January 27th, 2012
Have you thought about the way you communicate?
When you're having a conversation with someone, are you focused on that conversation, or are you thinking about the other 80 items on your to-do list? Do you tailor the message to the specific audience you're communicating with, or do you deliver the same words in the same way to the C-Suite, supervisors and managers and the hourly staff?
Modifying the way you communicate can have a big impact. The good news is that our guest thinks HR gets conversations right about 80% of the time - but there's always room for some improvement. In this installment, we're joined by someone who's really great at conversations - William Tincup.
William describes himself as “strange” because he excels at marketing, sales and HR. He’s one of the leading thinkers on social media application for human resources, an expert on adoption of HR technology, and knows a thing or two about marketing. William runs Tincup & Co., a company that serves as a sounding board for human resources practitioners and HR vendors. He’s been blogging on HR issues since 2007, and contributes to Fistful of Talent, TalentCulture, and HRExaminer. William also co-hosts DriveThruHR, a daily podcast focusing on HR issues and HR practitioners. He’s great at conversations, and it’s truly a pleasure to have him with us on the podcast.
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January 20th, 2012
Are you suffocating under piles of personnel and payroll documents? Before you overheat your shredders and overwhelm the recycling guy, take a breath and make sure you're in compliance with federal and state laws governing records retention. Different federal and state laws dictate how long certain kinds of documentation must be maintained.
In this week’s installment of The Proactive Employer Podcast, we’ll be talking about document retention policies. We'll highlight the importance of having a policy, and provide a run-down on some of the retention requirements for common HR and payroll documentation.
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January 13th, 2012
The OFCCP is proposing to revise the regulations of Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act. Section 503 prohibits federal contractors and subcontractors from discriminating on the basis of disability, and requires affirmative action on behalf of qualified individuals with disabilities.
The proposed regulations outline the specific actions a contractor must take regarding recruiting, training, record-keeping and policy dissemination. Under the proposed regulations, contractors would be required to develop and maintain specific data sets relating to individuals with disabilities. Finally, the proposed regulations establish a utilization goal for individuals with disabilities.
According to Secretary of Labor Hilda Solia, "this proposed rule represents one of the most significant advances in protecting the civil rights of workers with disabilities since the passable of the Americans with Disabilities Act."
In this installment, we talk about the proposed revisions to Section 503 with Leigh Nason. Ms. Nason is a shareholder in the Columbia, South Carolina office of Ogletree Deakins, and she chairs the firm's Affirmative Action and OFCCP Compliance Practice Group.
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January 6th, 2012
The Proactive Employer Podcast aired its 100th installment on Friday, January 6th! To celebrate, we hosted a live call-in show! Guests Daniel Schwartz, Philip Miles and Jonathan Hyman fielded questions and talked about what the coming year will bring in terms of employment law and human resources challenges.
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December 30th, 2011
As 2011 draws to a close, many of us will be reflecting on the year that was. We faced several challenges in terms of EEO compliance, employment practices litigation and regulatory compliance. It's likely that we'll face even more challenges in these areas during 2012.
To help you prepare for what's ahead, we have compiled the best take-away advice from this year's podcast guests. These take-aways highlight the main issues and provide suggestions on what you can do now to prepare yourself and protect your organization in the coming year.
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December 23rd, 2011
Misclassification. It's a subject we've discussed before, and it's still one of the biggest hotspots for litigation and regulatory investigation. The Department of Labor has launched a Misclassification Initiative and is currently working on signing a Memorandum of Understanding with the IRS. Under this agreement, the agencies would work together and share information to reduce misclassification of employees, reduce the tax gap, and to improve compliance with federal labor laws.
But the two agencies seem to be taking different approaches to remedying misclassification. The IRS is offering a new Voluntary Classification Settlement Program. The program would allow those employers who are concerned that they have misclassified employees in the past to voluntarily come forward, rather than waiting for an IRS examination. The Department of Labor, however, is not offering a similar program. Many employers may be interested in taking advantage of the IRS amnesty program, but worry about what will happen on the Department of Labor's end if they do.
