pandemic – Page 2

July 23, 2020June 29, 2023

Coronavirus Update: The FFCRA implications of schools reopening

With schools set to reopen over the next four to six weeks, your employees will be asking for time off from work if their children will be distancing learning for any part of the upcoming school year. The FFCRA provides for up to 80 hours of paid sick leave and 12 weeks of expanded FMLA Leave (the latter 10 of which are paid) for employees who are caring for their child(ren) whose school has been closed because of COVID-19 precautions.

Also read: How do you reopen schools without teachers?

The question of whether employees are entitled to take leave under the FFCRA for children who are distance learning this school year will depend on why they are distancing learning this year.

If a school is open for in-person learning and a child is distance learning by choice through an online option the school offers, the child’s parent is not entitled to FFCRA leave. In this case, the school is not closed; its physical location is open and the parent is choosing a remote learning option. Therefore, the employee does not have a qualifying reason for child care leave under the FFCRA. Note, however, that certain parents in this scenario still might qualify for FFCRA leave if the child is distance learning upon the advice of a health care provider to self-quarantine because of concerns related to COVID-19.
If a school is requiring full-time online instruction or distance learning, the employee will qualify for child care leave under the FFCRA, provided that the employee certifies to the employer that no other suitable person will be caring for the child(ren) during the period for which the employee takes FFCRA leave. According to the DOL’s FFCRA FAQ’s, “If the physical location where your child received instruction or care is now closed, the school or place of care is ‘closed’ for purposes of paid sick leave and expanded family and medical leave. This is true even if some or all instruction is being provided online or whether, through another format such as ‘distance learning,’ your child is still expected or required to complete assignments.”
If a school provides a mix of in-person and distance learning (e.g., a student attends class in-person in the morning and online from home in the afternoon, or in-person two days per week and remotely three days per week), an employee could take intermittent FFCRA leave, but only with the agreement of the employer. Under the FFCRA, intermittent leave is not a right and is only available if the employer permits it. Note, however, that the DOL “encourages employers and employees to collaborate to achieve flexibility.”

These issues will absolutely arise once children return to school. Best to figure out now how you are going to handle, because your employees will be requesting FFCRA leave for their children’s distance learning during the upcoming school year.

June 16, 2020June 29, 2023

How to recalibrate work dynamics and embrace digital transformation in a post-pandemic workplace

Tsedal Neeley, Harvard Business School professor, award-winning author, and global management and leadership expert, recently caught up with us to share her insights and advice as the workforce continues to go through rapid transformation brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. From digital transformation, team relaunch, to leading in times of radical change, she gives a picture of the future of work and essential advice for employees and leaders alike.

Workforce: What do you think are the most significant changes that were brought about by the pandemic to the workforce?

Neeley: The most significant changes that were brought about by COVID is the fact that between 88 percent to 90 percent of the workforces particularly knowledge workers, meaning people who work in offices, have migrated into remote work. A lot of people for the very first time in their professional lives have attempted to get work done virtually, collaborate virtually, be productive virtually, work with partners, customers, consumers, distributors, suppliers virtually in a context of a global pandemic.

The other thing that we’re seeing is the digital transformation for many organizations. When you go to remote work or what I call the virtualization of work, you have to have more robust enabling technologies to support it – communication tools, the tools for cybersecurity, repositories, content management systems. So we’re seeing some virtual and digital advancements that just really have accelerated because of the COVID-19 global pandemic.

Even now, if you think about the rush to get a vaccine for COVID-19. Some of the companies are using AI and machine learning. We’re seeing all of these things in action and I think that we are going to be forced to be much more intelligent. I also think that the companies that have had some form of digital capacity are going to do better during this economic times because they will have the predictive analysis to be able to understand how to use the right data, to have the right approaches, to make the right decisions, to come up with countering measures to support their strategic response.

WF: A lot of the working dynamics have changed. What are the ways that leaders can support their team during this time?

Neeley: It’s very important for leaders to ensure that they do what’s called a team launch. If you haven’t done a team launch by now, you should do a re-launch. Which means that you set your team off on a course.

A team launch is one of the success factors for any team. It breathes life to a team. It helps increase the performance of virtual teams by 30 percent. A team launch or relaunch is where you collectively determine the following:

Shared purpose – Be clear about what your shared goals, mission and vision are as a group.
Resources – Determine what your needs are, anywhere from budgets, information, and networks.
Members’ lived experience – Discuss individual strengths, constraints, and gaps. You need to understand task allocation and balance accordingly.

Today, many parents are homeschooling, and many are working in shifts. Days can be longer for them and their hours are not necessarily coinciding with the rest of the group.

Leaders need to understand who is in that situation and the constraints that go along with them. They must accommodate people who have those scenarios because the apparatus that people had built to support their children, to support them as families – the entire support structure has gone away in this global pandemic. You need to understand those constraints.

