PREVIOUS INDUCTEE: SpongeBob Square Pants

Remember back in February when we unveiled hireVision’s inaugural list of inductees to our Cartoon Employee Fall of Fame? (If you don’t, here’s a link to help refresh your memory.) It was a fun, exciting time, wasn’t it? Ah, the good old days.

Well, we are ready to add one new cartoon character to the list. This famous figure displays distinct workforce qualities we in the human resources industry can relate to, good or bad. What’s more he—or she—or it—demonstrates an important factor in employee relations that is either relatable in the real world, or just plain hilarious. The name will be unveiled next week with all the pomp and circumstance befitting such an event. (READ: We’ve got an excuse for a cookie buffet table in our office. Woot! Woot!)

SPOILER ALERT:

OK, there is no spoiler alert. We aren’t telling who it is or giving hints. Surely, the suspense is killing you, so why not relieve some of that tension by leaving us a comment below. Go on…take a guess!

CEO AND LEADERSHIP EXECUTIVE ALERT:

Jackson Lewis LLP and hireVision Group
cordially invite you to our first HR Executive Breakfast Series event
on June 11, 2013

In this program we will be addressing current and progressive human resources laws and initiatives from the leadership level. In this unique setting, a partner from Jackson Lewis and representatives from hireVision will address an overview of subjects and open the floor up to discuss and share ideas, best practices, concerns and more. The invitation is extended to executive leadership individuals to assure we are addressing the issues from this viewpoint. Upon registration, you will be asked to share any topics that may be of interest to you, and we will choose a few to add to our current agenda.

This event is open to the first 25 attendees.

For more information, check out our information page or download our printable flyer.

Questions? Please contact Ramlah Bari at: ramlah.bari@jacksonlewis.com.

How you communicate with your team can have an effect on employee satisfaction, retention and performance, so it is a big deal. HR Daily Advisor had a good article with some excellent advice on what to ask yourself about your employee communications:

Am I communicating effectively? This is a big question and one you need to answer honestly. Consider all audiences with whom you communicate. Are you communicating effectively with your direct reports, your peers, and up the chain? Do others have the information they need from you to do their jobs? Your role as a communicator depends on the audiences you’re trying to reach, but make no mistake—a manager must be an effective communicator. Consider your strengths and weaknesses as a communicator, and set out to improve on the areas where you’re challenged.

(excerpted from "Five Questions for Big-Picture Managers in 2013", HR Daily Advisor January 11, 2013)

Do these suggestions work with your management style? Do you have any additional suggestions of your own? Please share!

(Hat tip to Bonnie Levitt, MSW, PHR, hireVision’s Director of Hiring Management Services / HR Manager, for sharing this link with your blog editor.)

gratuitous grumpy cat meme

You know what? Every so often, we run across something pretty darn useful here on the Internet. Sometimes it’s a recipe for monster chocolate chip cookies. Sometimes it’s a grumpy cat meme. And sometimes, it’s even a work-related blog article!

Hat tip to our very own Bonnie Levitt, MSW, PHR, hireVision’s Director of Hiring Management/HR Manager, for alerting us to this is a very concise FLSA refresher posted by HR Daily Advisor. In it you’ll find information about basic FLSA requirements, forms of payment, deductions that cut into the minimum wage and the ever-confusing exempt vs. nonexempt status issues.

One of our favorite points brought up in the article:

Deductions that Cut into the Minimum Wage

• State and federal taxes
• Social Security
  

  gratuitous cookie picture

• Child support orders

In addition, an employer may generally make deductions for things that cut into minimum wage or overtime provided they are authorized by the employee and for the employee’s benefit. For example:

• Group health insurance
• Savings bonds
• Charitable contributions
• Wage advances

Employers cannot make deductions that cut into the employee’s minimum wage or overtime if the deduction is for the employer’s benefit. For example:

• Cash shortages
• Sale of goods or services in excess of their cost
• Cost of repair of vehicle or equipment damages by employee

Boehm recommends that employers check with their attorney before making unusual deductions like cash shortages or damage. When employees get a paycheck that is less than they expected, that’s a major trigger for lawsuits or visits to the DOL, he says.

