We are excited to announce that UniqueHR will be offering a Health Savings Account (HSA) during our fall Open Enrollment!

If something you couldn’t see was keeping your business from growing, wouldn’t you want to do something about it? What if it meant admitting something about yourself you wouldn’t be so proud of, such as the idea that when it comes to hiring, you tend for no reason at all to dismiss some people out of hand while favoring others?

Karlyn Borysenko has seen a lot of hard places to work. A consultant studying for her PhD in organizational psychology, she gets asked to go in, diagnose, and tell business leaders the truths about their work cultures they don’t want to hear. Even at companies where positivity is policy, she often finds leaders’ efforts lacking.

Discrimination is a dirty word -- workplace discrimination doubly so. But if you don’t want your star workers leaving, a bit of favoritism goes a long way, according to William Tincup, CEO of Tincup & Co, an HR consultancy.

A happy worker is a productive worker, common sense says, but despite some studies that claim to reveal this correlation, over 70 years of research has not yet proved the axiom true.

Little wonder: It’s a tough thing to measure. These are subjective concepts, after all. What it means for an employee to be “happy” and “productive” changes from study to study and organization to organization. No single definition could ever fit all businesses.

We sat down with China Gorman, HR consultant and former SHRM chief, to discuss why entrepreneurs, when picking perks for employees, often choose the “bread and circuses” model popularized by Silicon Valley technology firms and the mainstream media.

Small businesses may never return to the times before out-of-control labor laws took their HR departments away, but that doesn’t mean they have no choice but to give up control.

It’s no secret, Texas is one of the best states for small businesses. But it has more to offer than friendly regulations. Perhaps more than anywhere else, its culture, weather and lifestyle choices offer business owners and employees alike ways to work hard, earn a living and enjoy the fruits of their labor.

Here are the top 7 ways Texas makes building a business a bully idea.

California has birthed many great success stories: the Gold Rush, Hollywood and Silicon Valley, for starters. For centuries people have moved to the West Coast seeking unconventional opportunities and fast fortunes.

For 72 years, Texas’ businesses have had enjoyed an option afforded to those of no other state: to forego covering employee injuries under their statutory workers’ compensation program.

With so many big companies evading the U.S. treasury by taking advantage of tax shelters and payment loopholes, small businesses, too, want to shave a few percentage points off their business tax rates. But those who can’t afford to pull the “double Irish” or hire a team of tax attorneys to fully exploit the system’s weak points may be ignoring the deductions for which they are eligible.