Thisoverview of Sun’s “iWork at Sun” program explains what drove the development of the program and how the company measures its impact.
ER-One Averts a Potential HR Emergency
Michigan-based ER-One, a physicianowned emergency medicine management group, provides physicians and other clinicians for hospital emergency.
ER-One is an umbrella company over two smaller divisions and employs approximately 180 total employees. The organization provides clinicians to local hospital emergency rooms so one division is made up of physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants; all licensed, highly educated, and highly compensated. The second division is made up of support personnel; billers, coders and administrative staff. ER-One works out of five clinical sites and two administrative locations throughout the state.
Brainard Joins ER-One as First-ever HR Professional
Pat Brainard, director of HR for ER-One, was the first human resources professional hired to work at ER-One. She entered a situation in which electronic records were non-existent, there were limited records of clinicians, and only a homemade Access database was available as a reference.
Brainard’s Search for a HRMS Begins
Brainard immediately began looking for a human resources management system. She needed one that could integrate multiple company locations and varying job positions and skills. A search on Google.com introduced Brainard to Ascentis Corporation, creator of HROffice.
Brainard needed to solve multiple broad-stroke problems, including accuracy of information, compliance issues, ease of access to data and being able to report on it, and organization and consistency of data. ER-One needed to track:
- Benefits enrollment, correspondence and associated fees.
- Billable dollars as related to hours worked as a measure of productivity.
- Continuing medical education expenses.
- Contract specifications and expirations.
- Educational details—medical school, residency, and fellowship.
- Eligibility to work at specific sites—credentialing.
- Licensure and special training—board certification(s).
- Performance appraisals.
- Salary information with bonuses and administrative stipends.
- Status of recruits within the application and credentialing processes.
ER-One and Ascentis partnershiptimeline, HRMS search ends
Brainard was hired in November, researched multiple HRMS’s, decided upon HROffice, had her secretary manually collect data from paper files and the legacy ER-One database, and was completely utilizing HROffice as her HRMS by the following February.
Specific ROI
Specific ROI dollar amounts are difficultto calculate since Brainard was newand didn’t experience the previous manualprocedures for long. However, somebasic estimates, considering some of thereporting functions, indicate an initial savingsof more than $6,000. More importantly,ER-One has significantly decreasedits risk exposure and improved its strategicposition. This will result in realizedgains with recruitment and retention.
Brainard’s final thoughts onHROffice
“Just because HROffice is not as convoluted as some other databases, itdoesn’t mean it isn’t as powerful andeffective. In fact, it has proven to bemore powerful than I anticipated andyet always remains simple to use.
The staff at Ascentis is a pleasure towork with. Technical support consistentlyresolves issues in a timely fashionand helped expand my use ofHROffice reporting features. I wouldhighly recommend both the companyand the products to any small or midsizedorganization.”
A Profile of Diversity Officers
Here are some of the findings from its Diversity Officer Special Report:
1. Compensation of diversity officers:
Average salary of $225,000 and average bonus incentive of 10 percent.
23.3 percent make more than $300,000 with a bonus in the range of $100,000;
46.4 percent make $200,000 to $300,000, with a bonus in the $75,0000 range;
30.3 percent make $100,000 to $200,000, with a bonus in the $50,000 range.
2. Average budget: $2.8 million
3. Most common titles:
Vice President–64.7 percent
Chief Diversity Officer–23.5 percent
Senior Vice President–8.8 percent
Director–17.1 percent
Many chief diversity officers are also Vice presidents or senior vice presidents.
4. Average staff size: 8.2 employees; 58 percent have 4 to 20 employees while nearly 30 percent have more than 20.
5. Average tenure: 10 years with the company, four years in the position.
6. Board reporting: 75 percent of diversity officers report to corporate boards on a regular basis.
7. Measurement: 92 percent of CEOs review statistics on diversity results and performance.
8. Suppliers: 80 percent of diversity officers have supplier diversity programs setting policies and goals for purchasing.
Lift Machines Paying Off for Hospitals
Nurses are experiencing fewer injuries at some hospitals because of investments in patient-lifting machines, according to the Charleston Post and Courier.
Jim Jones, vice president of human resources at the Trident Health System, says Trident spent about $265,000 on lift equipment 18 months ago. In one year, injuries were down 30 percent, and are down another 8 percent so far this year.
Several factors have made hospitals more dangerous in recent years. Patients are bigger; the ones that end up in the hospital are sicker and less mobile than in years past; and nurses overall are older. At the Roper St. Francis hospital system, injuries have tripled in the past year and a half, and workers’ comp claims have increased from $800,000 to $1.2 million over the last 11 months.
The American Nurses Association is campaigning to get hospitals to invest in patient-lifting equipment. Judy Thompson, executive director of the South Carolina Nurses Association, told the Post and Courier that hospitals have essentially been penny wise but pound foolish. They’ve avoided buying equipment in order to save money, but in the end have paid the price in the form of high workers’ comp claims and rising turnover among nurses.
According to 2002 data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in hospitals the annual rate of nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses is 9.7 per 100 full-time employees. In coal mines, there are 6.8 annual nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses for each 100 employees.
One County Finds that an HRMS Can Cause Major Headaches
One Colorado county with about 2,000 employees is finding that getting a human resources system is like any other major piece of technology: getting it to work the way you want it to isn’t so easy.
According to the Fort Collins Coloradoan, Larimer has spent nearly $3 million implementing and trying to fix the Oracle system “that officials say is plagued with errors.” “It’s like having an old car,” said Bob Keister, the county’s budget manager. “How much do you spend on it before you get off that car and get another?”
