by admin | Mar 27, 2020 | COVID-19, Human Resources
Question:
What’s the difference between a furlough and a layoff?
Answer:
First, you should note that the language used when sending employees home for a period of time is less important than communicating your actual intent. Since temporary layoffs and furloughs are only used regularly in certain industries (usually seasonal), you should not assume that employees will know what they mean. Be sure to communicate your plans for the future, even if they feel quite uncertain or are only short-term.
Furlough
A furlough continues employment, but reduces scheduled hours or requires a period of unpaid leave. The thought process is that having all employees incur a bit of hardship is better than some losing their jobs completely. For example, a company may reduce hours to 20 per week for a period of time as a cost-saving measure, or they may place everyone on a two-week unpaid leave. This is typically not considered termination; however, you may still need to provide certain notices to employees about the change in the relationship, and they would likely still be eligible for unemployment.
If the entire company won’t be furloughed, but only certain employees, it is important to be able to show that staff selection is not being done for a discriminatory reason. You’ll want to document the non-discriminatory business reasons that support the decision to furlough certain employees and not others, such as those that perform essential services.
Layoff
A layoff involves terminating employment during a period when no work is available. This may be temporary or permanent. If you close down completely, but you intend to reopen in the relatively near future or have an expected reopening date—at which time you will rehire an employee, or all employees—this would be considered a temporary layoff. Temporary layoffs are appropriate for relatively short-term slowdowns or closures. A layoff is generally considered permanent if there are no plans to rehire the employee or employees because the slowdown or closure is expected to be lengthy or permanent.
Pay for Exempt Employees (those not entitled to overtime)
Exempt employees do not have to be paid if they do no work at all for an entire workweek. However, if work is not available for a partial week for an exempt employee, they must be paid their full salary for that week, regardless of the fact that they have done less work. If the point is to save money (and it usually is), it’s best to ensure that the layoff covers the company’s established 7-day workweek for exempt employees. Make it very clear to exempt employees that they should do absolutely no work during any week you’re shut down. If exempt employees do any work during that time, they will need to be paid their normal weekly salary.
Pay for Non-Exempt Employees (those entitled to overtime)
Non-exempt employees only need to be paid for actual hours worked, so single day or partial-week furloughs can be applied to them without worrying about pay implications.
We recommend that you engage in open communication with the affected employees before and during the furlough or temporary layoff period.
Originally posted on ThinkHR.com
by admin | Mar 19, 2020 | Human Resources, Work From Home
It’s been said the ongoing COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak has created the largest remote work experiment ever devised. In fact, there are many recently documented cases where companies have asked at least some of their employees to work from home. Three of those companies are Amazon, Twitter and Microsoft.
Remote work, of course, is not something new. In the past, remote work has been largely reserved for customer service representatives but that’s changed now with remote work being a reality for many different industries across the board. There’s been a 173 percent increase in people working remotely since 2005. Additionally, 75 percent of workers say they’re more productive at home. The reasons:
- Fewer distractions
- Less commuting
- Lower instances of office politics
The coronavirus aside, there are some real challenges for HR when it comes to looking after a remote workforce. Chief among them is the strategy for keeping those remote employees engaged the company.
Remote Work
Employee Engagement
Employee engagement is not an easy thing to accomplish. By and large, it really depends on the type of organization and the type of workers typically employed by said organization. What works for one doesn’t necessarily work for the other. When a company then adds remote workers into the mix, one can see how it gets more difficult to see success in a strategy.
In some ways, it’s easy for human resources to develop this idea remote workers don’t need engagement. The opposite is actually true. Remote workers tend to be very productive. Most statistics back up this claim. A solid remote worker is typically described as:
- Self-Disciplined
- Adaptable
- Flexible
- Strong communicators
- Independent
- Confident
- Reliable
Even with all of that said, remote works want to feel like they belong with the company. It’s imperative they believe they are important and valued members of the company culture and its community. Remote workers, just like on-site workers, are susceptible to certain trends such as leaving the organization within the first year and leaving to pursue career advancement opportunities.
