Rick Bell, Author at Workforce

March 12, 2020October 18, 2024

A blueprint for rebuilding the nation’s blue collar workforce

The U.S. blue collar labor force is at a crossroads.

Baby boomers are retiring in droves and will continue to do so (an average of 10,000 people will turn 74 in the U.S. every day for the next 18 years) and traditional skill sets are evolving from entirely human labor to robot-assisted human labor.

Meanwhile, there are more open jobs than job seekers. While many people think that the proliferation of artificial intelligence and automation has replaced the need for blue collar workers, in fact the opposite is true: The U.S. is facing a blue collar labor and skills shortage.

According to an article in the New York Times, “While A.I. technology directly threatens existing retail jobs, its downstream impact has created new jobs as well. This is because — at least for now — the ‘last mile’ of online retail still requires a human touch. As it turns out, retail job losses since 2014 have been almost exactly counterbalanced by a gain of 118,000 light-truck or delivery-service driver jobs.

“The number of heavy-truck and tractor-trailer drivers increased more than 175,000 over the same period, making these two driving jobs among the fastest-growing occupations in the United States.”

Despite these job opportunities there is a severe shortage of blue collar workers that is only projected to get worse over time and will undoubtedly have a profound impact on the nation’s economy. A report by Deloitte and The Manufacturing Institute examined the workforce shortage and found that “between 2018 and 2028, there could be as many as 2.4 million unfilled manufacturing jobs. This shortage ‘could put $454 billion of U.S. manufacturing GDP at risk in 2028 alone.’ ”

When looking at U.S. labor shortages the Conference Board found that “a decline in the supply of blue collar and manual services workers would not have been a problem if the demand for them was shrinking as well. But this is not the case. The demand for these workers continues to grow, partly due to the unprecedented slowdown in labor productivity in the past decade.”

With unemployment at an all-time low, government leaders need to ensure policies are in place to build a skilled labor pool to meet both current and future workforce needs. At the same time, employers need to take a more strategic approach to workforce development which involves planning for a multiyear time horizon — typically three to five years — the same as an organization’s strategic plan. This planning needs to be account for both capacity and capabilities to ensure there are the right number of workers with the right skills.

Change the narrative around blue collar jobs. This starts by removing the stigma of blue collar jobs by raising the awareness of the contributions that the manufacturing, trucking and other sectors provide for our economy. It also means highlighting the diverse skill sets that fall under the blue collar umbrella and that many blue collar jobs in fact pay six figures.

Provide opportunities for current blue collar workers to develop additional skills. The report from Deloitte and The Manufacturing Institute found that “manufacturing executives stated the top five skill sets that could increase significantly in the coming three years due to the influx of automation and advanced technologies are: technology/computer skills, digital skills, programming skills for robots/ automation, working with tools and technology, and critical thinking skills.”

In order for employers to ensure that they have an appropriately skilled workforce they should partner with academic institutions to provide graduate business education courses onsite or tuition reimbursement for employees to take classes online, at night or on the weekends that teach technology, business management and critical thinking skills that are needed.

Increase investment in trade-skills training. Fortunately, there are state and federal efforts underway to increase funding for career technical education; California Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed giving $83.2 million to community colleges to create and develop apprenticeship programs and President Donald Trump has proposed a $900 million increase in career and technical education. This renewed interest in trade skills training is encouraging and it is essential that this funding is sustained, both by government entities and private industry.

Blue collar jobs are one of the pillars of a nation’s economy. As we look ahead, it is critical that public policies, training programs and workforce plans are put into place to build a competitive workforce that can integrate emerging technologies with the ever-growing need for human labor.

March 11, 2020June 29, 2023

6th Circuit Court gives employers relief on the evidence employees must present to prove off-the-clock work

The difficulty in defending certain wage-and-hour cases is that employers are often asked to prove a negative.

“I worked __ number of hours of overtime,” says the plaintiff employee. “Prove that I didn’t.”

If the hours are for unclocked work, the employer often lacks documentation to refute the employee’s story. Which, in turn, leads to a case of “I worked/no you didn’t.” That, in turn, creates a jury question, the risk of a trial, and a settlement (since very few employers want to risk paying the plaintiff’s attorneys’ fees if the employee wins).

In Viet v. Le, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals provides employers much needed relief from these extorting lawsuits.

For several years, Quoc Viet worked for Copier Victor, owned by Victor Le. Le treated and paid Viet as a 1099 independent contractor. When their business relationship soured, however, Viet sued for unpaid overtime under the FLSA, claiming that he was an employee owed overtime. The only evidence Viet submitted in support of his unpaid overtime claim was his assertion that each week he worked “60 hours per week.”