New norms: Establish or re-establish norms. How do you communicate and how often? What tools are you going to use to communicate?

People have been raising concerns about video conferencing fatigue, and it’s important for you to pick the right media for the right needs. As a group, you need to agree on what’s going to work for you in order to remain connected. Think about informal contact too like virtual lunches and virtual coffee breaks.

WF: What do you think the future of work will look like as businesses start operations again, especially those that have actual establishments?

Neeley: Opening up does not mean that we go back to our old system immediately, especially when we don’t have vaccines yet. So there are many questions around the use of space and technology.

For example, I recently spoke to a company that specializes in beverages and their business has never been better. They’ve started e-commerce first. Businesses need to think about whether it would make sense for them to begin a robust online delivery system in order to supplement their revenue, serve their customers, and remain very present.

Nonetheless, it’s important to keep in mind that when businesses are reopening and they are not using the full capacity of their staff – meaning some are at home still and some have gone into work. There actually creating two groups – those who are out risking exposure to COVID to start the business and those who remain safe at home. What can that create? That can create an us-versus-them culture. Leaders need to be very careful about those dynamics and make sure that no group feels privileged or excluded.

WF: We are talking about leaders being at the forefront of this. So for leaders, where do they get support because they are in a unique position of experiencing the effects of the pandemic and taking care of a team?

Neeley: That is an excellent question. People need to ask that question more.

Every organization needs to have a very visible CEO who is communicating regularly so that leaders can lead. The leaders of leaders have to set the tone. They have to help them figure out how to lead through a crisis.

There are two things that are important for them to identify. They need to recognize that they are leading during times of crisis, which requires a certain type of leadership. They are also leading radical change, but many of them don’t think they are. When your entire workforce has shifted to work from home; when your client base is in this extraordinarily dynamic period; when your entire patterns of work have changed, you are going through a radical change during a time of uncertainty. You don’t know what the future will look like. People are anxious. People need new skills. People need new equipment. Entire organizations have turned upside down. It’s a radical change. And you’re leading it.

Organizations need to set the tone and they need to equip their leaders to be able to lead accordingly. That’s the first step.

Second, leaders should form groups or task forces to help align their messaging, to help align their movements and actions and to bring together the best ideas and best practices. This way, no leader is trying to figure it out all on their own especially since no one has gone through a global pandemic of this scale in our modern times, right? To create the best practices collectively within the organization, that’s a way to get your support system.

Finally, leaders always need to have a set of mentors or kind of their own board of advisors, not formally necessarily. But leaders should have three or four people who they can turn to to think through things. These are not ordinary times and during times of crisis, you need your mentors. They are people you trust or people you build trust with if you don’t have them yet. These people have some serious expertise in a certain area that you really want to thrive in and be unafraid to hear truth from. You need to reach out to make sure that you have those.

This is not a time to be a solo leader. Leaders need to understand how to lead change, lead during times of crisis, and innovate. There are so many things that they need to figure out very quickly and they can’t do that alone.

May 8, 2020June 29, 2023

Employee communication how-to’s during a crisis

The usual employee communication strategy goes out the door when a company faces a crisis. Special circumstances like natural disasters, workplace shootings and pandemics put employers in a challenging situation. The future is uncertain, people are constantly learning new facts and messaging has to be carefully crafted.

Meanwhile, emotions may be high while people deal with the aftermath of a potentially traumatic event, and employers must be able to communicate messages carefully and empathetically. Added to this challenge, distance may be an issue. Disease outbreaks, hurricanes and snowstorms may leave a workforce separated from each other, either working remotely or unable to work at all.

It’s important for organizations to develop a crisis communication plan. Within that plan include details that relate to specific crises. Technology will be a key part of these strategies, especially when there’s a possibility that employees and managers won’t be in the same office for an unknown amount of time.

Here are some tips on how to utilize technology in a crisis communication strategy.

Communicate the organization’s response:

Whatever the crisis, employees want to know what is going on with their jobs and updates on the company. If a company closes temporarily due to a disaster, for example, people want to know when it will open again. Are their jobs safe? Is the employer taking proper health and safety precautions as they reopen the workspace? Are employees’ concerns and questions being addressed or ignored?

While managers may not have all the facts, they can set up weekly calls or send ongoing communication that gives employees whatever information is available. That way, people don’t feel out of the loop and know that their concerns are being considered and addressed by management.

A mobile communication solution is especially valuable since employees can access the information they want whenever and wherever on their own device.

Share only trustworthy sources and facts:

In times of crisis, misinformation and myths can be spread just as easily as facts, as crises like the COVID-19 pandemic and mass shootings show. Coronavirus myths include that antibiotics kill the virus and that only older people and people with chronic conditions are at risk. Mass shootings myths include that people with a mental illness are more likely to commit acts of violence (they’re actually much more likely to be victims of violence).

