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EEO-1 Reports Are Due September 30th

Friday, August 27th, 2010

For those employers required to complete an annual EEO-1 report the deadline is fast approaching and September 30th will be here before you know it. Any employer with 100 or more employees or those employers who are federal contractors or subcontractors must file the report. Gathering the required information can take some time if you are not using HR software with EEO (Equal Employment Opportunity) reporting functionality, so don’t delay in getting started. 

 KPA offers a free recorded webinar ”Advanced EEO-1 and Affirmative Action Compliance at http://www.kpaonline.com/hr.html.  The webinar provides information on what data is necessary to file an EEO-1 report along with instruction on how to file online.  KPA clients using the HotlinkHR program can easily extract the required data and then go to the EEOC website to file their EEO-1 report online. 

Remember you may file the EEO-1 report online anytime between now and September 30th. If you are not able to file online you should contact the EEOC immediately to discuss other options.

Join the conversation: Have you used the EEOC website to file your report?

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No more carrots or sticks- new ways to motivate employees

Wednesday, August 18th, 2010

Employee engagment and employee motivation are areas where HR can have real impact on the bottom line of a business.  However the traditional peformance motivators of money (the carrot) or termination (the stick) may not be effective at driving the behaviors that employers need from employees to thrive in the new economy according to the best selling author Dan Pink. 

 Instead Dan believes that “the  secret to high performance and satisfaction—at work, at school, and at home—is the deeply human need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things, and to do better by ourselves and our world…the three elements of true motivation are—autonomy, mastery, and purpose“.  Dan offers a compelling case for a new way to motive in his book Drive: The Surprising Science of What  Motivates Us.  Dan provides 50 years of behavioral science to overturn the conventional wisdom about human motivation and offer a more effective path to high performance.   Even if you don’t have time to read the book take 20 minutes to see Dan present an overview of the new science of motivation  at the TED:Ideas Worth Spreading website. 

 Join the conversation: What is the best approach to motivation?

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Imbibing Idiots and Job Interviews

Tuesday, August 10th, 2010

 Most managers and HR professional think they are good at objective interviewing- when in fact they are influenced by all sorts of subconscious bias.  A recent study (with the wonderful title of “The Imbibing Idiot”) highlights this by reporting that applicants who order an alcoholic beverage when taken to dinner or lunch during the interviewing process are perceived as less intelligent- even by those interviewers who ordered an alcoholic beverage themselves.  The study authors, Scott Rick of the University of Michigan and Maurice E. Schweitzer of the University of Pennsylvania, also reported the job candidates fail to anticipate that ordering an alcoholic beverage will reduce their perceived intelligence. 

What can we learn from this as interviewers? Recognize that we all bring some degree of bias to an interview.  Use scorecards, assessment testing, and third party reviews to make the selection process as objective as possible.  As applicants and employees we should consider how we want to be perceived before we order that glass of wine- even if the interviewer or boss just ordered one for themselves. Don’t forget your social media sites- no pictures of alcoholic beverages allowed for general viewing.

Join the conversation:  Should you order an alcoholic beverage during interview? What if the interviewer is ordering one? Wouldn’t the Imbibing Idiots be a great name for a band?

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Posted in HR | 1 Comment »

Close & Personal Relationships At Work- Not A Good Idea

Friday, August 6th, 2010

Falling under the category of “what where they thinking” or perhaps “when in doubt don’t”  the Chairman and CEO Of HP resigned today after an investigation into  violations of  the company’s sexual harrassment policy.  The investigation found that while no harrassment had occurred, expense reports had been altered to cover up his “close and personal relationship” with a marketing consulting hired by his office.  Given that Mr. Hurd received nearly $100 million in total compensation over the past three years he certainly could have afforded to pay out of pocket the estimated $20,000 of ”altered expenses”.

Kudo on insisiting on ethical behavior and Mr. Hurd resignation go to the HP board- since Mr. Hurd is acknowledged as the architect of HP successful turn-around and by all accounts a good CEO, despite this recent lapse in judgement, it might have been easier to keep him on and sweep this under the rug.  It will be interesting to see how much of his contracted $12M severance payment he actually receives and will HP also insist on criminal charges.

A series of bad decisions around a personal relationship in the workplace has now lead to the resignation of a highly successful leader, a leadership vacuum at HP,  a decreased stock prices that impact any one who owns the stock, to say nothing of the embarrassment to his wife and family.

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What’s the real cost of employee absences?

