for the people, sept/oct 2010

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 employers 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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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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an answer that is unique to them.

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.

The individual services we offer are rivaled only by the many different ways we can be available to support your business:

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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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for the people, sept/oct 2010

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