The important lesson for employers here is that rather than relying on the opinions of random people online — even if they seem credible — they should rely on basic facts from the experts.

As managers regularly communicate with employees as part of their crisis management strategy, they shouldn’t further spread misinformation.

Show empathy:

Just sharing facts won’t show empathy for the anxiety, trauma or other negative emotions employees may feel during a crisis. Compassion and a sense of understanding can go a long way to easing employees’ fears.

This is also an area managers can practice. They don’t have to go in blindly when they want to show a human, vulnerable, empathetic side to employees. Practice could be role-playing with someone else and analyzing what responses worked. Or it could mean researching how to communicate with people who have been through a crisis and practicing how to say it genuinely to another person.

In the case where managers and employees are separated, managers can show their team members on a personal level as well via their company’s mobile chat tool. It could be as simple as asking someone how they’re doing or communicating to them that management cares about their well-being. Just be sure it is genuine.

Don’t ghost employees:

Even though employers have enough on their plate when dealing with the aftermath of a crisis, they shouldn’t neglect their employees , who often are hailed as an organization’s “most valuable asset.” Ignoring the impact of the crisis on these people won’t reflect well on the manager or the organization.

It can be easy to keep in touch with employees and keep the lines of communication open with the right tech tools. Workforce.com allows managers to communicate with employees, whether it’s to share important information with them or just to reach out and show empathy for their situation.

Tools like this exist and can make managers’ crisis management responsibilities more effortless and streamlined. Utilize the latest communication technology in your crisis communication strategy.

April 27, 2020June 29, 2023

When employees return to work, consider these guidelines

As the debate over relaxing pandemic stay-at-home policies continues, researchers at Harvard caution that it is not safe to restart the economy until officials can perform 500,000 tests per day nationwide — a 350,000 per day increase over the current capacity.

With such guidance being considered to reopen schools, businesses and recreational facilities, organizations must be prepared regardless of the timing. Reopening the economy after a deadly, global pandemic isn’t as simple and flipping a switch and returning to normal. There are many considerations employers must address as employees return to the physical workplace.

Also read: How to use technology in your internal communications strategy

What employees and employers fear when people return to the work

While many employers want to “rev up the economic engines of their businesses,” they know that if this is not done safely, they risk a second wave of COVID-19 cases and another shutdown, said Michael R. Jaff, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, former CEO of Newton-Wellesley Hospital, and member of The Castle Group’s COVID-19 Response Task Force.

Employers may also have concerns for employees who say they are “ready” to return to work and what ready even means in the context of a global pandemic, according to Dr. George Vergolias, medical director for behavioral health consultancy R3 Continuum. People are ready in the sense that they want their personal lives, jobs, and financial security back to normal, but they’re also worried about personal safety and exposure to COVID-19 if the pandemic is not yet over.

“It is at such times when we must use our amazing capacity to tap into our resiliency and ability to adapt,” Vergolias said. “It’s important for leadership to both acknowledge the possible struggle in transitioning back to work, and yet don’t expect difficulties in a way that creates a self-fulfilling prophecy.”

Workplace policies and protocols should address employees wanting their employers to keep them physically and emotionally safe as a return to work begins, Vergolias said — physical safety in the sense of being protected from COVID-19 exposure and emotional safety addressing their anxieties and fears.

Employers must have a clear reentry plan with informed safety protocols and resources to help employees with the emotional adjustment of transitioning back to work, he said.

Jaff also suggested that a thoughtful return-to-work plan will include clear information about the importance of maintaining safe distances, wearing masks, frequent hand washing, and cleaning all surfaces. Employers also should establish policies for sick employees before they can return to work as well as a clear plan for employees who become ill on the job.

Hart Brown, senior vice president of crisis preparedness at R3 Continuum, noted that organizational protocols will need to be based on federal, state and local guidelines and, in some cases, based on the industry the company operates in.

A company’s protocol will need to be flexible, he said. Crisis management during a pandemic requires forecasting and the plan may need to change.

“Constantly adjusting the two to three-week forecast will allow for better decisions today and the ability to avoid being overwhelmed and learning by surprise,” he said.

Dana Udall, chief clinical officer at behavioral health provider Ginger, stressed the impact of COVID-19 on employees’ mental health even after the restrictions loosen. She cited an Employer Health Innovation Roundtable survey, which found that 60 percent of employers are not satisfied with their company’s response to employee emotional and mental health during this crisis and that employers are expecting a growing need for mental health resources.

The quarantine has increased the risk of many mental health issues. People in drug or alcohol recovery may start abusing again in quarantine. Social isolation also may negatively impact people with depression or anxiety. And the stay-at-home orders have meant an increase in domestic violence, which has both physical and mental effects.

“It’s clear that while the peak in the bell curve of COVID-19 cases may be in sight, the mental health peak has yet to come — and when it does, it will likely have a long tail,” she said.