The 6th Circuit concluded that without additional substantiation, the employer was entitled to summary judgment.

The district court correctly held that Viet’s testimony was too “equivocal, conclusory, and lacking in relevant detail” to create a genuine dispute of material fact under Rule 56. Begin with Viet’s estimate of his average weekly schedule. He claimed that he typically worked 60 hours per week.… Viet did not fill in his general 60-hour estimate with specific facts about his daily schedule. Without Viet’s general estimate, his deposition testimony would leave a jury simply guessing at the number of hours he worked in any given week.…

All told, Viet could withstand summary judgment only if we adopted a legal rule that conclusory estimates about an employee’s average workweek allow a rational jury to conclude that the employee worked overtime.…

Viet argues that Le and Copier Victor failed to identify evidence showing that he worked less than 40 hours per week. Yet Viet bears the burden to prove that he worked overtime during every week for which he seeks overtime pay.

What evidence about the number of hours an employee works will suffice to create a jury question? According to the Viet court, a coherent description of “their day-to-day work schedules or the time it takes to complete their duties so that a rational jury could find that they worked more than 40 hours in the weeks claimed.”

They do not need to “recall their schedules with perfect accuracy,” but they must do more than “simply turn a complaint’s conclusory allegations about overtime work into an affidavit’s conclusory testimony about overtime work and expect to get a jury trial.”

A common-sense solution for a difficult issue. Go forth and litigate; Viet will provide much-needed assistance in FLSA cases.

March 9, 2020June 29, 2023

Recapping Ultimate Software’s 2020 conference: ‘An awkward date’

Move forward. Faith. Trust.

That was the overarching message that I took away March 3 as I watched the opening keynote on day one of Ultimate Software’s Breakthrough Connections 2020 user conference in the cavernous Wynn Las Vegas and Encore Resort.

Less than two weeks into Ultimate’s merger with workforce management software provider Kronos Inc., the message of positivity was to be expected. And given Ultimate’s deeply ingrained people-first culture, maybe it wasn’t such a big ask of employees to believe in the process.

Moving forward seems the simplest to accomplish. As I tried to put myself in the shoes of an Ultimate employee, I couldn’t help but think, there isn’t much choice but to push ahead. Because try as they might, things will never be the same as they were pre-merger.

I give credit to Ultimate’s Chief Relationship Officer Bill Hicks for addressing the merger head-on during the opening session because frankly, that’s what most attendees wanted to hear about. Hicks, who has been an “Ultipeep” for 16 years, likened the post-merger atmosphere to that “awkward dating stage” when you are trying to figure out where the relationship is going.

I think that crystallized as Hicks, who in years past would have handed the microphone to former Ultimate CEO Scott Scherr or outgoing CEO Adam Rogers, instead introduced Ultimate’s new boss, longtime Kronos CEO Aron Ain, to the Sister Sledge tune “We Are Family.” It probably was asking too much to play George Michael’s “Faith” or Devo’s “Whip It” (with the lyrics “go forward, move ahead”).

Ain’s initial message to the assembled 4,500 combined Ultimate customers and employees preached the move ahead-faith-trust mantra. Ain, who became Kronos’ CEO in 2005, talked about his background, his philosophies and his legacy. “How I want to be remembered is as a great father, husband and friend, not a CEO,” Ain told the crowd. Touching.

Still, there were a couple of moments during Ain’s 20-minute talk to ease his new customers’ angst that gave me cause to pause.

“Your investment is safe. You made the right choice when you chose Ultimate as your partner,” Ain reassured the assembled Ultimate customers. OK, got it.

Then he asked for one favor. “Don’t listen to people calling you up now,” a clear reference to the inevitable phone calls that come in after a merger or acquisition. Of course there will be concerns on the part of customers after their HR software provider merges. If Ultimate did their jobs properly — and it appears that they have — a request to ignore competitors is unnecessary. It seemed a bit perplexing to me, as if he didn’t have the faith and trust in Ultimate’s sales and service teams.

And if we are being honest here, isn’t that what any competitor worth its salt is going to do? I mean, this is business.

Why not put forth your faith in your new team and trust that the relationships built over Ultimate’s 30-year history will endure?

Then Ain took aim at pundits. First, who is a pundit in HR technology? Was he lumping analysts, the HR influencer community, bloggers and business writers into one big melting pot of pundits?

I personally did not see blowback written after the merger’s announcement. Most of the experts and analysts I followed were taking the “wait and see” approach in their comments.

Yet Ain opted to tell us, “Pundits, give me my strategy. … They are not telling you the truth. They have another agenda, and look out for their best interests,” and added, “We will communicate honestly, we will tell you what’s going on. Trust is everything and makes everything else easier.”

