Optimum HR Systems

Optimal Knowledge: The Resilience Issue

The new issue of Optimal Knowledge is about resilience. Here is an excerpt from the leading article of Anita Ryan: “At The Crossroads: The Keys to Organizational Resiliency”: “American businesses, large and small truly are at a crossroads. Those organizations resilient enough to have survived the longest economic downturn since the Great Depression are now faced with dual dilemmas that could challenge their continuing success. On the one hand the uncertain global financial situation requires businesses of all types to maintain vigilance related to cash reserves, workforce expansions and internal project investment. On the other hand in certain sectors there has been an easing of recession pressures. An increase in sales has been accompanied by a simultaneous rise in external customer demands and an internal strain on human resources that are already at a breaking point.

The layoffs and hiring freezes that were required at the height of the recession placed an ongoing burden on remaining employees. Increased hours and productivity demands could be sustained for a certain period of time. However, now that 3 years have passed, top employees (and they are the top employees because lower performing workers were cut at the beginning of the downturn process) who have not been sufficiently supported are beginning to respond to the call of recruiters from competing businesses. Suddenly these hard working top-notch people are saying “enough” and considering other options.

Although businesses want to maintain the fast reacting strategies that have enhanced their survival capabilities, now is the time to pull some mid and long terms strategy tools out of their organizational toolboxes.The loss of underappreciated highly skilled key employees is as big a danger to continued corporate resiliency as are poorly constructed or executed sales and marketing plans. So what are these tools?...” Keep reading... 

Simple solutions to potentially big problems

By Richard Warren

Recently, three articles in the HR press have shown that the consequences of bypassing commonly accepted HR best practices can have significant impact on employers.

The first article is about the increased, record number of charges filed with the EEOC: almost 100,000 new charges in 2011 and more than $364 million in back pay and penalties due to discrimination on the workplace. That combined with the $170 million in monetary benefits that the EEOC private-sector national mediation program collected for plaintiffs, puts the total penalties above one half billion dollars. 

The second article is about the new legislation on age discrimination. On November 16th, a final regulation was approved which establishes that “an employment practice that adversely impacts older workers is discriminatory unless the practice is justified by a “reasonable factor other than age” (RFOA). This rule compliments the ADEA (Age Discrimination in Employment Act from 1967 and gives more precise interpretation on RFOA, as well as emphasizes a list of factors that can determine if a case will be viewed as an age discrimination matter. (See full text of the rule) 

The third article explains that gender related compensation disparities still exist in the workplace: The U.S. Office of Accountability states: “Women in general have surpassed men in obtaining education over the last three decades, but on average, women with a high school degree or less earned lower hourly wages than men with the same level of education…Even when less-educated women and men were in the same broad industry or occupation category, these women's average hourly wage was lower than men's. GAO estimated that in 2010, less-educated women earned 86 cents--compared with 81 cents in 2000--for every dollar men earned, after adjusting for available factors that may affect pay.” (Read more here)

Age discrimination cases, resolved by the EEOC in 2010 were 63% greater than 10 years ago (24,800 vs. 15,155 respectively), representing almost 25% of all claims filed and resulting in $93 million of monetary benefits paid (see stats here). Gender discrimination was slightly more expensive - $129.3 million, and 30,914 resolutions in 2010. (See full statistics here).

Simple tools can dramatically reduce your risk of problems such as those outlined in the above articles. When was the last time you conducted a HR practice assessment? Updated your employer handbook? Reviewed your protocols for handling allegations of employment related discrimination?
If you would like to discuss any of these issues in more detail, please contact our compliance expert, Katie Birthler. 

 

New Years Resolutions for 2011? …Updating the Employee Handbook should be high on the list!

By Katie Birthler, SPHR

Given the current political climate of unprecedented changes in employment law regulations at both the federal and state levels over the past couple years, reviewing and updating the Employee Handbook should be a high priority for the Company as we head into the New Year.

Clearly written policies that are regularly reviewed can be both an effective employee communications 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.

Compliance Changes

Review and update your Employee Handbook to make sure that your policies reflect any new laws, regulations, and court cases that affect policy language and/or how you administer Company policies.

In the last two years, new laws and regulation changes included, but were not limited to, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA), the ADA Amendments Act (final regulations still pending), the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) Amendments, Minnesota Voting Time regulations, .and the list goes on...

