On the Clock Or Off the Clock – What Is Compensable Time?
While most employers understand their minimum wage and overtime obligations for non-exempt employees, not everyone is familiar with the complexities of determining what time is considered compensable. This is an important distinction. Obviously, time in the office during the work day is working time, but there are a number of other ways employees may spend […]
Calculating Overtime Pay: Often Not Such a Simple Proposition
With the deadline for the new overtime rules rapidly approaching – they go into effect December 1 – many employers are looking at converting salaried/exempt employees to hourly in order to stay in compliance with the new, higher pay threshold of $47,476 a year. What they may not know, however, is that calculating hourly pay […]
Managing a Protected Employee
The most common challenge that our clients face involves navigating how to correctly handle the performance failures of protected-class employees. Whether it is the decline of a longtime, senior employee’s performance, the frequent leave requests of a chronically ill worker or the erratic behavior of a suspected substance-abuser, these situations can be a huge headache […]
How to Create an Employee Incentive Program that Works
If there were a surefire way to encourage employee engagement and increase company productivity, you’d want to know about it, right? Well, here’s some good news – there is! It’s called an employee incentive program. Before you say the idea is nothing new, consider this: Not all incentive programs are created equal. The difference between […]
Avoiding Discrimination Lawsuits
Having been involved in more than a thousand investigations, I have learned some important things along the way about how organizations of any size can prevent and handle complaints of discrimination, harassment and/or retaliation. While no company actually condones harassment or discrimination, many are unaware that some seemingly innocuous actions – or even those that […]
Your Employees: To Exempt or Not to Exempt?
You’ve just hired an entry-level employee and, to avoid all the hassle of tracking hours and paying overtime, you’ve decided to put your new hire on salary. Well, guess what? You may very well have violated the law. While we often use the terms “hourly” and “salaried” to designate an employee’s payroll status, there is […]
Five Common HR Mistakes and How To Avoid Them!
Let’s face it, no one loves human resources. Very few people get excited about HR – I have yet to meet someone who went into business for the purpose of hiring and managing employees. Tackling thorny “people issues” is hard and can be frustrating. But the reality is that once you hire employees, you own […]
Five Updates To Your Employee Handbook
If it has been a few years since your last employee handbook (and if you don’t have one, we need to talk), now might be the time to dust it off and give it a good update. On the federal, state and even local levels, there have been many new laws enacted and critical court […]
8 Tips For New Managers
Let’s face it, people aren’t typically promoted into supervisory roles because they demonstrate a natural talent for managing and developing others. They get promoted because they are trusted, hard workers, competent in their jobs – they are doers. The problem is, supervising and managing others is nothing like doing. It is a tough job…one of […]
Making and Managing Promises: It Starts with You
Whether you are the CEO of a Fortune 100 company or the manager of a small department, chances are that one of your priorities is to ensure that your team is instilled with a sense of accountability. Are team members keeping their commitments, performing to the best of their abilities and adhering to the mission […]
