We hope you take a few minutes to breeze through this issue…we have some important information for managing your HR function and, most importantly, to enhance your bottom line.
May this month be fun and prosperous!
--Terri Olson Spreen & Maggie Hattan
Exceptional customer service builds relationships and brings in repeat business. Customers want to be treated special – not avoided or ignored – which can occur when employees are afraid of being asked a question they can’t understand or answer. This often happens if your employees’ native tongue is not English. Smiling or greeting customers is just not enough. Your company’s customer service suffers from this kind of “distant” employee contact and you may find your customers spending their money elsewhere.
In addition, employees who don’t speak English but are loyal, trustworthy and hardworking aspire for the same opportunities other employees want – promotions, raises and other benefits. Not having a command of the English language is one of the biggest barriers to these opportunities since they cannot speak English well enough to delegate, supervise or direct other employees. If they could just learn enough English that relates specifically to their jobs, your company could give them exciting opportunities that would also change the face of your organization.
Do these issues describe challenges at your business? HR Prescriptions has the answer!
What do you do with all those Internet applicants? Are you required to track their information on your Applicant Flow Log? HR Prescriptions offers help in knowing what to do:
Under the OFCCP’s rules for job applications submitted electronically, when individuals respond to a job posting through electronic technology, employers need to collect information regarding an applicant’s race, gender, and ethnicity only from those individuals who meet the definition of Internet applicant. An individual is considered an “Internet applicant” if all four of the following criteria are met:
Source: National Human Resources Association
Do you have an Applicant Flow Log? Give us a call.
Two new tax benefits are now available to employers hiring workers who were previously unemployed or only working part time. These provisions are part of the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act enacted into law today.
Employers who hire unemployed workers this year (after Feb. 3, 2010 and before Jan. 1, 2011) may qualify for a 6.2% payroll tax incentive, in effect exempting them from their share of Social Security taxes on wages paid to these workers after March 18, 2010. This reduced tax withholding will have no effect on the employee’s future Social Security benefits, and employers would still need to withhold the employee’s 6.2-percent share of Social Security taxes, as well as income taxes. The employer and employee’s shares of Medicare taxes would also still apply to these wages.
In addition, for each worker retained for at least a year, businesses may claim an additional general business tax credit, up to $1,000 per worker, when they file their 2011 income tax returns.
“These tax breaks offer a much-needed boost to employers willing to expand their payrolls, and businesses and nonprofits should keep these benefits in mind as they plan for the year ahead,” said IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman.
The two tax benefits are especially helpful to employers who are adding positions to their payrolls. New hires filling existing positions also qualify but only if the workers they are replacing left voluntarily or for cause. Family members and other relatives do not qualify.
In addition, the new law requires that the employer get a statement from each eligible new hire certifying that he or she was unemployed during the 60 days before beginning work or, alternatively, worked fewer than a total of 40 hours for someone else during the 60-day period. The IRS is currently developing a form employees can use to make the required statement.
Businesses, agricultural employers, tax-exempt organizations and public colleges and universities all qualify to claim the payroll tax benefit for eligible newly-hired employees. Household employers cannot claim this new tax benefit.
Employers claim the payroll tax benefit on the federal employment tax return they file, usually quarterly, with the IRS. Eligible employers will be able to claim the new tax incentive on their revised employment tax form for the second quarter of 2010. Revised forms and further details on these two new tax provisions will be posted on IRS.gov during the next few weeks.
Source: IRS
Newly coined word for the workplace: “dining al desko”
Definition – Satisfying midday hunger at your desk because you don’t have time to take a proper break. Used in a sentence: “While dining al desko, Jennifer munched on a Panini sandwich in one hand while skillfully maneuvering her mouse with the other.”
Spring is in the air, and we’re hoping that your business is picking up as the weather warms up for the new season.
We’re excited to announce an opportunity to attend a breakfast briefing with our employment attorney, Eric Sohlgren. Eric will be speaking about the successes and mistakes that employers have made in court and how you can use those experiences to protect your company. Please review the invitation below and RSVP as noted. For other newsworthy articles, please read on…
—Terri Olson Spreen
Presented by Eric C. Sohlgren, Esq.