Facilitating Remote Work
All of that said, there are things company leaders and managers can do to set the engagement of the remote workforce on the right path.
- Expectations
The whole point of remote work is not having to go into the office. As such flexible work scheduling is typically a piece of the overall remote working strategy. To be more to the point – workers probably aren’t working a 9-to-5 shift if they’re off-site. That being said, managers can set particular expectations such as times the employee is expected to be “on the clock.” Some people refer to these as “busy hours” or “office hours.” It’s during this time remote workers should be expected to be prompt in their responses to emails and phone calls as well as be available to collaborate with the team.
- Inclusion
Normally when the word inclusion is used, it’s in connected to diversity. In this particular instance, the focus is not on the inclusion of workers from any other perspective than the fact they are part of a team. If a team is meeting at the office to discuss strategy or anything for that matter, remote workers should be allowed to participate. They should actually be expected to do so. With tools such as Zoom and Skype available, there’s no reason they should not be included in the conversation.
- Rewards
In a lot of instances, brick-and-mortar employees tend to think remote workers don’t work nearly as much. That’s actually a misconception. In most instances, remote workers work longer hours than those in the office; about 46 hours a week. That being said, it’s important to reward these workers. If they are hitting their goals, that needs to be recognized.
Productivity Case Study
One area where companies tend to cringe when it comes to remote work is in productivity. There are some real fears presented from leaders with respect to workers not being as productive when working from home as compared to those brick-and-mortar employees. Some of it, like it or not, stems from the need some leaders have with respect to seeing their direct reports work. Is this fear founded or unfounded? If the results of one case study (and several others) are to be believed, the answer is definitely unfounded.
Look to CTrip, China’s largest travel agency. A professor from Stanford studies whether or not remote work was “beneficial or harmful for productivity.” It took two years to complete the study and what the professor found is a profound increase in productivity for a group of remote workers over their in-office counterparts. It wasn’t all “sunshine and rainbows”, however. Those remote workers did report an increase in feeling lonely and many reported they didn’t want to work from home all the time. In the end, the recommendation was to create a hybrid of sorts; one that balanced working from home and in the office.
In summation
Here’s what we know. Right now, there are some 26 million Americans who work, at least part of the time, from home. And that number is only going to grow. According to a report from Buffer, 99 percent of employees say they want to work from home some of the time for the rest of their careers. Additionally, IWG says their research indicates 80 percent of workers would choose a position with flexible work over one that didn’t offer the benefit.
It can only be hypothesized the COVID-19 pandemic will continue to push employers to test the boundaries of remote working. In doing so, they will have to take a very hard look at their current employee engagement strategies to ensure workers still feel connected to the organization and each other. While it’s not the single most important thing when it comes to continued profitability, especially in an economy rocked by a worldwide coronavirus outbreak, it will go a long way to ensuring companies can continue delivering on business promises and supporting the bottom line and the company workforce.
By Mason Stevenson
Originally posted on hrexchangenetwork.com
by admin | Mar 10, 2020 | Human Resources, Workplace
March Madness is upon us, and there is no avoiding it. Selection Sunday, when the NCAA Division 1 Men’s Basketball Committee announces which 68 teams made the 2020 tournament, is March 15th. Games begin with the First Four on March 17th and 18th and culminate with the Final Four April 4th and the 2020 NCAA championship game on April 6th.
While this annual event can impact productivity, employers may find that the positive effects it has on team engagement and camaraderie outweigh any negatives. Consider these facts from both sides of the coin:
- An estimated $1.9 billion is lost in workplace productivity during a typical March Madness tournament. (Challenger, Gray & Christmas)
- Employees will spend 25.5 minutes per workday on March Madness, for a total of 6 hours spread over the 15 workdays when games will be played. (OfficeTeam) This includes time spent by 76 percent of employees who admit to checking scores during work hours and 53 percent who watch or follow sporting events on their computers while at work. (Randstad)
- As much as $3 billion will be bet on workplace bracket pools during March Madness this year. (FordHarrison) About 40 percent of workers say they have participated in college basketball brackets in their offices, with an average of $22.44 contributed to the pools. (Randstad)
- Nearly 9 in 10 employees said participating in NCAA brackets at work helped build team camaraderie, and 73 percent said they look forward to going to work more when they are part of an office pool. (Randstad)
So how can an employer embrace the fun of March Madness while enforcing the rules it may push the limits of? Whether you view the tournament as a minor distraction that creates an opportunity to boost morale, or as a potential pitfall of legal liability, missed deadlines, and dissatisfied customers, the ball is in your court. Here are five ways to maximize the positive aspects of March Madness while minimizing disruptions.
