U.S. employee annual turnover rates are projected to grow this year by 20%. Companies with high employee turnover rates need workplace strategy and culture change. But how are companies reinventing workplace strategies and culture?What is a Workplace Strategy and Culture?It’s how employees interact with the environment created and how productive and efficient they are in the workplace. The greater the workplace environment, the more efficient the employees.It’s also important to look at workplace culture. Workplace culture is the behaviors and attitudes of employees in the organization.Companies can decide to shift their workplace strategy at any time. When they do, it’s important that they focus on their culture as well. Focusing on culture will reduce resistance from current employees to change. Workplace strategy and culture come together to create an environment for employees. Their input is important to the success of the company.If there was no employee input and collaboration with management, employees would be unhappy. Unhappy employees lead to dread, stress, and anxiety in the workplace. This causes employees to exit the workplace, leading to an increase in turnover rates.How do I Know When To Rethink Workplace Strategy and Culture?Is productivity reducing? Your workplace culture turning hostile? Are your employees leaving?  Then it might be time to rethink workplace strategy and culture. Employees prosper in a positive environment, leading to the highest possible productivity.There are many signs that companies need to rethink their workplace strategy and culture. One of the major indicators that change needs to happen is when employees start to leave the company, resulting in high turnover rates.Keeping employees on-board is an ongoing task, it’s simple but hard to maintain. The main goal of the task is to keep employees productive and engaged.Management has to work hard to provide a positive and productive environment. In a prospering environment, employees have positive emotions and a better well-being. This causes employees to collaborate, become more creative, and are better motivated. These employees develop a positive culture in the workplace, which leads to loyal employees and lower turnover rates.What can employers do to improve workplace strategy and culture?Does your company check the boxes for change? Here are some tips on what you can do to improve workplace strategy and culture.For one, you can start by listening more closely to your employees. A current problem many employers are facing is employees wanting to be work-from-home or in-person. All employees have different preferences, so hybrid work should be offered. Flexibility in the workplace will lead to happier and more productive employees.You can also offer more incentives. These incentives don’t need to be monetary. For example, you can offer extra time off, continued education for personal development, and time off for volunteer work.Another thing that can be done is hiring a third party to make adjustments as necessary to include performance bonuses. This will make employees happier, creating a more productive workplace.To make your life easier, SOGO Insurance has partnered with Mineral (formerly ThinkHR). Mineral offers you complimentary HR resources. The resources include commentaries from experts in the field. They even include seminar and training opportunities. It also includes a cloud-based portal where you can easily keep track of certificates and more.   If you’re ready to take the next step, contact a SOGO Insurance agent today to find out how you can get access to this helpful tool. 

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Payroll Assistance & Payroll Taxes

Processing payroll plays a crucial role in your company. One little mistake can mean employees’ frustration and unintentional legal trouble. PEO programs can process payroll, manage tax deductions, and verify employment when necessary. In addition, time-tracking and PTO requests can also be easily handled, which is mainly helpful for hourly employees in your business. 

Risk Management

Did you know a PEO can even help with risk management? Employer liability issues such as legal claims, internal employee relations, and even terminations are touchy subjects that are not to be dealt with lightly, so why not have a backup assistant? In addition, lawsuits and other legal issues can all be kept track of in the PEO program. If you’re a new business, you can even get assistance writing an employee handbook to help avoid legal troubles from the get-go. 

Employee Benefit Tracking

Benefit coordination is a full-time job of its own. As the owner of a small or midsize business, you will not have time to keep track of benefits like medical, dental, and vision insurance, as well as all the other types of opt-ins, like life insurance, short-term and long-term disability, and even HSA plans. With a PEO, you can confidently offer these insurances knowing everything is being organized and cared for. 

Human Resources Guidance 

You might be reluctant to hand over much of your human resource organization to software; however, the PEO programs available are backed by humans that are just a phone call or online chat away. Employees can contact helpful agents of the PEO program to ask questions, get help with enrollment, or any other HR-related items. They can trust that they are in expert hands at the simple click of a button if needed. 

Recruiting and Hiring

Some PEO programs can help you recruit and hire the latest, most-qualified talent available on the market, which is way better than posting and managing online job postings that anyone and everyone can freely apply to. We’ve heard of hiring nightmares coming to life when you rely solely on copy-and-pasted online efforts rather than assigning someone to handle the recruitment and onboarding process. So please don’t give up access and convenience to your future stellar employees. 

