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Volume 4,
Issue 6
June 2004
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MEET
EMPLOYEES' EMOTIONAL NEEDS
- Survival . Do you pay wages at or
above market level? Are they "living"
wages? Are you hiring people desperate for any job?
- Safety and Security. How well are
your health care benefits working? Is the company
financially secure? What about your workers' jobs?
How would they know? How "open" are your
books?
- Belonging. Have you developed a
company "brand" and put it on your shirts,
marketing materials, lobby, etc? Do you have team
events and conduct team interviews? Do you sponsor
community activities? Do you have a softball team?
Do your workers have a say in how they're managed?
Are they informed about the direction of the
company?
- Ego/Self Esteem. How do you
acknowledge your workers' accomplishments? Do you
use thank-you notes regularly? Do you offer
employees a career path and publicize their
advances? Are they constantly learning and working
in their "highest and best use"?
- Self-Actualization . Are your
employees "one" with the work they do? Do
they love their jobs, their customers, and their
clients? Are they and you growing in "beingness,"
as well as "doingness"?
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PUT
YOUR TRUST ON THE MONEY: DON'T OVER-COMMIT!
 Every
piece of currency printed by the U.S. Treasury has the
phrase "In God We Trust." If you doubt the impact
of trust on your organization, just remind yourself,
"it's on the money." Trust is a fragile flower.
Says Pete Gritton, vice-president of administration at
Toyota Motor Manufacturing, "Every day is a constant
struggle to win trust and establish credibility. You can
have all of the programs in the world and lose all of it in
a heartbeat if management does something to destroy the
credibility it has built for example, if an employee
suggestion sits on my desk for a month."
Perhaps the biggest trap management can fall
into is over committing and then failing to live up to its
promise. Even a trivial failure will invoke the emotional
response that the manager is untrustworthy. To build trust
with your employees (and your customers), you must
under-promise and over-deliver. It can't happen the other
way around!
The next time that you're uncomfortable with making a
commitment, tell the other person you have a
"policy" of not taking commitments you may not be
able to fulfill. Let them know that, based on your
experience, failing to meet a promised commitment will only
breed mistrust.
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EMPLOYEE
ORIENTATION DO'S AND DON'TS
 A
meeting of Senior HR executives shared these insights on
orienting new employees:
- Remember that employee orientation is the job of the
entire organization, not just the HR people;
- Do an extensive pre-hire orientation covering job
requirements and co-workers, as well as the company's
products and services, clients, customers, mission,
and values;
- Don't try to cram the orientation into only a few
short days; spread it out over their first two to
three months;
- Show a new employee orientation video which can
easily be spruced up with today's digital technology;
- There's no substitute for a welcome from the top. If
the CEO can't spend a few minutes in person with new
employees, they should at least send a welcome note to
their home;
- Pick up the tab for new employees to go to lunch
with existing employees;
- Make orientation fun. You can use a scavenger hunt,
play a Jeopardy game, have an off-site outing, etc.
One company puts a trail of balloons from the entrance
of the company to the new employee's desk;
- Have the new employee's manager introduce them with
an an e-mail that includes their photo;
- Be aware that existing employees might resist the
change represented by new employees because they fear
losing their own value to the company;
- Use the 60-Day New Employee Survey with all of your
new employees. This gets them into the "learning
loop" from the get-go and it also makes them
realize that you value their insight and opinions. If
you don't have the form and would like a copy, send us
an e-mail.
Finally, use this month's Form
of the Month, the New Employee Orientation Checklist .
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FEDS
ISSUE NEW WAGE-HOUR REGS
Secretary of Labor Chao has announced final regulations on
overtime eligibility for "white-collar" workers
under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FSLA). The regulations
hadn't been substantially updated for more than 50 years,
confusing workers and employers, and generating wasteful
class-action litigation.
The new "FairPay" rules expand the number of
workers eligible for overtime by nearly tripling the
salary threshold. Under the old regulations, only workers
earning less than $8,060 annually were guaranteed
overtime. Under the new rules, workers earning $23,660 or
less are guaranteed overtime. This strengthens overtime
protection for 6.7 million low-wage salaried workers,
including 1.3 million salaried white-collar workers who
weren't previously eligible. These workers will gain up to
$375 million in additional earnings every year.
