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Author: SweeterHR

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COVID-19

COVID-19 Retaliation Claims

COVID-19 Retaliation Claims

Employers are facing numerous challenges regarding laws and policies due to the COVID-19 pandemic. There is a constant need to remain fluid and able to meet the requirements in order to keep employees working on site. Recently, an ever-increasing rise of retaliation claims have been filed from employees who allege they were disciplined or discharged for complaining about health or safety concerns relating to COVID19.

Employees are filing complaints regarding issues with personal protective equipment, social distancing, and other health and safety measures during the pandemic. After the complaints were made, many employers were faced with the necessity of changing or reducing hours, cutting pay, or terminating employees due to decline in business. This exacerbates the issue as some employees feel like they are being retaliated against.

How do you protect yourself and navigate these issues? Be transparent with your workforce and take complaints seriously and address with the employee/s to show you are listening and you understand their issues. Follow up with employees and your workforce to let them know next steps and what they can expect.

Always make sure any reduction in force is notated due to business reasons and not tied to any complaints (documentation is key). Having an HR consultant review your documents and proposed staff reductions is a great safeguard to minimize your risk and exposure!

Categories
Human Resources

Why hiring an Experienced HR Consultant in California is Important

CA HR Consultant

California is an employee friendly state which means being an employer in California is tricky. The employee laws are vast. Having a California specialized and experienced HR Consultant to ensure you are compliant is extremely important.

Did you know that if an hourly employee misses a break you owe them a meal penalty premium? This even applies if an employee takes a short break, shorter than the minimum requirement.

Did you know there are additional fines and penalties for wage and hour violations beyond the above penalty premiums?

Did you know Misclassification of employees as salary exempt or contractors is also very costly?

Why? They often lead to wage and hour claims which rack up back wages, meal penalty premiums, and additional hefty fines. This does not include other issues like workers comp violations for misclassified contractors.

This seems like the extreme, right? Cases like this happen daily to well-meaning companies. To make it more perilous, under PAGA, one employee can sue on behalf of all.

Do you know if your employees are correctly classified?

An experienced HR Consultant can minimize your risk by auditing your practices, give best practice information, ensure you have a compliant handbook and that you are administering policies and procedures correctly (particularly wage and hour issues). They can also help with compensation reviews, retention, and employee engagement strategies all to increase productivity and minimize risk.

What about hiring and terminations? Absolutely!

Experienced HR consultants are available to help with big and little issues that come up so you can focus on the big picture of running your business!

The best part, you do not pay an HR consultant as a full-time employee. There are no payroll taxes, PTO, or benefits. We are there to support you, when you need us. This costs less than a full-time position and provides an unbiased bird’s eye view of your business. We are here for your business when needs arise. We consult and provide proactive best practices when new laws are passed, and we help you plan for the future of your business workforce.

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Uncategorized

In-House or Outsourced HR….What is the best option for my company?

HR Outsource or In-house HR


When considering HR solutions, the biggest thoughts are on company size and the budget you have for HR. HR outsourcing is a great option for small and medium-sized companies that might not have the ability to support a full-time human resources role. Outsourcing allows companies to save money as you are not paying payroll and employment taxes you would by having an internal HR employee.

With outsourcing you have professionals that access advanced HRIS technology, offer benefits admin, ensure compliance, complete compensation reviews, help with hiring and terminations (to name a very few roles).

Outsourcing HR gives you access to trained, certified HR professionals that work with various clients and industries so they are up to date on all employment laws, a

• Training staff
• Payroll administration
• Recruiting
• Benefits administration
• Performance Management
• Risk Management and Safety
• Employment and Labor Law Compliance

On the other hand, having an internal HR employee allows you to have more control over their time and their work since they are an employee. However, you will need ensure they know all the laws and compliance changes and some tasks might beyond their abilities (skill set).

As your company grows your HR responsibilities also grow it is best to be prepared so you are in compliance the whole time. Having HR on hand for consultation before making any big decisions could save you a ton in wrong moves.

How do you hire an HR Consulting Firm or Consultant?

According to SHRM (Society for HR Management) outsourcing some or all HR tasks can have advantages including compliance, better focus on company strategy, and access to tools you might not know exist (HRIS, payroll systems, performance management).

Referrals are always great help in finding a consultant. If there is no referral peer reviews and active LinkedIn and social media could be a good help to see if that person or company is the right match for your company’s needs. Google and Yelp reviews could help in your search too.

Steps to finding your consultant or HR firm:
• Be realistic with your budget
• Meet with the consultant
• Ask for case studies or info on similar industry and sized companies they have worked with
• Be transparent in known needs
• Be open to having an audit…it’s a scary vulnerable word, but sometimes the issues are not right on the surface and addressing those deficiencies could lead to better outcomes. The consultant wants to be a partner and help you focus on your business so it is important for them to gather as much info as possible
• Ask for costs and fees and a plan for the first month, 2nd month and so on

Sometimes there is a lot of work upfront, but once compliance and systems are implemented you can become a well working compliant organization with a consultant to call as things come up and to work on more things as you grow.

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Employee Engagement HR Human Resources

The Transformation of Human Resources

Human Resources

Flipping the script on what HR is and how it has transitioned can be challenging.

