for the people, sept/oct 2010
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8/6/2019 For The People, Sept/Oct 2010
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A snapshot into the current issues affecting your people
FORTHE PEOPLE
Hold Your Fire! Have the Proper Documentation
A frequent question in the mind of managers is How much documentation is enough to fire someone?
Most HR professionals might answer that you can never have too much documentation. Others strongly advocate
progressive discipline approach. In progressive discipline the model works something like this:
Step 1:The employee is given a verbal warning of the behavior/action that is not to the managers liking.
Step 2: The employee is given a written warning the second time the behavior/action is noticed by the manager.
Step 3: The employee receives a final written warning the third time the behavior/action is observed. Written at thbottom of this third warning are the famous words The next violation will lead to further disciplinary action up
and including termination.
Step 4: The employee is suspended without pay or terminated.
They are many virtues of progressive discipline.
Inside This Issue
Hold Your Fire!Have the ProperDocumentation
Time to Keep Time
One for the Road:
Employment forReturning Troops
Yup, They Said It
Perfect PeopleSolutions
Sept/Oct 2010
Time to Keep Time
The number of Department of Labor (DOL) audits has jumped through the roof in
2010.
The economic times have caused employees towatch their pay more closely than any timesince the Depression. Employees are reportingpay irregularities to the DOL at the highest lev-
els ever.
What the DOL audits are finding is that em- ployers are inconsistent in how they recordemployees time. DOL regulations do not re-
quire the use of time clocks, however they dorequire the following information be recorded
for non-exempt employees:
1. Personal information, including employee's name, home address, occupation,sex, and birth date if under 19 years of age;2. Hour and day when workweek begins;3. Total hours worked each workday and each workweek;4. Total daily or weekly straight-time earnings;
Please see Fired!page 2
Please seeKeeping Time, page 3
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Fired!Continued from page one
The first of which is obvious: It provides a paper trailof decisions that eventually led to the firing of theemployee. These documents can be used in any un-
employment hearing or other legal matter.
The second and perhaps most important benefit of
progressive discipline is that the employee cant sayhe wasnt given a chance to modify his behavior to
save his job.
Unfortunately, there are also some draw backs to pro-
gressive discipline.
There will be times when the manager does not havethe patience to gothrough all the stepsand wants to jump
ahead to termination.If one employee istaken through all thesteps and another em-
ployee in a similarsituation is treated dif-ferently you would begiving your latter em-ployee a great case forwrongful termination or
discrimination.
The inability to managesimilar situations dif-ferently is a big drawback
of progressive discipline.
Progressive discipline also forces employers to placevalues on different behaviors and actions so they can
follow those steps consistently.
For example, you may want to require a final writtenwarning or termination of an employee who has a
cash drawer shortage of over $50 but require only averbal warning for an employee with a $5 shortage. Amechanic who fails to utilize proper safety measureswhich could have resulted in a serious injury might
move directly to termination.
So if not the progressive discipline approach then
what?
Well, companies should clearly outline its policies forproper company behavior in either a handbook or
other document. When a situation arises, it should be
managed balancing the individual circumstances witthe idea of having fair and equitable treatment of a
employees in a similar situation.
If this is the first occurrence of its kind, the employemust realize that he will be setting a precedent for how
this decision will be made in the future.
Does that mean that you can never have different dec
sions for different people in the same circumstances?
No, but it does mean that you should understand th
possible impacts of making that different decision.
Aside from an obvious legal impact, it can send mixesignals to your employees about the actions yoexpect. It could als
have a negative effect omorale if the employee
see the decision as unfai
There is nothing worsthan creating a system iwhich employees believa manager has his favoite employees but thanyone outside of thchosen ones can g
fired the first time themake a mistake.
Dealing with disciplin
can never be a simple road map.
When dealing with an employee, it is always best t
write all employee conversations down.
This does not mean that every conversation should b placed in the employees file. In fact, the only itemthat should be in an employees file are company
approved documents.There should never be handwritten notes or othethoughts because these will often end up hurting th
company in any legal matters.Managers must be trained on conducting disciplinarconversations and having the right policies and proce
dures in place for making good business decisions.
One poorly handled disciplinary matter can cost
small company several months worth of profits.