For your insurance and PEO needs, contact SOGO Insurance to get started on your plan today. We help all industries, including real estate and property management, IT and computer services, trade-based industries, nonprofits, and more. Find out what works best for your business by chatting with our helpful agents. 

In case you missed it: Check out “Free HR Resources at Your Reach” to learn how you can better manage and help your company with complimentary HR resources from SOGO Insurance.

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What is Mineral (formerly ThinkHR Solutions) anyway? 

Mineral is a unique suite of content, technology, and live advisory solutions made to help minimize people-related risk while maximizing employee engagement. You can count on this tool to keep up with the latest laws and trends in human resources so that your company can focus on prosperity versus legal troubles. Mineral has several online tools available for use, including commentaries from experts in the field, seminars and training opportunities, and a cloud-based portal where you can easily keep track of certificates and more. More online organization and risk prevention can lead to more time for your HR team to develop growth plans. Perhaps the absolute BEST part of the tool is that SOGO Insurance has partnered with Mineral to provide you with FREE access to this library of helpful resources. Clients can log in using the portal straight from our website, and a world of tools is immediately at your hands. 

How Does This Help My Business? 

Well, for one, we love a free resource. But more than just a free resource, we love a free and reliable one. Mineral constantly monitors changes in federal and state laws that affect business owners and employees, then creates resources based on those needs. You can even be updated as quickly as possible with informative emails, literature, and training when something specific comes up. Need a short template for social media policy for the handbook because an employee made a questionable TikTok? No problem. Need a place to store all of this ever-changing info? Mineral does it. Need help expanding on areas that aren’t very clear to you? You can talk with live advisors who have expertise in dealing with the most common to the most specific HR issues that bubble up every day. 

What’s the Catch? 

Nothing! It’s in the best interest of our business to provide our clients with up-to-date resources for FREE so that you can go about your day focusing on the “fun” stuff while still protecting your assets. Think of it as a big conference room full of HR professionals on your company laptop. At SOGO Insurance, we pride ourselves on having a family culture, which means sharing our best resources with you at no cost because we can and should. Contact a SOGO Insurance agent today to find out how you can get access to this helpful tool. 

In case you missed it: Check out “Insurance Market Trends: Stay Aware” to stay up to date with the insurance market and how it could affect your property or auto.

The post Free HR Resources at Your Reach appeared first on SOGO Insurance.

According to BusinessWire.com, cyber threats have increased 81% since the global pandemic started, and 79% of organizations experienced downtime due to risks during the peak season. So how are hackers taking advantage of remote working to help infect networks? We’ve got the answers and helpful tips on avoiding cybersecurity threats. 

Weak Passwords on Personal Devices – As more employees work from home, personal devices such as tablets, smartphones, and laptops are used to access company documents and systems. While your IT team managed what instruments were to be used daily, this has become more difficult because more people are at home with more independence. Someone somewhere is sitting by a pool answering work emails on their cellphone. This opens up a window for hackers as they can access personal devices because people tend to use easy passwords if any at all. One way to manage these issues is to require employees to use devices that have updated and monitored VPN (virtual private network) login abilities only handled by the company. You can also push password updates with security guidelines to avoid the classic “password123”-type passwords among employees. 

Unsecure Wi-Fi and File Sharing – Smartphone manufacturers do a great job of pushing updates through to users. Still, home Wi-Fi networks and routers are generally less monitored by their users. Any time your employee accesses the internet (all day, probably) while they access work documents opens a window for hackers to “break in.” Filesharing can also contribute to issues as hackers have found ways to intercept these private documents using unsecured Wi-Fi. In addition, employees often have to share files earnestly, not knowing a hacker is one click away from causing significant issues. Encourage your employees not to download or use any filesharing software that is not approved and licensed by the company. 

Of course, the best way to ensure employees are protected from cybersecurity threats while working from home is to train, train, and train your employees on up-to-date tips and information on cybersecurity so they can spot an issue from a mile away. Offer online training and hold employees accountable for that training at their subsequent performance evaluation. These online personal training classes offer employees another chance to acknowledge cyber threats’ dangers and prevent future attacks. 

If you want to protect your assets further and your company from ever-increasing cybersecurity attacks, call SOGO Insurance and talk to one of our helpful agents about securing cyber liability insurance and ransomware insurance. 

In case you missed it: Check out “1099 vs. W2: Which one is Right for You?” to make sure you are hiring the “right” type of employee for your company.

