For immediate release Contact: Amy Talley For SECAF atalley@jeffersoncomm.com (703) 323-8939

Recognizing Washington Employers for Growing, Developing & Engaging Employees RESTON, VA (March 6, 2015) - Helios HR, a human capital consulting and recruiting firm, proudly announces the 26 finalists for the 2015 Helios Apollo Awards. The finalists, selected from a pool of more than 200 nominations, represent organizations from the Washington, DC metropolitan area that promote employee development as part of their integral culture. (The complete list of finalists can be found at the end of this release).

Studies show that a healthy work environment help lead to both the overall health and well-being of individuals and higher engagement of your employees in the workplace. A respectful workplace can be defined by a number of qualities within your organization; example qualities include:

As a government contractor, there are what seem like endless and ever changing requirements that you must comply with. The Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) serves as a guidebook to government contractors and outlines the rules, regulations, and processes that must be followed by government contractors throughout the acquisition planning, contract formation, and contract administration processes when the government is purchasing (acquiring) goods and services. The FAR is easy to overlook as an HR professional as many of the regulations pertain to the contracts and finance departments within your organization; however, one aspect of the FAR that pertains to the Human Resource department of government contractors is the Contractor Code of Business Ethics and Conduct[1].

Here at Helios, I get numerous phone calls and emails each week from clients and coworkers with questions about their benefits plans. I receive questions from “Is my health insurance and HMO, PPO, or POS?” to “My employee worked a reduced schedule this month; do I have to take away their benefits?” and even as broad as “Is the recent health care legislation going to affect my organization?”. It appears as though people are increasingly confused and wary of making the wrong choice given the complications of the Affordable Care Act and the complexity of offering multiple benefit plans.

If you are in any way connected to technology, you are most likely using, or at least are aware of the options that come with using mobile phone applications in your everyday life. These applications have come to simply be known as “apps”. There’s an app for just about any and everything you can think of! Did you know there are great apps available to those of us in the HR world as well? Let's take a look at some the various apps that serve the purpose of providing information, networking and educating HR professionals on best practices and policies.