Author: Site Staff

The Direct Deposit and Direct Payment Coalition offers these ten quick and easy ways to increase your company’s Direct Deposit participation rate:

• Use paycheck stuffers

• several times a year to remind employees of the advantages of Direct Deposit.

• Simplify sign-up

• by placing brochures and sign-up forms in cafeterias, at reception desks and in other areas frequented by employees. Keep sign-up forms within easy reach of any promotional posters.

• Use simple enrollment forms

• . In surveys on Direct Deposit, some people have indicated that sign-up forms are too complicated.

• Print reminders

• about Direct Deposit on paychecks.

• When sending out email bulletins

• about Direct Deposit, include the sign-up form for employees to complete and return.

• Offer Direct Deposit shirts

• , mugs and other items to new employees as a reminder to complete the sign-up form included in their orientation kit.

• Have human resource staff wear Direct Deposit buttons

• or shirts on certain days, e.g., casual Friday, to keep Direct Deposit top-of-mind.

• Offer incentives

for human resource staff members to sign-up employees for Direct Deposit.
• Check out NACHA: The Electronic Payments Association’s Web site (https://www.nacha.org/pubs-for-you) for more about promoting Direct Deposit within your company.
• Tie your activities in with the official Direct Deposit and Direct Payment Week, May 15-19, 2000. More information is available at http://www.directdeposit.org/dd.html.

SOURCE

: The Direct Deposit and Direct Payment Coalition was formed to promote the benefits of Direct Deposit and Direct Payment to consumers, companies and the country. The coalition, composed of the Federal Reserve, NACHA: The Electronic Payments Association and regional ACH associations, sees Direct Deposit and Direct Payment as leaders in a system that is moving quickly to electronic payments of all kinds.

In case your CFO needs convincing…

Direct Deposit can save your company money.

• Companies can save up to $1.25 per payment by using Direct Deposit instead of checks.
• Direct Deposit eliminates the cost of delivering checks to employees at different locations.
• Direct Deposit eliminates the chance of lost or stolen checks and the resulting charges for stopping payment and check replacement.
• To see how Direct Deposit can save your company money, use a Benefits Calculator available at www.directdeposit.org/companies/calculator.html

Direct Deposit can save your company time.

• Direct Deposit makes payroll reconciliation easier and can help you streamline your tax reporting at the end of the year.
• With Direct Deposit, there is no need for special check handling when employees are on vacation or out of the office.
• Direct Deposit reduces time spent storing and securing unissued checks because check stock is not required for the payroll earnings record.

Direct Deposit can help your company gain productivity.

Studies show that some employees spend the equivalent of three workdays each year going to the bank to deposit their paychecks.

Direct Deposit benefits employees.

• Ninety-seven percent of employees who use Direct Deposit are very satisfied with it.
• The chance of your employees having a problem with a check is much greater than with Direct Deposit.
• Direct Deposit is especially helpful for employees who travel and those who work from home because they collect their pay without visiting the office or the bank.

 

SOURCE: The Direct Deposit and Direct Payment Coalition, March 2000. The coalition was formed to promote the benefits of Direct Deposit and Direct Payment to consumers, companies and the country. The coalition, composed of the Federal Reserve, NACHA: The Electronic Payments Association and regional ACH associations, sees Direct Deposit and Direct Payment as leaders in a system that is moving quickly to electronic payments of all kinds.

Information you can use to communicate Direct Deposit to employees.

• Direct Deposit is safe and confidential.

• Payments made by Direct Deposit have never been lost. In fact, you are much more likely to have a problem with a check.
• Direct Deposit is confidential. A check passes through many more hands than a Direct Deposit transaction.
• Problems, which are rare, are quickly resolved. By contrast, problems with checks may take much longer to correct.

• Direct Deposit is convenient and saves you time.

• By using Direct Deposit, you may save the equivalent of three workdays each year by not having to go to the bank to deposit checks.
• You don’t have to be in town for your money to be securely deposited into your account. No more extra trips to the office to pick up paychecks.

• Direct Deposit is fast.

• Direct Deposit gives many people access to their payments one to four days earlier than a check. There is no waiting for a check to clear.

• Direct Deposit helps you manage your finances.

