Chamber Blog

The Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce offers online Certificates of Origin through an affiliation with the American World Trade Chamber of Commerce.   A Certificate of Origin is an international trade document attesting that goods in an export shipment are wholly obtained, produced, manufactured, or processed in a particular country. Completing your Certificate of Origin…

Mark Your Calendar New Members Starting Jan. 1, 2020, the maximum earnings subject to the Social Security payroll tax will increase by $4,800 to $137,700—up from the $132,900 maximum for 2019, the Social Security Administration (SSA) announced Oct. 10. The SSA also posted a fact sheet summarizing the 2020 changes. The taxable wage cap is subject to automatic adjustment…

Mark Your Calendar New Members Is underperformance and lack of production a sign of an ill-fit team or a symptom of mismanagement? According to a study published in Harvard Business Review in conjunction with Deloitte’s Business Chemistry system, leaders who aren’t getting their desired outcomes may have all the pieces in place needed to push the needle…

Mark Your Calendar New Members As more organizations move to cloud-based applications and connect the Internet of things (IoT) to how they do work, comprehensive technology architecture planning is becoming more essential, according to a new report from CompTIA, a technology association based in Downers Grove, Ill. Experts say such planning is especially important for…

Mark Your Calendar New Members While February typically has 28 days, in leap years—such as the forthcoming 2020—it sprouts a 29th. That can be a headache for HR and payroll professionals—resulting in an extra payday in the calendar year, depending on when and how employees are paid. The problem of an extra pay period isn’t…

Mark Your Calendar New Members Like many members of the Fortune 100, United Technologies Corp. (UTC) hires hundreds of people a month. This month, however, three have something unique in common. They are entering the company’s Re-Empower Program, which aims to bring back into the workforce those who put their careers on hold. The 16-week paid “returnship” is…

Mark Your Calendar New Members On September 29th, 2019 a new law took effect that bans employers from asking applicants previous wage and compensation history. The law, HB 834, applies to all businesses with employees in the state of Illinois. Under the measure, prospective employees can self-disclose a previous salary and negotiate wages. In addition, employers…

Mark Your Calendar New Members Time is the one resource in your life that is neither replenishable nor renewable. Regardless of how you spin it, everyone starts each day on an equal playing field with 24 hours in the time bank. And while people often yearn for more time, what they really need is better…

Mark Your Calendar New Members Often, it can be sad to see a beloved employee leave for a new opportunity, but at other times, it’s a relief to part ways with a team member who simply isn’t working out. No matter the reason for an employee’s separation, it can be draining for managers, HR and…

Mark Your Calendar New Members Sexual harassment remains a problem in many workplaces despite years of mandatory training for supervisors to prevent it. Getting in front of the problem in the truest sense requires raising accountability and an awareness of inclusion and respect in the workplace. That, however, requires full-scale culture change, which is not…