July 2013 Newsletter

Welcome to the Four Point HR Newsletter

Simplify Employee Communication

The Plain Writing Act of 2010 obligates the federal government to write all publications, documents, and any publicly distributed forms in a “clear and well-organized tone that follows the best practices of plain language writing”.

The philosophy of this act can be very beneficial when communicating to our employees and clients. An independent study done by the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communication emphasized that when communication in the workplace is vague and ambiguous it can lead to mistrust and lower office efficacy.

What Is Plain Language?
It is information focused on the reader. Plain writing is the type of information that works well for the audience who is receiving it, whether online or in print.

What are benefits of Plain Language?
There are many benefits of Plain Language including:

  • The reader finds the information faster, fully comprehends, and will be satisfied in content. In short, more time will be available for the tasks at hand.
  • The reader will understand more which means they will call less often which in turn will save money and increase office efficiency.

What are the guidelines for Plain Writing?
We have a few guidelines that can assist in the transition to plain writing and plain language.

  • Identify your audience.
  • Speak in an active tone.
  • Keep it simple and short.

In next month’s newsletter we will talk about effective guidelines to practice in plain writing.

Understanding Exempt Vs. Non-exempt Status

The Fair Labor Standard Act (FLSA) governs most of our jobs. This act establishes minimum wage, overtime pay, record keeping, and child labor limits and caps. There are also different legal classifications that distinguish an employee from receiving overtime pay: exempt and non-exempt including salary-exempt and salary non-exempt. All hourly employees are considered non-exempt under the FLSA.

Exempt Classification
Exempt employees are presumed to have worked the required amount of hours necessary to achieve the daily goals of their position. Furthermore, exempt employees have access to a flexible schedule.  These types of employees are most often, but not limited to managerial, supervisory, professional, administrative, and functional leadership roles. They also fall under the Salary Test guidelines.

[Salary Test guidelines are as follows: A) employee is paid at least $23,600 ($455 per week) B) paid on a salary basis and C) still performing exempt job duties. These requirements are also outlined in the FLSA Regulations page. ]

Non-exempt Classification
Non-exempt employees labeled by their duties, level of authority to make policy changes (minimal to none), and their compensation, which includes overtime. Non-exempt employees normally are required to account for hours and fractional hours worked.

Non-exempt employees must be compensated for all hours and overtime at the premium of time and a half. This also includes salaried employees who meet the Salary Test but still perform the same job duties

How Should Managers Respond To Job Abandonment?

This problem of job abandonment is one that occurs most frequently in lower wage, unskilled jobs, because in the employee’s mind, it is easier to walk away.  The thought being that they can easily find another job and therefore the income that they are currently making.  While most of the time there is true job abandonment, there are a few valid reasons why employers should move one step at a time.

If you are dealing with an employee who would not usually respond this way, by abandoning their job then give them the benefit of the doubt.  If the missing employee is hospitalized, stranded in a remote location, and their mobile device is either low on power or out of area, it may be a good idea to follow the accepted “Three Day” rule of thumb.  (This rule exists because some states that have laws governing this issue and have case law precedents supporting the three-day stipulation.)  The idea being that by the third day, employees in any unusual situation can usually find a solution.  Additionally, if it’s possible that the employee actually did call and the communication did not flow to the employee’s manager, it gives the employer extra time to check in with receptionist or other personnel who may have taken a message and forgotten to pass it on.

There are federal laws that may come into play as well.  FMLA (the Family and Medical Leave Act) is a perfect example.  If an employee has already made it clear to their Manager that they have a medical issue and they are going to the doctor, it is important that the Manager attempts to contact the employee to see if the employee may have been taken immediately to the Hospital.  In the case where an employee did not realize how serious their situation was, it is incumbent on the employer to follow up and see if the situation, which may appear to be  “job abandonment” is really a medical problem, and offer the employee FMLA leave.  (In several recent cases, employees elected to leave employers, but even if the employee is not interested, employers should still make the offer to place them on leave once they are aware that there is a medical issue.)

For those situations where it becomes obvious that an employee has not shown up and is not responding to calls or emails, there is a solid path for the Employer.  If you have made basic telephone calls to all known contact numbers, or tried to reach the employee through texts or e-mails, the most simplistic solution is to send a no call-no show, or Job Abandonment letter after the three day window.

There are numerous options regarding the content of the letter.  The verbiage can be very tight and simply terminate the employee as of a certain date, or it can be fairly “open” and allow the employee an additional amount of time to get in touch with the Employer.  However, all employers want to bring the situation to a successful conclusion.  You can do this by taking very definitive but reasonable steps, especially if the employee has exhibited excellence his or her job, or if the individual is highly skilled or trained.  However, as a final step all Employers need a specific cut off date.  This means that no later than a given number of days, you will take action and terminate the employee if he or she does not contact the employer or return to work.

