Workplace of Choice

Guest Blogger, Nicole Grosso, HR Consultant

Regardless of the type of job opening, entry level or experienced, hiring the right people for your business is crucial. Good hiring decisions directly affect the bottom line in terms of business success, employee morale and employee productivity.  With a wealth of candidates out there, it may seem easy to hire but, beware, without the proper recruiting systems and strategy in place, you won't be hiring the right people.   

A recruiting strategy will keep you on track to determine the qualities and skills that will make a person successful and will then guide you to evaluate candidates with this in mind.  One of the first steps in the process is completing a competency assessment for each job and creating a job description based on these competencies and the duties performed.  When completing a job assessment, standard factors can be used to determine appropriate competencies, such as whether or not a job has supervisory responsibilities, decision making responsibilities, personal interaction, customer contact, or specific levels of skills and knowledge. This step will be completed for each open position. 

Of course each organization and job is different and therefore a different set of competencies may be used that will best meet organizational goals and objectives. Establishing this information early on in the recruiting process will allow you to structure your interview around the skills needed for the position and will help to ensure a successful hire.

If you think you're done once you've extended to offer... wrong.  Once hired you'll want to ensure a good onboarding and training program.  Finally, it is imperative to set performance measures, to determine if your recruitment strategies were successful.  If they're not, make changes.  Don't wait for a miracle to happen.

Although these steps seem time consuming, they are the only way to guarantee you are developing an approach to hire a team capable of meeting the critical demands of your business.

Answer: Eligibility for UI is not based on the amount of time worked for ABC Corp., but rather the amount of money the employee has earned over the prior year. To be eligible for UI, employees must earn a minimum of $3,500.00 in the employee's base period (usually the four quarters immediately preceding the filing of the UI claim). It's important to note that the $3,500.00 minimum consists of all wages received during the base period, even if earned from different employers. Thus, it is possible that there could be a UI obligation triggered for a temporary employee who had earnings from a previous job or the employee's next job that, combined with earnings from ABC Corp., exceeds $3,500.00. In that case, the employers typically share the UI liability. Please note that the employee's status as a "temporary" employee would not affect the eligibility for UI as this situation does not fall within any exception for UI, including "seasonal" employees.

At this point, I think it's fair to say we've all accepted that our employees are going to be on social media, whether it's Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, or whatever else is the new fad.  Early on in the outbreak of social media there was a tendency for Human Resources to say, "not my area, that's a tech thing."  We now realize that because social media is so overreaching for all our employees, HR can't take a back seat.  HR needs to be involved and have a presence.  Most companies have worked to develop employee policies and procedures around social media usage and, with the guidance of the National Labor Relations Board, are determining what an employee can and cannot post.  But, what if we don't look at social media as the necessary evil and we, in HR, embraced it's use within the workplace.  Can there be a place for social media to exist in the workplace?   

The answer is YES.  While social media can be a productivity suck and foster inappropriate behavior (it's easier to write a post than to say it to your face), on the bright side there's a lot about social media that can be positive in the workplace.  Social media can be a great communication tool.  Rather than squelching it, Human Resources should embrace what their employees are already doing and communicate with them where they are - on Facebook, Twitter and other sites.  Social media offers a great venue for networking and reaching remote workforces.  Additionally, social media allows for collaboration in real time. 

Below are some real world applications of Human Resources using social media:

Recruiting - In a competitive recruiting market, it's difficult to recruit for many positions without using social media.  Social media has become the primary place to source candidates for many recruiters.  On social media, recruiters are able to post positions, review resumes and network to find the best candidates.  Recruiters can also use social media to check references and gather information about a candidate.

Training - When it's difficult to gather employees together to deliver training, offering webinars or using Google Hangouts for small groups can be a great way to reach employees.  Putting together training videos and sending them out through social media is another way to train employees.

Communication - With an increase in remote workforces, communicating with employees has become very challenging.  Social media is a great way to reach employees.  Groups can be set up by department, project team or the whole company which can allow for private conversation and dissemination of information.  Remember the town hall meeting when everyone was able to ask the CEO questions?  With social media this could be done in a chat room so that employees not on site also have a voice.

