B/P Impressions

In our recent post addressing the need for and benefits of an employee handbook, we mentioned the importance of having employees sign off on having received and read an organization's employee handbook. This is a vital step in creating and distributing a handbook because it encourages employees to read the document, ask questions about its contents, and signal that they understand the information provided. We also noted that sign-off should occur when each new edition of the handbook is given out.

Why are these statistics so significant? For one reason, the employment market is extremely tight right now. In order to recruit forward-thinking employees into your company's workforce and retain them, you need to appeal to the way they work.

Are all employers required to have an employee handbook? If you answered "no" to this question, you are technically correct. There are no federal or state laws that specifically require companies to create and maintain employee handbooks. HOWEVER, we strongly suggest doing so since, regardless of your company's size, having an employee handbook is a good business practice. There are many laws requiring employers to notify employees of workplace rights (e.g. EEO, sexual harassment, ADA, FMLA), and this document can help with that. In fact, a well-crafted employee handbook helps protect both employer and employees. Following are five specific reasons why having a handbook might be a good idea for your organization.

If you are filing your quarterly tax returns through Aatrix, the State of Oregon has a new requirement that a company’s BIN number has to be verified by a previous quarter’s taxes. The requirement can be fulfilled by doing the following:

Raise your hand if you have been “taking care of business” by updating your company's employee handbook within the last year? For those of you with your hands down - and we're guessing that's the majority - how many dread this task and wish you could just implement policies like the ones that follow?

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued a final ruling today for overtime pay when employees work more than 40 hours in a week. Employees who make less than $35,568 will be eligible for overtime effective January 1, 2020. This is expected to affect approximately 1.3 million American workers.

As an HR professional or manager, employee terminations are something that will need to be addressed, whether frequently or infrequently - and we all hope it end up being less frequent. However often it happens, the resulting turnover can end up being a very costly expense to organizations. A look inside the numbers illustrates how important retention really is.

Terminating an employee may be the worst task that HR professionals are required to undertake. Even if they occur only infrequently, the meetings almost always have the potential to be unpleasant or, in the worst cases, contentious. The best approach is to put your head down and just get through it, right?

Wrong.

There are actions you can take in advance of a termination meeting to increase the possibility of the relationship ending calmly and perhaps even amicably, with minimal disruption to your business. Follow these tips, approach the situation confidently, and you may be surprised at how well things actually go.

The research* provided by The Aberdeen Group on successful approaches to managing a workforce has so far focused on automation of employee management tasks and integration of workforce management systems.

The final and least technical practice is for an organization to always be improving an its approaches and methods of managing their overall workforce. Such improvement is a long-term proposition that takes place gradually. It requires persistence and a commitment to merging modern HCM tools with a consistently advancing workplace culture. As both become more developed and in aligned with one another, an organization's workforce shifts from a practical cost to a strategic and competitive advantage that provide the business with a true edge in the marketplace.