Partner, Payne & Fears LLP
Judges Micromanaging the Workplace:
Learning from Employer Successes and Mistakes
in Recent Court Decisions
March 30, 2010
7:30 am - 9:00 am
The Pacific Club
4110 MacArthur Blvd.
Newport Beach, CA
Please RSVP to Julie Gastelum
949-797-1241 or
*Seating is Limited*
About the Presenter:
Eric C. Sohlgren has broad experience and expertise in employment law, representing companies, managers and employee benefit plans in litigation matters in state and federal courts, and in administrative proceedings. With an executive background in human resources, Mr. Sohlgren frequently advises employers on legal compliance and preventative measures to minimize the risk of litigation.
A frequent speaker, Mr. Sohlgren has presented hundreds of lectures and seminars on employment law to attorneys, business and non-profit executives, and human resources professionals. He has published numerous articles on employment law. For over ten years he has been Editor-in-Chief of an annual publication that is used to educate attorneys throughout California about recent developments in employment law.
This is a common question that we get from our clients. Although it is advantageous to the business to have independent contractors over employees, make sure that yours qualify for the designation.
According to the IRS, people engaged in an independent trade, business, or profession in which they offer their services to the general public generally are not employees. However, whether such people are employees or independent contractors depends on the facts in each case. The general rule is that an individual is an independent contractor if you have the right to control or direct only the result of the work and not the means and methods of accomplishing the result. If workers must follow your instructions on when, where, and how to do the work, they are more likely to be employees. The law favors classifying workers in an employee status whenever possible.
Although classifying an individual as an independent contractor can be a valid and appropriate business choice, employers need to exercise extreme caution in making the proper distinction between employees and bona fide independent contractors. Failure to make the correct decision is risky business. In addition to back taxes or premiums, sanctions can include civil fines, interest, and criminal prosecution.
For the IRS list of questions to consider in determining whether an individual is an employee or an independent contractor, click here.
The Senate passed a jobs bill Wednesday March 10, 2010 extending the COBRA subsidy program through December 31, 2010 for employees who were involuntarily terminated. The Wednesday Senate vote followed a stopgap extension for employees terminated involuntarily from March 1 through March 31 that President Obama signed into law last week.
The Senate introduced its measure as a substitute amendment to H.R. 4213, a bill already passed by the House. It added the provision that allows employees who first lose group coverage due to a reduction in hours and then are involuntarily terminated to receive the COBRA premium subsidy, as long as certain conditions are met. The Senate bill now goes back to the House to be reconciled with the House bill before being sent to the President for signature.
ARRA, as amended by the Temporary Extension Act of 2010 (TEA), mandates that benefit plans (health, dental, etc.) notify certain current and former participants and beneficiaries about the premium reduction.
The Department of Labor (DOL) created model notices to help plans and individuals comply with these requirements. Each model notice is designed for a particular group of qualified beneficiaries and contains information to help satisfy ARRA’s notice provisions, including those added by TEA.
With the ongoing changes, you can understand why we recommend our clients outsource this task! However, if you administer COBRA in-house, please call or e-mail us to obtain the latest copies or go to the DOL website: http://www.dol.gov.
The CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2009 (CHIPRA) requires employers offering group health plans to notify employees of their potential rights to receive premium assistance under a state’s Medicaid or CHIP program. You may combine this notice with other information (e.g., open enrollment materials). The requirement applies to employers with employees that reside in any of 40 states that provide premium assistance.
As of Jan. 22, 2010, the following states offer one or more programs that meet this standard: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
Accordingly, if a group health plan provides benefits for medical care directly or through insurance to participants, beneficiaries or providers in one of these states, the plan is required to provide the Employer CHIP Notice, regardless of the employer’s location or principal place of business (or the location or principal place of business of the group health plan).
