Vendor Management

Limit liability from data breaches that expose employee info

03/11/2024

Imagine this nightmare scenario: You’ve contracted with a vendor to enter personnel data into a new computer system. You hand over confidential employee info, including Social Security numbers, addresses, names of dependents, health records and bank account routing numbers. Then the vendor notifies you that the employee information was somehow stolen. What will you do? It happens more often than anyone would like to admit.

4 metrics for measuring background-screening efficiency

02/21/2024

At least 94% of employers perform some kind of background screening on job applicants before they hire. That doesn’t mean all those checks were conducted efficiently. Let’s look at four metrics that companies can use to measure the performance of their background-screening providers.

Now it’s your turn to complain

12/23/2020

When a product or service you’ve purchased for your company goes wrong, your role switches from manager to customer. Yes, you have to call a service rep, complain, and have a problem corrected. Not fun, but as negotiation expert Marc Freeman points out, the skills you’ve learned as a manager will help.

How to spot 7 common errors on legal bills

08/26/2016

If part of your job involves dealing with outside employment law attorneys and reviewing their invoices, know what kind of overcharges to look for.

HR data security in the spotlight

11/03/2015

Don’t let your employees’ information become the target of the next high-profile data breach. Here’s what you should know before contracting with a cloud vendor.

Beware the heartbreak of ‘vendor switch remorse’

04/13/2015

It looks so good on paper: You can shave 5% of the procurement budget just by picking up a phone and returning that new, aggressive vendor’s phone call. But many an office manager has gone down this road only to regret it.

DOJ nixes sharing Form I-9 with outside vendors

06/26/2014

Sharing employee information among company departments, and even with outside vendors, usually makes life easier for you and your employees. However, in response to an inquiry, the DOJ concluded that an employer that sought to share employees’ Form I-9 or E-Verify information with a paycard vendor may be violating the immigration laws.

ACA SHOPs postponed one year, HHS urges using brokers instead

12/02/2013

Small business owners won’t be able go online to buy health insurance for their employees until November 2014. Meanwhile, the Department of Health and Human Services suggests doing it the old-fashioned way—through a broker.

Work with providers to sort DOMA impact

07/18/2013

The June 26 Supreme Court decision that overturned Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act will have very specific effects on HR. The most immediate ones involve taxes on pay and benefits. If you operate in a state where same-sex marriage is legal, start working now with your benefits providers.

Benefits alert: Health insurance exchange notice requirement postponed

03/01/2013

The health care reform law required employers to begin notifying employees on March 1 about the availability of state-based exchanges as an option for buying health insurance. But acknowledging the obvious—that the state exchanges are nowhere near ready to go live—the Department of Labor has temporarily rescinded the notice requirement.