HR Tip of the Week

HR Tip of the Week:  I-9 Expired on August 31, 2019

The latest Form I-9 (Employment Eligibility Verification) recently expired on August 31, 2019.  Since the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has not announced a release date for a new Form I-9 for employers to use, past Form I-9 practice instructs employers to continue using the current form until a new one is released.

Read more information on Form I-9 and the latest proposed revisions to its instructions.

 

HR Tip of the Week

HR Tip of the Week: Does Your Employee Benefits Package Appeal To Your Workforce?  SHRM 2019 Employee Benefits Survey shows that student loan repayment, paternity leave, standing desks and telemedicine are all ticking upward.

“Finding the right combination of benefits that appeals to a multigenerational workforce can be a challenge,” said Alex Alonso, SHRM-SCP, chief knowledge officer for SHRM. “But if you know a good portion of your workforce are Baby Boomers with aging parents, you might choose to beef up your caregiving benefits and flexible scheduling policies. On the other hand, if you have a young demographic, offering benefits like student loan repayment could be the way to go.

“Health care costs are eating up a good portion of employer benefits budgets, so employers aren’t choosing to make many new changes,” he explained. “It’s really about incorporating the higher health care costs and doing what you can with the rest of your benefits budget to meet employees’ needs.”

Read the highlights from the SHRM Employee Benefits Survey here.

 

 

 

HR Tip of the Week

HR Tip of the Week:  In this tight labor market, are your employees asking for a raise?  Read on to learn what you need to know before evaluating current compensation.

Salary-increase budgets for U.S. employers are projected to grow next year by just 0.1 percent above the actual average budget increase for 2019, confirming that wage growth isn’t accelerating much despite record-low unemployment.

U.S. salary budgets are projected to rise by an average of 3.3 percent in 2020, up from an actual year-over-year increase of 3.2 percent for 2019 and 3.1 percent in 2018, according to the WorldatWork 2019-2020 Salary Budget Survey: Top-Level Results, released in July 2019. Survey data were collected through May 2019 from more than 6,000 responses, including from companies making no salary adjustments. Read more….

Need guidance on your employee compensation plan?  HR Advantage provides compensation analysis relevant to your industry and location.  Contact us for more information!

HR Tip of the Week

HR Tip of the Week: Pro-Cannabis Legislation and Employee Drug Testing–One Size Does Not Fit All

When it comes to employee drug testing and the ever-changing landscape of cannabis legalization, there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution.  Most employers need to re-examine their drug policies and potentially modify their approach when it comes to vetting candidates.

Because all forms of marijuana use are still federally illegal, employers may opt for a ‘zero-tolerance policy’ for any recreational or medical use of marijuana in general or specifically while on the job.  Even with such policy, employers must determine whether it is beneficial to require drug testing for employees. Here are some things to consider:

Is the position safety-sensitive (i.e. driving, operating machinery, handling equipment)?

In an era of low unemployment, drug-testing requirements can narrow the labor pool. How will drug testing affect your pool of candidates?

Currently, commonly used 5 and 10-panel drug tests are unable to identify whether the use was recreational, habitual, or medical and also, they do not indicate the last time the drug was likely ingested or consumed, meaning an employee could be sober during working hours and still have cannabis in his system, causing failure of the drug test. Read more insights here.

 

 

 

HR Tip of the Week

HR Tip of the Week – HR Professionals Weigh in on Work Attire

In a recent Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) poll, more than 10,000 HR professionals weighed in on what passes for appropriate workplace attire. The consensus on the appropriateness of items in question such as T-shirts, flip-flops, jeans, leggings, etc was, “it depends”.

How should HR implement dress code in the workplace? Take into account that there is no perfect dress code that applies to all companies. What is suitable to wear to work comes down to your business and the amount and nature of contact that employees have with customers and one another.  Many HR professionals also noted that policing attire and implementing strict dress codes can cause worse problems than they are intended to fix.  Read the full SHRM article here.

HR Tip of the Week

HR Tip of the Week – House Passes Minimum Wage Act & Tax Repeal on High-Cost Employer Health Plans

The Raise the Wage Act passed the House on July 18, 2019. The bill would gradually increase the federal minimum wage over a six-year period to $15 per hour. The bill also indexes the minimum wage to inflation and would phase out the separate minimum wage for tipped employees. Although the bill is expected to die in the U.S. Senate, employers can expect this issue to be a major political talking point over the next 16 months.

The Middle Class Health Benefits Tax Repeal Act of 2019 passed the House on July 17, 2019, by an overwhelming bipartisan vote of 419–6, so this bill could bear watching. The bill repeals the Affordable Care Act’s so-called “Cadillac tax” on high-cost employer-sponsored health plans—a provision opposed by both employer groups and labor unions. The tax was to become effective in 2018, but legislators had delayed it again until 2022.

Source: Ogletree Deakins

 

HR Tip of the Week

HR Tip of the Week:  Sourcing Talent Through ‘Returnship’ Programs

Are you looking for creative ways to source talent?  Some US companies are taking a unique approach to workforce development by creating ‘returnship’ programs for highly qualified professionals re-entering the workforce.

In response to the crunch for talent in the US labor market, companies have launched returnship programs to draw in applicants who may want to come back to work but have been out of the office for some time. For example, women who have postponed their careers are a huge pool of untapped talent. There are 2.6 million women who are not in the workforce, hold bachelor’s degrees, are between ages 25 and 54, and have children under age 18. Eighty percent of those women are open to a conversation about returning to work.

Consider adding a paid returnship program to your company to capture an untapped pool of candidates who can add value to your business. Read more about returnship programs.

 

 

 

HR Tip of the Week

HR Tip of the Week: California Bans Workplace Discrimination Based on Hairstyle

California has become the first state to protect employees from discrimination based on natural hair and hairstyles associated with race.  The bill will encourage schools and businesses to create grooming and appearance policies that will foster inclusion and diversity.

So, what can other states and employers do to stay ahead of this movement? They may implement personnel policies that highlight acceptable grooming and appearance standards for employees while being mindful when implementing such policies to ensure that they are nondiscriminatory and do not have a disproportionate impact on employees in a legally protected category. Grooming and appearance policies should be driven by business objectives and not subjective personal preferences.  Read more best practices here.