Collaboration - In addition to using groups to increase communication, these same groups can increase collaboration.  Social media allows employees to send documents back and forth, comment, make changes and see those changes in real time.

So, the simple answer is, embrace it!  Social media is here to stay.  What ways is your HR department using social media?

Guest Blogger - Joanne Conrad, Sr. HR Business Partner

All too often I hear the following from hiring managers; "I need this job filled in four weeks", "Let’s try her for 90 days, we can just fire her if she doesn’t work out" or "I have to fill this job now, so let’s just hire Joe, even if he’s not the perfect candidate."

I call this the “warm body syndrome". In my experience, these short-sighted hiring decisions often don’t work. And, despite what many people think, it’s not always so easy to terminate someone who isn’t working out, even within the first 90 days of employment.  And that's not to mention the lost cost in recruiting, onboarding and training a new hire.

Avoid a Bad Hire:

1. Don’t rush the process.

2. Don’t go it alone. In other words, use HR or a recruiter wisely to help weed out unqualified or bad fit candidates. Have other people meet your final candidate(s) and give input.

3. Don’t try to fit a square peg into a round hole. Avoid “he’s good enough" and "he has experience, even though it’s not in our industry.”

4. Don’t make a hiring decision based on only one interview, especially for key professional positions.

5. Avoid asking a final candidate to take a cut in pay. This inevitably results in the new hire starting the job with resentment.

Hire the Right Person the First Time:

1. As you’re staffing your department, remember the saying: “you’re only as good as the people you have working for you.”

2. Do your homework to identify what you need. Determine necessary knowledge and experience, skills and abilities, and competencies. Complete a job description and include the softer competencies for the best fit, such as a service-minded orientation, sales driven or well organized.

3. It's helpful to interact with the candidate over different mediums.  For example,  talking on the phone gives a valuable added dimension to the candidates’ suitability and communication skills via the phone.  Communicating via email allows you to evaluate written communication skills.

4. Work collaboratively with one or more managers to help you make the right hiring decision. One-over-one interviews where the hiring manager's manager interviews the candidate are a great way to collectively evaluate a candidate and get more people involved. Have the final two candidates (or more) meet key people s/he will be working with. Help everyone prepare for interviews ahead of time. What behavioral interview questions should be asked? What would you like your colleagues to look for? Ask the same questions of all candidates. If you aren’t comfortable with behavioral interviewing, get some training, ask for help, or talk to your HR business partner.

5. Do your due diligence. Talk to references. Ask final candidates to request their references take your call (it may not always work, but often it does). Do background checks. Keep the final candidate warm by staying in touch and then stay in contact after the offer has been accepted and before the start date. Prepare for their first day and beyond to ensure the new hire’s first experiences working for you and your company are positive.

Guest Blogger - Paula Barrett,     Sr. HR Business Partner

A company’s strength comes from their employees.  They service the customers, they build the products, and they create the business.  Retaining happy employees is not only good for employee morale, but also good for business and the company's success.

Recruiting, hiring and training new employees is costly and time consuming for companies.  Typically it takes a good six months to get a new employee up and running.  After investing all that time and money into a new hire, it makes sense to do what you can to retain them.  In the same vain, established high performing employees are the crux of your business.  They've got history and knowledge that is instrumental to success.  Loss of employees directly affects the bottom, so it's prudent to do what you can to retain key talent.

Here are some tips that will help create an environment that employees want to work in:

Be visible and accessible to your employees:

• Make sure your employees know how to reach out to management and feel comfortable talking about issues.

• Walk the talk.  Don't just say you have an "open door policy," it's too cliché.  You need to create opportunities for all employees to access and express ideas and concerns to management.

Talk to your employees: 

• Ask employees their opinion on how to improve the company.  Once you ask for opinions, be ready to deliver on their suggestions or provide feedback as to why you can't.  There's nothing more frustrating to an employee than being asked for their opinion and then having it completely disregarded.

Recognize a job well done:

• Employees like to feel appreciated even if it’s just through small gestures.  A simple "thank you" from management can go a long way to making an employee feel valued.  If you're able to do more, such as gift cards or a rewards and recognition program, even better.