In this installment, we'll be talking about the IRS misclassification settlement program with Jennifer Neumann and Tamar Dolcourt. Ms. Neumann and Ms. Dolcourt are members of Foley and Lardner's Labor and Employment Practices Group.
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December 16th, 2011
Do you know how to properly account for holidays when calculating FMLA leave?
As we approach the end of the year, employers will be confronted with this question as they recognize Hanukkah, Christmas, New Year's Day or even a temporary shutdown during the last week of the year.
Accounting for holidays or temporary shutdowns when calculating FMLA leave can be tricky business. With all of the other year-end tasks you've been assigned, it may seem like one more compliance issue for you to struggle with when you're already swamped with other things.
The good news is that calculating FMLA leave around holiday time doesn't have to be a struggle. There are some simple tips that can help you calculate FMLA leave correctly and confidently.
In this installment, we speak with Jeffrey Nowak, co-chair of Franczek Radelet's Labor and Employment Practice. Jeff has extensive experience with the Family and Medical Leave Act, and has counseled clients on compliance with FMLA regulations, conducting FMLA audits and training, and successfully litigating FMLA lawsuits. Jeff will talk about the basics of FMLA leave, and give us some suggestions to take the guesswork out of accounting for holidays when calculating FMLA leave.
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December 9th, 2011
The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) permits individuals to bring claims of disparate impact. An employer may be found liable for discrimination based on its use of policies and practices that appear to be neutral but have a disproportionate adverse effect on a protected class. These kinds of claims are often triggered by reductions in force.
One of the defenses to a disparate impact claim filed under the ADEA is the “reasonable factor other than age” defense (RFOA). If a selection process has a disparate impact based on age, the employer must show that the process chosen and the business decisions made were reasonable.
In February of 2010, the EEOC proposed a redefinition of the RFOA defense to include a set of criteria for establishing the “reasonable factor other than age”. In May of 2010, EEOC Chair Jacqueline A. Berrien testified before a U.S. Senate Committee that the proposed amendments were needed to counteract “a recent spate of case law restricting the rights of age discrimination plaintiffs.”
Two weeks ago, the EEOC voted 3-2 in favor of a draft final rule defining the parameters of the RFOA defense. The rule will now be sent to the Office of Management and Budget for review, and upon approval, published in the Federal Register as a final rule. The general consensus is that the new rule may make it more difficult for an employer to assert an affirmative defense in response to a disparate impact claim filed under ADEA.
In this installment, we talk about the “reasonable factors other than age” defense, the EEOC’s draft rule defining the parameters of that defense, and what this new rule could mean for employers.
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December 2nd, 2011
In recent months, the EEOC has been focusing on barriers to employment. The latest commission meeting focused on how to effectively eliminate barriers to employment for veterans with disabilities.
Representatives from the Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Labor, Office of Personnel Management, Department of Defense and private sector stakeholders testified that veterans with disabilities have unique needs in transitioning to civilian employment, and retaining that employment. Several panelists noted the important role employment plays in easing a veteran’s return to civilian life and recovery from injuries. Ruth Fanning, Director of Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment Services for the VA, stressed the need for early intervention in the transition from active duty to civilian life. Encouraging injured veterans to plan and work toward civilian career goals “reduces the risk of homelessness, underemployment, or unsuitable employment after discharge from the military.” As George M. Parker, Director of Compliance and Investigations of the Veterans Employment and Training Service (VETS) of the DOL put it, “for wounded and injured veterans, employment can play a significant role in the road to recovery.”
In this installment, we talk about the issues raised during the meeting and highlight some of the ways that barriers to employment for veterans with disabilities can be removed.
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December 1st, 2011
Preparing your data for an Affirmative Action Plan is an essential component of your overall compliance strategy. In this presentation, we'll focus on how to prepare your compensation data.
Specifically, we'll discuss the kinds of data required, and talk about how and why bad or missing compensation data can render a data set useless for analysis purposes. Simple techniques for scrubbing data will be presented, and the webinar will conclude with a summary of common data validation tools.
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