He then curiously added, “Don’t read all the propaganda about Kronos.” In the story I wrote about the merger on the day it was announced, I stated, “Considering this is a merger of like organizations, the dreaded ‘duplication of efforts’ specter hangs heavy. Are layoffs, buyouts, rightsizing or downsizing in the future of this new marriage?”

I also pointed out, “With the meshing of cultures, perhaps no department or staff member will be downsized. Maybe they’ll reskill portions of their workforce. … For those of us who have been through a merger or acquisition, the reality is people leave. Some leave voluntarily because it’s not a good fit anymore, or they’re simply laid off. … I hope and pray that the people will retain their jobs and blend into one big, happy, 12,000-employee company with room to grow.”

I still stand by those statements.

The point was a bewildering dig at the media — sorry, the pundits — that we see all too often coming from this country’s overly emboldened leadership.

Merging Kronites and Ultipeeps: A few uncomfortable chuckles broke out when Ain referenced what post-merger employees might be called. Ultimate’s employees are known as Ultipeeps, while Kronos workers are Kronites. He said he received a suggestion: “Kronites and Ultipeeps … Kreeps. I don’t think that’s such a good idea.”

Coronavirus concerns: Before introducing Ain, Hicks immediately addressed another pressing concern of attendees — the growing threat of coronavirus. He noted that hand sanitizers would be placed throughout the conference — which they indeed were. Hicks also said that even a traditional handshake is under the microscope now, so to speak. How did he plan to greet people? “Some people are huggers, some are fist bumpers. I’ll do whatever you want.”

Clearly the coronavirus is having a huge effect on travel and is taking a toll what is typically a busy time during conference season. SXSW shut down. Oracle took its conference online.

My Monday afternoon flight to Las Vegas was barely half full. I don’t ever recall a flight where my row on both sides of the aisle was empty, as was the row in front of me.

And, word came during the conference that SAP Fieldglass canceled its mid-March user conference. This announcement came March 3 via Twitter:

“The health of our employees, customers, partners and communities is our top priority. Due to concerns surrounding COVID-19, we are cancelling #SAPAribaLive Las Vegas 2020 and look forward to seeing you at our upcoming Ariba Live virtual experience.”

What’s in a name: A bit of a surprise that the merged organizations have yet to settle on a new name for the company. Attendees were informed that the new name will be revealed in the next three to six months.

One observer pointed out to me that it could come sooner, possibly during the annual Unleash conference in early May. It is beneficial to have an assembled audience that will include a bevy of analysts and influencers for such an announcement.

Just a guess here that the new name won’t be Kreeps.

Bakersfield Beat: In a week of ups and downs, country singer-songwriter Dwight Yoakam’s performance March 4 was a high point. Yoakam performed for over three hours straight without so much as a sip of water. His show at the Wynn Theater in the Wynn Hotel-Encore complex was not affiliated with the Ultimate conference and came as a welcome diversion as Yoakam took the full house on a 70-plus-year musical journey laced with plenty of anecdotes across Southern California’s rich musical landscape.

Yoakam focused primarily on the legendary Bakersfield Sound that influenced so much of his own music. But his finale was a nod to Las Vegas (no, not a Brandon Flowers tune, although that would have been pretty sweet). “You can’t play Las Vegas and not play this one,” he said as he launched into Elvis Presley’s “Suspicious Minds.”

Thanks, Josh Cameron. I really, really enjoyed the show.

March 2, 2020June 29, 2023

‘Most relevant and topical HR thinker’ Jack Welch dies

As I search the online archives of Workforce.com for “Jack Welch” in the wake of his death today at age 84, I have come across literally seven pages worth of stories (about 20 stories on each page) that reference the business titan and former head of General Electric.

That’s not surprising, given his strong connection to championing the cause of human resources. In 2009, Welch, who in 2000 was named “Manager of the Century” by Fortune, was the opening keynote speaker at the annual Society for Human Resource Management conference in New Orleans. Before the conference opened, my former boss here at Workforce, John Hollon, summarized Jack Welch’s influence on the HR profession in a blog post.

To recognize Welch’s passing today, I wanted to share a portion of John’s thoughts on Jack Welch from 2009.

Here’s a question you may want to ponder: How important is Sunday’s SHRM conference general session speaker, former General Electric CEO Jack Welch

Answer: He’s probably the most relevant and topical HR thinker to address the conference in at least the last five years — maybe the most relevant one ever.

Here’s just one example, from the BusinessWeek column he writes along with his wife, Suzy Welch: “HR should be every company’s ‘killer app.’ What could possibly be more important than who gets hired, developed, promoted, or moved out the door? Business is a game, and as with all games, the team that puts the best people on the field and gets them playing together wins. It’s that simple.”