- Have fun: Make it clear to your employees that you want them to enjoy work and March Madness while not letting the tournament put a full-court press on their work. Encourage employees to wear their favorite team’s clothing and/or decorate their workspace in their team’s colors.
- Watch together: Put televisions in break rooms so that employees have somewhere to watch the games other than the internet. That way, connectivity is not slowed and productivity lost even for those not participating in the Madness activities. Provide snacks for the viewers.
- Be careful with brackets: Organize a company-wide pool with no entry fee to avoid ethical or legal issues surrounding office gambling. Give away a company gift to the pool winner that is not cash. Keep the brackets posted and updated in the break room.
- Be flexible: Allow workers to arrive early so they can work a full shift and still leave in time to see big games that overlap the end of their shift. Conversely, allowing employees to delay their start time the morning after big games may help reduce absenteeism.
- Follow the rules: Review applicable company policies — such as gambling, use of personal electronics and company computers, and work and break hours—with your employees before engaging in any March Madness activities at work, so it will be clear to all what is considered acceptable.
Determine how March Madness fits with your business culture and customer deliverables. If employees are getting their work done, customers are happy, and the biggest problems are reduced internet bandwidth or a little more noise in the cubicles or lunchroom for a couple of days, it’s nothing but net. (See what we did there?) Decide how you’ll be playing this before the opening tipoff and the Madness begins!
By Rachel Sobel
Originally posted on thinkhr.com
by admin | Feb 25, 2020 | Human Resources, Workplace
In 2020, many people with disabilities use the emotional and physical support provided by a service animal. This means that the workplace has seen an increase of these service animals over the last decade and therefore the workforce needs to be educated on this changing environment. Let’s take a look at what constitutes a service animal and the accommodation of such in the workplace.
Americans with Disabilities Act
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) provides a framework of protections for people with disabilities in the workplace. Title I of the ADA prohibits employers from discriminating against potential candidates and employees with disabilities. In fact, Title I outlines that the workplace must make “reasonable accommodations” for this specific group of people. “Examples of reasonable accommodations include making existing facilities accessible; job restructuring; part-time or modified work schedules; acquiring or modifying equipment; changing tests, training materials, or policies; and providing qualified readers or interpreters.”
“Service Animals” Definition
According to the Department of Justice’s revised Title III of the ADA, a service animal is now defined under Title III as “any dog that is individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of an individual with a disability, including a physical, sensory, psychiatric, intellectual or other mental disability. Other species of animals, whether wild or domestic, trained or untrained, are not service animals for the purposes of this definition. The work or tasks performed by a service animal must be directly related to the individual’s disability.” Currently, a “service animal” can also include another species of helper: a trained miniature horse. Of course, there are limitations to what a workplace can accommodate in terms of miniature horses and the employer would make those limitations known if approached with the need of a person with a horse as their assistant.
Accommodation Requests & Documentation
When an accommodation is requested on behalf of a disabled candidate or employee, the employer must consider the request. However, the employer is simply required to assess and suggest options for the reasonable accommodation for the employee. Some examples of job accommodations may include installing a ramp or modifying the layout of a workstation. Technology accommodations may be providing sign language interpreters at events or providing screen reader software. The ADA does not specifically address or require the inclusion of service animals in the workplace. So, if the employer has a no-animals-in-the-workplace policy and is asked to allow a service animal for an employee, the employer must consider modifying this policy but is not required to modify it. A “reasonable accommodation” for an employee does not always equal their “preferred accommodation.”