Employers can acknowledge the return-to-work anxieties employees may have by clearly communicating that they can take time off to manage their mental health, making up for vacations or family visits they may have missed during the quarantine. Employers can also communicate the behavioral health resources available in benefits plans, like coaching, therapy or psychiatry.

Allison Velez is the chief people officer at Paladina Health, which employs both non-essential corporate workers who can work remotely and essential medical professionals who must be on-site.

Velez agrees that continuing to allow employees to work remotely is an important policy. Employers need to have a flexible, sympathetic approach for people in different home situations.

One strategy Paladina Health uses is a regularly scheduled, bi-weekly video call in which clinical staff can ask the organization’s chief medical officer anything and get real-time answers. Employees can voice concerns, get answers and feel like they’re being heard.

“Organizations need to, as they think about bringing employees back to work, continuing to emphasize listening channels like surveys, focus groups, town halls or open calls,” she said. “Continuing that two-way dialogue between the employer and the employee is critical right now, and finding every avenue to do that allows companies to stay on top of the new arising concerns that employees may have as they return to work — or, if they’ve already been at work, continuing to stay healthy at work.”

An employer’s response is critical, Velez said, and not only for the health and safety of the workforce. How well or poorly they respond will impact the employer brand.

“No organization wants to be in the headlines about a major outbreak right now,” she said. “That’s both because we want to keep our employees safe and healthy, and it’s also because it’s a reflection of the employment brand and how seriously companies are taking this.” While reputation isn’t the primary concern for employers, “it’s a potential unintended consequence if employers aren’t taking the right steps.”

Companies must make sure to seek scientific, accurate, clinical information, Velez said. This can help leaders and managers disseminate factual information about COVID-19 rather than the myths and misinformation people often hear. Also, they need to make sure they’re on top of HIPAA regulations, especially as companies and their health plans are now increasingly relying on different technology or virtual tools such as telehealth to help employees rather than in-person care.

How quickly will restrictions be phased out?

Despite protests for quarantines to end and normal life to begin again, it’s not that simple. Many factors of COVID-19 make the return to normalcy complicated, Jaff said. It is highly infectious and causes serious illness and death, and it is difficult to predict who will suffer from it. It’s still unknown whether those who have recovered are immune to getting it again. And there’s no definitive treatment or vaccine yet.

“It is important that the loosening of the stay-at-home orders be done very slowly and quickly reversed if there is a recurrence of hospitalizations and emergency department visits,” Jaff said. “A resurgence in the fall, if timed with the annual seasonal flu season, could be more devastating than what we have just experienced.”

One area of confusion among employers is that because COVID-19 is a new virus, experts may have different opinions simply because people have not been studying the virus very long, Vergolias said. Some medical experts are calling for further social distancing, while others are suggesting that leaders should begin easing those measures.

“My recommendation for employers and leaders is to frequently update your understanding and knowledge of medical recommendations from known, credible resources and then disseminate that information to your employees in an accessible and pragmatic manner,” he said. “In general, providing timely and practical medical information coupled with emotional support resources is a solid two-pronged approach.”

March 31, 2020June 29, 2023

Onsite health clinics present unique challenges for employers during a pandemic

virtual care, health care systems, onsite clinics

In normal times, accessing health care on the property of an employer is a convenience. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, such access may stoke safety and hygiene concerns. Patients are supposed to avoid getting medical care unless it’s necessary in order to avoid coming into contact with the virus, and even accessing shared surfaces like biometric time clocks can put employees at risk.

According to Mercer, 17 percent of U.S. employers with at least 500 employees offer primary care through onsite or near-site clinics. During the COVID-19 outbreak in which people must social distance, employers may come across unique challenges with their onsite clinics and need to strategically rethink how to manage them

Mercer’s Worksite Clinic Consulting practice created a guide to manage employer-sponsored clinics during the pandemic.

The guide focuses on best practices to mitigate risk for employees and patients, respond to staffing limitations, identify supply chain barriers and “optimize the interest of public health.” The top six steps are:

Review and update existing plans.
Don’t make staff or patients sick.
Protect staff and patients by implementing new ways of working.
Prepare for absenteeism of staff.
Communicate, communicate, communicate.
Review and address any contractual requirements.
Regulatory considerations.

Just like larger health care systems, all employer health clinics and health workers must be prepared to evaluate and manage risks related to COVID-19. Proper infection-control equipment is a must, and clinic workers must know how to “safely isolate, transport and quarantine potential patients.”

Reducing the number of people requiring face-to-face examinations is necessary and can be accomplished via telehealth phone calls or video appointments.

Clinic staff members may get sick or need to take time off to care for a sick family member. Preparing for staff absenteeism doesn’t necessarily mean employees can’t work just because they can’t visit the clinic. Organizations can “repurpose clinical staff confined to their homes to be part of a virtual care team,” the guide stated. “This team can work together remotely to triage and serve patients via telephone or video visits to forestall the need for an in-person visit.”