To provide even stronger overtime protection for
workers, the FairPay rules add sections providing overtime
protection for "blue-collar" workers, police
officers, firefighters, paramedics, emergency medical
technicians, and licensed practical nurses. The minimum
salary for exemption from federal overtime will increase
from $250 per week to $23,660 per year, or $455 per week.
The FairPay rules also cover
"highly-compensated" workers who are paid
$100,000 or more a year.
For more information, please click here: http://www.dol.gov/esa/regs/compliance/whd/fairpay/main.htm.
If you're a HR That Works! subscriber,
listen to the teleclass with FLSA experts from the firm of
Epstein, Becker and Green by going to: http://www.hrthatworks.com/lfteleclass.asp#051804
and clicking on the sound file.
Note: If you're a California employer, these rules
should have little effect except for out-of-state
operations, because state overtime laws remain stricter
than the federal standards. Since California law refers to
the "old" version of the FSLA, there will
undoubtedly be some confusion until the state Labor
Commission revises its regulations.
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COMPLIANCE
ASSISTANCE: TAKE THE FIRST STEP
The Dept. of Labor (DOL) is improving
employer access to compliance assistance. To check out the
First Step Employment Law Advisor, go to http://www.dol.gov/elaws/FirstStep/
and follow the prompts to review which of the more than 20
federal laws that the DOL administers applies to your
company. The EEOC also provides excellent compliance
information on its extensive regulations. |
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The greatest role of a leader is to coax,
encourage and inspire! If you aren't doing that, just what
are you doing?
Don
Phin,
President,
Employer Advisors Network, Inc.
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This issue discusses:
Weve also provided hyperlinks to a free Form
of the Month.
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STRATEGIC
HR: BEYOND THE NUMBERS GAME
"The key strategic role of HR professionals at
all levels, is helping managers to fulfill their potential
as leaders and developers of people toward achieving the
vision and mission of their organizations."
Jeffrey Pelletier,
Bloomington, MN
Letter to the Editor, HR Magazine
Although plenty of articles encourage HR executives to
benchmark their activities and link them to the bottom line,
it's far more effective for them to focus on improving
employee performance rather than crunching numbers. When
things are going right, they feel right, and you don't need
a spreadsheet to tell you so.
To become a strategic HR executive, help management
answer these questions:
- Do we really care about our employees, or only about
what they can do for the organization financially?
- How have we made the work fun and challenging (whether
we're running a fish market, CPA firm, or widget
factory)?
- How well are we delegating? Are managers working to
their highest and best use, or do rank and file "gotta
minutes" gobble up their time? Do we constantly
have to bring on senior staff or have we delegated so
well that new employees are all at entry level?
- Do people want to come to work for us because they're
desperate for a paycheck, or, because our reputation
attracts quality employees, customers, and clients?
- Is our organization as focused as it should be? Do all
employees have a sense of shared direction, including
our vision, mission, values, and goals?
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CASES
OF THE MONTH
Our legal staff offers this review of top cases that
might affect your business.
(PDF)
(WORD)
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FORM
OF THE MONTH:
New Employee Orientation Checklist
(PDF)
(Word)
As pointed out in this month's article, first impressions
count! It's important to spend considerable time training
and orienting new employees. Make this checklist work for
your company.
For a great source of information on workplace ethics, go
to www.ethics.org.
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For
more information on the contents of this newsletter,
please e-mail or give us a call.
The material presented here is general in nature.
Due to local and state laws and ordinances, an individual
article might not apply in every jurisdiction.
Copyright Employer
Advisors Network, Inc. 2004
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Note: to access HR That Works! go to http://www.workcomppartners.com/HRTHATWORKS.htm
Click on the logIn button and use your designated Email address and
password. All the best, Frank Frank Pennachio Work Comp Partners
Specialists in Workers' Compensation Insurance 800-330-4745
www.workcomppartners.com
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Copyright © 2002 by WorkComp
Partners
215 East Main Street
Bartow, FL 33830
800.330.4745
FAX: 863.534.3562
E-mail: frank@workcomppartners.com
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