Why do I need an Updated Employee Handbook?An updated handbook is needed for the following reasons:

• To promote the mission, vision and core values of the organization;
• To facilitate uniform administration of employment policies, practices and procedures and insure consistency of treatment;
• Insure Company compliance with all applicable federal and state employment regulations;
• To reduce the risk of unlawful discrimination claims
• To reduce perceptions of unfairness that can affect employee morale
• Provide clear guidance to managers and supervisors to enable effective response to employee issues.
• To enable new employees to understand the organization and expectations
• To provide guidance for policy interpretation and resolution of employee complaints

Contents of an Employee Handbook

An Employee Handbook should be customized to fit the size and type of organization and should address the unique needs and situations of your business. “One size fits all” does not apply, and in fact, this is a very dangerous approach. A common misperception is that there is a standard template where you can just fill in the blanks and you’re good to go.

Insure Accountability

It is very important to hold all managers and supervisors accountable in order to insure consistency and fairness in administration and enforcement of policies, guidelines and procedures. Lawsuits are often won or lost on this factor alone. Many lawsuits are filed based on perceptions of unfairness. If one manager complies with a policy and another manager is more lenient and doesn’t comply, employees will be quick to point this out. Potential legal liability can be created when the Company publishes policies and then fails to follow them.  

Conclusion

An updated Employee Handbook will provide peace of mind by insuring compliance and protecting the Company against potential legal liability. Add it to the top of your New Years resolutions today!

Resources

There’s a lot that goes into the development of an updated, legally compliant Employee Handbook customized to fit the organization. To expedite the process, consider engaging a qualified HR consultant to work with the organization in reviewing and updating your Employee Handbook.  

Optimum HR Systems is available to review existing handbooks and provide recommendations for revision, to help develop an Employee Handbook customized to your Company or organization, to develop specific individual policies and/or to provide guidance on policy interpretation and administration. 

The Bottom Line Issue of Optimal Knowledge

 The Evolution of HR  - part two

Evolution is a constant in HR – driven by natural changes in employee/employer relationships and accelerated by economic, political and societal change. For the last year, the economy’s effect on enterprises – small, medium and large  - plus dizzying technology advancements have forced HR professionals to take a hard look at their approaches to human capital management. At Optimum HR Systems we encounter these evolutionary changes every day with every client. This newsletter highlights what we’re seeing and learning.  

In a recent survey (Download the file here), 75% of respondents rated “unsatisfactory” U.S. workforce skills for coping with the work challenges presented by our new economy. Yet, in the same survey only 25% of responding companies offer appropriate training programs for their employees. In this issue Anita Ryan discusses how to set training priorities and how to achieve better employee training/development outcomes more effectively than with traditional approaches.

And speaking of employee development (or lack thereof), we’re all familiar with “toxic employees.” But do most bring these “toxic” behaviors in the door with them–or do poorly designed processes precipitate most toxic behaviors? Dick Lee’s articles show why HR professionals should be taking a leadership role in process improvement to curb toxic tendencies, rather than over-relying on “toxic screening” during the interview process.

You are welcome to download the entire "Bottom Line" issue of Optimal Knowledge here.

Introducing Kathleen A. Birthler, SPHR

The newest member of Optimum HR Systems consortium is Kathleen A. Birthler. Katie has over twenty-five years of extensive business management and human resources experience. She specializes in the design, development and implementation of a broad range of strategic Human Resources solutions integrated with the mission, vision and values of the business. She specializes in HR Practice Assessments, Custom Tailored Employee Handbooks, and our Employee Relations Hotline.

Katie holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Personnel Development with certificates of specialization in Industrial Relations and Vocational Training and Development from the University of Minnesota.  Katie is a certified Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR), a member of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), and a member of the Twin Cities Human Resource Association (TCHRA).

In her career she worked to improve HR practices in manufacturing, business or retail.

 
Katie’s positive attitude leads her to solve HR issues with companies large and small in a wide variety of industries. The vast spectrum of her experience includes:
•    Serving as VP of Human Resources for a Fortune 200 company, where her diligence and work ethic won her the organizations top award, the Chairman’s Circle award.
•    Teaching the Senior Professional in Human Resources Certification class at the University of Minnesota and various HR seminars
•    Developing Libretto: Sensible HR, a comprehensive web-based Human Resources Assessment and Forms Library.
•    Personally delivering practical guidance through her HR Hotline service; and,
•    Founding KTB Resources, her own thriving business consulting practice of 15 years.

Clients include: ATS Medical, DecoPac, Inc., IDQ (International Dairy Queen), Old Dutch Foods, Oxygen Service Company, Wireless Ronin Technologies.

Let's welcome Katie and wish her success in Optimum HR Systems!