When people think of HR, they think of HR as an administrative function that polices employees. HR is so much more! If you currently have HR that is only working on admin and compliance, you are missing out on the best part of HR!
human resources
I remember attending a team house party for work this summer. It included young accountants, Partners, and HR. As the party wore one, a group pulled out Cards Against Humanity and sat down with their margaritas. It was getting late so I started to pack up with a couple of the HR staff so we could get back to our families. As we were leaving, one of the HR staff overheard one of the accounting team members say, ‘Good, HR is leaving! Now we can have fun!” As you can imagine, this was disheartening to the HR employee. She declared, “I like to have fun too!” It was true, the HR team loved to have fun! They are unique, personable, witty, and bold. So why is there a perception that those in HR aren’t fun and like to keep others from having fun?

Overcoming a doldrum view of HR and the people in it, is a task in itself. I get it.

Human resources used to be administrative and punitive. In the past, the HR department was used to police employees, complete paperwork for compliance, and perhaps, give out a day-old birthday cake occasionally. For most, their interactions with HR were mundane and even negative. Some HR departments still operate this way and hinder the proactive, positive, work HR can provide. However human resources have evolved as it should and now is the time to challenge the status-quo of what HR is and isn’t.

Let me state this, HR isn’t boring! Great HR policies increase employee satisfaction, happiness, and engagement in their work. Happier employees go home happy to their families. They aren’t bringing the stress of the day to their children or spouses. Thus,  great HR improves work life which improves home life which improves communities. HR, when proactive and as a business partner, can have a positive impact on businesses and people. It’s time to flip the script on the perception of HR!

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Employee behavior Employee Engagement HR Human Resources Pyschology

Psychology Changes Behavior and Increase Employee Engagement

employee engagement
Are you intrigued how some concepts you learn at school stay with you in absolute clarity while other concepts are lost, it seems, almost instantaneously? One of the concepts that sticks in my mind is Intermittent Reinforcement from my Behavioral Psych class some, uh, 20 years ago.

Let me explain it by painting a picture… Have you watched a screaming child in a grocery store? You know the one, shrilling at the top of his lungs, echoing his voice through the entire store, shaking his fist toward something he wants? Chances are this child is a victim of Intermittent Reinforcement.

employee engagement

Sometimes we, as parents, say “no” to our kid’s initial demand. However, when a child starts to complain louder, sometimes we give in because we’re so exhausted we just don’t want to hear the complaint anymore (or perhaps, after saying “no” we realize our kid was awesome for the day, deserves the treat, and we reverse our first “no”).

Sometimes, we are strong and our “no” means “no”. Sometimes, our “no” may mean “yes”. There isn’t a regular ratio of firm “no” responses to “no”-turned-“yes” responses. Our kids learn that sometimes mom or dad means “no” and sometimes (if they carry on long enough) “no” can be turned into a “yes”. They don’t know when it will happen, but they know there is always a possibility they will get what they want if they try hard enough.

Intermittent Reinforcement strengthens the behavior (screaming) by rewarding that behavior on an unscheduled reward system. We can strengthen employees’ behavior without even knowing it because of intermittent reinforcement. If it isn’t by design, rarely is the behavior that is strengthened positive. Gambling is another example of Intermittent Reinforcement.

Now am I suggesting Intermittent Reinforcement is the best design for employees? Not always. But it is a form of Positive Reinforcement which is an effective tool in your employee management toolbox.

Using psychology to strengthen employee behavior in a positive, engaging way, is a no brainer. When a client comes to me with employee issues. I don’t think about the behavior we want to eliminate. I think about the behavior we want to create. I then start to create a policy to reward the desired behavior. The rewards don’t have to be expensive. It should be something your employees care about. This is why I discuss on my website the importance of knowing what your employees’ value and why they work. Sometimes I create a reward system that is multi-prong, to hit different values of different people. Using a reward system encourages buy in and creates excitement which increases engagement.

Operant Conditioning: Positive, Negative, Reinforcement, and Punishment

Reinforcement is any action that increases behavior. Punishment is an action that reduces a behavior. Reinforcement and punishment can both be positive or negative. Positive is the addition of something that changes behavior. Negative is the removal of something that changes behavior. In regard to HR, Positive Reinforcement is adding an extra benefit (PTO, bonus…) to encourage a behavior (bringing in new customers, not exceeding current PTO, retention).

Negative Reinforcement is the removal of an annoying or unpleasant stimulus in response to a desired behavior. I see this with micromanagers who tell their employees “freedom must be earned”. The micromanagement is an annoying action that the employee wants to remove. Employees work hard not because they are inspired to do so but because they want to remove the stress of micromanagement.

Punishment is not like negative reinforcement, although many mistake it as the same. Positive punishment is adding an undesirable stimulus (like micromanagement-picking on micromanagement today) when an employee underperforms. The addition of a stimulus looked at as negative, removes the behavior, underperforming. Negative Punishment is removing a stimulus to decrease behavior. This is akin to taking away a toy when a child misbehaves.

Overall, Positive Reinforcement is the most effective way to increase behavior. As you can understand, some of the operant conditioning functions will only decrease trust and anger your employees, decreasing engagement, decreasing productivity, and increasing turnover. This is a main reason why micromanagement is rarely an effective management technique. It offers results, but it also harbors anger and distrust and doesn’t empower employees to adjust their behavior in a positive fashion.

So next time you want to reduce a behavior in your employees, think about the opposite, the behavior you want to encourage and find a way that appeals to your employees to reward the behavior. This will make your life easier and your employees happier!