Author: Site Staff

Storytelling can be a very effective way of getting a point across in the business world. Here are some hints for doing so—using the word “Plot” (the first letters of the words Plain, Light, Obvious and Tight) as a memory aid:

• Plain. Keep the story simple, colorful, personal, and clear.
• Light. Don’t upset or confuse people. There’s no need to shock them to get their attention and keep it.
• Obvious. Remember the theme to your story, and they will too.
• Tight: Keep it short and to the point. Remove the unnecessary parts.

Source: Executive Communications Group, April 1999.

Issue: You are asked to give a job reference to a prospective employer of one of your former employees. For years your company has refused to provide any information other than dates of employment and final salary. However, you are aware that state legislatures have been passing laws that provide a measure of protection to employers that provide job reference information. Should you suggest a change in policy, and if so, what liability concerns would you face for providing job reference information?

Answer: Although the answer depends on several factors, including employee workplace privacy rights, defamation, qualified privilege for employers, union activity protections and discrimination, state law is increasingly coming into play. States are addressing employer concerns and writing laws to provide protection for employers from liability when providing job references for current or former employees.

Specific laws vary, but these laws generally protect:

• former or current employers;
• who provide information about “job performance” (which may be defined by law to include work-related characteristics and abilities, reason for separation from employment, etc.);
• to prospective employers (sometimes limited to a request by the employee; a few states require the request to be in writing).

The laws generally provide a presumption that information provided in such circumstances is given in good faith and is immune from civil liability.

Legal protections can be lost, however, if there is a showing that:

• the information given was false;
• it was provided with knowledge of its falsity or recklessly or maliciously.

A minority of states also will not protect information given in violation of a nondisclosure agreement or otherwise confidential by law, or in violation of any civil right protected by that state’s laws.

Does your state provide immunity?

The following states have job reference immunity statutes of general application:

Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Wisconsin, Wyoming

SOURCE: CCH Incorporated is a leading provider of information and software for human resources, legal, accounting, health care and small business professionals. CCH offers human resource management, payroll, employment, benefits, and worker safety products and publications in print, CD, online and via the Internet. For more information and other updates on the latest HR news, check our Web site at http://hr.cch.com.

The information contained in this article is intended to provide useful information on the topic covered, but should not be construed as legal advice or a legal opinion.

Beware the office full of closed doors, gossip, and behind-the-backs: Research shows that employees who work for companies with good communications are more satisfied, more productive and stay longer.

Tracking the effect of poor communications on your turnover problem starts by noticing early signs of communication breakdown such as:

• Information taking too long to reach its destination
• New information relevant to the current problem never reaching the appropriate people for action
• More committee meetings being scheduled and canceled
• Lots of closed-doors and closed-door meetings
• Employees afraid to speak their mind or object for fear of “looking bad”
• Key people on projects no longer as accessible as they once were
• Overall employee attitude is, “Things just don’t work around here any more”

To improve communications in your organization, first make sure you understand the high cost of turnover. Then, analyze exit interviews for trends indicating why people leave. Determine which trends are directly impacted by communications. Estimate the bottom-line cost of improving the situation, and then implement a plan to improve it. When done, do estimates of the cost-savings you have achieved through the communications program.

SOURCE: O’Connor Kenny Partners, Memphis, TN, April 1999.

This body of text can be used to position the program/contest, describe how it works, the selection process, etc.

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Mark/Valerie: If you have some marketing/program copy we can insert it here prior to showing Cyborg.

This would be the actual form that Cyborg would provide us.

The responses can be forwarded in batch (e.g., every 24 hours) or immediately to an identified Cyborg representative–as well as forwarded to us.

Issue: A medium-sized business is considering discharging one of its employees, who has been absent for 28 days and been involved in numerous altercations in the office. What can the company do to ensure that its experience-rating remains good in the event it decides to go ahead with the discharge?