As for documentation for service animals in the workplace, the ADA does allow for an employer to request medical documentation for the need for the disabled person to need this accommodation. It also allows for the employer to request proof from the employee that the service animal is appropriately trained to assist them and that it is trained to not disrupt the workplace under normal conditions. It is worth noting that an “emotional support animal” is NOT classified as a “service animal” by the ADA unless it can perform a specific task, such as sense when an anxiety attack is about to happen in the case of someone with PTSD and the animal helps avoid or lesson that attack.
Conclusion
Every workplace should have written policies on reasonable accommodations for disabled employees. Of course, there is no way to include all possibilities and so the policies can include the language of consideration of requests on a case-by-case basis. The key to this policy is that those who are in charge of assessing accommodation requests must be willing to truly consider the accommodation of service animals.
Resources
Need help? Check out these resources on workplace accommodations for those with disabilities:
Office of Disability Employment Policy
FAQ about Service Animals and the ADA
Employer Assistance and Resource Network on Disability Inclusion
Job Accommodation Network
by Johnson and Dugan | Feb 14, 2020 | Employee Benefits, Human Resources
City and County of San Francisco Minimum Compensation Ordinance
Any company with 5 or more employees and contracts with the City and County of San Francisco needs to be aware of the wage law that has been in effect for several years, and the recent amendment that now includes stricter enforcement. The Minimum Compensation Ordinance (MCO) covers most City service contractors as well as tenants at the San Francisco International Airport. The law generally requires covered employers to provide to their covered employees:
- No less than the MCO hourly wage in effect:
For contracts entered into on or after October 14, 2017, the minimum hourly compensation rates effective July 1, 2019 are:
- $17.66/hour – For-Profit entity
- $16.50/hour – Non-profit entity
- $16.50/hour – Public entity
For contracts in effect prior to October 14, 2017, the minimum hourly compensation rates effective July 2, 2019 are:
- $15.59/hour for work performed within the City of San Francisco (SF Minimum Wage)
- $10.77/hour for work performed outside of the City of San Francisco
Rates are subject to change, refer to the OLSE website for the most current information: www.sfgov.org/olse/mco
- 12 paid days off per year (or cash equivalent)
Time off allowed for vacation, sick leave, or personal necessity, and part-time employees are allocated paid days off on a prorated basis.
- 10 days off without pay per year.
Days off of for part-time employees are allocated on a prorated basis. The PTO accrual rate is 0.04615 hours per hour worked and can be used as vacation or sick leave. PTO hours are vested and can be cashed out at termination.
Other requirements:
- The employer must post the Minimum Compensation Ordinance poster in a location where employees can read it easily.
- Employees must be provided a Know Your Rights form for signature.
Failure to meet the requirements could result in penalties, with a look-back period of 10 years when a complaint is filed. If you are not in compliance and want to avoid penalties, there are options to minimize your liability. Any audit based on a complaint will include a review of your employee handbook and your payroll records.
To review the November 21, 2019 amended rules, Click Here.
by admin | Jan 14, 2020 | Hot Topics, Human Resources
In today’s business world, there is more pressure than ever to maintain a high rate of growth and reach new revenue goals. And growth usually means hiring.
The work of HR is an important part of that work, especially where fast-growing companies are concerned. There are many reasons why going beyond borders and hiring talent internationally can help a company reach its objectives.
Why International Hiring?
Growing globally Grab Market Share
Over the last ten years or so, companies have seen huge growth, but they’re starting to exceed their size regionally. As a result, companies are hiring internationally to take advantage of new markets and job applicant pools.
Debbie Millin is the Chief Operating Officer for Globalization Partners, the organization behind the Global Expansion PlatformTM. Millin says one popular way companies kickstart their expansion is by hiring sales people in new countries where they want to expand. At the end of the day, companies need to grab global market share and hiring those workers is a good way to start.
Competitive Advantage
Millin says companies are going global earlier and faster than they used to, because if they don’t, someone else can use the idea and set up an in-country competitor. One example: Didi and Uber. Uber didn’t get into the market quickly enough and lost out to Didi.