Give constructive feedback:

• Provide employees with feedback on how they can improve their performance and advance in the company.  Feedback can be a formal annual review or information feedback, but be sure to give it.

Communication is key to creating an engaging and respectful environment for all employees.  Respected employees feel valued and valued employees stay.  

Question: True or false? In Massachusetts, unlike many other states, if a temporary employee (employed through a temporary agency) is injured on the job, the temporary employee can bring a workers' compensation claim against the temporary agency AND can also bring a third party claim against the employer where the temporary employee is working. In other words, the workers' compensation exclusivity bar will not apply to prevent a tort claim by a temporary employee against the client of the temporary agency.

LaVallee's Bakery Distributors opened in 1977 and has built a reputation for amazing tasting breads coupled with their top notch service.  They achieve this success through what they refer to as "LaVallee's Dozen: 12 Values We Live By."  Their values include - trust and respect, teamwork, empowerment, personal growth, optimism, customer service, commitment, dependability, quality, efficiency, preparation and preparedness and safety.  These values drive the business to success.

As a family run business which also prides itself on family values, when two employees had children within a couple of weeks of each other, it was decided that they could bring their newborns to work with them.   As a mother of three children, my initial reaction was "How in the world can you get anything done with your newborn with you at work?"  However, after speaking with one of the mothers, Sarah (name has been changed to protect identity), it opened my eyes to how this can work and be beneficial in the right environment. 

Some of the benefits cited by Sarah was that she was able to return to work sooner and was more focused on her job because she wasn't worried about her baby being within someone else who might be irresponsible.  Sarah felt she was more productive, not less, given she wasn't preoccupied with the care of her baby.  In the beginning the baby slept most of the day in a pack 'n play in her office or the company library and didn't pose much of an imposition on the workday.  Now, eighteen months later,  the children are active young toddlers, so a little harder to contain.  While the children aren't coming to work with their moms as much as they did as infants, they still come to work a couple of days per week.  Sarah still feels strongly that having her child increases employee productivity and employee morale.  She does admit, however, that there are "off" days where the baby doesn't nap well or throws a temper tantrum and can disrupt her work.  For the most part, however, Sarah has learned to manage her time with the baby in the office and the good days far outweigh the bad.

This really got me thinking about what makes this work at LaVallee's and what pieces of advice other employers could draw from it?  First and foremost is that this was supported from the top.  The owners of the company believe strongly in family values and were willing to give this work arrangement a try.  Beyond support from the executives, it might also be helpful to gauge the willingness of coworkers to work around this arrangement.  Coworkers aren't necessarily going to drive your final decision, however, you'll also want their buy in before the babies suddenly appear at the office.  It also takes a certain kind of employee to make this work.  Let's face it, an employee who is less than ideal would never be able to manage the needs of both a newborn and their daily work responsibilities at the same time.  The employer should have the ability, at any time, to terminate this work arrangement if it's not working. 

If you are going to try a similar program, it's important to keep in mind how you set parameters and maintain consistency.  Who will be eligible (can't just be women?)  Will there be a threshold of who is eligible?  Years of service or performance, or a combination of both?  Is there a time limit to how long (or old) the children can be to come in to the office?  Embarking on such a program can be a great benefit to employees, but must be thought out carefully.   Kudos to LaVallee's for being willing to step out of the box and comfort zone of corporate America to try something a little different.       

Question: We have employees that occasionally drive between our local offices during the day. One employee claims that he should be getting reimbursed for mileage between offices because he is using his own car, is he right?

Answer: Yes, in Massachusetts.  The answer will depend on what state you are in.

455 CMR 2.03(4)(b) requires the employer to reimburse the employee for travel time and to reimburse the employee for all transportation expense. The employer is not required to reimburse the employee for commuting expenses to and from work, but is responsible for travel expenses from employee's home office to other offices.

455 CMR 2.03: Hours Worked

(4) Travel Time

(b) An employee required or directed to travel from one place to another after the beginning of or before the close of the work day shall be compensated for all travel time and shall be reimbursed for all transportation expenses.