Answer: Use the following checklist as a guideline for limiting state unemployment insurance liability:

• Be aware of your state’s experience-rating system.
• Understand how your account may be charged. Guard against the making of improper charges to the experience-rating record.
• Become familiar with the noncharging provisions of the UI state law. Contest improper claims lodged against your account quickly and effectively.
• Carefully check over the statement of accounts furnished by the state agency that reflects the charges on account of benefits paid to employees. Errors can be made.
• If the rate has been incorrectly determined, notify the state agency immediately.
• Do not allow unsatisfactory employees to build up base-period wage credits. This can increase the potential charges to an employer’s account in certain states.
• After hiring new employees, carefully follow their progress and dismiss them promptly if they prove unsatisfactory. The longer an inefficient employee remains employed the greater the potential charges against the company’s experience-rating record will be.
• Do not allow weeks of partial unemployment to become “waiting period” weeks. You may want to plan temporary layoffs so that the waiting week will be a week of total unemployment, thus possibly reducing the amount of benefits charged to your account.
• Give every employee who leaves a separation interview. Inquire carefully into the reasons for leaving the company or the circumstances surrounding the dismissal. Remember, in most states every employee who leaves for whatever reason may represent a future benefit charge.
• Keep accurate records concerning the circumstances surrounding an employee’s dismissal or leaving. If possible, secure a signed statement from the employee as to the reasons for leaving.
• Notify the separating employee at the time of separation of his or her rights to unemployment insurance. You should also stress your intention to protest any unjustified claim that the worker might later file.
• Carefully check and reply where necessary to all notices concerning benefit claims, benefit charges, rate determinations, or requests for separation information.
• In supplying separation information, you should use the form supplied by the state agency rather than writing a letter. Include the exact reasons for the separation, giving the facts accurately and completely.
• File reports and pay contributions on time. Many states deny experience rates to employers that are delinquent in filing reports and/or paying contributions.
• Estimate the effect of future charges to your account. Very often, one benefit charge may be sufficient to throw the employer into a different, higher rate classification.
• Preclude employees from receiving unemployment benefits if they are receiving any other form of compensation from the company.

SOURCE: CCH Incorporated is a leading provider of information and software for human resources, legal, accounting, health care and small business professionals. CCH offers human resource management, payroll, employment, benefits, and worker safety products and publications in print, CD, online and via the Internet. For more information and other updates on the latest HR news, check our Web site at http://hr.cch.com.

The information contained in this article is intended to provide useful information on the topic covered, but should not be construed as legal advice or a legal opinion.

Here are four pointers on giving feedback that is correct, balanced and appropriate.

1. Remember, your credibility is on the line.
   Every time you give a person accurate feedback, you have an opportunity to build trust. If you don’t do it right, you lose trust.
2. In preparing to give feedback, stop and reflect on the content of the feedback.
   Do you really understand the situation? Are your sources reliable? Are they double-checked?
3. Balance praise and criticism.
   When you are giving criticism, don’t forget that the employee is often working very hard and making many valuable contributions. Mention them first. Also, focus on the performance, not the person or the personality.
4. Refine and rehearse your message.
   If it’s written feedback, do a first draft, and then come back in a couple days and revisit it. If it’s verbal, repeat it to yourself at least once before delivering it.

SOURCE: Bruce Tulgan, RainmakerThinking, Inc.

Issue: An employee of your company who recently had a new home built owes money to the general contractor, who has commenced with garnishment proceedings in order to collect the debt. Your company has received the wage deduction order, but to complicate things the employee is challenging the amount of the order. How should you proceed toward processing the wage deduction?

Answer: Follow these guidelines for procedures that employers should follow each time a wage deduction order is processed:

Tips for processing payroll deductions:

• Read the order as soon as it is received.
• Provide the employee with a copy of the wage deduction order. (Note that the employer may not be legally required to do so.)
• Determine the purpose of the wage deduction order. In other words, is this a tax levy, child support order, debt, etc.?
• Determine what portion of the employee’s wages may be exempt from the order.
• Determine in what priority multiple orders (if any) against the same employee must be satisfied.
• Answer the wage deduction order as stated on the face of the order or as required by state law.
• Withhold from the employee’s wages the amount required by the order. Begin to withhold based upon the order, even if the employee is currently challenging the legitimacy and/or amount of the order.