Have you considered getting some help with those tricky compliance issues?

hireVision’s HR DirectLink services are targeted to help companies provide more of what both employers and employees need to do their best work and stay compliant. It’s a customized HR service so integrated into your environment that you’ll think we’re sitting in the office next door!

Interested in learning more about managing your HR functions to meet your company’s goals? Email us, or call us at 610-443-0119 to discuss how hireVision’s HR Partnering Services can help.

Ewww!!!! Not in the office!

There are human resources issues out there that managers should take note of if they want to avoid regulatory issues. Here’s one that you can file under…um….gross.

Literally. You can.

That’s because we came across a very informative article published on the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) website entitled “Handling ‘Gross’ Things Tricky for HR Pros “ that covered all things, uncomfortable, icky, smelly and otherwise cringe-worthy about human bodily functions that can cause problems in the workplace.

Beyond being awkward to talk about, some of these issues can lead managers dangerously close to crossing certain lines in regards to regulatory violations. A prime example would be how a company handles bedbugs and lice. From the SHRM article:

Situations involving employees who have or are suspected of having bedbugs or lice pose unique challenges, particularly since employers have a duty under the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Act to keep the workplace free of recognized hazards, according to Danielle Urban, a partner in the Denver office of Fisher & Phillips, a national labor and employment law firm.

Employers need to be careful not to stifle any conversations related to possible infestations, since doing so may cause them to run afoul of the National Labor Relations Act.

If an employee reports that he or she has bedbugs or lice, the employer may ask the person to seek medical treatment, provide leave and allow the employee to return with proof the infestation has been treated. If the employee hasn’t disclosed the issue, but a colleague reports it, HR should ask for “credible evidence” to ensure it’s not a bullying or harassment situation, Urban said.

With credible evidence, HR should approach the employee in a “straightforward and discreet” manner to discuss the issue, Urban said.

“Complying with ADA regulations in this situations should be top of mind as well,” says Bonnie Levitt, MSW, PHR, hireVision’s Director of Hiring Management/HR Manager. “If there could be an underlying medical condition or disability causing a disturbing habit or odor, accommodations may be appropriate and necessary.” However, when approaching these matters with employees, you should avoid asking questions about medical conditions or recommending a medical evaluation, she adds, and focus instead on the observable behaviors and how they are impacting the workplace.

Consider getting some help with those difficult conversations.

hireVision’s HR DirectLink services are targeted to help companies provide more of what employees want and need to do their best work, including employee relations and support needs. It’s a customized HR service so integrated into your environment that you’ll think we’re sitting in the office next door!

Interested in learning more about managing your talent to meet your company’s goals? Email us, or call us at 610-443-0119 to discuss how hireVision’s HR Partnering Services can help.

So what’s the deal, HBR? Per the blog post, the study (that match engagement survey and performance appraisal data for 207 organizations) reported that in 42% of high performers were less engaged than low performers. While on the surface this might not seem like much to worry about, the blog goes on to caution:

“We had seen plenty of cases where managers avoid dealing with low performers (because they believe the conversation will be difficult), and instead assign work to the employees they enjoy—i.e. high performers…as a result, they end up ‘burning out’ those same high performers they enjoy so much.”

That is a big deal. But does it mean that employee engagement is not worth the effort?

“Absolutely not,” says Tina Hamilton, PHR, our president and CEO. “It does mean that choosing the right type of employee engagement programs and having a reliable means of tracking their effectiveness is essential. You also can’t skimp on monitoring performance no matter what you think of your programs. If you are not doing these things, you could very well be throwing money and talent away.”

Hamilton suggests doing your homework on your in-house talent before you begin any form of reward or engagement efforts. “We use Extended DISC® Assessment and other tools to clearly define what our clients are working with and how best to tap employee productivity,” she says. “Finding strengths and understanding work styles is essential.”