Or this, also from a recent BusinessWeek column: “Look, we’ve written before about HR and the game-changing role we believe it can — and should — play as the engine of an organization’s hiring, appraisal, and development processes. We’ve asserted that too many companies relegate HR to the mundane busy-work of newsletters, picnics, and benefits, and we’ve made the case that every CEO should elevate his head of HR to the same stature as the CFO. HR matters enormously in good times. It defines you in the bad. … If there was ever a time to underscore the importance of HR, it has arrived.”

A 2005 “Last Word” column in Workforce Management put it this way, and it’s still true today: “In Jack Welch’s world, HR is not only a key part of the business, but HR people in the organization need to have special qualities to help the managers throughout the organization build leaders and careers.”

Some might disagree with this assessment, because Welch is also known for creating the infamous 20-70-10 employee assessment plan (known by its critics as “rank and yank”), where the top 20 percent of GE’s workforce each year got big raises, while the bottom 10 percent were shown the door.

In fact, Welch was frequently critical of human resources, according to former General Electric HR chief Bill Conaty.

But as critical as he can be, Welch also appreciates what HR means to a high-performing organization. Welch has said that HR leaders should not be “kingmakers or cops, but big-leaguers, men and women with real stature and credibility.”

He will undoubtedly have a message on Sunday that SHRM conference attendees really need to hear.

February 21, 2020June 29, 2023

An employee engagement formula that cuts stress in a turnover-plagued industry

Turnover on the front lines is always a hiring challenge. But in the world of drug development, it can directly affect how quickly and safely drugs get to market.

Clinical research associates, or CRAs, are the pharmaceutical industry’s front line workers. These associates are in charge of making sure trials run smoothly, which includes constant travel and high-stakes tasks. “It’s a very stressful job,” says Domantas Gurevicius, director of clinical monitoring for Advanced Clinical, a contract research organization, also known as a CRO, based in Deerfield, Illinois, which runs trials for pharmaceutical companies.

Before a trial starts, the clinical research associates have to be sure site staff have all the equipment and training they need. Then once it begins, they are responsible for gathering and uploading all trial data, ensuring protocols are followed, monitoring patient safety, and making sure patients and staff have everything they need for the trial to be a success.

Each clinical research associate manages 10 to 15 trial sites, which means they are constantly on the road and are often the only representative from the contract research organization that trial staff will engage with. That means that when staffers have questions or complaints or require additional support, they turn to the clinical research associate for help.

The constant pressure, isolation and travel leads to a lot of burnout. Despite relatively high salaries, industry turnover rates among the associates is more than 25 percent, creating a constant risk for their employers and pharmaceutical companies. When these workers quit — or get recruited away by competitors — it can cause trial delays, and force other clinical research associates to pick up the slack, which creates a ripple effect of frustration and attrition.

It’s impossible to eliminate these risks, but Advanced Clinical has employed a number of tools and engagement strategies to keep its turnover rates at less than half of industry averages.

Part of the Team From Day One

Engagement starts with a multi-day onboarding process. The focus is less on paperwork and more on introducing the new associates to staff, sharing company success stories and helping them build a network in the organization. “It lets them see where they fit in the company, and why people love to work here,” Gurevicius said.

Once on the job, managers use a number of tools to make the associates feel connected and heard, including regular one-on-one calls to check up on trial progress and make sure they have what they need.

“You can talk about whatever is on your mind, whether it’s about the study, regulations or something going on at a specific site,” said Wes Boynton, a senior clinical research associate who has been with Advanced Clinical for six years. “They make it feel like a safe environment to talk about anything.”

This open communication doesn’t just make associates feel good. It helps the company constantly improve, Gurevicius said. The associates often have the most relevant information because they spend so much time at the sites, he said.

For example, in a recent call, an associate pointed out that the company’s database for tracking site staff had to be accessed by someone internally, even though the associates have the most up-to-date knowledge about the site. Gurevicius agreed and provided all of the associates with their own access to more efficiently manage that content. “We leverage their experiences so we can improve,” he said.

NPS for Engagement

Managers also use a number of practical tools to keep clinical research associates engaged, including an online expense reporting platform so they don’t have to scan every receipt, and a messaging app for frequent check-ins that asks associates to rate their day on a 1 to 10 scale. “It’s like a net promoter score for engagement,” said Steve Matas, senior vice president of strategic solutions for Advanced Clinical. The ratings give Matas an instant pulse on employee engagement, and allows him to identify issues before associates start looking for another job. “Anything under a 7 prompts an immediate call,” he says.