Organizations can also support older staff members or those with health conditions by providing them virtual assignments only.

Meanwhile, communication is a key factor in all these steps. Employers should plan to communicate with their staff at least once a day regarding the status of COVID-19 in their community and within their organization, according to the guide. What’s especially important to communicate is how the company is dealing with various issues and challenges brought on by the outbreak.

Also read: During COVID-19 outbreak, utilize internal communications in your company crisis plan

Some communications best practices for employer clinics include:

Establish an emergency response command task force — all departments represented, reporting to the C-suite.
Establish a clinical response team, physician led — a team of clinicians who can track Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and World Health Organization information and summarize and distribute it to employees.
Communicate with the employee population regularly via a patient app.
Post information on the intranet and include information for appointment scheduling, the nurse call hot line and telehealth.
Educate employees on slowing the number of patients to not overwhelm the health care system.
Track lessons learned for post-pandemic response debriefing and process improvement.

COVID-19 is rapidly changing how businesses operate. We recognize that organizations need an extra helping hand right now. So we’re offering our GPS clock in tool for free to new sign-ups over the coming months. Sign up today and our Workforce Success team will provide a personal, online walkthrough of our platform to help you get started. It can be fully deployed in 1-2 days.

March 26, 2020

Coronavirus Update 3-26-2020: A Q&A and the DOL’s FFCRA notice

employment law, labor law, overtime records

Yesterday I held my first Zoominar. (Is this an actual word, or did I just make it up?) I opened up my Zoom room for the first 100 people to join and ask any coronavirus-related employment law questions they wanted. I shared #MyQuarantineHaiku (see below), saw some familiar faces, met some new old friends, and answered dozens of questions.

If you weren’t able to join or couldn’t get in, you can watch it here:

Also yesterday, during my Zoominar, the DOL published its required Employee Rights poster for the Families First Coronavirus Response Act. You must post it alongside your other employment law posters no later than April 1, and email it to those employees that are currently working remotely. But you might want to brush up on your PDF editing skills before you do so, because the DOL’s model poster has a big ol’ typo. In describing the paid leave entitlement for employees taking time off to care for children, the DOL lists the maximum dollar cap as $12,000 instead of $10,000. A big mistake, and one we will assume the DOL will fix soon. (Thanks to Eric Meyer for pointing this out to me.) You can also bring it to the DOL’s attention on one of its FFCRA twitter chats, or on the online forum it is hosting.

Two more things. First, I will be hosting another Zoominar this coming Monday, March 30, from 1 – 2 pm. And this time I won’t be caught off guard by the questions about how my daughter’s band, Fake ID, is weathering the coronavirus storm. In fact, she’s promised to join and perform a song for everyone. You’ll be able to access the Zoominar here.

Finally, #MyQuarantineHaiku.

Day-time pajamas

I don’t have hair to pull out

Night-time pajamas

Be well and stay safe. I’ll see everyone tomorrow.

March 22, 2020June 29, 2023

Treasury, IRS and Labor announce plan to implement Coronavirus-related paid leave for workers and tax credits for businesses

COVID-19 is rapidly changing how businesses operate. We recognize that organizations need an extra helping hand right now. So we’re offering our GPS clock in tool for free to new sign-ups over the coming months. Sign up today and our Workforce Success team will provide a personal, online walkthrough of our platform to help you get started. It can be fully deployed in 1-2 days.

The Department of Treasury, the Department of Labor, and the IRS announced impending regulations that will help covered businesses navigate the paid family and sick leave provisions of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, including available tax credits, the small employer exemption, and a 30-day non-enforcement grace period.

Refresher: What Leave Does the Act Provide?

The Act provides that eligible employees of covered employees can receive:

1. Up to 80 hours of paid sick leave at 100 percent of the employee’s regular rate pay where the employee is unable to work because the employee is quarantined, and/or experiencing COVID-19 symptoms, and seeking a medical diagnosis, capped per employee at $511 per day and $5,110 in total;

2. Up to 80 hours of paid sick leave at two-thirds of the employee’s regular rate of pay where the employee is unable to work because of a need to care for an individual subject to quarantine, to care for a child whose school is closed or child care provider is unavailable for reasons related to COVID-19, and/or the employee is experiencing substantially similar conditions as specified by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, capped per employee at $200 per day and $2,000 in total; and

3. Up to an additional ten weeks of expanded paid family and medical leave at two-thirds of the employee’s regular rate of pay when the employee is unable to work because of a need to care for a child whose school is closed, or child care provider is unavailable for reasons related to COVID-19, capped per employee at $200 per day and $2,000 in total.