Knowing the types of people you have on staff goes a long way, too. Not all people need or want high levels of engagement at work, and those that do seem to relish it may still not perform at the levels or in the ways you want. The bottom line, according to Hamilton, is that there is no one-size-fits-all packaging for successful employee engagement programs.

hireVision’s HR DirectLink services are targeted to help companies provide more of what employees want and need to do their best work, including employee retention and support needs. It’s a customized HR service so integrated into your environment that you’ll think we’re sitting in the office next door!

Interested in learning more about motivating your talent to meet your company’s goals? Email us, or call us at 610-443-0119 to discuss how hireVision’s HR Partnering Services can help.

FINALLY! MANAGERS' SURVIVAL TRAINING FOR HR ISSUES: AN ESSENTIAL OVERVIEW OF CURRENT & CRITICAL HR LAWS, POLICIES AND PROCESSES FOR MANAGERS & LEADERS On May 14th, 2013, hireVision’s "HR Essentials for Management 1.0” workshop will help you better understand and work with HR issues facing you and your team everyday. Including: employment laws, hiring and recruiting, performance management, termination and off-boarding...just to name a few. You’ll leave armed with information and tools to develop standardized and legally compliant HR practices. In addition to great discussion and practical tips, all participants receive a ready-to-use HR tool kit full of templates, resources and checklists and a certificate of completion. To find out more, click below and check out our registration page for more details. Sign up today!

It wasn’t like she’d admit that to her boss or anything, but if she was really being honest with herself, she just couldn’t seem to get excited about interviewing and screening candidates for hire.

Susan considered herself a pretty likable person, and she got along great with her fellow managers and colleagues, but for some reason she had trouble finding the right interpersonal balance with prospective candidates. She knew she should make a prospective new hire feel welcome during the interview, but could she ask how their weekend was? Where they grew up? Where their kids went to school? If they’d been fired before? What about when the candidate asked about her life? What information was OK to provide, and what wasn’t OK? Susan hated the feeling of walking around on eggshells during the interviewing process.

Luckily for Susan (not to mention the candidates she was interviewing), she attended hireVision’s “HR Essentials for Management 1.0” training session. After the workshop, the answers to her questions became clearer. She even walked away with a resource guide on acceptable and unacceptable interview questions. From that point on, this document was never far from her side.  After getting her “HR Essentials”, Susan wouldn’t say she loved interviews, but she certainly didn’t hate the process anymore either. She had the tools she needed, and interviewing was no longer a problem for her.

Now, if she was really honest with herself, it was on-boarding that she despised. Susan hated on-boarding …

If you’re like Susan, join us on Tuesday May 14^th for your HR (including interviewing) Essentials! Register here: http://bit.ly/YNLk2J 

If you’re like Susan, join us on Tuesday, May 14^th, for your HR (including interviewing) essentials.

In our next MODERN EMPLOYER Talent Management Training Workshop, “HR Essentials for Management, 1.0”, we’ll be discussing HR matters from hiring through terminations, and everything in between. Our goal is to take the fear and uncertainty away from termination meetings and related employee performance matters, and help you build the HR foundation you’ll need to succeed in a management/leadership role.

• Learn ADA, FMLA, FLSA…critical laws every manager should really know!
• Get the hires you need by mastering effective and essential interviewing techniques!
• Protect your company! Improve your documentation processes and skills!
• Handle difficult situations better! We’ve included counseling and termination scenarios!
• You’ll get A 3-hour small classroom interactive learning session to maximize your individual experience
• Tools to take with you: a DOs and DON’Ts of interviewing guide, a manager documentation form to guide you through performance conversations and a checklist for employment terminations

Read more about the workshop below:

FINALLY! MANAGERS' SURVIVAL TRAINING FOR HR ISSUES: AN ESSENTIAL OVERVIEW OF CURRENT & CRITICAL HR LAWS, POLICIES AND PROCESSES FOR MANAGERS & LEADERS On May 14th, 2013, hireVision’s "HR Essentials for Management 1.0” workshop will help you better understand and work with HR issues facing you and your team everyday. Including: employment laws, hiring and recruiting, performance management, termination and off-boarding...just to name a few. You’ll leave armed with information and tools to develop standardized and legally compliant HR practices. In addition to great discussion and practical tips, all participants receive a ready-to-use HR tool kit full of templates, resources and checklists and a certificate of completion. To find out more, click below and check out our registration page for more details. Sign up today!

The Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation’s newsletter and website,

“Many established business are stuck in a rut, using dated or broken hiring and human resources processes like clockwork. What’s ironic is they profess that ‘people’ remain one of their top priorities,” she explained. “When you’re running without a human resources presence in your company, you’re running on half speed.”

Tina then highlighted things that can happen in this scenario:

1. Overburdened managers/HR handling too many critical HR tasks
2. Wasted resources used for constant problem solving, turnover, nonsense
3. Employee relations left unattended
4. Communication problems
5. Lack of proper attention to training needs
6. Risk by not being up to date on compliance or not recognizing violations as they occur
7. A broken or non-existent hiring process
8. Employee morale/engagement issues
9. Benefits and payroll issues on the employee or employer end
10. Unnecessary employee turnover – or a need for employee turnover
11. Performance not being managed properly

All of these things affect your top and bottom line!

To read the original article, click here.

 

Our 2013 Talent Management Training Series Can Help You Get More Out of Your Workforce

hireVision Group has created a powerful series of workshops for business executives, owners and managers who want to maximize employee performance and productivity using progressive strategies that actually work! Each session is informative, practical and fun, and you’ll leave ready to start making meaningful changes with immediate impact. Learn how to nurture and retain your best employees, and see how even simple process changes can yield big results. See our current offering below:

FINALLY! MANAGERS' SURVIVAL TRAINING FOR HR ISSUES: AN ESSENTIAL OVERVIEW OF CURRENT & CRITICAL HR LAWS, POLICIES AND PROCESSES FOR MANAGERS & LEADERS On May 14th, 2013, hireVision’s "HR Essentials for Management 1.0” workshop will help you better understand and work with HR issues facing you and your team everyday. Including: employment laws, hiring and recruiting, performance management, termination and off-boarding...just to name a few. You’ll leave armed with information and tools to develop standardized and legally compliant HR practices. In addition to great discussion and practical tips, all participants receive a ready-to-use HR tool kit full of templates, resources and checklists and a certificate of completion. To find out more, click below and check out our registration page for more details. Sign up today!

“HR Essentials for Managers 1.0” is this May 14th, so don’t delay, sign up today!

A note like this is not—we repeat NOT—the way to go.

Julie closed her office door and put her head down on her desk.  “Let me rest – just for a minute,” she thought, “I need a break.”  She’d just had to let an employee go after trying —unsuccessfully—to resolve his attendance issues, lackluster sales results, and consistently poor attitude.  While she felt sure that, as his supervisor, she’d done everything she could to manage his performance, the situation just hadn’t improved, and it was time (probably even past time) to make this change.  “Doesn’t make the termination meeting any easier though,” Julie thought. “These situations are never easy, regardless of the performance failures that brought us here.”

Julie knew that terminations were a necessary (and hopefully infrequent) part of her management responsibilities, but she always felt somewhat unprepared and unsure of herself when she had to let someone go.  She questioned what to say, what documents she needed, what to do with the employee’s belongings, how to tell the rest of her staff—truly, the whole situation was so awkward!  She wondered if there was a “termination cheat sheet” or some sort of resource to ensure she was doing the right things.  Was this too much to ask?

Do you have similar questions about those sticky, awkward termination meetings? If you dread and doubt employee performance and termination issues, join us on May 14^th to get termination tools you can use today.

In our next MODERN EMPLOYER Talent Management Training Workshop, “HR Essentials for Management, 1.0”, we’ll be discussing HR matters from hiring through terminations and everything in between.  Our goal is to take the fear and uncertainty away from termination meetings and related employee performance matters, and help you build the HR foundation you’ll need to succeed in a management/leadership role.