• With Direct Deposit, you decide how to divide your pay among your accounts, and it will be done automatically each payday.
• Direct Deposit gives you control. Financial planners recommend Direct Deposit as one step toward gaining control of your finances (it can be easier to save money when it’s not in your wallet).
• Most employers will issue a payment stub that is identical to what you receive with a traditional paycheck. It will show how much was deposited into your account and how much was taken out for taxes, insurance and other items.

 

SOURCE: The Direct Deposit and Direct Payment Coalition, March 2000. The coalition was formed to promote the benefits of Direct Deposit and Direct Payment to consumers, companies and the country. The coalition, composed of the Federal Reserve, NACHA: The Electronic Payments Association and regional ACH associations, sees Direct Deposit and Direct Payment as leaders in a system that is moving quickly to electronic payments of all kinds.

Here are answers to some common employee questions.

Q: What is Direct Deposit and how does it work?

A: Direct Deposit is a safe, proven, confidential method of receiving a payment. Money is electronically transferred from a company or organization into your checking or savings account.

Q: How do I know when my payment has been deposited?

A: Most employers will issue a payment stub that is identical to what you receive with a traditional paycheck. It will show how much was deposited in your account and how much was taken out of your pay for taxes, insurance and other items. If your employer does not issue payment stubs, your bank will notify you within two days of receiving the Direct Deposit or will provide you with a telephone number to use to check the status of your deposits.

Q: When do I have access to the money?

A: Typically, your payment is available first thing in the morning on payday.

Q: If I use Direct Deposit, how can I be sure that no one will have access to my account?

A: Direct Deposit is a confidential way to send and receive payments. Although your company does have a limited ability to reverse your Direct Deposit payment, it can only access funds that were deposited in error, such as when the company has issued the transaction twice or issued a deposit in the wrong amount. Fewer people see your account information with Direct Deposit than with checks.

Q: Can I divide my pay among different accounts if I use Direct Deposit?

A: Yes. You can have your pay deposited into one account or split among several accounts. Decide once how you want your pay divided and your plan will be carried out automatically every pay period. This increases your financial control and discipline in saving for the future.

Q: If I have a problem with Direct Deposit, how do I solve it? Whom should I call?

A: Problems with Direct Deposit are rare. In fact, you are much more likely to have a problem with a check. But if any problem should arise, contact your employer or your financial institution. The problem can usually be corrected immediately.

Q: What happens if I change banks?

A: Just fill out a new authorization form with your employer and provide your written permission to switch accounts.

Q: Can my employer require me to use Direct Deposit?

A: The benefits of Direct Deposit are convincing enough for most employees who use it. However, the following 11 states do allow an employer to mandate Direct Deposit: Alabama, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, South Carolina, South Dakota and Washington. Utah only allows mandates under certain conditions. Check your state’s labor codes for the most current information.

 

SOURCE: The Direct Deposit and Direct Payment Coalition, March 2000. The coalition was formed to promote the benefits of Direct Deposit and Direct Payment to consumers, companies and the country. The coalition, composed of the Federal Reserve, NACHA: The Electronic Payments Association and regional ACH associations, sees Direct Deposit and Direct Payment as leaders in a system that is moving quickly to electronic payments of all kinds.

Q

Dear Workforce:

How do I retain my IT workers now that Y2K is over and they’re getting ancy?

A

Dear Longing-for-the-Bubbly:

The Y2K problem was only one aspect of what IT professionals do. There are many more opportunities for the application of IT expertise.

Show your IT employees what other work needs to be done. Help them see that there is still plenty to do, that they still have a home with your company.

Remember that these workers want challenges, they want to be busy, and they want to see results from their efforts. Make them feel wanted, not to be discarded just because we’re past Y2K.

There are hundreds of things that can be done to keep people–whether they’re IT professionals or in some other occupation. Concentrate on:

• The work environment
• Interpersonal relationships
• Support for people to do their jobs
• Opportunities for growth
• Fair compensation.

Remember that the relationship between the worker and his/her immediate supervisor is the most influential. Be sure your supervisors–at all levels–are well-trained in how to keep their good employees.

 

SOURCE: Roger Herman, CSP, CMC, The Herman Group, Greensboro, NC.

