The Proactive Employer

Employee departures are a fact of life in business. Whether voluntary of involuntary, it can sometimes be a difficult process. There are a variety of issues to consider - how will you keep your confidential information confidential? If you have a non-compete agreement, is it enforceable? What happens to the departing employee's social media profile and contacts? Do you need anti-raid provisions built in to your employment agreements?

You can help make employee departures as smooth as possible - and protect the interests of everyone involved - by arming yourself with some basic information and by following a few basic rules.

In this installment, we talk about employee departures and associated issues such as non-compete and non-solicitation agreements, garden leave policies and how social media factors in to employee departures with guest Rob Radcliff.

Rob is an attorney in the Dallas, Texas office of Langley Weinstein. He represents businesses and individuals throughout the state of Texas from trial through appeal. Rob focuses his practice on employment and commercial matters including issues arising from the arrival and departure of employees. He is the author of the blog Smooth Transitions, and writes about the legal issues arising from the departure of employees and business breakups.

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On February 15, the EEOC held a public meeting on pregnancy discrimination and caregiver issues. Invited panelists told the EEOC that discrimination against pregnant women and employees with caregiving responsibilities remains a significant problem in today's workforce.

While the problem affects all segments of the workforce, low-wage workers are particularly affected. As noted by Maryann Parker, Associate General Counsel of the Service Employees International Union, the shift from manufacturing to service sector jobs has contributed to the problem. Low-wage jobs in the service sector often come with either very rigid work schedules with no flexibility or completely unpredictable schedules with no fixed hours from week to week. Both situations can pose significant difficulty for employees with caregiving responsibilities.

In this installment, we discuss the issues raised during the meeting surrounding pregnancy discrimination and discrimination against men and women with caregiving responsibilities. We also talk about what steps employers can take to comply with the law and implement best practices for the work-life balance.

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The Ledbetter Fair Pay Act just celebrated its third anniversary two weeks ago. Not surprisingly, there's been a surge of gender pay gap-related discussions, presentations and even novelties. The Department of Labor announced its "Equal Pay App Challenge, and last week there was new compensation-related legislation introduced in Congress.

Representative Gregory Meeks (D-NY) introduced a bill that would require companies to include information on the composition of women and minorities in their annual 10-K report to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Specifically, the bill would require employers to report compensation information for all employees and create five brackets of compensation - ranging from the lowest 20 percent to the highest 20 percent - and report the number of women and minorities in each bracket.

In this installment, we discuss some of the ways in which the Department of Labor and Congress are attempting to understand the gender wage gap.

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Rewards and recognition are a critical part of any overall compensation plan. But it’s not always easy to know what kind of rewards and recognition programs are going to be most effective in your organization. Is a purely discretionary bonus program the right choice, or should you opt for a profit-sharing plan designed to engage employees in improving the organization? Should you choose traditional rewards and recognition programs like year-end cash bonuses, or go the unconventional route and use top office tech, free food and drinks and group outings as a way to reward top performers?

As if there weren’t enough choices already, there’s a new kind of rewards program that’s beginning to get some notice. It’s called viral pay, and the emphasis is on tapping in to the relationships between individuals.

Could a viral compensation plan work for your organization? To help us understand how these plans work, we’re joined this morning by Ann Bares. Ann is Managing Partner of Altura Consulting Group, LLC. She has over 20 years of experience consulting in the areas of compensation and performance management. Through her consulting practice, Ann works with a wide range of client organizations in auditing, designing an implementing executive compensation plans, base salary structures, incentive compensation programs, sales compensation plans, and performance management systems. She is a frequent speaker to industry and professional groups, and has authored numerous articles on the topics of compensation and performance management. Ann is the author of the blog Compensation Force and is the Editor of Compensation Café.

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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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