Welcome to another entry of ‘This Week at the Q’! It was a big week for our ActiveScale^TM object storage with our Veeam Ready announcement  and Gartner Peer Reviews.

1. This week, we were excited to announce that Quantum ActiveScale S3-compatible object store software has been verified as a Veeam Ready Object Solution . This Veeam qualification assures you that our object storage solutions are compatible with Veeam, enabling you to store and manage your unstructured data across the enterprise with confidence.  

“With the qualification of ActiveScale object storage as Veeam Ready, Quantum demonstrates they can provide highly efficient archive capabilities for our joint customers. The collaboration between Veeam and Quantum empowers customers to extract the most value from their private cloud investments,” said Andreas Neufert, Vice President Product Management, Alliances at Veeam.

2. Since integrating ActiveScale object storage into our portfolio, it’s been great hearing from customers about the ease of use, or as this government customer says in a recent Gartner Peer Review : “a no-nonsense appliance that just ‘gets on with it.”

3. Quantum ActiveScale is also proving easy to use for this manufacturing customer, who, in another recent Gartner Peer Review from this past week, described their solution as “easy to set up, configure and use.”

4. Quantum ActiveScale wasalso featured in this Storage Consortium article, “Object Storage for Big Data Analytics Environments.” [If your German is a little rusty, you can click Google Translate.”

5. TVB Europe featured RTV Slovenija’s recent upgrade, unifying their radio and television organizations thatrolled out despite COVID-19. RTVS is a key culture, education, educational information resource for Slovenia’s two million residents. The news departments employ around 650 people, from journalists to editors across its TV, radio and multimedia operations. Quantum technology partner, Dalet, managed this major implementation despite the pandemic, integrating a 300 TB Quantum StorNext® SAN for their high- and low-resolution TV media. Read more here , including how journalists can record and edit from home during this time.

Leave a comment if there are topics you’d like to see added to our weekly top 5 happenings!

Natasha

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Employer of record (noun):

a) a company or organization that is legally responsible for paying employees, including dealing with employee taxes, benefits, insurance, etc.

b) your secret weapon for eliminating red tape for hiring and keeping you out of court

While you’re not going to find that second definition in the dictionary, it’s one of the top benefits of partnering with an Employer of Record (EOR). For companies that need to hire a lot of freelancers without making hiring freelancers their main business, hiring and EOR can make a lot of sense. That’s because they don’t have time to deal with the administrative problems and mountains of paperwork that come with hiring, paying, and insuring so many workers. If devoting the time to it right simply isn’t feasible, they often have a hard time keeping their workforce happy because they can’t pay quickly enough. They also risk unwanted attention from the IRS because the laws are always changing. Without airtight systems and processes, audits, fines, and penalties follow.

What are some of the top benefits of having an EOR?

An EOR serves as the employer and takes on all related responsibilities and liabilities while employees work for another company. An EOR does some or all of the following:

• Makes hiring new workers easier and faster
• Covers payroll management for freelancers
• Maintains current headcount
• Guarantees on-time payment
• Handles all compliance issues
• Provides workers’ comp and all necessary insurance for contractors
• Conducts background checks and drug screenings
• Turns a mountain of hiring paperwork (certificates of insurance, I-9s, E-verify forms, and so on) into a mole hill
• Terminates employees, administers benefits, and handles some worker issues

Who needs an EOR?

We find that clients with a lot of freelance hiring needs on tight deadlines benefit greatly from partnering with an EOR because it makes onboarding–often one of the most painful parts of the process–a nonissue. They also love that outsourcing many of these services helps eliminate or at least reduce the need for an internal HR department. Since we specialize in these services, we have systems in place to make everything as efficient and smooth as possible. Sometimes, it’s the difference between staffing and finishing projects on time and tanking a project before it really even gets off the ground.

Bottom line

Not every company needs an EOR, but for those who do, it’s a game changer. If you think you might be in the latter category, reach out to PayReel and we’ll talk through solutions for your unique situation. Your life is about to get a whole lot easier.

The post Would your company benefit from an Employer of Record? appeared first on PayReel .

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Video content is a valuable tool for communication during the COVID-19 pandemic. People around the world are using videos to stay in touch now that social distancing has made face-to-face […]

The post What Broadcast & Video Teams Can Learn From Hollywood’s COVID-19 Protocols appeared first on Crews Control .

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As the country tests the waters on how to open back up in the midst of a pandemic, everyone–from government officials to businesses and workers–is making tough decisions. While it’s hard to say what’s next, one thing seems clear: We are going to be in this thing for a while. As we navigate new waters, businesses have new considerations to protect workers, too.

If you staff special events or hire freelance video crews for one-off projects, temporary workers are an incomparable asset.  You’re responsible for providing basic protections under the best circumstances.  As COVID-19 runs its terrible course, the risks of not adequately protecting workers have increased tenfold. You don’t want to put your workers at risk of infection, of course. On top of that, if your workers don’t feel safe, they will be less likely to put their health at risk for your event or whatever it is you’re trying to accomplish.

When it comes to keeping them safe, happy, and productive, the best insurance for temporary employees is accident and illness prevention.

COVID-19 Protocol

OSHA updates its guidelines as the situation changes, so be sure to check back regularly and to refer to the CDC’s coronavirus webpage . The CDC advises that in addition to touching contaminated surfaces, spread occurs through “respiratory secretions” that “enter the mouths and noses of people nearby, and can be inhaled into the nose and lungs.” Asymptomatic spread makes it extra hard to trace and prevent.

We all know about social distancing, but OSHA has developed thorough guidelines for classifying worker exposure risks into lower, medium, high, and very high risk categories, with corresponding guidance and resources for protecting workers in each category. See the Control and Prevention page and this page with information for businesses .

Occupational Heat Exposure

In addition to COVID-19, we are also in the middle of the hottest months of the year in much of the U.S. So don’t let occupational heat precautions go out the window while you work on virus prevention. By taking the following precautions against heat-related issues, businesses can lower safety risks and prevent fines and lawsuits, too:

1. Provide water, rest, and shade: It’s easy to get into a project and forget about the time. Sometimes proactive measures like mandatory breaks with plenty of hydration will remind people to take care of themselves in the heat.
2. Recognize the signs: Managers should be on high alert for symptoms of heat exhaustion. According to the Occupational Safety and Hazard Administration (OSHA), “Persons suffering from heat exhaustion might have cool, moist skin; sweat heavily; or complain of headache, nausea or lightheadedness.”
3. Know and respect workers’ rights: It’s not just about staying compliant with the letter of the law, but about understanding and staying true to the spirit behind it. Even if you can push temporary employees a little further to get the job done faster, it’s worth going above and beyond to provide a safe environment. OSHA offers free on-site consultation services to help diligent employers eliminate any problems up front. Contact them at 1-800-321-OSHA for more information.

COVID-19  is our current reality. If we want to get back to any semblance of  life as we once knew it, we simply must accommodate for it. OSHA provides thorough guidelines for going back to work and preparing the workplace. They even have a section for specific industries. In addition, staying compliant with OSHA’s guidelines on Occupational Heat Exposure  prevents workers from getting heat related illness. It also prevents them from missing work and you from getting fined. Keep everyone safe so neither you nor your employees end up paying the price.

Prevention is great, but actual insurance for temporary employees is still a must. You don’t need to spend hours translating all the legalese. We’ve already done it and know just what businesses need to do to stay compliant with insurance regulations. PayReel  eliminates guesswork and frees you up to get you back to doing the creative work you love. Click here  to speak to us! 

The post How to open business/go back to work safely appeared first on PayReel .

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Em-dash  —  —

En-dash  – —

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