The post The Cons of Working From Home appeared first on SOGO Insurance.

Here are some real situations to consider when opening a bar:

Fights & Assault On Property- Alcohol can help people relax and enjoy the night, but it can also trigger emotions that don’t mix well with a low-key evening. Fights can (and will) break out at your bar, leaving your business vulnerable to being sued if someone gets hurt. Injuries do not have to be physical, either. If a patron sees a violent situation where someone is seriously injured or even killed, they can file for emotional damage. Lawsuits are never easy, but as a bar, your business will automatically be at a disadvantage in the eyes of a jury or court system for providing the situation to be injured. 

Food or Alcohol Poisoning – Even if you pride yourself on serving the freshest and most sought-after ingredients in your food and drinks, there’s always the chance that someone can get sick from too much of a good thing. Patrons could sue your business for serving any ingredients that make them sick enough to visit the hospital, seeking damages for the expensive medical care they received or time off from work if they missed any days. 

Vehicle-Related Accidents and Death – Unfortunately, alcohol-related accidents are not uncommon in the United States. According to the Texas Department of Transportation, in 2021, a whopping 1,029 people in Texas were killed and 2,522 seriously injured because someone got behind the wheel while impaired from alcohol. Your business could fall for any alcohol-related accident on the road if you overserved someone at your establishment.

Expensive Equipment Breaking or Damaged – Owning a bar means having expensive equipment like wine refrigerators, beer taps, cocktail-making tools, and more. If this costly equipment breaks or is damaged, you’ll be quickly unable to serve your big money-maker. In addition, most bar equipment is not easily purchasable from your local grocery store, making it even more precious and essential to consider. 

Before you open the doors to your bar establishment, you should consider these and many other situations that can happen with opening a bar. One important thing to do is reach out to your SOGO Insurance agent to discuss the appropriate insurances that can keep you from getting into a bind. Some examples include a winery, brewery, and restaurant insurance policy, among other business insurance coverages. We can help you evaluate your goals and secure the right insurance for your operation. So call our helpful agents today and let us help you focus on the fun aspect of being a bar owner while we help plan the rest. 

In case you missed it: Check out “Sole Proprietorship vs. LLC vs. Corporation” to decide what business structure will best suit your business needs.

The post The Reality of Opening a Bar appeared first on SOGO Insurance.

1. Brush Up on Basic Employment Law – The United States Department of Labor makes things easy for business owners to access and understand the most basic employment laws that stand as the backbone of your current hiring process. Since Texas is a “Right-to-Work” state, some people assume that employment laws are not pertinent. However, Texas businesses face litigation daily in response to unpaid wage claims, child labor laws, and discrimination. Therefore, it’s essential to gather information on wages, workplace safety, and EEOC law. The last thing you want to spend your startup business money on is expensive litigation, so do your research before stepping into any potentially dangerous territory. 
2. Get Your Employee Handbook Together – We get that putting an employee handbook together might not be the most exciting part of the hiring process. Still, it’s essential to protect your new company and yourself from losing all your hard work. If you’re overwhelmed and don’t know where to start, gather templates and begin placing the information you believe is essential for your new employees. Be sure to include company policies, the employment laws you need to reiterate, and the contact information for someone who can help answer your employee’s questions, should they arise. If you don’t have the time to manage HR questions, remember that SOGO Insurance offers advice on potential PEO and HR Services tailored for your company. 
3. Prepare Your Benefits Package – Prepare your benefits package while remembering the highly-competitive job market swirling outside your office building. Since the world changed after COVID-19 measures, employees are looking for even more benefits than just free breakroom coffee. As lovely as the Starbucks Blonde K-Cups are, your employees will be looking for employee benefits such as health insurance packages, disability coverage, and more. If you’re not sure what your new business can afford, call our agents to get free quotes on affordable packages that work for you. 
4. Reach out to SOGO Insurance for Questions – Don’t forget that we’ve been in your shoes. We are a family-owned company who have been offering our expertise to the San Antonio area for over a decade. We know the stress and excitement of starting a business, and we can assist in your planning efforts to ensure your business is covered to the best extent possible. 

Hiring employees shows the growth and health of a company, and we share in your excitement for your growing business needs. Contact us today to discuss how we can help you stay organized and ahead of the game. 

The post Hiring New Employees 101: The Basics appeared first on SOGO Insurance.

