Flexible Work Hours Can Trap You

Flex time — giving employees flexible schedules — is popular. So what could be wrong with letting employees have flexible hours? Like so many issues in the workplace, flex time can create traps for employers. To find out what they are, keep reading.

Flexible Work Hours Can Trap You

You want to be a good employer. You realize some of your employees need some flexible hours and flexible days because of the demands of young children.

So you adopt a flexible schedule policy for working parents. You allow employees with young children to arrange with their supervisors for flexible schedules.

You’ve just created a potential swamp of quicksand to get trapped in.

Won’t some other employees want flexible hours to be with their grandchildren? And how about hunting season in the fall? Won’t some employees want flexible hours during this time?

Next, some of your employees with aging parents may ask for flexible hours to better adjust their schedules so they can care for their mothers and fathers. And, of course, employees with older children will want flexible hours now and then to attend important events with their children.

The Americans with Disabilities Act and the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and similar state laws require employers to treat employees equally with any policies they have for disabled employees, pregnant employees and employees qualifying for FMLA leave. It’s smart, also, to treat all employees as equally as possible when it comes to a flexible schedule policy.

Two Approaches to Consider

1. Allow supervisors to approve flexible schedules for employees whose work performance meets — and maintains — a defined and better-than-average level of performance.
2. Allow supervisors to approve flexible schedules for any employee when doing so does not harm the employee’s performance, and when it is in the best interest of the employer to do so.

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HR: Used to having this resource but now find yourself without it ?

Now you may find yourself owning or managing a smaller business where the expertise of HR is missing or being juggled between staff members or an employee who is wearing the HR hat, but might not have the complete skill set or the time to do it right.

 

Used to having this resource but now find yourself without it ?

Have you ever worked at a company that had an HR (Human Resource) or Personnel department? Answers were always right around the corner in the HR department. Although the answers were not always the one you wanted to hear, you had a resource that could resolve questions and keep the company in check when it came to employment law, policies and procedures, benefits, payroll, workers compensation, unemployment and employee issues.

Now you may find yourself owning or managing a smaller business where the expertise of HR is missing or being juggled between staff or an employee, who is wearing the HR hat, but might not have the complete skill set or the time to do it right.

This is the exact situation where Vision HR can impact your business the most. How?

Vision HR is a single portal vendor that has seasoned and licensed experts in HR to quickly impact your HR program, ensure compliance, surround your staff with knowledge and execute vital HR procedures ongoing. You will not only improve your work place environment, but increase productivity and profitability by reducing the amount of time you spend on employee related tasks.Just because your not as large as the company that had a fully functional HR department does not exempt your business from following the same employment law.  Vision HR helps you get where you need to be without having to hire the expertise on your staff.

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Anticipating a Termination? Avoid the Legal Hazards

Chances are you don’t fire people often. If this is true, you might be a little rusty on the best way to handle the situation to make it run as smoothly as possible. Many books have been dedicated to this topic, but here are a few basic reminders to make the best of the situation.

Anticipating a Termination? Avoid the Legal Hazards

The principal cause for terminated employees to seek legal redress for what they regard as being treated unfairly is being fired when they didn’t see it coming. It happens more often than you might think. “Imagine if your spouse after 10 years and no complaints suddenly tells you, ‘I’m done, this relationship isn’t working for me anymore'” says Sheryl Jaffee Halpern, a principal in the Labor and Employment Group of the Much Shelist law firm in Chicago. An employee in the equivalent situation would likely be bewildered, hurt — and angry.

Barbara Richman, a senior consultant with HR Mpact in Memphis, refers to terminations as “the capital punishment of the workplace.” Making a termination decision impulsively when emotions are running high, can lead to disaster. Being deliberate, objective and thoughtful is the name of the game, Richman says. Sometimes this is easier said than done when you are really fed up.

 

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Forgiving Bosses Can Set the Stage for Employee Lawsuits

It’s easy to understand why most people prefer to avoid confrontation and sometimes… that’s advisable. However, for supervisors, that is often not an option.  By definition, a supervisor has to do what is necessary whether it is pleasant or not. Keep reading to learn what an employment attorney has to say about the trouble lenient supervisors can create for their companies.

 

Forgiving Bosses Can Set the Stage for Employee Lawsuits

Most people prefer to steer clear of confrontation. But when supervisors take that approach with respect to under-performing employees, they may be setting their employers up for litigation. It doesn’t have to be that way. Learn some lessons from a seasoned employment attorney who has represented hundreds of employers in such cases.