Do you know your HR essentials?

If you are not exactly confident with your understanding of HR issues, help is on the way this April 25^th in the form of our next MODERN EMPLOYER TRAINING WORKSHOP, “HR Essentials for Management 1.0″.

• Learn ADA, FMLA, FLSA…critical laws every manager should really know!
• Get the hires you need by mastering effective and essential interviewing techniques!
• Protect your company! Improve your documentation processes and skills!
• Handle difficult situations better! We’ve included counseling and termination scenarios!
• You’ll get A 3-hour small classroom interactive learning session to maximize your individual experience
• Tools to take with you: a DOs and DON’Ts of interviewing guide, a manager documentation form to guide you through performance conversations and a checklist for employment terminations

Read more about the workshop below:

FINALLY! MANAGERS' SURVIVAL TRAINING FOR HR ISSUES: AN ESSENTIAL OVERVIEW OF CURRENT & CRITICAL HR LAWS, POLICIES AND PROCESSES FOR MANAGERS & LEADERS On May 14th, 2013, hireVision’s "HR Essentials for Management 1.0” workshop will help you better understand and work with HR issues facing you and your team everyday. Including: employment laws, hiring and recruiting, performance management, termination and off-boarding...just to name a few. You’ll leave armed with information and tools to develop standardized and legally compliant HR practices. In addition to great discussion and practical tips, all participants receive a ready-to-use HR tool kit full of templates, resources and checklists and a certificate of completion. To find out more, click below and check out our registration page for more details. Sign up today!

photo: AMC

Thank you, Observer.com!

A new post called “Memo From Mad Men’s Human Resources Department” by the New York Observer, had us in stitches. It’s a very tongue-in-cheek piece that examines how everyday office life in the TV drama “Mad Men” (set in the 1960s) would be viewed by HR departments today. Of particular hilarity to us were:

Some people who will go unnamed had reported that they were uncomfortable witnessing bouts of anger, rage and world weary looks that betrayed the hint of crippling sadness crushing you like a stone thanks to a life gone dangerously awry. They were immediately dismissed.

Others have requested we merely install blinds in the conference rooms. We are looking into it, but are currently unable to accommodate said request.

If your meeting is of a more clandestine nature please reserve the mysterious room at the end of the hall labeled “Private.” Note: This is the room that was previously labeled “Super Top Secret Accounts” and prior to that, somehow, “Expressly Forbidden Heinz Ketchup Pitches.”

And then there were these gems about terminations:

In the event you are fired and have gathered your belongings in a box PLEASE make sure that said box has a sad little plant sticking out of the top of it when you make your walk to the elevators. This is just how things are done. If you do not have an exit walkout plant we would be happy to provide you with one.

Due to some recent events we are now requesting that the firing of secretaries goes through the human resources department. You will be required to fill out four forms in triplicate which must then be initialed by at least two partners, copied again, and submitted for approval. Note: this replaces the previous system: angrily barking at someone on a staircase. Thank you in advance!

THERE ARE BETTER WAYS FOR MANAGERS TO HANDLE HR FUNCTIONS

“The world of HR has come a long way since the ‘sad little plant, forms-in-triplicate’ days of the 60s,” says Bonnie Levitt, MSW, PHR, hireVision’s Director of Hiring Management Services/HR Manager. “These days, HR is involved in critical strategic priorities, risk management, and legal compliance work—and the legal, regulatory, and general business changes are happening so fast it can be tough to keep up!” Human resources functions also involve better and smarter employee relations practices too, she adds.

Difficult conversations with employees, involuntary terminations, keeping your company compliant and running smoothly…these are all modern-day reality for managers and executives. Thanks to lawsuits and government regulations, the stakes are higher than ever. Thanks to the need for companies to run as lean and efficiently as possible in order to be successful, employee productivity, motivation and satisfaction matter more than ever, too.

Do you know your HR essentials?