Paid Leave Tax Credits

The Act makes available the following tax credits to help employers pay for this paid sick and family leave:

1. For an employee who is unable to work because of Coronavirus quarantine or self-quarantine, or has Coronavirus symptoms and is seeking a medical diagnosis, eligible employers may receive a tax credit up to $511 per day and $5,110 in the aggregate, for a total of 10 days.

2. For an employee who is caring for someone with Coronavirus, or is caring for a child because the child’s school or child care facility is closed, or the child care provider is unavailable due to the Coronavirus, eligible employers may claim a tax credit for two-thirds of the employee’s regular rate of pay, up to $200 per day and $2,000 in the aggregate, for up to 10 days.

3. In addition to the sick leave credit, for an employee who is unable to work because of a need to care for a child whose school or child care facility is closed or whose child care provider is unavailable due to the Coronavirus, eligible employers may receive a refundable child care leave credit. This credit is equal to two-thirds of the employee’s regular rate of pay, capped at $200 per day or $10,000 in the aggregate, for up to 10 weeks.

4. Eligible employers are entitled to an additional tax credit determined based on costs to maintain health insurance coverage for eligible employees during the leave period.

Eligible employers who pay qualifying sick or child care leave will be able to retain an amount of the federal income taxes, the employee share of Social Security and Medicare taxes, and the employer share of Social Security and Medicare taxes equal to the amount of qualifying sick and child care leave that they paid, instead of depositing them with the IRS.

If there are not sufficient payroll taxes to cover the cost of qualified sick and child care leave paid, employers will be able file a request with the IRS for an accelerated payment. The IRS expects to process these requests in two weeks or less, with further guidance on this issue coming in the next two weeks.

Examples

1. An eligible employer pays $5,000 in sick leave and is otherwise required to deposit $8,000 in payroll taxes, including employee withholdings. The employer is entitled to use up to $5,000 of the $8,000 of taxes it was going to deposit for making qualified leave payments. The employer would only be required to deposit the remaining $3,000 with the IRS on its next regular deposit date.

2. An eligible employer pays $10,000 in sick leave and is required to deposit $8,000 in payroll taxes. The employer could use the entire $8,000 of taxes to make qualified leave payments and file a request for an accelerated credit for the remaining $2,000.

Small Business Exemption

Businesses with less than 50 employees will be eligible for an exemption from the leave requirements relating to school closings or child care unavailability, provided that the employer can show that compliance would jeopardize the ability of the business to continue. The DOL will be providing emergency guidance establishing simple and clear criteria defining the circumstances that will meet the criteria of jeopardy to the viability of an employer’s business as a going concern.

Non-Enforcement Period

The DOL will be issuing a temporary non-enforcement policy. Under the policy, the DOL will not enforce the Act until May 2, 2020 (30 days after its effective date), against employers that have acted reasonably and in good faith to comply.

I continue to monitor these issues in real-time and will be posting updates here as warranted. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me directly.

March 18, 2020March 19, 2020

An adequate public health workforce is necessary for public health emergencies

COVID-19 is rapidly changing how businesses operate. We recognize that organizations need an extra helping hand right now. So we’re offering our GPS clock in tool for free to new sign-ups over the coming months. Sign up today and our Workforce Success team will provide a personal, online walkthrough of our platform to help you get started. It can be fully deployed in 1-2 days.

Health care workers have a vital role in caring for patients with coronavirus. But they’re also at risk themselves.

They’re in a tough situation because an outbreak among health care professionals and those who work at health care facilities not only impacts an organization’s finances, but it can also cascade into a larger health care crisis, according to a guide prepared by law firm Seyfarth, “Coronavirus Preparation for Health Care Facilities and Workers.” While providers have obligations to their patients, they also have responsibilities to their employees to keep them safe.

These issues are true for both private and public health professionals, but the public workforce in particular has unique challenges. It has been chronically underfunded, especially since the Great Recession of 2008, said Rivka Liss-Levinson, director of research at the Center for State and Local Government Excellence.

While health care workers are doing the best they can to control and contain the coronavirus outbreak, there’s a limit to what people can do with limited funding, she said. Meanwhile, these employees are highly educated and have jobs that require specialized skills and credentialing, so health care systems facing a shortage due to an outbreak have trouble replacing them.

“To successfully tackle today’s greatest public health challenges, a workforce of sufficient size and with the appropriate skill sets is needed. This requires allocating adequate funding,” she wrote in her blog, “We Shouldn’t Wait for a Crisis like Coronavirus to Fund Public Health.”

Turnover may be a concern for their employers. The public sector workforce is mostly mission-driven, and they know they won’t be paid as much as they would in the private sector. They want to make a difference in their community, Liss-Levinson said. Still, they also want to be compensated fairly.

She cited a study from de Beaumont Foundation and Association of State and Territorial Health Officials which found that 47 percent of this workforce plan to leave their jobs in the next five years. While some of this (22 percent) is due to retirement, 25 percent of employees said they wanted to leave for new positions.

