The home heating oil industry has a long and proud history, and Fuel Oil News has been there supporting it since 1935. It is an industry that has faced many challenges during that time. In its 77th year, Fuel Oil News is doing more than just holding
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"These new changes will allow more small business entrepreneurs to take advantage of SBA-504 financing to buy or construct their facilities," said Kurt Chilcott, president and CEO of CDC Small Business Finance, the largest SBA-504 lender in the U.S. "Helping more small businesses grow will help create more jobs and, as a result, improve the economy." SBA-504 loans appeal to small busi- ness owners who are tired of paying rent and want to build equity for themselves. SBA-504 loans allow entrepreneurs to access low-fixed-rate, 20-year financing of over $20 million with a minimal down-payment (10%). Rates have been averaging 5.4% over the last nine months. Study RevealS the employee handbook iS becoming iRRelevant GuideSpark, a leader in employee communi- cations and engagement, released the results of its 2014 employee benefits communi- cations survey that measured employees' opinions of how benefits are communicated to them by their employers. The study reveals that almost 50% of Millennials didn't read most of their employee handbook (versus 33% of those over 60), and 36% of Millennials don't know where it is (versus 23% of those over 60). Even more alarming, less than 25% of Millennials surveyed claimed to find the employee handbook "very helpful" and 11% claim they didn't open the employee handbook at all. Employees of all ages agree that benefits play a significant role in choosing (87%) and staying (86%) with an employer. However, it appears that some of the more traditional methods of communicating benefits, such as the employee handbook, are not as effective as they used to be. The study shows that new channels, such as mobile and social, are being underutilized even though that is where peo- ple are consuming information today. Over 50% of Millennials (versus 20% of those over 60) surveyed don't have a com- plete understanding of the benefit options available to them at work, and 56% wish their employers would communicate ben- efits in a way that is easier to understand. The majority of employees (51%) agree that while they want to leverage their benefits, their goal is to spend as little time as possible to learn about them. "The explosion of new communica- tion channels on the web — like video and mobile — are making brochures and handbooks ineffective", said Keith Kitani, CEO of GuideSpark. "It's becoming more and more difficult to engage employees. This research reinforces what we hear from customers about employees not reading benefits materials, and that employees need to look at alternative solutions like technol- ogy and multimedia to adapt to this shift in consumer behavior." These findings are based on a survey of 551 full-time employees, fielded in March 2014. Participants included employees based in the U.S., from companies with 500 or more employees. Millennials are defined in this sur- vey, as employees between the ages of 18-29. new SuRvey RevealS 88 peRcent of ReSpondentS RepoRted ScReening expoSed a peRSon who lied on a ReSume The 2014 HireRight Employment Screening Benchmark Report revealed an optimistic hir- ing forecast as 71% of respondents indicate their organizations would increase hiring this year. In addition, the report also identi- fied significant security gaps in the majority of employers' background screening pro- grams and how companies are responding to changes to the law, including legalized marijuana. HireRight, a leading provider of global employment screening, drug and health testing and employment eligibility solutions, conducted the benchmarking report which consists of surveys completed by more than 3,000 talent management and security professionals on a broad range of Business OPeRATiOns N e w s 24 may 2014 | fuel oil newS | www.fueloilnews.com