of this communication is to provide important information to customers who are upgrading to v7.80, and whose employer Bank Account number contains more than 12 digits.

Previous to version 7.8, Employer bank account numbers up to 15 characters were displayed at the bottom of the check in the MICR line. New ANSI specifications allow for up to a 15-character number in the account number field. With the upgrade to Abra Suite v 7.8, the last 3 characters of the account number may be truncated for customers using Blank check stock.

A patch is available from Support Plus Online, which will allow the full 15 characters to display. This patch is only for customers using Blank Check Stock whose company bank account number is greater than 12 digits. If customers are using Custom Payment forms and blank stock, they will need to install the patch and recreate their Custom Payment forms.

To obtain the patch, please visit the SupportPlus Online at www.sagespecialized.com/support.

• Log in with your user id and password.
• Select the US Sage Abra HRMS Products button.
• Click on Product and Documentation, Sage Abra Suite 7.x and select the “12164 ANSI MICR for Custom & Blank Checks Truncating v 7.8x” patch to download.
• Unzip the patch and follow the steps outlined in the Readme.txt file.

For any Pay Group using a custom check payment form, a new custom form will need to be created and that custom form must be selected under Payroll > Rules > Pay Group Setup. Select Employer and detail the Pay Group(s). Click on the Forms tab and select the new Custom Payment Form for Check Stock.

NOTE: For customers using Pre-printed Check Stock, the ANSI changes are not included in v7.8 in order to allow customers to use up existing stock and order ANSI-compliant stock before applying the changes. When ready to begin using ANSI-compliant pre-printed stock, a patch file is waiting on Support Plus Online called, “ANSI Preprinted Check Compliance ? 11838.”

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This past weekend, Symantec posted an update to its popular Norton Antivirus software that caused direct issues with Abra software. If you have Norton and Abra, you may have experienced the following error when attempting to log into Abra:

LOGON line 50 API Library is not found.   Error 1726

The update has incorrectly identified an Abra file (AFWREG.FLL) as Trojan Horse and removed it from the Abra program.  This file is NOT infected.  Anti-virus companies now have to go much further to protect against malicious programs, and occasionally this will impact existing safe programs. Symantec has been contacted to correct this condition.

Meanwhile, Customers should create a Central Exception for the Abra Programs directory within their Symantec settings, then restore the files from quarantine.  The file identified is:  AFWREG.FLL.

Specific instructions for central exceptions are found on Symantec website

http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/ent-security.nsf/docid/2008030423280248?OpenDocument&ExpandSection=1

Stay tuned to Support Plus Online knowledgebase for further updates, and contact Sage Customer Support at 800-829-0170 or via email at abratechsupport@sage.com for further assistance as needed.

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