To minimize the burden of travel, clinical research associates are assigned sites based on their home location, and the company tries to limit on-site days to eight per month. Occasionally that number will go over due to site set-up or because a site has some issues, but in those cases, managers check in to make sure they aren’t overwhelmed. “We find out if they need extra help, and we try to push that number down for the next month,” Gurevicius said.

It is a low number of site-days for the industry, but it pays off because people stay, Matas said. When associates are overworked they quit, which puts more pressure on other clinical research associates and negatively impacts site productivity while their replacements ramp up.

“They make sure we aren’t stressed out,” Boynton said. The associates also have a weekly group call to discuss their trials and share best practices, and a dedicated administrator for all the trial sites who they can tap if they are having difficulties. “It helps to know you have someone you can rely on at the home office.”

All of these methods are paying off. Advanced Clinical’s turnover for clinical research associates is 10 percent, part of which is due to promotions. “They see opportunities for growth here, and that keeps them around,” said Gurevicius, who began his own career as an associate at the company. “We don’t ever want to hold someone back from taking the next step.”

Whether a company is hiring clinical research associates or parking attendants, or any other front line position, the key to engagement is investing in your people and showing them you care, he added. “When you build relationships and give your people a voice they won’t want to leave.”

February 20, 2020June 29, 2023

Ultimate Software merges with fellow HCM platform Kronos Inc.

Call the merger of Ultimate Software and Kronos Inc. one of those surprising, not surprising deals.

The Feb. 20 announcement came as a surprise. But then, they’re both owned by the same private equity company. Their HCM software — Ultimate Software’s human capital management and Kronos’ workforce management — play together nicely, although it would be an interesting comparison to put them both side by side and analyze their similarities and differences.

Also, both Ultimate Software and Kronos tout their employee culture as huge selling points. Earlier this week Ultimate was ranked No. 2 on Fortune’s Best Companies to Work For list, while Kronos clocked in at No. 52. Ultimate Software also took the Gold in the 2019 Workforce Optimas Awards’ Corporate Citizenship category.

Kronos Inc. CEO Aron Ain will head up the merger between his company and Ultimate Software.

In the press release issued just after 10 a.m. Central time, one of the first points made was their vaunted corporate cultures. “Combining two exceptional, highly compatible cultures will create a company that is People Inspired” (their italics, not mine).

Considering this is a merger of like organizations, the dreaded “duplication of efforts” specter hangs heavy. Are layoffs, buyouts, rightsizing or downsizing in the future of this new marriage? During this honeymoon period they are saying all the right things, noting that the combined organization will have 12,000 total employees “with further plans for growth including the addition of 3,000 employees over the next three years.”

Aron Ain, longtime Kronos chief executive officer, will be the CEO and chairman of the combined company – “guiding an experienced executive team comprised of leaders from both Ultimate and Kronos.”

There was no mention in the release regarding the future of Ultimate Software CEO Adam Rogers, who took the full CEO title in January 2020. Rogers does offer up this quote in the release: “The combination of Ultimate and Kronos paves the way to deliver the next generation of employee-facing solutions that will set the standard for the workforce of the future. This merger will enable our more than 12,000 inspired people around the world to deliver innovation in human capital management faster than ever before. Both companies remain fully committed to their core strengths as well as to the combined benefits that the new company will bring to employees and customers.”

That could very well be the case. With the meshing of cultures, perhaps no department or staff member will be downsized. Maybe they’ll reskill portions of their workforce.

Still, for those of us who have been through a merger or acquisition, the reality is people leave. Some leave voluntarily because it’s not a good fit anymore, or they’re simply laid off.

I hope and pray that the people at Ultimate and Kronos — which according to the release will remain headquartered in Weston, Florida, and Lowell, Massachusetts, respectively — will retain their jobs and blend into one big, happy, 12,000-employee company with room to grow.

Now that I think about it, when I requested media credentials to cover Ultimate Software’s user conference in early March, PR maven Kelsey Donohue mentioned that I shouldn’t miss the Tuesday general session.

I checked the agenda. Michelle Obama is speaking on Wednesday. That’s pretty awesome. But I could not find the keynoter for Tuesday. I didn’t really give it much thought, but now … the conference and especially Tuesday’s opening session takes on a whole new level of verrrry interesting.

February 20, 2020June 29, 2023

Tax compliance a key consideration for remote work policies

There was a time when a sick child or inclement weather meant staying home and actually not working.

The prevalence of full-time remote work arrangements is on the rise. Companies are competing fiercely for top talent and looking for ways to differentiate themselves from competitors.