Accessing a larger applicant pool
Millin says you must go to the talent. As the world continues to develop, it’s going to feel much smaller than it does now. Organizations must start looking outside their current regional offices to scout the best talent available. Unemployment rates are low, and hiring is competitive so staying in your own backyard could severely limit the talent pool.
The Contractor Trap
But acquiring international talent does not necessarily mean hiring contractors. This is one of the common mistakes companies make. Leaders identify great talent in a place like Brazil or France and attempt to hire those workers. The only problem? International contractor laws are the same as those in the United States; if the person acts like an employee, they are an employee. Following this action opens the company up to significant legal risk and financial penalties.
Falling into “the contractor trap” really is a trap, because it’s not always easy to get out. If the relationship with the contractor begins to deteriorate, they could easily expose the working arrangement to the authorities, and you could potentially owe back taxes, fines, unpaid benefits and more.
When companies are truly ready to go after the best global talent, hiring full-time makes the most sense. The best talent wants a full-time role, with benefits, and opportunities for growth.
Where’s the growth?
Based on data from Globalization Partners, Millin says the following 10 countries are at the top when it comes to expansion.
- Canada
- UK
- Singapore
- Mexico
- China
- Australia
- Brazil
- Germany
- India
- South Korea
The UK tends to be the first stop after Canada 90% of the time, but that’s changing with Brexit. Companies are more hesitant to enter the UK of with the uncertainty of what Brexit will bring, showing how important it is for companies to be aware of the social and political issues in a country as you plan your global expansion.
Millin says for HR professionals at companies that have decided to take advantage of the many opportunities associated with global growth, the next step is to figure out how to make it happen.
The Process
Decide whether to set up shop in another country
Opening a compliant business entity in any country is challenging – and some are much harder than others. If the company chooses to set up a branch office or wholly-owned subsidiary, it can take six months to a year, or longer, before the company is legally able to operate in the region, not to mention several thousands of dollars.
Plus, leaders will need to know about local registrations, bank accounts, corporate/tax filings, administering compliant payroll and benefits in country, and more. Some of the “gotchas” to look out for include bank account setup – it can take months. And some countries require in-person signatures. It’s not always feasible to be physically in-country throughout the entity set-up process.
Lack of At-Will Employment
In the United States, companies can hire and fire at will – as long as the reason for termination isn’t illegal. Outside of the U.S., this is an unknown concept. Employers must prove that an employee dismissal is legally justified, and in many countries, that is difficult to do, and evidence must be documented.
If legal process aren’t followed properly, the company can open itself up to a wrongful termination lawsuit, which can be vastly more expensive, and take years to resolve.
No One-Size-Fits-All Solution
Benefits vary from country-to-country and from individual-to-individual. A global company must adhere to the idiosyncrasies of each country’s laws and customs and still offer “equal” benefits to all employees.
On the plus side, so many countries have statutory benefits plans that in some locations your company may not need to provide supplementary benefits at all.
Understanding the local market norms can help you stand out as an employer of choice.
For global teams, HR should shape equitable benefit offerings around perks that maximize the quality of life for the company’s employees within the context of their own culture. Research what benefits are most valued in a particular location, and what other employers are offering in that market beyond what is required. This helps the company stay competitive, and gives the candidate confidence from the very first interaction with your company.
But all of this takes time, as well as local knowledge and expertise, which can put additional burden on in-house HR teams who are managing the process alone.
Going Forward
So what are the options? One solution to expanding internationally is to use a Global Employer of Record. An employer of record is an organization that serves as the employer for tax purposes, while the employee performs their work at a different company.
Specifically, an Employer of Record such as Globalization Partners helps:
- Onboard employees in over 170 countries
- Manage payroll and taxes – compliantly
- Navigate the complexities of local benefits, PTO, and bonus structures
Working with a Global Employer of Record provides a quick time-to-market, until you reach a critical mass in country, or you can continue with this model indefinitely depending on your business.
By Mason Stevenson
Originally posted on hrexchangenetwork.com