The Coloradoan reports that the county’s payroll technicians have worked overtime on evenings and weekends to meet payroll deadlines. Information on some paychecks–such as how much sick time and vacation time people have–has been wrong. County Manager Frank Lancaster says that correcting these problems is “like having a root canal every two weeks.”
An Oracle spokesman says the company is looking into the problems and wants to help fix them. But County Manager Frank Lancaster says Oracle has sent programming patches that sometimes “fixed one thing and caused two other things to go wrong.” Oracle is making sure the county has direct contact with programmers so that it can fix problems more quickly, according to the newspaper report.
Dear Workforce What Are Some Good Tests for Accounting and Maintenance Jobs
What is going on with these positions that leads you to think about using assessments? Are you having issues with absenteeism, theft, low performance or turnover? Or are you trying to raise the bar for the basic skill levels of your employees? Perhaps you’re interested in developing a competency-based selection and performance-management system. The reasons for your need to use assessments are a big factor in deciding which type of tool to use.
Before looking at specific assessments, make sure you completely understand the performance requirements for the jobs. Figuring out the basic performance requirements of a job is known as job analysis. Even if you don’t have the resources for in-depth job analysis, spend some time documenting exactly what high and low performance looks like for those jobs. This information then serves as a blueprint for selecting the proper assessment tools. Failure to match assessment tools with specific job requirements has a serious impact on the effectiveness of your assessment process.
Clearly understand each of the steps in your hiring process, and make sure the assessments you choose are appropriate. If other parts of your hiring process are not set up well for the requirements of the jobs you’re hiring for, one assessment may not make as much of a difference. Hiring processes should involve a carefully chosen set of steps, all oriented toward providing information about an applicant’s ability to perform critical job requirements. An assessment may be helpful, but is even more so if used with other tools such as structured interviews. Your budget–and the latitude you have to change your hiring process–will help determine how many assessment tools to use.
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Knowledge/skills assessment, which measures specific aspects of accounting knowledge
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Cognitive-ability assessment, which measures basic math skills and ability to interpret data
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Background check and integrity/conscientiousness assessments to help you avoid hiring dishonest persons
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For a job that requires supervisory or managerial responsibilities, an assessment of leadership and decision-making abilities
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Background check and integrity/conscientiousness assessments to help avoid hiring personnel who are apt to steal or be absent
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Interpersonal-skills assessment to ensure that people interact effectively with building occupants
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Situational-judgment assessment to help find people who make good decisions on the job
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Mechanical-aptitude assessment to ensure that you are hiring people who can perform the technical aspects of the job
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Microsoft’s Benefits Cuts to Save At Least $80 Million Annually
Microsoft’s cutbacks to employee benefits will save the company at least $80 million each year, according to The Seattle Times.
The company is cutting prescription-drug benefits for employees who want brand-name drugs when a generic drug exists. The stock-purchase program will be scaled back significantly. New employees will get two week’s vacation instead of three (it will increase to three after they’ve worked two years). Employees will have to take parental leave within six months of having or adopting a child, rather than one year.
According to the Seattle Times, Ken DiPietro, vice president of human resources, e-mailed employees to say that the changes were the result of a regular review to ensure that benefit programs “balance the interests of our employees and the expectations of shareholders.” Meanwhile, one anonymous employee told the newspaper that the changes are “a blow to the self-esteem and the work ethic of the average employee. I didn’t find anyone here who was thinking, ‘Wow, this is a great move and this will get the stock up.’”
In St. Louis, Teachers May Leave in Droves
Charles Pineau, head of human resources for the St. Louis public schools, has a challenge that many private organizations will soon experience. The baby boomers are retiring.
According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, teachers will be leaving the district “en masse” within the next three years. There’s no mandatory retirement age, but some will be encouraged by a retirement incentive plan and others will simply be gaining in years.
When many teachers entered the field, it was the popular career choice for women and minorities. Now, the most talented women and minorities often enter the business world, according to Michael Allen, director for teacher quality at the Education Commission of the States in Denver.
Verle D. Cromer a ninth-grade counselor, says of the exodus, “We may never recover,” according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Massive Boeing Suit Beginning in Puget Sound
One of the largest gender-discrimination class-action lawsuits ever is getting closer to going to trial, as court proceedings are begin this week in a Boeing case involving 28,000 women.
Boeing would have to pay hundreds of millions of dollars if it loses, as well as take a hit to employee morale and the company’s reputation. According to The Seattle Times, the lawsuit alleges that women at Boeing were paid less, denied training, denied promotions and in some cases, sexually harassed. Jim Dagnon, retired chief of human resources, is among the people expected to defend Boeing in court.
In another federal courthouse this week, Boeing is fending off a separate race-discrimination class-action suit brought by 1,850 Asian engineers and technical workers.
Sexy Perks are Out; A Balanced Life is In
Challenger, Gray and Christmas says that employee perks are making a comeback, especially those that provide a better work/life balance.
This stands in contrast to the last economic expansion, when some companies were offering benefits aimed at “fun” such as pool tables.
Here’s what John Challenger says is hot: concierge services; flexible scheduling; free shuttle rides; on-site fitness centers; quiet rooms; investment seminars; an extra day off around holidays; event tickets; matching charitable contributions, and education assistance/tuition reimbursement.
Here’s what Challenger says is not hot: leased automobiles; fully paid health benefits; game rooms; pension plans and retiree benefits; cash bonuses; three-month sabbaticals; stock options; matching 401(k)s, and bringing pets to work.