One way to do this is through flexible work policies. Moreover, by allowing employees to work remotely, companies can cast a wider net for talent that is not restricted by the geographic boundaries of their offices.

For companies that decide that it is a business imperative to offer flexibility, it is also important that they find a way to do so that is compliant. One compliance challenge for companies and employees is how, when, and where to withhold state taxes for their employees. When addressed proactively, this challenge can be managed in a way that is simple for the company and painless for the employee.

Let’s follow the example of an employee who has worked for a company for 10 years in Atlanta but needs to move to Columbia, South Carolina, indefinitely to help a sick family member. The employee’s company doesn’t have an office in South Carolina but agrees to let her work from home. They ask if she can spend a few days each month in Atlanta to stay connected to her team and she agrees.

States will primarily assess tax on income earned within that state; this can include employees who have an office in that state, employees who work from a home located in that state, or even employees who travel into a state for business trips. This means that the employee will owe tax in South Carolina where she is living and working, and also in Georgia where she is traveling for work.

Since remote workers are typically subject to taxation in the state where they are physically working, employers need to understand not just who their employees are and where their main office is, but also where they are actually working day by day. The place they are working is generally where the company will need to withhold taxes.

This is generally true except for some states with unique rules (for example, New York). A key step for the employer is to make sure their payroll system considers that she is working remotely, which may also require the company to register for payroll in her new state.

Such employees who pay tax in multiple states can generally reduce taxes paid to their home state by the amount paid to other states (unless you live in one of the nine states that doesn’t tax employment income at all). Even though this particular employee will pay taxes to Georgia because of her business trips there, she can reduce the total tax she pays to South Carolina so that she isn’t double taxed.

There are also reciprocal agreements between certain states; think of these as a negotiation between two states where both say, “We won’t tax your people, if you don’t tax ours.”

These agreements generally occur between neighboring states, such as Ohio and Indiana. An Ohio resident who travels into Indiana every day for work will not owe tax to Indiana. Unfortunately for our Georgia employee, South Carolina and Georgia do not have a reciprocal agreement.

The challenging part for her employer will be identifying how much time she is spending in Georgia and determining what portion of her wages are related to Georgia workdays and should be taxed in Georgia. If she has a set schedule (such as one week in Georgia/three weeks in South Carolina) they can program this allocation into her payroll. If her travel is more sporadic, the company will need to find other ways to monitor where and when she is working.

Her employer can achieve this by leveraging expense data and travel booking records to keep track of where she, and the rest of their employees, are triggering a tax liability. This challenge may increase if she responds to the flexibility offered by her employer and instead decides to work remotely from a friend’s home in Virginia for the week.

So how will this employee actually avoid double taxation in South Carolina? Her employer will reduce some of the South Carolina taxes withheld from her paycheck and withhold Georgia taxes instead.

Her employer will issue her Form W-2 at the end of the year and report a portion of her wages to Georgia and a portion to South Carolina. Finally, the employee will file her tax returns in both states and claim a credit in South Carolina.

Keeping all of this in mind, is the challenge of the payroll reporting and multiple state tax filings a worthwhile option for employers? Do the benefits of flexible work arrangements outweigh the administrative complexities? Potentially. But proactive, automated solutions are key.

Companies that address this issue proactively can put policies in place that articulate upfront how employees will be impacted by remote work arrangements. They can also automate much of the tracking and monitoring of employee travel for payroll reporting requirements. Many companies accomplish these activities without requiring additional HR or payroll headcount, resulting in a positive outcome for both the employer and the employee who can benefit from flexibility.

February 18, 2020June 29, 2023

Court concludes employer should have advised injured employee of FMLA rights even after going AWOL

Buddy Phillips injured his ribs while playing with his grandchildren.

Over the next two weeks, he called his employer, United Trailers, to report he would miss work. Eventually, however, he stopped making these phone calls. When he failed to show up at work for three straight days without giving notice, United fired him under its attendance and reporting-off policy.

He sued, claiming that United interfered with his rights under the FMLA by failing to advise him of his rights under the statute after it had notice of his serious health condition but before he went AWOL.

In Phillips v. United Trailers, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals held that in this instance, the employee’s FMLA rights trumped the employer’s attendance and reporting policy.

Even if Phillips failed to comply with the FMLA by failing to report his absences, he did so after United would have violated the FMLA. Phillips stopped calling in to work at least nine business days after he first reported his rib injury to United. Under the regulations, United had five business days after receiving notice of Phillips’s rib injury to determine whether he qualified for FMLA leave.

In other words, an employer cannot rely on its attendance and reporting-off policy to terminate an AWOL employee if the employer is already on notice that an FMLA-qualifying event might be the cause of the employee’s unreported absences.