Scientific Research Is Always Underway

We already know that the Internet can be a beautiful and ugly thing simultaneously. It has brought us endless ways to consume and share. Now scientists are taking the information they’ve collected from people’s interactions on the web as a way to investigate risky behaviors. The good news is that this research can help identify precarious individuals within the company. Still, the bad news is that employees can feel that science has become a priority over the actual people. For example, a Japanese company recently built a platform that identifies workers who are more vulnerable to cyberattacks based on their behavior while browsing the web and checking email. It’s scientific and rooted in metrics; however, employees felt betrayed. 

Automation Is a Helping Factor 

Thanks to all the behavioral research we just discussed, more organizations use intelligent machines and software to help detect risk. As AI algorithms become more and more advanced, more organizations count on automation to shut down any threats. However, someone in the room usually doesn’t trust an algorithm over a human being to analyze risk, so you have to do what’s best for your company with those parallels taken into consideration. An example of this trend is the existence of a Deep Social Linguistic Analysis (DSLA) technology that scans social networks for an organization’s social media pages and makes them aware of fraudulent activity, sensitive data, fake accounts tied to the business account, and more. 

The Rising Chance of Being “Cancelled” 

We saw it happen several times in 2021: businesses and employees were reprimanded for what has been publicly deemed “bad behavior” thanks to the continuous availability of the internet and social media platform users. The reputation risks of companies have been multiplied and aren’t slowing down any time soon. Companies are being forced to plan for situations where the company finds itself between a rock and a hard place, having to “cancel” either employees, campaigns, or even business decisions that have an environmental impact. No company is safe from being “canceled” thanks to current technology. 

Have you thought about the trends listed above? Would you be prepared to handle or prevent disasters from happening? SOGO is here to help with more than just insurance. Our risk management team can help you think about the risks you might not be seeing yet. Let us help you get organized and get ahead of the game. Call us today to find out how we can help your business work smarter, not harder. 

The post Risk Management 101: Trends and Priorities in 2022 appeared first on SOGO Insurance.

Construction Safety Week was officially created in 2014  for workers in this specific industry to take a solid week to focus on curriculum teaching the most important aspect of a construction job. Historically, in the last 20 or so years, safety has been more of a priority than it was, say, even 100 years ago; however, the latest numbers recorded are higher than ever on construction-related deaths across the United States. The 2019 count was over 1,000 deaths, which is up over 5% than it was in 2018, which can be relayed to an increase in more dangerous tools and projects in the workforce. 

Architecture can be a fascinating thing. Buildings and high rises have jagged edges and interesting changes in structure that draw the eye to be aesthetically pleased. This also means that there are more construction hoists, crane operators, taller levels, more steelwork, and generally more dangerous structures all around. In order to make these more interesting features, even in the interiors of a building, special equipment and tools are used, such as large-format marble pieces, special stains, and lumber saws. Equipment operation can lead to workplace injuries and even deaths, so another reinforcement of workplace safety can help deter those. 

Dangerous tools and more dangerous projects are definitely worth mentioning during Construction Safety Week, but one uncommon aspect that the industry would like to focus on this year is mental clarity. Outside distractions and personal dilemmas can distract workers from paying attention during a dangerous task. Imagine making a peanut butter jelly sandwich while there is a tiger in the kitchen with you. What seems like a simple task can be daunting when outside reasons are making your adrenaline kick in. 

Now, more than ever, Project Managers, Construction Superintendents, and C-level leadership are being encouraged to reach out to their employees and do mental health check-ins along with performance reviews. Divorce among parents, problems with children in school, aging grandparents, mortgages, groceries, and bills are common issues that creep into the brain during sometimes-monotonous work, and the best way to keep this from happening is to check in with mental health professionals or counselors. Some construction companies have a designated HR employee to review these situations and find help where they can to keep the employee distraction. 

In case you missed it: Check out “April Showers Bring May Floods” and make sure the incoming storms won’t ruin more than your weekend winery plans. 

The post Construction Safety Week 2021 appeared first on SOGO Insurance.

Obviously, white-collar crime is not as simple as someone walking out of your office with physical property or bags of money from the safe. Some criminals have mastered the art of stealing discreetly, via forgery of financial documents, money laundering, cybercrime, fraud, and even identity theft of key business partners. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigations, “These are not victimless crimes. A single scam can destroy a company, devastate families by wiping out their life savings, or cost investors billions of dollars (or even all three).” 

