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HR MATTERS E-TIPS
THIS WEEK’S E-TIP: 8 HR Best Practices to Advance Your Career
Published by Personnel Policy Service, Inc.
"Your Policy and Compliance Experts Since 1972"
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THIS WEEK’S E-TIP: 8 HR Best Practices to Advance Your Career
2008 is in full swing. Here are eight actions you can take to boost
employee morale and improve legal compliance this year. |
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THIS WEEK’S E-TIP: 8 HR Best Practices to Advance Your Career
The New Year is only a few weeks old, so you still have time to make
significant changes in your work environment by identifying old
barriers
to success and replacing them with new, more effective behaviors.
The
eight suggestions on the “To Do” list that follows are based on
common
sense and are relatively easy to implement. Plus, when executed
properly, they can have a strong impact on your effectiveness.
On the one hand, they are designed to build morale and improve
overall
employee relations and on the other to limit corporate liability.
Either
way, you are taking action to set a positive tone while improving
professional standards.
- Make sure employees get feedback on a regular basis.
Once-a-year evaluations are not enough. Employees should receive
regular input from their supervisors. These discussions should
typically
focus on day-to-day performance objectives rather than on past
mistakes
or failures. This approach requires supervisors to observe and
evaluate
their employees regularly and to work closely with targeted
individuals,
as needed. In addition, make sure your managers give positive
feedback for a job well done.
- Terminate poorly performing or disruptive employees.
This advice is an obvious companion to the first suggestion.
However,
many managers are unwilling to terminate an employee even when the
action is justified. The most common reason is the fear of being
sued,
but others include organizational inertia, fear of confrontation,
and
concern for the employee’s economic well being.
However, if you allow a poorly performing or disruptive employee
to
continue working, productivity and efficiency will suffer and
discontent
will spread. You can help limit the possibility of legal claims
and make
yourself more comfortable with taking decisive action by following
your
normal disciplinary process before you terminate. For most
employers
this process includes:
-- Giving notice to the employee of the specific performance
problems
and the consequences of not improving;
-- Establishing goals for improvement;
-- Setting a reasonable timeframe for meeting the goals (normally
two
weeks to 30 days);
-- Following up to see if there is improvement; and
-- Terminating the employee if the goals have not been met.
- Pay overtime, even when you do not think it was properly
authorized.
One of the surest ways to provoke a wage and hour claim is not to
pay
employees properly for overtime they have worked. According to
Department of Labor (DOL) regulations, if you are aware that an
employee is working more time than is scheduled, you must
compensate
the employee, even if you did not specifically request the
additional work.
For example, if your policy requiring prior authorization for
overtime work
was not followed but a manager was aware the employee performed
the
work, you should pay for the overtime. You may, however,
discipline the
employee (and manager) under your normal disciplinary procedures
for
violating your work rule prohibiting unauthorized overtime.
- Make sure your
exempt employees (free download) are really
exempt.
Over the last few years, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)
exemptions have been the subject of several high-profile overtime
cases,
often involving employees who were managers in name only or
administrative employees who performed primarily nonexempt job
duties.
Starbucks, RadioShack, Abercrombie & Fitch, and Family Dollar
stores
all have been targeted by class action suits alleging employees
were
improperly classified as exempt and seeking millions of dollars in
unpaid
overtime.
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To ensure that your organization is not the next target of a
multi-million
dollar lawsuit or settlement, you should review the job duties of
your
exempt employees to make sure they are properly classified. In
particular, make sure that their primary duties meet exemption
requirements and that they are not spending too much time doing
nonexempt work.
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- Review your independent contractor classifications.
Independent contractor classifications are another area that put
employers at risk. As a general rule, if you exercise too much control
over the way a worker performs his job, the worker likely is an
employee
and not an independent contractor. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
has collected millions in back taxes and penalties from employers who
improperly classified employees as independent contractors.