So what should an employer do in this situation, when an employee might have triggered the FMLA’s protections? The FMLA’s regulations offer some guidance.

1. If the need for leave is foreseeable to the employee, it’s a much easier issue. The employee must give 30 days notice, which gives the employer and the employee more than enough time to work out their leave and attendance issues.
2. If the need for leave is unforeseeable, however, the employee must provide notice of his intent to take leave to the employer as soon as practical under the circumstances. That notice must “provide sufficient information for an employer to reasonably determine whether the FMLA may apply to the leave request.” Critically, an employee “need not expressly assert rights under the FMLA or even mention the FMLA, but may only state that leave is needed.”
3. The burden then shifts to the employer. The employer must decide whether to designate the request for leave as FMLA-qualifying. Its decision to designate FMLA leave “must be based only on information received from the employee.” If the employer lacks information about the reason for an employee’s request for leave, the employer should inquire further of the employee to determine whether leave is potentially FMLA-qualifying. The employer should not, however, bury its head in the sand and ignore the employee, because if the leave turns out to be FMLA-covered, the employer will have a big legal problem. Just ask United Trailers.
4. Importantly, the employer only has five business days to notify the employee whether leave will be designated as FMLA-qualifying, absent extenuating circumstances.
5. Throughout this back-and-forth time period, the employee must comply with the employer’s “usual and customary notice and procedural requirements for requesting leave.” If the employee does not comply with the employer’s usual leave-request requirements, the employer is within its rights to deny or delay the FMLA leave. If, however, the employee provides notice and complies with the employer’s attendance policy, the employer’s failure to timely determine whether the employee’s leave counts as FMLA-qualifying may constitute an interference with the employee’s FMLA rights.

These are complicated issues that often do not have cut-and-dried answers and can carry seriously expensive consequences for an employer’s missteps. If an employee presents you with an injury- or illness-related absence that may or may not qualify for FMLA protections, your first call should be to your employment lawyer to make sure that you are handling this issue correctly under the FMLA’s maze of rules and regulations.

February 18, 2020June 29, 2023

Workforce time clocks keep punching away. Thanks, Coldplay

My stove and kitchen radio decided to simultaneously conduct a household appliance assault, which triggered a mini-obsession with clocks.

When I set the timer on my stove, the time of day on the clock disappeared, which for some reason bothered me to no end. Already irritated, the annoying Coldplay song “Clocks” blared from the radio.

Nice. Now I don’t know what time it is, and I have earworm like “It’s a Small World” or “Viva la Vida” (ugh; Coldplay again), bobbling around my noggin. But then, would “Rock Around the Clock” have changed anything? Jim Croce crooning “Time in a Bottle”? Maybe it was just my time. Or that time of day. Whenever, wherever, I guess.

Unfortunately my fixation carried over to the next morning.

As I walked past a city water department crew hovering over a trench laying a water main, my time-sensitive brain set me pondering: Do these guys queue up at the crack of dawn, pull their paper time card off of a wall-bound time card rack, punch in on an old-fashioned workforce time clock and then pop it back in the rack before trudging out to a company rig and rambling off to the job site?

As I scurried to catch the train I drifted back to a time when I punched in and out on a workforce time clock for my dad as a plumber’s apprentice and again two summers later on his buddy’s road construction crew.

I got to wondering … what companies still use time clocks? After all, we are in an age where technology makes clocking in and out just an app away on our phones. So naturally, to satisfy my clock-obsessed curiosity, I googled time clocks.

Also read: Solving the concern over clean time clocks with a mobile solution

Do workforce time clocks still exist? Boy howdy, do they!

I was pleased to discover that there are several companies that still manufacture and sell the old-style workforce time clocks. I was particularly taken by the story behind Lathem Time Corp. The Atlanta-based manufacturer recently celebrated its 100th anniversary, and their company history page reads like the opening line straight out of a college class in Southern literature.

“In 1919, when George Lathem and his son, Louie P. Lathem began selling time clocks, the father and son sales team traveled by train throughout the Southeast, getting off at the whistle-stops of small towns and looking for the telltale smokestacks of local factories … .”

Which makes me want to add, “The sulphur burned their eyes as they strode toward the block-long red-brick building … ” OK, OK, snap back to 2020. Well, sort of.

Workforce time clocks — Plenty of workforce time clocks, like this one manufactured by Lathem Time Corp. in Atlanta, are still in use.

As many organizations move toward cloud-based, mobile time-and-attendance software, I asked Lance Whipple, Lathem’s vice president of sales and marketing, about the viability of using workforce time clocks of a bygone era.

Whipple assured me that plenty of punch clocks are still in use.