Most supervisors are promoted to that role not on the basis of their leadership abilities, but because they were good employees, according to Chad A. Shultz, a partner in the Atlanta Office of FordHarrison, LLP. That doesn’t mean most can’t become successful supervisors, merely that they need to be trained and, naturally, evaluated according to their performance in that role.

“It’s easy to manage good employees, but really hard to manage those that fall short,” he says. While that statement will not come as a revelation to many, the problem arises when supervisors fail to grasp the legal and employee morale hazards when they, often unconsciously, use “hope as a strategy” for improving employee performance. They merely hope underperforming employees will, spontaneously, address their shortcomings. And when that doesn’t happen, such supervisors hope the employee will quit and take another job elsewhere.

Perceiving Lower Expectations

What typically happens instead, Shultz says, is that the employee grows comfortable with perceived lowered expectations, and other employees observe the lack of consequences for under-performance and begin to question the necessity of performing at higher levels.

The ultimate result is that the supervisor who fails to directly address the underperformance usually begins conveying what Shultz calls “under-the-radar” messages of dissatisfaction to such employees, such as by not inviting them to meetings or lunch. The underperformers interpret these signals not as an indication of a performance issue, but merely that the boss simply does not like them — possibly for illegal reasons: “He doesn’t like me because” of — fill in the blank — my age, religion, race, gender.

Meanwhile, formal performance appraisals of such workers by non-confrontational supervisors often do not give any serious indication of under-performance.

What’s to be done? Shultz and his colleague Sarah P. Wimberly outlined ten rules for preventing lawsuits in a succinct book titled “Manage Employees or Get out of the Way,” available from Ford Harrison. Here are some brief highlights, which for some serve as excellent reminders of proper supervision techniques.

 

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Get Consistent with Discipline

One reason that employers get into legal trouble with their employees is inconsistent discipline and inconsistent reasons for termination. For guidance on getting consistent, as well as wording you should not have in your employee handbook, keep reading.

 

Get Consistent with Discipline

What’s your discipline and termination procedure? Whatever you or any one of your supervisors feels like at the moment? Which means you and they won’t always be consistent?
The danger of an inconsistent, fly-by-the-seat-of-the-pants approach to discipline and termination is this: Inconsistency increases the chances you will lose unemployment cases, and trigger and lose discrimination cases and wrongful discharge lawsuits.

The advantages of having a written policy in your handbook on a discipline and termination procedure are — you and all your supervisors and managers:

1. Agree on a common approach, and
2. Know where to look to refresh your memory and stay consistent.

Generally, discipline policies tell employees what kinds of behavior or violations of rules will result in what kinds of discipline.

Example: You establish three levels of misbehavior (most serious, serious, less serious) and list examples of each. And you establish levels of discipline, depending on the violation (first an oral warning, then a written warning, then a suspension — with or without pay, and finally termination).

And you include qualifying language. Something like this:

“If you engage in behavior seriously detrimental to the interests of your employer, or have repeated violation of rules and policies, your employer may terminate you immediately.”

Most important: If you put your discipline policy in writing, be certain you and your supervisors and managers follow it.

If you ignore it with some employees, but apply it with others, you run the costly risk of losing unemployment, discrimination and wrongful discharge actions.

 

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Guarding Against Unauthorized Overtime

One risk that employers face is the unauthorized overtime trap. What can a business do when some employees seem compelled to work overtime, even when the employer has told them not to? Keep reading to examine several choices.

Guarding Against Unauthorized Overtime

An employer is frustrated because employees are working overtime and ignoring the employer’s request not to do so. Here’s how the employer describes the situation:

Q. “I have a recurring problem regarding employees working overtime. Some employees will arrive early, stay late or maybe take a short lunch break. I have told them I do not want them to work more than 40 hours.

“I even issued a memo telling my employees unless overtime was authorized in advance it would not be paid. Nothing keeps this problem from reoccurring. The surprising part is, the employees who do this are some of my best employees. How do I avoid this unwanted overtime?”

The Answer? Read more […]

Lessen Wrongful Discharge Threat

Countless actions and statements by management and supervisors can create grounds for an employee’s legal action. For seven ways to lessen the threat of courtroom battles, read on.

 

Lessen Wrongful Discharge Threat

You can lessen the risk employees will find reasons to seek a wrongful discharge action against your business or organization.

Here are seven steps to take:

1. Include employment at-will statements on job applications and in employee handbooks. One such statement follows:

   “In consideration of my employment, I agree to conform to the rules and regulations of XYZ Company. I understand that my employment is an at-will relationship. I understand that at the option of either XYZ Company or myself, my employment and compensation can be terminated at any time, with or without cause, with or without advance notice.