And, the IRS is not the only agency that will be after you. State
labor,
revenue, and unemployment compensation agencies have their own
definitions of independent contractor, as does the federal Department
of
Labor and the National Labor Relations Board. As an example, Federal
Express is facing multiple state and federal lawsuits challenging its
classification of home delivery drivers as independent contractors and
alleging violations of the National Labor Relations Act, Family and
Medical Leave Act, and state unemployment and tax laws.
Therefore, you should make it a priority to examine your independent
contractor classifications. A good starting point is to look at the
IRS 20-
factor test for classifying
independent contractors (free download).
- Consider implementing flexible work schedules.
If you asked your employees, most would probably say that they would
appreciate more flexibility in their schedules. Flexible work hours
help
employees meet caregiver responsibilities, avoid commuting headaches,
and pursue personal interests. In short, these schedules allow
employees to balance their work and personal lives. A flextime
schedule
often appeals to women with young children, “sandwich generation”
employees with eldercare responsibilities, and older workers
transitioning
to retirement. But, it is also a benefit that can be used by any
employee
who is looking for more control over the workday. Employers that have
implemented these schedules generally report increased productivity,
job
satisfaction, and employee retention.
- Safeguard employee personal information.
Data security,
records privacy, and identity theft should be on every
HR
professional’s radar. Employers from many sectors have been in the
news lately for losing employee and customer personal information. For
example, according to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse (online at
www.privacyrights.org), just last week a computer tape containing
Social
Security numbers for 150,000 customers of J.C. Penney and about 100
other retailers was discovered missing. And in late December 2007,
laptops containing personal identifying data, including Social
Security
numbers, from 337,000 voters in Tennessee were stolen. And these
incidents are just the tip of the iceberg. The Privacy Rights
Clearinghouse recently reported that over 127 million records
containing
personal identifying information were exposed in 2007 alone.
When data breaches or identity theft occur as a result of unauthorized
access to employment records, it will hurt employee productivity,
morale,
and good will. In addition, you may be liable under negligence
theories,
and some state laws, for the resulting loss if you did not properly
secure
and dispose of the information. Therefore, as the custodian of
personal
identifying information about your employees, you must guard against
its
unauthorized access and misuse in order both to protect workers from
identity theft and your organization from liability.
You can take several steps to safeguard paper and computer records to
protect sensitive information in workplace files from improper access
and
use. These steps should include: limiting access to employee files,
physically locking up files, installing and updating firewalls on
computers,
limiting use of social security numbers for identification of
employees,
and properly destroying employment files once they are not needed. In
addition, you should perform background checks for all employees who
will have access to sensitive personal information and then train them
about their data security obligations.
- Review your HR policies and procedures.
Clearly written policies that are regularly reviewed can be both an
effective employee relations tool and a good defense against employee
lawsuits. In contrast, policies that are out-of-date or improperly
applied
can have exactly the opposite effect.
So, make sure that your policies reflect any new laws, regulations,
and
court cases that affect either policy language or how you implement
the
policies. Most experts suggest both a thorough review at least once a
year and the use of a notification service or publication to keep you
posted during the interim. Of course, if you revise any of your
policies,
you should distribute and thoroughly explain the changes to all
employees and obtain acknowledgements back from them.
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ From Your HR Matters E-Tips Editors
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Subscribers to the
Personnel Policy Manual (print/online) and HR Policy Answers on
CD can find more information about termination procedures in
Termination of Employment, Chapter 211, and about overtime and
exemptions in Hours of Work, Chapter 207. For information on
independent contractor classification, see Pay Procedures, Chapter
305,
and for information on safeguarding employee personal information,
see
Personnel Records, Chapter 901, notes 3 and 14.
Not a subscriber? If you would like to order one of our policy
chapters,
go to:
http://www.hrpolicyanswers.com.
If you have any questions, please call us at 1-800-437-3735. We'll
be
happy to help you. |
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encouraged to seek appropriate legal or other professional advice.
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