Meanwhile, available public health care plays a big role in rural areas, which may face unique challenges in that they have fewer resources and harder-to-access care compared to urban areas. It’s important for people to access care in these communities, whether it’s for a pandemic or something more common.

“We have a tendency to really put a spotlight on public health when there are emergencies like this but we need to be adequately finding public health at all times. When you are underfunded, you are then not able to deal with an emergency,” Liss-Levinsom said. “We need to be aware of the role the public health workforce plays every day in protecting us, not just when there’s something like coronavirus.”

March 18, 2020June 29, 2023

The role of businesses in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic

COVID-19, coronavirus, public health crisis

Workplace policies, benefits and culture can have a big impact on public health.

The basics of what employers can do to address the coronavirus is to allow employees to work from home and make sure they can access and afford the health care they need, said Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute.

While many employers may be concerned about their bottom line and the loss of productivity, the reality is that loss will be even greater if employees come in sick, potentially with the coronavirus, Gould said. Passing this virus onto coworkers and the public is not good for the bottom line.

Some research about the flu shows that employees having more sick days is linked to reduced contagion, she said. With the coronavirus, “it’s time to do that. It’s not even a big, bold thing to think about, giving people paid sick days when they’re sick. It is a smart move,” she said.

Currently, even people with paid sick days don’t have enough days to recover from coronavirus, Gould said in her EPI blog “Amid COVID-19 outbreak, the workers who need paid sick days the most have the least.”

“The United States is unprepared for the COVID-19 pandemic given that many workers throughout the economy will have financial difficulty in following the CDC’s recommendations to stay home and seek medical care if they think they’ve become infected,” she wrote. “Millions of U.S. workers and their families don’t have access to health insurance, and only 30 percent of the lowest paid workers have the ability to earn paid sick days — workers who typically have lots of contact with the public and aren’t able to work from home.”

Many are calling for national paid sick leave, but the future of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act is still uncertain.

“We know that national paid sick time is realistic in the sense that many industrialized countries provide for it,” said said Janie Schulman, partner in global law firm Morrison & Foerster’s Employment + Labor group. However, “mandatory paid benefits in the U.S. have been and continue to be a politically divisive issue.”

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Also, in the U.S., there is always a question as to which matters are reserved to the states and which may be legislated at a federal level, she said. While the federal government has yet to enact a paid sick leave law, several states and some cities have done so in recent years.

“It remains to be seen whether the COVID-19 outbreak will create a paradigm shift at the federal level,” Schulman said.

With employees staying home, one key issue that organizations have to deal with now is employee absenteeism, said Roberta J. Witty, research vice president at Gartner, Risk and Security Management Programs. They have to understand what their mission-critical business services are and determine how to staff them if they have a high-absenteeism rate. This may be done through cross-training, moving work from one location to another or other kinds or workload balancing.

“For those business services where a face-to-face interaction is required, you might have to shut down some of those services due to best practices regarding controlling infection between people as outlined by the CDC,” Witty said. “Also, there may be a hard decision to be made – what is the minimum percentage of your volume you can support with a degraded workforce, and then shut down if you go below that level.”

Businesses, like individuals, must cooperate in our generally accepted social contract that requires each of us to do our part in trying to limit the spread of disease for the overall public good, Schulman said.

“[We have already seen businesses around the country step up and do more than they are legally required to do,” Schulman said “Many of the steps we have seen businesses take in the past few weeks are not mandated by law, but rather demonstrate the proactive efforts of businesses to limit the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) to protect their employees and the public.”

These steps include encouraging remote work, cancelling large public events, offering extra paid sick leave and limiting visitors coming to company premises, she said.

Many of these tough calls will undoubtedly hurt businesses’ bottom line and affect productivity, revenue, profits, and stock price and may interfere with relationships with customers and vendors, she said. In many of these cases, companies are weighing the costs of these short-term sacrifices against the potential long-term harm that would occur if they did not take these steps.

One effective best practice some companies are following is creating a pandemic team or crisis management team, said Tracy Billows, chair of law firm Seyfarth’s Chicago office Labor & Employment department. Team members — which include individuals from many departments including HR, legal, health and safety, security, operations and finance — work together to create a holistic strategy.

A pandemic team should also include the COO or CEO to give the team the leadership needed to and to ensure the committee is acting consistently with the company’s culture, policies and expectations, Billows said.

Even companies with crisis management plans in place already may have a need for a committee.

“I’ve worked with employers who have had pandemic plans and emergency response plans for years and, to be frank, they’re all updating them for this. The old rules are out the door. This is new. This is different. This is not the same thing we’ve dealt with before,” Billows said.

Companies should be responsive to any Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updates as well as local or state public health guideline updates, she said.

“It’s important that employers show that they are staying up-to-date on the latest and update their policies and protocols accordingly,” she said. “It can feel like you need a dedicated team just to do that, but those who are doing so are being successful at it.”