If you believe that you are dealing with a Job Abandonment issue, please contact Kathryn Schene, the Director of Human Resources for advice and solutions!  Kathryn can be reached at kschene@fourpointhr.com.

Safety Meetings – Workplace Training And Safety Games

To keep your safety training and safety meetings interesting and fresh, it’s important to change the way the topics are presented. This can be done by changing the presenter, bringing in guest speakers, showing videos, etc. It has been proven that the most effective employee training and safety meeting include actively engaging the staff in the training.

One way to engage your staff is to use workplace training and safety games in your meetings. Workplace training and safety games are a fun and interesting way to teach people about working safely. The games can be used as informative tools to show how to properly use equipment or how to avoid injuries and illnesses while on the job. The prizes can be safety related like safety glasses, gloves, first-aid kits or gift certificates to local businesses.
Here are a few examples:

Workplace Safety Bingo
Bingo is a game that is easy for everyone to play and is a great workplace safety game. Bingo templates can be found on line. You can fill in the squares with safety phrases that are relevant to your business. As you conduct the safety meetings use the safety phrases from the game in your presentation. Anytime you use a safety phrase the person gets to mark it off. The first person to get bingo should get a small prize.

Workplace Safety Trivia
Workplace safety trivia requires you to printout questions to read that relate to safety in the workplace. You can split the staff into teams and the team that answers the question correctly gets a point. The team with the most point at the end wins a small prize.

Safety Hangman
Make each word or phrase something that is relevant to the meeting you are having. You can also use safety slogans that are in use in your operation.

Crossword Puzzles
Create a crossword or word search puzzle using safety words. Safety cross word or word search puzzle templates can be found on line. The staff can be broken in to smaller teams to save time and build teamwork. The team that finishes first with the most correct answers wins a small prize.

These are just a few examples of ways to keep your training fresh and engage the employees.

Too Busy To Lead?

So does your day begin with your calendar showing one meeting or conference call after another?  Let’s look at a schedule from a typical calendar day:

  • At a department meeting at 8:30 AM, you were given a task to complete for the sales department by noon today.  That meeting ended at 9:25 AM.
  • Next you have a conference call that begins at 9:30 AM and will last 90 minutes.
  • You are taking a client to lunch at noon and the drive time is 30 minutes.

So, that gives you 30 minutes to check your emails that have been coming in at a clip of 10 per hour.  Oh, but you have to get information to Sales Department by noon.  Now, the stress of the morning starts a throbbing headache and it took 15 minutes to find the correct reports to run.   You know have 15 minutes to get 2 critical emails out to some disgruntled clients to smooth over delivery issues.  You got the emails sent but 30 minutes has gone by and you are going to be late picking up your client.

That was just in the first 5 hours of the day and you missed giving the Sales Department the information necessary for their afternoon conference call with the home office. It is clear that the schedule is unmanageable and there is no time for teamwork or leadership.

Ask yourself:

  • Do you feel like you are leading your company, your team or your department?
  • Is your calendar so full with meetings that you just go from one meeting to the next meeting?
  • Do you feel that if you are not crazy busy or spending every waking hour working on something for work that you will not be successful?
  • Are you too busy doing your own work to invest in leading staff members to better performance in their work?

Let’s break the pattern that contributes to keeping us so busy that we crank the work out ourselves, rather than leading our teams to productivity. Leaders need time during the day to be able to think and be creative, to investigate and problem solve, and to focus on goals and growth. Let’s examine real strategies to become the lead or leader that can really make a difference and can balance work and life.  The leader’s most limited resource is time, so consider the following:

  • Send team members in your place to meetings that you do not need to attend yourself. Ask for a recap and discuss action steps that day.
  • Write down the most important goal for the day and work on accomplishing it in the morning before the day gets chaotic.
  • Don’t correct work for employees. Walk them through the correction so that they handle it properly the next time.
  • Provide regular feedback to your team so that they are as high functioning as possible, and taking work off of your day.
  • Delegate. Trust the team you’ve hired to handle responsibilities.
  • Create a safe space to speak up and make suggestions or bring errors to light.
  • Solve problems. Resilient leaders look at the problem as a lesson to be learned.
  • Be positive and proactive. It’s infectious and inspiring.

Upcoming July Events – Free Webinars

Quick Reference Guide To Corrective Action
July 24, 2013, 10AM EST
Kathryn Schene, Director of HR, Four Point HR

Corrective Action is a specific plan that outlines behavior that is unacceptable and specifically describes desired behavior.  Webinar agenda includes:

  • What is Corrective Action?
  • When Is It Time to Start a Plan?
  • How Do We Get Started?
  • The Quick Reference Guide

https://student.gototraining.com/r/2601665863949810944