(a) Ordinary travel between home and work is not compensable working time. However, if an employee who regularly works at a fixed location is required, for the convenience of the employer, to report to a location other than his or her regular work site, the employee shall be compensated for all travel time in excess of his or her ordinary travel time between home and work with allowance for associated transportation expenses.

Written by Guest Blogger Bob Merriam, Senior HR Business Partner

How much value do you place in your organization’s social media policy? Enough to go toe-to-toe with the National Labor Relations Board? Is the benefit to having such a HR policy now outweighed by the difficulty of meeting the NLRB’s lofty standards on this subject?  Is compliance just too hard? Increasingly, employers are asking themselves these questions.

For several years now, the NLRB has found legal fault with a number of companies’ social media policies – even Costco’s couldn’t pass muster; overly broad and unlawful was the finding. The NLRB’s general counsel has asserted that these policies violate employees’ collective bargaining rights ("concerted activity") to discuss, even complain about, their working conditions with co-workers. Crafting a social media policy acceptable to the NLRB has become so hard, at least one expert argues it may be time to ditch these policies and pursue other methods to achieve the same goals.

David Rubin, a partner in the Boston law firm of Nutter McClennen & Fish LLP, argues in the February 2013 issue of HR Magazine that it’s reached the point where " . . . social networking policies may be more likely to create problems than prevent them . . . ", and that there are better ways to achieve the same aims. Rubin suggests that a well-drafted and carefully-enforced anti-harassment and confidentiality/non-disclosure policies will protect a company’s interests while avoiding the extreme scrutiny now directed by the NLRB to social media rules.

Is deserting an organization’s social media policy altogether the only way to go? Is there no hope? Don’t give up says Walmart. Its social media policy has been blessed by the NLRB. It can be done after all!

According to lawyer Brian Wassom, Chair of the Social, Mobile and Emerging Media Practice Group of  Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP, Walmart’s* success turned on its providing sufficient context    (i. e., specific examples) so that employees could easily differentiate unacceptable behavior from permissible concerted activities. Costco, on the other hand, prohibited "defamation" in such a broad way that it could be read as restricting employees’ collective bargaining rights. "Context makes all the difference", said Wassom.

Yes, there is a way – actually two, as we can see – to respect employees’ rights and protect an organization’s interests.

* Examining Walmart’s policy is enlightening. You can find it at: http://corporate.walmart.com/social-media-guidelines

All hiring managers want to hire the best candidates for their open positions.  Yet many job postings list general job requirements and years of experience needed.   There is a supply of candidates who may be “qualified” under these generalized criteria, but there is also a pool of talented candidates being overlooked.  Because of the heavy reliance on traditional job posting formats and interview questions, managers sometimes experience blurred vision and miss out on top talent.

After following Lou Adler’s “Why Experience is Overrated and Performance Isn’t” blog recently on LinkedIn, I attended his webcast.  He asked two thought provoking questions:  If we promote based on performance, why do we hire based on experience?  Would you rather hire someone with skills or someone who can deliver results?

While it is important to have a foundation of skills, managers can discover the real magic by exploring motivation and achievement.  Think about how we screen recent college graduates for their first permanent job.  Industry internships and 4.0 GPAs are impressive, but consider the student who has a 3.0 GPA, worked part-time in a non-industry position and played varsity sports.  This screams commitment, hard work and dedication.  However, the traditional evaluation process would move this candidate’s resume to the “no” pile based on GPA and lack of appropriate experience.  With a slight screening lens adjustment, the eager, hungry and bright individual will immediately become visible.

Consider using new techniques to identify these achievers.  Ask candidates to describe an actual challenge you are facing and engage the candidate in conversation.  Or, inquire about their proudest accomplishment.   Seek to understand their ability to perform vs. their experience on paper.  Is there a call-to-action you can include in your job posting that requires candidates to show their attention to detail when submitting applications?  Provide specific instructions such as “Include your name and position you are applying for in the email subject line”, “Why do you want to work here” or “What is your favorite mobile app”.  This will provide upfront screening filters and point you to a select group of promising candidates to interview.

Is your hiring process impaired due to screening blinders?  Do you have any creative tips for hiring managers to help them more effectively evaluate candidates?