Six years ago, posts about layoffs were in vogue. But it’s been a long while since we focused on posts about hiring.
With the economy generally stable (or shall we dare say improving?), it seems appropriate to talk about job interview questions.
There are lots of posts about the “best” job interview questions
In an interview today with The Lexblog Network, we talked more about what might happen with in employment law with Obama’s second term.
You can watch the interview here:
Last week, I had the great fortune of being interviewed by the Lexblog Network — which help provide support to this blog. The interview focused on best practices for employers in engaging in social media.
A few tidbits: We did this interview via Skype. If that’s not cool enough, I did so using my iPad
Today brings another installment of an occasional feature of “Five Questions”, in which we ask five questions of a noteworthy person in the employment law and human resources areas. I’m pleased that Regan MacBain Traub, CPC, SPHR, founder and managing principal of The Human Resource Consortium, was able to take some time to respond to some questions.
Regan has extensive experience in dealing with complex strategy, change management, staffing and retention issues. She has served as Connecticut State Director for the Society of Human Resource Management and a Member of the Executive Board for the Human Resource Association of Central Connecticut.
As you can see from the interview, she’s got a wealth of expertise and I thank Regan for sharing her thoughts and her time. Let us know what you think about these issues in the comments section below. If you know of others who you’d like to see interviewed, feel free to comment as well.
1) Are companies starting to hire again? In other words, do things seem to be picking up?
We are seeing a number of positive business climate indicators on the HR front at this time. Organizations are beginning to invest in enhancing their human resource management infrastructure and practices again.
Since, unfortunately, many companies still see HR (particularly when it’s transaction-mired) as a cost center rather than revenue generator (when it’s achieved a more consistent strategic and consultative level), this definitely is a positive sign. We also are hearing more firms talking about, and taking action on, hiring again. We’re also seeing some investments in training initiatives. However, I still hear CFOs questioning the ROI they’ve received from significant expense in training in the past so training budgets will probably lag a bit unless they can prove ROI or are regulatory-driven.Continue Reading Five Questions with… Regan MacBain Traub, Founder, The Human Resource Consortium
Continuing our occasional series of interviews with people of interest to human resource professionals in Connecticut, today we talk with Mathew Krukoski, CPA of J.H. Cohn’s Glastonbury, CT offices. Matthew is a Partner there and we had the opportunity to talk about the importance of having auditors review employee benefit plans, particularly as that employer grows.
We’ll have some more of these types of interviews over the next few weeks as well.
1. You’ve been doing a lot more audits lately. For a company that is growing, at what point do they need to start bringing in an auditor to review their employee benefit plans?
A compliance review can be performed at any time. However, generally speaking, the Department of Labor requires an audit when a Company’s employee benefit plan exceeds 100 eligible participants at the beginning of the plan year. For growing companies with an existing plan, the filing requirements contain a provision, known as the "80-120 Participant Rule", that allow a plan sponsor to elect a deferral of the audit requirement until participation has exceeded 120 eligible participants at the beginning of the plan year. Once participation in a plan reaches 121 eligible participants or more, an audit will be required.
2. What types of tasks do you perform during an employee benefit plan audit?
An audit of a plan is not only for compliance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America but also requires a review of its operations for compliance with Department of Labor and Internal Revenue Service laws and regulations. Procedures typically include a review of the plan’s internal control environment, testing of pertinent plan transactions (i.e., contributions, distributions, participant loans, etc…) and to ensure consistent application of the plan’s provisions. A sample of plan transactions are reviewed and tested at the plan level as well as for individual plan participants. The end product of an audit is a complete set of financial statements and auditor’s opinion that are required to be attached to the plan’s Form 5500 filing.
3. What are some common issues that you see when doing an audit?
Our audit compliance testing have revealed errors related to the calculation of participant contributions, the calculation of employer matching or profit-sharing contributions, the distribution of appropriate vested account balances and the utilization of a plan’s stated definition of compensation. However, for contributory defined contribution plans, the most common deficiency relates to the timely remittance of employee contributions.
4. A big topic of discussion lately has been the new 403(b) Plan Requirements. Can you talk about that a bit and what employers ought to be considering with respect to these plans?
In the past, sponsors of 403(b) plans had very limited reporting requirements. Beginning with the 2009 Form 5500 filings, the reporting requirements of these plans will become more in line with that of traditional 401(k) plans, including the Department of Labor’s audit re
quirement. Obviously, employers of large plans will need to engage an independent qualified public accountant to perform the audit of their 403(b) plan. However, the first item that a plan sponsor should focus on is the preparation of their plan records. This may involve talking with their ERISA attorney to clarify the need for an audit, talking with their service provider for the timing and availability of the plan’s financial information and potentially engaging the services of a third-party administrator to coordinate the recordkeeping and other compliance aspects of plan administration. Plan sponsors of 403(b) plans will need to allocate a significant amount of time and resources this year to understand and comply with the new reporting requirements.
Continue Reading Five Questions with… Mathew Krukoski, CPA on Employee Benefit Plan Audits
From time to time, this blog features unedited interviews with people in the labor and employment arena who may be of interest to Connecticut employers. Today, I’m very pleased to have Nina Pirrotti address a few questions for the blog.
Nina is an attorney with the lawfirm of Garrison, Levin-Epstein, Chimes, Richardson & Fitzgerald, P.C.
Continuing an occasional series of interviews with notable locals, today we sit down (virtually) with John Madigan, President and CEO of Executive Talent Services in West Hartford, CT. 
ETS offers a wide range of HR-related consulting services for organizations, from improving performance of individual key talent to developing and integrating an organizational talent management strategy. ETS also provides a "Career
Lots of interesting posts and articles and so little time. So just quick hits today on some new and interesting developments.
With iPods becoming ubiquitous, I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels like they are listening to more music in general. A favorite song of mine is "So Much to Say" by the Dave Matthews Band song. (Don’t try reading too much into the lyrics
— there isn’t much there.) But this week, "So Much to
George Lenard, who runs the popular "Employment Blawg", has an interesting post this week about how current job seekers will have to undergo different scrutiny than perhaps the last time that they engaged in a job search. As George notes, the biggest change is the prevalent use of background checks by employers. George provides some