   “I also understand that no XYZ Company manager or representative other than the president has authority to enter into any employment agreement for any specified period of time, or to make any agreement contrary to the foregoing.”

   You need to make certain statements on all similar messages which are given to employees conform to this at-will statement.

2. Strike the words “permanent employment” and “permanent employee” from handbooks, applications and job descriptions. Train supervisors to avoid promising or implying permanent employment when they hire workers.

 

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Fending Off Discrimination Charges

You receive an envelope and message from the EEOC or local Human Rights agency. An employee has filed a discrimination charge against you and your business. What’s the first thing you should do? Keep reading to find out.

 

Fending Off Discrimination Charges

You’ve just been handed a letter from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) or Human Rights agency in your community.

The news? You’ve been singled out in a discrimination complaint by a former employee. Here’s what you can do:

1. Get an attorney, a good attorney. In this game, you play with the “big boys.” And you need an attorney whose punches have the same weight behind them as the blows the EEOC or agency may throw your way.
2. Study the complaint. Perhaps it wasn’t filed in a timely manner. Your attorney can ask the EEOC or agency to throw out the charges. Or maybe the complaint is ambiguous. It doesn’t include the names of specific individuals and incidents. Your attorney can request clarification.
3. Investigate. Your attorney should interview witnesses. All statements should be put in writing and signed. Also, pull together all pertinent documents and records.

 

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Is Disciplining Employees a Nightmare?

One of the duties that bosses dislike most is disciplining employees. The thought of having to do this can cause many sleepless nights for employers, managers and supervisors. Actually, the discipline “nightmare” experience doesn’t have to happen. There’s a better way to deal with difficult and troublesome employees. It involves replacing punishment with personal responsibility. To learn how, read on.

 

Is Disciplining Employees a Nightmare?

What is one of the hardest things an employer, manager or supervisor has to do? It’s to sit down with an employee or team member who isn’t meeting expectations — or who is disruptive or belligerent — and tell them they have to shape up. It’s issuing a “warning.” It’s “writing you up.” It’s disciplining!

The boss’s life doesn’t have to be this way. There’s another approach which actually gets better results with most employees. It involves making employees personally responsible for their actions. It’s explained in one of the best-selling management books of the last few years, Discipline Without Punishment by consultant Dick Grote, Dallas, TX.

 

Paid Decision-Making in Georgia

The state of Georgia has used a Paid Decision-Making Leave with employees in several state agencies. Following are some of the results of a survey of supervisors and managers using this “Discipline without Punishment” approach in five state agencies.

How many times has the approach prevented the use of formal discipline? (Of 180 responses.) Every time, 113. More than half the time, 20. About half the time, 13. Less than half the time, 13. Never, 21.

How do you rate the approach as a tool for achieving desired performance? (Of 142 responses.) Very good, 106. No opinion, 28. Marginally useful, 8. Not useful, 0.

Would you return to the old system if you could? (Of 252 responses.) Yes, 31. No, 221.

How would you rate the effectiveness of this approach against the former program of adverse action? (Of 183 responses.) Much more effective, 1. More effective, 109. About the same, 62. Less effective, 10. Much less effective, 1.
Grote’s approach to discipline emphasizes personal responsibility instead of punishment. “Treating a problem employee as an adult with a problem to solve rather than as a child who must be punished for misbehavior greatly increases the likelihood that an adult response will be forthcoming,” Grote has explained.

Three features of Grote’s approach are:

1. Substitute “reminders” for “warnings.”
2. Coach supervisors to handle performance problems in a non-confrontational manner.
3. Replace conventional unpaid disciplinary layoff with a paid “decision-making leave.”

This last step — the paid decision-making leave — is the most important step. The employee, given a paid decision-making leave, is to return the day following the leave with a decision: Either to solve the immediate problem and make a total commitment to acceptable performance in every area of the job… or to quit and find more satisfying work someplace else.

And this is key to the approach: The importance of using a suspension. Grote has explained that the EEOC and other watchdog and legal agencies protecting employees often expect the employer to suspend an employee as a necessary warning measure before a termination. So, suspend the employee… but don’t withhold pay. Paying for the day off demonstrates the employer’s desire to see the employee change and stay. (Of course, if the employee elects to stay, he or she must agree that another disciplinary lapse could result in immediate termination.)

Important Tax Figures for 2014

Every year, the dollar amounts allowed for various federal tax benefits are subject to change based on inflation adjustments and legislation. Here are some important tax figures for 2014, compared with 2013, including the estate tax exemption, Social Security wage base, qualified retirement plan and IRA contribution limits, driving deductions, allowable business write-off amounts and more.

 

Click here to see Important Tax Figures.