Friday, July 30th, 2010

  A new study published by Mercer and Kronos reports that employee absences cost employers 35% of payroll cost.  That’s quite a bit of money for time not spent working.  Plus most companies have some form of sick leave, vacation leave, and holiday time not to mention required leaves under FMLA and other federal or state laws so you are paying somebody to track all of this too.

 I’m a believer in PTO (Paid Time Off).   What do I care as your employer  if you need a day off to take the dog to the vet, stay home with a sick kid, need a mental health day or like to celebrate a holiday I don’t know about? Way too much information and the end result is the same, you aren’t working.   How about this instead- “All employees receive the following paid holidays (insert the days your company is closed).  In addition to paid holidays after the first 90 days of employment employees accrue 10 hours of PTO per month in years 1-3 of employment.  Employees accrue 12 hours per month of PTO per month in years 4 and 5 of employment and 15 hours of PTO per month after the fifth year.  Employees are encourage to use their PTO in the year earned, however up to 24 hours may be transferred at each year end.   PTO balance has no monetary value and will not be converted to cash and paid at termination. (depending on state law).  PTO of more than 3 days will required either a two week advance request or if an advance request is not possible an explanation to your manager as to the reason for the PTO.”

 I’ve managed both PTO programs only, vacation & sick time off, and a combination of all three- PTO always is the favorite with the employees- AND less abused with frequent unplanned absences, sick people working when they should be at home….and it’s so much easier to track on the HR side. 

 Join the conversation:  Is PTO a good idea?

Posted in Department of Labor, Employee Relations, HR | Leave a Comment »

Approach with caution- using the internet in recruiting

Wednesday, July 28th, 2010

Since 75% of HR professionals admit to Googling, Twittering and Facebooking in their quest to find out the dirt on a candidate let’s consider what that really means.

  • Who did you really find? There are several Kathryn Carlsons out there working in HR, you  are going to have to dig a bit to make sure you really have found me.  All the other Kathryns seem very nice by the way but they aren’t me. Plus what you do find on me is nothing I wouldn’t have told you if you asked because I monitor my online profile very, very carefully and I never accept an inviation  to any site unless I know I can count on the person to provide truthful information about me.  Facebook- nothing there I’m ashamed of and you will have to hack in anyway because I only share my Facebook page with family and very good friends.   Want some  insight on who I am- the OPUS assessment I took before being hired at KPA provided more information that then any web search.  A web search only confirms that I have worked in various area of HR for a number of years, published a bit, write a blog on HR issues, and been quoted in some articles.
  • Did your candidate really post that information? I did a Google search yesterday and lo and behold there was a new link with my name – it was me, it was from a article that used some information I had published and it was all good, but I didn’t put it out there.  If it hadn’t been good or truthful I would have taken steps to remove it.
  • Texts, pictures, and videos may have been manipulated before posting or after posting. Not convinced? Call the Department of Agriculture and let them explain how they fired Shirley Sherrod because of a doctored clip and then they had to apologize and offer her a new job  and the President appologized personally and the NAACP apologized and on and on…just because nobody took 10 minutes to research if this was the full text of a speech or a clip used by a blogger for his own purposes.

By the way those Internet searches you are doing in your effort to be a good recruiter/hiring manager? They are bound to reveal information you wish you didn’t have and go to great pains to not collect on an employment application or during the interview…  if you really want to know information about race, religion, disability, sexual preference and where they take vacations and what their pet’s name is…go for it… and then explain why that information never factored in the hiring decision when you are sued for discrimination.

Bottom line- If you use the internet to research information consider it part of the background check and do it after you get a release from the applicant.  Publish a social media policy so employees understand the ground rules and know that you will be checking up.  Stop and think before you use any information you find.

Join the conversation:  Have you Googled yourself lately?

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Happy Birthday ADA (Americans With Disablities Act)

Monday, July 26th, 2010

Happy 20th  Birthday to the ADA (Americans with Disability Act)!   Since becoming the law on July 26, 1990 the ADA has protected the rights of the disabled including access to public places, enforcing non-discrimination and requiring “reasonable accomodation” in the workplace.  Further protections for the disabled were provided by the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act (ADAAA).  This law made clear that courts needed to focus their attention on the illegal discrimination – not on whether the victim was disabled within the meaning of the law.    So how effective has the ADA been in the past 20 years? Unfortunately discrimination against those with disabilities continues in the workplace. Consider the following statistics from the EEOC website:

  • 1993: 15,274 charges of discrimination filed with EEOC, which obtained $15,496,811 in relief for 1,851 people though its administrative process;
  • 2009: 21,451 charges of discrimination filed, roughly a 30% increase.  EEOC got $67,826,112 in relief for 3,238 people;
  • From 1993 to 2009, ADA charges rose from 17.4% of all charges filed with the EEOC to 23% of all charges filed as ADA charges became a greater part of the EEOC’s workload;
  • During the same period, the EEOC filed 874 lawsuits claiming violations of the ADA, collecting a total of $86,633,804 for victims of disability discrimination.

