Category: Archive

Smart companies have discovered that researching, recruiting and retaining talented professionals is a top priority if they want to survive in the increasingly competitive business world.

So it goes without saying that thorough research and related background checks of potential employees is not just a good hiring procedure, it’s vital to maintaining the strength and backbone of a company’s workforce. But there must be care on both sides. Just as a recruiting firm does extensive background checks on potential candidates for business clients, any company looking to use a recruitment firm should also ask the right questions. For example, ask the recruitment firm some probing questions on how it verifies qualified candidates:

• How many professional, unsolicited references does it research for the candidates it recommends? Personal references usually are a waste of time—we all have friends who would swear we’re the best and brightest, and perfect for that high-level position.

• Does the recruitment firm speak directly to the person providing the reference, or is it a more impersonal and hard-to-gauge response through mail or e-mail?

• What kinds of questions are asked of each potential candidate? An experienced research and recruitment professional asks probing questions which require detailed answers. For example, ” What was the candidate’s sales volume for the last three years?” or “Give me a specific example that demonstrates the candidate’s success at mentoring his or her staff.”

• Most importantly, does the research and recruitment firm document these conversations, background data and reference checks? Extensive documentation can catch discrepancies in a candidate’s history—information which would be important to know so that a potential employer can deal with it now, rather than later.

SOURCE: Kathleen Duffy Ybarra is president of Duffy Research, Inc., an eight-year-old Phoenix-based research and professional recruitment firm with a national client base and associates located in four states. Duffy Research Inc. may be contacted at 602/942-7112. Web site live December 1, 1999 at www.duffyresearch.com.

Those who practice the art of executive selection have much to be humble about. But despite the hazards involved, individuals must be singled out for top-level jobs. How, then, does a company differentiate between several candidates for critically important jobs, all of whom have survived a rigorous screening process on their way up the managerial ladder? Many variables affect executive performance, but here are three principles that offer some reasonably reliable guidance:

• Because prescreened candidates share many qualities (usually intelligence, energy and determination), it is critical to isolate the characteristics that distinguish them. Thus, the most useful data for executive selection are comparisons, rather than descriptions—no matter how accurate or pertinent those descriptions may be.

• When enough observers have given their impressions of a candidate’s job performance, a consensus usually emerges concerning the quality of that performance. Such a consensus is the best available predictor of how yet another observer, viewing the same individual in a context similar to that used by previous observers, will rate his or her performance.

• Everyone is a product of his or her history. Arriving at a certain career point—how quickly, by what routes and after how many false starts—usually has some bearing on where that person is headed. Therefore, if a person’s history is known in some detail, that usually is a reasonable basis for estimating how he or she is going to perform in the near and immediate-term future.

SOURCE: Saul W. Gellerman, Ph.D., Recruitment Today, 1988. Copyright © 1988 by ACC Communications, Inc.

Issue: Fall is upon us, and before you know it, the holiday season will be here. As HR director for a small company, you are considering giving each employee either a turkey or ham for Christmas, or a gift certificate of $25 to a local store. Would there be any difference between the gift certificate and the turkey or ham as far as either gift being subject to tax liability for the employees?

Answer: Yes. A non-cash Christmas gift will not be considered wages subject to employment taxes if the gift is of nominal value. The value of a turkey or ham is of nominal value and will not constitute wages. However, if the company presented to each of its employees a $25 gift certificate, this would constitute wages subject to tax. Gift certificates of nominal amounts may be subject to employment taxes. Such certificates or similar items of readily convertible cash value are included in wages. Gift certificates redeemable in merchandise are not included in wages.

Christmas gifts that are given to employees are generally presumed to be compensatory in nature and are treated as wages for FICA, FUTA, and federal income tax withholding purposes. The fact that a payment is made voluntarily or that the company receives no economic benefit from making it is not enough to overcome the presumption that the payment is compensation for services rendered.

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.

It’s management’s responsibility to guide the relationship between a company and an independent contractor. While making sure you do not run afoul of the independent contractor rules, here are some things you might want to do to ensure that the contractor’s work meets the firm’s expectations:

• Develop specific goals and time frames.
  Whenever possible, break the project down into divisible stages that include associated costs and time frames. Therefore, if the project is terminated, the company has an objective means of determining compensation. Setting goals and time frames provides direction to the contractor and gives the firm a means of evaluating performance, progress and results.

• Require weekly status or progress reports.
  These reports can detail what was accomplished during this time and what’s planned for the next few weeks.

• Assign a contact person who’s responsible for working directly with the contractor.
  This individual should complete preliminary work to ensure the best use of the contractor’s time. This person could also serve as a buffer, eliminating unnecessary disruptions that can prevent the contractor from completing a project on schedule.