Employers are required to provide these notices by the date that is the later of (1) the first day of the first plan year after February 4, 2010; or (2) May 1, 2010. Civil penalties of up to $100 per day may be assessed on employers who do not provide the required notice.
The DOL plans to update the notice annually, with current information about which states are providing premium assistance programs.
Employers must track work related accidents (except first aid) during the year on Cal / OSHA Form 301 and complete the Cal / OSHA 300A report for posting February 1 through April 30th. The posting should be in an area accessible to all employees.
Need the documents? Go to http://www.californiaosha.info
In general, people want the workforce to be a “family” where managers and employees can talk about anything and everything. Unfortunately, there are some topics – like caregiving – that are best avoided, to protect an employer from lawsuits, says Christopher Leh, an attorney with Holland and Hart LLP in Colorado. What is the basis for a lawsuit? Family Responsibilities Discrimination (FRD)
Family Responsibilities Discrimination (FRD) is employment discrimination against workers based on their family caregiving responsibilities. Pregnant women, mothers and fathers of young children, and employees with aging parents or sick spouses may encounter FRD. They may be rejected for hire, passed over for promotion, demoted, harassed, or terminated – despite good performance – simply because their employers make personnel decisions based on stereotypical notions of how they will or should act given their family responsibilities.
The first level of prevention, says Leh, is to evaluate your own policies to be sure there is no distinction on the basis of race, sex, age, pregnancy, or other protected classes. In addition, he suggests:
Do you need more information on FRD or help with your HR policies and/or practices to prevent FRD claims? Give us a call.
On Saturday, December 19, 2009, the U.S. Senate passed the Fiscal Year 2010 Department of Defense (DOD) Appropriations Act by a vote of 88-10. This federal spending bill included important provisions to both
The House also passed this same spending bill on December 16, 2009 by a vote of 395-34. President Obama immediately signed this bill into law after Senate passage on December 19, 2009.
COBRA
The COBRA subsidy program extension in the DOD’s bill will:
Unemployment Insurance
The DOD bill also provides an extension and expansion of unemployment insurance benefits. These changes are outlined below.
Working with a variety of clients, I have learned of the numerous challenges their accounting staff has in dealing with inventory shortages, cash shortages and other discrepancies in the thousands of figures that they work with every day. Many of those challenges require the staff to call employees for an explanation or clarification. A situation was shared with me where a credit card payment was not processed timely due to broken equipment. The employee didn’t seem concerned about getting the equipment fixed right away. In the meantime, the bank didn’t give the client their money until the situation had been discovered and resolved. It got me thinking about how employees can often misunderstand their employer and Company’s funds.
You see, it’s easy to see sales transactions, products and company expenses as someone else’s money (and someone else’s problem!). So, one could easily think, “Who cares if I’m short a few [products, cash] or the credit card didn’t go through? It isn’t my money!” The thing is, it IS your employees’ money!! Every sale, every return, every stolen item or fraudulent act that isn’t caught costs THEM earnings in their paycheck because it hits the bottom line. Sometimes it’s a positive figure. Sometimes it’s a negative figure. Regardless, it’s a figure that affects them.
I’ve spent part of my career in retail at some of the finest stores. When a retailer has losses due to missing inventory, cash shortage, theft, or any other “cost” of doing business, it hits the bottom line and that impacts employees’ base pay, their benefits and the company’s success. Do your employees know that, as consumers themselves, they pay more for some of the goods they buy because the retailer has to increase their markup to cover the cost of loss, theft, mishandling of cash, etc? That’s why it is so important for all employees to care about inventory, to be accurate with cash handling, and to follow procedures and make sure that there are no losses of any kind.
I know my clients’ management and owners. I know that they care about their employees and their financial well-being as well as the enjoyment in working at their place of business. I know that this economy is painful for everyone from the President to the most recently hired employee. I encourage employees to change their thinking and see their employer’s business as their business and their money and make sure that they are careful in following procedures, watching for theft, reporting broken equipment, or whatever it takes to make them and their employer succeed!