If you are not exactly confident with your understanding of HR issues, help is on the way this April 25^th in the form of our next MODERN EMPLOYER TRAINING WORKSHOP, “HR Essentials for Management 1.0″.

• Learn ADA, FMLA, FLSA…critical laws every manager should really know!
• Get the hires you need by mastering effective and essential interviewing techniques!
• Protect your company! Improve your documentation processes and skills!
• Handle difficult situations better! We’ve included counseling and termination scenarios!
• You’ll get A 3-hour small classroom interactive learning session to maximize your individual experience
• Tools to take with you: a DOs and DON’Ts of interviewing guide, a manager documentation form to guide you through performance conversations and a checklist for employment terminations

Read more about the workshop below:

FINALLY! MANAGERS' SURVIVAL TRAINING FOR HR ISSUES: AN ESSENTIAL OVERVIEW OF CURRENT & CRITICAL HR LAWS, POLICIES AND PROCESSES FOR MANAGERS & LEADERS On May 14th, 2013, hireVision’s "HR Essentials for Management 1.0” workshop will help you better understand and work with HR issues facing you and your team everyday. Including: employment laws, hiring and recruiting, performance management, termination and off-boarding...just to name a few. You’ll leave armed with information and tools to develop standardized and legally compliant HR practices. In addition to great discussion and practical tips, all participants receive a ready-to-use HR tool kit full of templates, resources and checklists and a certificate of completion. To find out more, click below and check out our registration page for more details. Sign up today!

• One company evacuated the offices during a fire drill, and while the employees gathered in their assigned areas and waited to be signaled back indoors, the person in charge of the drill told them all over a loudspeaker that if their employee card does not give you access to the building, it meant you have been laid off.
• A nurse was pulled out of surgery to be told she would be losing her job when the clinic management received word from the parent company to lay off 90 employees immediately.
• A manager stopped by the home of an employee just released after five days in the hospital with a bouquet of flowers and a severance check.
• One man who was asked to create and deliver exit packages to employees being laid off was then given one of them himself the day afterwards.
• An employee of a large bank first read on Reuters wire that his entire division was being eliminated before
• A company changed all the locks before employees could go and retrieve their personal possessions after being fired.

(Read the whole article here.)

THERE ARE BETTER WAYS TO LET PEOPLE GO

As difficult as termination conversations with employees are, you can still preserve dignity (yours and theirs). HR best practices can help you with that. They are also important for keeping your company compliant and running smoothly, no matter what employee issues come your way.

Do you know your HR essentials?

If you are not exactly confident with your understanding of HR issues, help is on the way this April 25^th in the form of our next MODERN EMPLOYER TRAINING WORKSHOP, “HR Essentials for Management 1.0″.

• Learn ADA, FMLA, FLSA…critical laws every manager should really know!
• Get the hires you need by mastering effective and essential interviewing techniques!
• Protect your company! Improve your documentation processes and skills!
• Handle difficult situations better! We’ve included counseling and termination scenarios!
• You’ll get A 3-hour small classroom interactive learning session to maximize your individual experience
• Tools to take with you: a DOs and DON’Ts of interviewing guide,  a manager documentation form to guide you through performance conversations and a checklist for employment terminations

Read more about the workshop below:

FINALLY! MANAGERS' SURVIVAL TRAINING FOR HR ISSUES: AN ESSENTIAL OVERVIEW OF CURRENT & CRITICAL HR LAWS, POLICIES AND PROCESSES FOR MANAGERS & LEADERS On May 14th, 2013, hireVision’s "HR Essentials for Management 1.0” workshop will help you better understand and work with HR issues facing you and your team everyday. Including: employment laws, hiring and recruiting, performance management, termination and off-boarding...just to name a few. You’ll leave armed with information and tools to develop standardized and legally compliant HR practices. In addition to great discussion and practical tips, all participants receive a ready-to-use HR tool kit full of templates, resources and checklists and a certificate of completion. To find out more, click below and check out our registration page for more details. Sign up today!