To learn more about the recent legislation around COVID-19 and what it means to your organization, register for our free webinar, What HR Needs to Know about Coronavirus.

March 18, 2020April 11, 2023

During COVID-19 outbreak, utilize internal communications in your company crisis plan

Internal communication is a vital part of crisis management, whether it is a pandemic like COVID-19, a natural disaster or a workplace shooting.

As the people and organizations worldwide deal with the implications of the coronavirus, it is vital for people to communicate accurate information about the virus, check what they’re retweeting and make sure not to spread disinformation. Businesses have a similar responsibility, but on top of that, their communication must be strategic. It should be part of any crisis management plan.

Employees will be getting information about the coronavirus from somewhere, and coworkers will realistically discuss the company’s response to the pandemic among one another, whether their response is appreciative or critical.

Whatever standard message a business publicly announces during a crisis, if employees have issues with how the crisis is being handled, it doesn’t matter if the media paints the company in a good light. There still may be low employee morale and high levels of frustration internally.

Despite the immediate importance of communication, many organizations have yet to create a strategy. According to a report from Gallagher’s Benefits and HR Consulting Division, 61 percent of organizations have developed a communication strategy related to COVID-19, with 82 percent of health care having a strategy compared to 49 percent of non-health care organizations.

In another survey of 300 communications senior leaders, the Institute for Public Relations found that 44 of respondents said their crisis communications plan did not specifically address an infectious disease outbreak. Ten percent of respondents did not have crisis communication plans at all.

There are some basics that employees should understand about coronavirus symptoms and the course of the illness, which should be an integral part of a communication campaign.

First, COVID-19 is not airborne. It’s passed by droplets. That means when someone who is infected coughs into their hands and touches a surface, someone else can catch it by touching that surface and then touching their face. As strange as it may seem, that’s good news. It means that if people wash their hands frequently with regular soap — especially after you may have touched surfaces that a lot of other people touch, like doorknobs, the keypad for clocking into work or shaking hands — they’re much less likely to be infected.

Second, some people have compared COVID-19 symptoms to the flu, but that’s not completely accurate. The two most common symptoms are fever and a dry cough. People with COVID-19 rarely have a sniffle. They also aren’t likely to be nauseous. What they are likely to have is bad upper respiratory problems. They tend to develop a severe cough that makes it hard for them to breathe, which is what is making COVID-19 dangerous.

Finally, it’s also true that for most younger workers, the symptoms are milder and people who have it may only think they have a cold. However, older employees or anyone with a compromised immune system are much more likely to have serious symptoms that require medical assistance. The medical assistance that is often required is intubation and the use of a ventilator.

The reason why COVID-19 is such a big deal right now is because the number of people who require medical assistance is overwhelming the medical system in the places where the number of cases has grown, like Italy. The medical system has been overwhelmed even in places that have a consistent ratio of doctors and hospital beds to people (Italy’s is better than the United States’, for example). There are only so many beds in the hospitals and only so many ventilators.

That’s why there has been a push to slow down transmission through actions like social distancing and remote working, because if it is slowed enough, it won’t overwhelm the health care system. The mission is to flatten the curve and buy time for the health care system to adequately care for those who fall ill.

If someone has been exposed, they are likely to have symptoms within five days of exposure and can also be a carrier for up to 14 days, even if they’re asymptomatic. This is why quarantine periods are generally 14 days long.

According to recent guidance from consultancy Deloitte, the most important players in your communications plan are front-line managers. Employees expect accurate, authoritative and transparent information. “Trying to conceal risk can potentially create more,” the report stated. Leaders should outline communication plans and make sure that managers know what to expect and understand and define their role.

Further, companies need to prepare plans for site disruption and reactivation. “In the event an entity has to close its doors for non-critical workers for a period, determine a communications plan about how you’ll communicate with all workers, including contractors and vendor partners,” according to the Deloitte guidance. “Have a clear playbook for how to initiate a closure and how to reroute operations and employees to other locations within your network. Moreover, finalize a checklist to determine when employees can return to work once the all clear is given.”

Employees are bound to talk about the coronavirus outbreak on social media, and there are certain steps a business can take to temper this, according to Deloitte. One solution is to provide employees an internal communications channel through which they can express their issues about what they’re seeing within the organization. It’s a smart business move to “ensure direct communication as much as possible as an alternative to social media,” the report stated.

For Workforce.com users there are features on our platform available to keep communication lines open during this difficult time. Chat with your staff, schedule according to operational changes, manage leave, clock in and out remotely, and communicate changes through custom events, among other things.

COVID-19 is rapidly changing how businesses operate. We recognize that organizations need an extra helping hand right now. So we’re offering our platform for free to new sign-ups over the coming months. Sign up today and our Workforce Success team will gladly provide a personal, online walkthrough of our platform to help you get started.