E-mail your Dear Workforce questions to Online Editor Todd Raphael at raphaelt@workforceonline.com, along with your name, title, organization and location. Unless you state otherwise, your identifying info may be used on Workforce.com and in Workforce magazine. We can’t guarantee we’ll be able to answer every question.

As a human resources professional, you have the important task of communicating company policies to employees. In the current economy, company objectives aren’t only the pride of the CEO–they’re also a key factor in employee retention. So it’s imperative that there’s no disconnect between the company’s goals and HR’s implementation of policy.

Below, some hints on how to maintain harmony between what the company says and what it does.

• Find out what the company’s values actually are. No matter what the company’s size or industry, a statement of the company’s vision and goals should be communicated in writing and available to employees.
  
• Determine whether current policies are helping or hindering the company’s mission. Policies should be reviewed regularly in the context of how they are helping employees accomplish the company’s objectives. For example, current Optimas winner Jellyvision revamped its health benefits package to a program with lower deductibles and a shorter waiting period to ease employee anxiety about coverage and to communicate an attitude of caring to the employees.
  
• Be honest with everyone about HR objectives. Take time to help employees understand the hows and whys of company policy. You’ll get much farther in making policies stick if you keep an upfront, open approach. If you’re changing health care plans because costs are rising 30% (as is the case with some California plans), tell employees that’s why you’re changing.
  
• Do a little audit. Get together a “focus group” of employee representing a cross-section of positions in the company. Ask them if you’re living up to the values you’ve written down. Ask them if they feel strongly enough about the organization to recommend to a friend that he or she work there. If they say no, ask why. If they say yes, ask why. Consider their answers when revising policies.

Just read What’s My Line Worth? Very good article. The author might be interested to learn that we track pay data of engineers by gender vs. education vs. experience and find only a 5% male-female difference (varying somewhat by length of experience).

Q

Dear Workforce:

How will Human Resources departments be structured and operate in 20 years?

— Lori Biesiada, consultant, McS Solutions, Columbus, Ohio

 

A

Dear Lori:

As we move into the future, the outsourcing trend will be seen in the human resources arena.

Several key generalists will manage the corporate human resource function, with at least one of them actively participating at the strategic level. Most of the functions such as recruiting, employment, record-keeping, and benefits administration will be outsourced, with a high level of automation using computers.

A significant portion of the company’s workforce will be contingent labor, requiring a substantially different set of skills for recruiting, negotiating, managing and servicing a very flexible workforce. A large number of workers will be independent free agents, though many of them will sell their services through an international network of brokers.

Most benefits will be self-designed and self-managed, relieving most employers from carrying this load. Since most employment arrangements will be established through individual negotiation, wage and salary specialists will play a much different role.

 

SOURCE: Roger E. Herman, CSP, CMC, The Herman Group, Greensboro, NC, February 29, 2000.

E-mail your Dear Workforce questions to Online Editor Todd Raphael at raphaelt@workforceonline.com, along with your name, title, organization and location. Unless you state otherwise, your identifying info may be used on Workforce.com and in Workforce magazine. We can’t guarantee we’ll be able to answer every question.

While some points that the author makes are accurate, I think she missed one of the fundamental reasons why women are not paid as much as men for the same work.

I have been in the workforce for 30 years of full-time employment, 19 of those years have been in Human Resources, and I have observed that the inequities arise not mostly on education, experience or hours of work; but simply on the assumption that if a woman is doing a job it must be worth less.

I will give you a real example. In one company I worked for the positions of mediator between Management and the Workers were held by men, and during this period the jobs were all assigned levels of 10 and 11. Most of these people were not University-educated but had risen through the ranks and assumed the position.

Over a period of time women began to request the opportunity to work in these positions, within a short period of this occurring the FULLY QUALIFIED level for the job became a Level 8. No facet of the work had changed (including the hours of work) yet the job was immediately assigned a lower status, therefore a lower rate of pay.

You can observe this same phenomenon in banks and other parts of the white collar workforce.

It just strikes me as ironic that a woman wrote this book!

While I agree in theory with the author’s statistics, in practice I still see a disparity between men and women’s pay. As an HR manager for a mid-size bank, there is most definitely a “glass ceiling” and a difference in pay even when all issues are considered, such as job worth, seniority, education, number of hours worked and responsibilities.