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8/6/2019 For The People, Sept/Oct 2010
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5. Regular hourly pay rate for any week when overtime is worked;6. Total overtime pay for the workweek;7. Deductions from or additions to wages;8. Total wages paid each pay period; and9. Date of payment and pay period covered.The DOL conducts investigations and gathers data on wages, hours and other employment conditions or practicesorder to determine compliance with the law. Where violations are found, they may recommend changes in emplo
ment practices to bring an employer into compliance.
Willful violations may be prosecuted criminally and the violator fined up to $10,000. A second conviction may rsult in imprisonment. Employers who willfully or repeatedly violate the minimum wage or overtime pay requir
ments are subject to a civil money penalty of up to $1,100 for each such violation.
On top of the federal laws, states and local municipalities have regulations that can be difficult to navigate.
When a small business runs afoul of the laws they do have some recourse. The Small Business Regulatory Enforcment Fairness Act of 1996 (SBREFA) allows for small businesses to file a comment with an official ombudsm
and businesses may also use the normal channels to appeal decisions or findings not in the companys favor.
The key to all of this is to get in and stay in compliance at all times and to account for all monies paid to your em
ployees.
Keeping Time...Continued from page one
One for the Road: Employment for Returning Troops
With President Obamas August 31, 2010 announcement of the end of the U.S. combat role in Iraq, the job
market will soon be hit with a flood of veterans coming back looking for jobs.
If you have veteran or National Guard member returning from active duty, the Uniformed Services Employ-ment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) covers how a company is supposed to manage its employment
relationship with an armed service member.
USERRA established that five years is the cumulative length of time an individual may be absent from workfor military duty and retain reemployment rights. The previous law allowed for reemployment after four years
of active duty, plus an additional year if it was for the convenience of the government.
There are important exceptions to the five-year limit. These exceptions include:
Initial enlistments lasting more than five years
Periodic National Guard and Reserve training duty
Involuntary active duty extensions and recalls, especially during a time of national emergency
USERRA clearly establishes that reemployment protection does not depend on the timing, frequency, duration,
or nature of an individual's service as long as the basic eligibility criteria is met.
In other words, please be careful dealing with returning military personnel.
The government is looking at the possibility of providing tax credits to employers who hire a returning veteran
since state unemployment rates for some vets is double the state and national average.
We should all stayed tuned for legislation in this area as well as encourage returning troops to take advantage ofTransition Assistance Centers being created by various branches of the military to help them as they return to
the states.
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www.perfectpeoplesolutions.com
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We have a stable of consultants with years of business and human resources experience. Our consultants cover everythinfrom recruiting to immigration, training to terminations, coaching to counseling, government regulations to org design anddevelopment. We can be your HR team or we can provide support to the team you have in place.
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We hope you found this edition ofFor The People helpful. We stand ready to assist you with the issues addressed in this edition or with on any other topic that is affecting your people. Please visit our website atwww.perfectpeoplesolutions.com.
While people arentperfect, yourpeople solutions should be.
PERFECTPEOPLE SOLUTIONS
Yup, They Said ItA company had recently installed a security program to track internet usage and block certain websites in-
cluding pornography and gambling sites.
The manager in charge of monitoring the data discovered that a summer intern was constantly on the webattempting to access a wide variety of blocked sites. The manager consulted with HR and the decision was
made to let the summer intern go.
When the manager and the HR rep sat down with the intern the manager asked, Tim do you know why we
want to talk to you?
The young intern said with a wry smile, Yup. It is because of the sites I have accessed from my desk com-
puter.Both the HR rep and manager were surprised. The HR rep said Well, unfortunately you have violated the
companys internet usage policy so we are going to have to let you go.
Still smiling, the intern responded, I understand your decision and I wish you and the company the best. He
then stood up, shook both of their hands and proceeded to head for the door.
Truly baffled, the manager asked, Why are you so happy about being fired?
Reaching the door, the intern turned and replied, Well, the internship paid me $8/hour for 20 hours a weekfor 10 weeks. The employees paid me to find out how good the internet tracking software was and what youwould do if someone violated the policy. Their pay was a whole lot more than the internship. On top of that, I
can now enjoy my summer break and have the money I need to buy a good used car.
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