    • Join the conversation: What is your experience hiring a disabled person or as a disabled person applying for work?

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    Posted in Department of Labor, Employee Relations, HR | Leave a Comment »

    75% of HR professionals research candidates online- so what?

    Friday, July 23rd, 2010

    The recent events around the firing (and then the apology and new job offer) of Shirley Sherrod because of a highly edited blog clip and the excellent and fascinating article in this week’s New York Time magazine that reports “ 75 percent of recruiters and HR professionals research candidates online – from blogs to Twitter to last night’s photos on Facebook. …70 percent say they’ve rejected candidates due to findings…”  has me thinking this has all gone way too far and way to fast.  So what  if 75% of us are playing with our new tools to dig out everything we can find on a candidate-I’m more interested in are we are we being thoughtful in our use.  Don’t get me wrong- I think we need to know lots and lots about those we hire and work with, I spent years in the background checking industry after all- but let’s consider if digging around on a Facebook page is really as good as doing a structured interview face to face.  Does checking out a Twitter feed really gives me insight into how the person does their job or at best give me a sense of could they write haiku?  With privacy controls that can limit information, knowing that what is on the web stays on the web for forever and a day, plus the ability to Google yourself and get ahead of what is out there about you- having bad information out there for recruiters and employers to find is really at best a cognitive ability test.

    Join the conversation: Do you use social media to research candidates and check up on employees?

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    Light at the end of the tunnel as employers start hiring again

    Monday, July 19th, 2010

    While the unemployment rate remains over 9% (9.3% according to the last Bureau of Labor Statistics report) there seem to be a bit of light at the end of the recession tunnel. The National Association of Buiness Economics reported that 31% of employers surveyed had added staff in the past 3 months, up from 6% last year AND 39% expect to hire between now and December 2010.  If you are one of those employers who will be hiring this year do yourself a favor and before you start hiring review your processes- since you probably will only be hiring a few individuals this year it is critical to do it right the first time.

    1)  First things first, make sure you have a job description for the position

    2) Use a checklist to ensure objective, legally defensible interviewing

    3) Check references and depending on the position peform a background check/drug test

    4)  Provide a conditional offer letter and written pay plan to the prospective employee

    5)  Make sure you have some basic orientation actitivities planned for the first day/first week so they hit the ground running.  No need to spend hours and hours on orientation but everyone like to know where the bathroom is and an organization chart is alway handy!

    Additional information on best practices in hiring can be found in the KPA webinars- “How to Hire the Right Employees” and “Bulletproof Your Employment Practices”.  Recorded versions may be dowloaded at http://www.kpaonline.com/news-and-events/webinars/recorded-webinars.html

    Hope you are one of the lucky employers who will be hiring this year- join the conversation and  let me know if you are hiring or still waiting for the economy to improve further.

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    Posted in Department of Labor, HR | Leave a Comment »

    Truth in HR (or blogs you need to read besides this one)

    Thursday, July 15th, 2010

    Ever wonder what HR people really think once they get past being politically, socially and corporately correct? Looking for some common sense in the HR process? Check out Punk Rock HR for some of the funniest but also most truthful HR commentary on the web. Laurie isn’t afraid to say what she is really thinking (something many of us are trained not to do in HR). 

    If you have time to read more than one or two blogs (mine for pratical advice and regulatory updates and Laurie’s  for laughs and some HR truth telling) then take a look at Fistful of Talent- a community of bloggers who talk about all things HR.  Interested in rentention programs or maybe how to hire better, pondering the question on why HR still isn’t considered strategic rather than an administrative or just want to see what others thought about the recent SHRM conference – there is something for everyone involved in HR at this site.

    It’s easy to get bogged down in blogs- way too much information out there these days so I’ve tried to limit my reading to 3-5 sites (and I get paid to read up on HR news and commentary and summarize for our clients), but I’m curious as to what HR  blogs are you reading these days?

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