So what exactly can you do to protect your business from this type of criminal activity? It’s time to beef up on preventative measures. Every business owner hopes its employees or partners would never commit such crimes, but with the current state of changes in strategy, it’s definitely an easier time to be scammed while you’re paying attention to other important aspects of your business, like work-from-home policies, response to virus needs, and financial changes. If you haven’t implemented these changes already, it’s time you consider the following: 

• Hire a third-party accounting company to audit your company’s financials. Any kind of strange activity will be flagged and you’ll have the opportunity to step in and fix a problem before it becomes a nightmare. 
• Refresh older, out-dated policies, especially in your accounting department, to reflect a modern-day reality, including requiring several signatures on company checks, and frequent communication and breakdown of financial statements.
• Consider purchasing financial software that requires all employees to be held accountable for corporate expenses, from paper clips to company computers.
• Validate any vendors your company is using for everyday corporate expenses, including the office cleaning service, coffee vendor, paper supplier, etc. before submitting any deposits.
• Protect your business by securing a crime insurance policy from SOGO Insurance.  

Did you know that SOGO agents are able to sit down with you (even virtually!) and give you even more helpful advice on how to protect your business from white-collar crime? Part of securing a policy with us means you’ve got a team of knowledgable agents right behind you, supporting you on what types of insurance would work best for your company. The depths and coverage of different policies can vary extensively, so you will not be left alone to analyze and decide exactly which pieces you need. Call your SOGO agent to discuss options for crime insurance, and take one more worry off your plate. 

In case you missed it: “Back to School Checklist for Fun Online Learning” shares easy and fresh ideas for the upcoming school year. With changes due to coronavirus, we’re all adapting to a new type of curriculum and learning style for the 2020-2021 school year, but we’ve got your back with support, whether it’s ideas for your kiddos, or protecting your family with the insurance policies you need, SOGO is here. Visit our website to check out the latest, or just let us know how you’re holding up during this time. 

The post How to Protect Your Business From Forgery, Theft, and Fraud appeared first on SOGO Insurance.

This ongoing public health outbreak is causing serious concern for those business owners who will especially feel the impact due to customers staying at home, spending extra cautiously, and focusing on anything but your small business. One of the best ways to minimize the time of panic is to “flatten the curve,” meaning doing everything we can as a society to lessen illnesses and lessen deaths caused by COVID-19. Making smart decisions for your employees and families now can help calm the nerves (and hopefully your bottom line) sooner rather than later. 

• First and foremost, communicate transparently with your employees and customers about your business plan, and how you plan to combat the health scare with your resources.  Listen to CDC procedures. If you’re offering paid sick leave, communicate that clearly and efficiently in order to avoid having possibly-infected employees come to work and contaminate your business.  
• Create reminders around the office to stay on top of common (but necessary) health and hygiene advice, including reminders to wash hands, but also reminders for more obscure things, like wiping down common areas with antibacterial wipes. Think about the breakroom microwave, refrigerator handle, bathroom handles, printer keys, keyboard, mobile phones, etc.  
• You might be wary of letting employees work from home, but now is the perfect time to put your trust into gear and promote a work-from-home environment. There are plenty of ways to keep track of productivity, even while your employees are away, and you might be surprised at how grateful people are to be healthily working from home that you could even see an increase in productivity.  
• Get on the line with other key decision-makers and make a financial plan for the coming months. Health crises can lead to cash flow disruptions, so have a plan on how to mitigate frivolous expenses (time to cancel the plant-pruning service if possible) and focus on need-based spending.  
• Last, but definitely not least, call your SOGO insurance agent to talk about the next steps for your small business. The nation is dealing with the COVID-19 virus as quickly as it’s coming at us. We’re feeling proud of our employees and agents, especially in this tumultuous time, because during times like these, we are able to do what we do best. Get in contact with us (even if you’re working remotely!) so we can discuss how you can help your business for any situation.  
• Don’t panic. We know it’s scary dealing with a health crisis while juggling the everyday stresses of owning a small business. You don’t have to panic when you have us on your side. Stay healthy, and stay smart, and let us know how we can help you deal. 

In case you missed it: With all the time you’ll be spending at home now (and potentially with a house full of kiddos now that school is being canceled), you’ll want to read our latest blog “Daylight Savings Time Means More Sunlight, But Now What?” We’ve got some advice for soaking up daylight while avoiding germs during the COVID-19 outbreak.  Contact your SOGO agent soon to discuss your future business insurance plans when you come back from a peaceful nature walk.

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