“There are likely a couple hundred thousand Lathem punch clocks still in use daily, and many more when you add in competitive products,” Whipple said. “We’ve sold millions of time clocks to small businesses in our history.”

Punch clocks remain popular with small businesses, he added, and when you consider business needs, workforce time clocks make sense. Sure, we can romanticize their use in the farms and smoke-belching factories of yesteryear, but time clocks are simple to use and as reliable as sweet tea on a steamy Southern summer day.

“As much as we love time clocks, it’s not a sexy or exciting purchase for most small businesses,” Whipple said. “It serves a utilitarian purpose. The low cost of ownership is key in the decision making process. A small business can purchase a punch clock for a few hundred dollars, have it up and running in less than 10 minutes and it will provide many years of reliable service,” he said.

So reliable, in fact, that Lathem has heard from customers with workforce time clocks they made more than 50 years ago.

And time clocks require virtually no training, Whipple said.

“Some small businesses are reluctant to move to more complex technology until they grow to a point where manual time tracking is too much to handle easily.”

Although workforce time clocks are used in primarily blue-collar work environments, Whipple said the size of an organization typically will dictate what type of time and attendance function is in place.

“The smaller the business, the more likely they are to select a punch clock solution over a software-based system,” he said. “There will always be a need for a traditional punch clock for small business. Some aren’t ready to give up pen and paper or commit to the ongoing subscription cost of cloud solutions.”

All that being said, Whipple added that cloud-based applications provide incredible value in managing employee time and attendance.

“We are in a unique position to upgrade a traditional punch clock or older desktop software customers to these new cloud solutions as they outgrow their current product,” he said. “Our cloud-based customers that have made the transition love the access to their employee’s time and attendance data.”

Armed with my new-found knowledge of time clocks, my obsession has been quelled. Wait, time clocks. Clocks. Clocks!! Arrrrgghh, now Coldplay is stuck in my head again!

Can someone sing “It’s a Small World,” please?

February 14, 2020June 29, 2023

Google’s head of HR steps down amid long standing employee tensions

Eileen Naughton, vice president of Google’s people operations, announced that she will be stepping down from her position later this year to be closer to her family. The company said in a Feb. 11 press release that she will not be leaving Google altogether but will be transitioning into a different role at the company that has not yet been specified.

During Naughton’s time as vice president of people at Google, she has had to deal with a series of conflicts within the company’s workforce, such as sexual harassment claims that lead to mass walkouts at several office locations, wrongful termination of several employees and being criticized for diversity issues.

During the backlash, Naughton led an effort to make it easier for employees to report misconduct by introducing a new program that allows employees to bring a friend with them to human resources when they file a complaint and during the investigative process as well, according to Fortune. The article also stated that Naughton responded to criticism about Google’s poor treatment toward its U.S. temporary workers who lacked many benefits that their staff receives by implementing new standards including a $15 minimum wage, health care and parental leave.

Dania Shaheen, vice president of strategy and people operations at Kazoo, said that while Google has been known as a leading company to work in the tech world, they are now learning some valuable lessons as they are thrust into the limelight regarding the company’s future and culture.

“What Google is now learning is that hard-fought gains in employee trust build up over a long time frame can easily be squandered,” Shaheen said via email. “While this change management situation may seem dire at the moment, there’s hope for Google and other companies out there going through changes in their cultures.”

In terms of Google’s next steps, Shaheen said they need to revisit what made it such a great company in the first place — its culture — to rebuild the trust with their employees, which begins with the company’s leaders.

“For a company’s culture to flourish, the key is to build a purpose-driven culture of high engagement and high performance within the workforce, and one that evolves as the organizations evolves,” Shaheen said. “One of the best ways to ensure culture will flourish within an organization is to create an environment of trust, transparency and open communication.”

Considering Google’s extended experience with facing backlash and employee tension over the last several months, management burnout is something to also think about. Shaheen says that every company is bound to experience these types of significant changes at some point, and that change can be especially difficult to deal with in the workplace.

“To avoid management and employee burnout in these situations, company leaders can involve managers early on in the change management process to embrace, promote and facilitate the changes that need to happen,” Shaheen said. “When managers aren’t completely aligned or involved with the organizational change, employees hear mixed messages and feel ambivalent toward the initiatives. While leadership drives desired culture changes, it’s imperative to solicit feedback and input from everyone impacted.”

In times of turmoil in an organization, the role of HR leaders is to provide clear communications expectations and not to assume that all managers will know the expectations for sharing information with their teams, Shaheen said.

“By keeping the employee front and center during all change management initiatives and conversations, companies can help reduce management and employee burnout during times of significant change.”