SOURCE: CCH Incorporated is a leading provider of information and software for human resources, legal, accounting, health care and small business professionals. CCH offers human resource management, payroll, employment, benefits, and worker safety products and publications in print, CD, online and via the Internet. For more information and other updates on the latest HR news, check our Web site at http://hr.cch.com.

The information contained in this article is intended to provide useful information on the topic covered, but should not be construed as legal advice or a legal opinion.

Issue: A payroll professional has several responsibilities when a new employee is hired. Most importantly, a determination must be made whether to treat the new hire as an employee or an independent contractor. An employer-employee relationship will give rise to employment tax obligations. In addition, new-hire reporting requirements and employment verification requirements under federal immigration law must be complied with. What should you do, as a payroll professional, upon the hiring of a new employee?

Sample checklist for processing a new employee:

Step 1: Determine if the new employee is classified as an employee or an independent contractor for employment tax purposes.

• Determine if the worker is classified as an “employee” by the IRS.
• Use the 20-factor “Right to Control” test to assess the worker’s status if it does not fall within statutory rules.
• Review Sec. 530 of the Revenue Act of 1978 to see if the worker falls within the “safe harbor” rules, which do not allow the IRS to challenge the status of workers as independent contractors.

Step 2: Have the new hire fill out Form W-4.

• Record the employee’s name and social security card number exactly the same as they appear on the employee’s social security card.
• If the employee has neither a social security number nor a receipt indicating that he has applied for one, ask for a dated and signed written statement containing the employee’s name, address, gender, and date and place of birth.
• If the employee has not given you a social security number, you must request it, stating that it is required by law.
• If an employee fills out an invalid W-4 and refuses to fill out a new one, you must withhold from the employee as if he or she were single, claiming no exemptions.

Step 3: Comply with new-hire reporting requirements.

• For each new hire, the following must be submitted to the appropriate state agency:

1. the newly hired employee’s name, address, social security number; and
2. the employer’s name, address, and federal EIN number.

Additional information may be required based on state law.

• New-hire information may be submitted via first class mail, by fax, electronically, or using magnetic media. Methods of data transmission differ by state. If sent by mail, new-hire reports must be submitted within 20 days of the date of hire. Reports submitted electronically or magnetically must be submitted twice a month, and not fewer than 12 days or more than 16 days apart.

Step 4: Comply with employment verification requirements.

• Have employees fill out their portion of Form I-9 when they begin work.
• Check documents establishing employees’ identities and eligibility to work.
• Complete the employer portion of Form I-9.
• Retain I-9 Forms for at least three years or until one year after an employee leaves employment, whichever is later.

SOURCE: CCH Incorporated is a leading provider of information and software for human resources, legal, accounting, health care and small business professionals. CCH offers human resource management, payroll, employment, benefits, and worker safety products and publications in print, CD, online and via the Internet. For more information and other updates on the latest HR news, check our Web site at http://hr.cch.com.

The information contained in this article is intended to provide useful information on the topic covered, but should not be construed as legal advice or a legal opinion.

If you have an e-mail, Internet, or voice-mail policy, you may want to include in it a clause that reminds employees you have the right to review such communication tools. Here is a sample clause you may want to use as a starting point.

Because e-mail, voice mail and Internet access are business tools provided by the Company to employees for business purposes, the Company reserves the right to access and review employees’ e-mail and voice-mail messages and Internet activity. In addition, the Company in its discretion may disclose the contents of e-mail and voice-mail messages and Internet activity when it determines that there is a business or other appropriate reason to do so. All e-mail and voice-mail messages and records of Internet activity are also subject to backup or other form of electronic storage or reproduction.

Employees are not permitted to access the e-mail or voice mail or Internet activity of any other employee without the approval of that employee or the approval of a Company supervisor or manager, unless there is a pressing business reason to do so.

SOURCE: Brown & Bain, P.A., Phoenix, AZ, April 13, 1999.