SOURCE: John Thrasher, Recruitment Today, Spring 1990, Vol. 3 No. 2, Reprint #73, Copyright © 1990 by ACC Communications, Inc. All rights reserved. Not to be construed as legal advice or a legal opinion.

Issue: An employee comes to your office to ask about health-care benefits for a bone marrow transplant. While this is a rare inquiry, it is even more unique because this employee is not the bone marrow recipient, but the donor. She wants to know if the expenses of her donor procedure are covered by your medical plan. Your place of business and the employee are located in Florida.

Answer: A number of states require that health-care plans cover the expenses of bone marrow transplants as a cancer treatment, Florida included. However, effective January 1, 2000, covered bone marrow transplant procedures in Florida must include costs associated with the donor-patient to the same extent and limitations as costs associated with the insured. The reasonable costs of searching for the donor may be limited to immediate family members and the National Bone Marrow Donor Program.

Other states addressing coverage for bone marrow transplant expenses are Georgia, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey and Virginia. These seven states do not address the donor’s expenses. Rhode Island covers the cost of donor compatibility testing.

Note that Colorado provides leave time for state employees who are bone marrow donors. A new federal law (PL 106-56) provides similar leave for federal employees.

Cite: Florida Statutes, Sec 627.4236(2).

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.

Issue: You wish to give your employees a four-day weekend over the Thanksgiving holiday, but you are concerned about the costs associated with a one-day loss of production. Can your employees enjoy the day after Thanksgiving off and then be expected to make up the time at a later date?

Answer: Employers are cautioned to avoid inadvertently violating federal wage-hour laws by giving employees a four-day Thanksgiving weekend and then expecting them to make up the lost time later. Many companies observe the Friday after Thanksgiving as a holiday. The Labor Department has noted that there is no problem with an employer granting Thanksgiving Day and the following Friday as holidays, either with or without pay.

A violation could arise, however, if the employees are then asked to work extra hours without proper compensation in some other workweek to make up for the time lost. Such an arrangement could result in violating the time and a half requirement for over 40 hours of work in any workweek.

So long as a company doesn’t have a union contract or operate in a state that requires overtime pay for a particular number of hours worked in a single day, an employer could require employees who took the Friday holiday to make up the lost time within the Thanksgiving workweek.

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.

Courts in almost all of the federal circuits have ruled that an employer may require compulsory arbitration of employment disputes as a condition of hire. The Ninth Circuit (Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and Washington), however, will not let employers compel employees to waive their Title VII right to a judicial forum. If you’re in one of the states in which an employer has not been barred from requiring mandatory arbitration, what must you do to insure that your company’s arbitration agreement will pass legal muster? Here are some tips:

• Provide adequate consideration. Agreements to arbitrate require a contractual relationship between the employee and the employer. New employees should be required to sign such an agreement at the time of hire as a condition of employment. As to current employees–while there is some authority that continued employment constitutes “adequate consideration”–a more cautious approach would be to give current employees something additional for signing such an agreement. It could be a payment of money, or the agreement could be presented as a prerequisite to participation in any future bonus plan or stock grant. Obviously, an employer can also wait until a dispute arises and then offer the employee an opportunity to agree to binding arbitration.

• Make a full disclosure. Make it clear that signing a pre-dispute agreement for binding arbitration is a condition of employment by clearly describing this requirement in the employment application, any offer letter, and the employee handbook, but most importantly in a separate and clear agreement. The employee should be given such an agreement to review at the time of hire as well as be given all rules and procedures governing that process.

• Make the agreement mutual. The agreement to use binding arbitration should be mutual, with both the employee and the employer agreeing to use the process.

• Clearly and unmistakably define what types of claims are covered. The agreement should clearly state that it is being made under the provisions of the Federal Arbitration Act (9 U.S.C. Section 1-14) and will be construed and governed accordingly. The type and scope of claims covered should be very carefully enumerated. Will it cover more than civil rights claims? Will it cover breach of contract claims, tort claims, etc.? Further, the agreement should contain a provision stating that if any specific term is held invalid or unenforceable, then the remainder of the agreement still will be binding.

• Do not take away rights to legal remedies. The arbitration agreement must provide employees with the same substantive relief and remedies that they could obtain in a court of law. Any attempt to “short-change” or eliminate remedies or relief, such as limitation on punitive damages, could possibly jeopardize the agreement’s enforceability. The agreement should clearly state that employees retain their right to file administrative claims with federal or state agencies, but in the event the employee files a lawsuit the employer reserves the right to have the lawsuit dismissed and to compel arbitration.

Cite: Goldstein, Joseph I. and Payson, Martin F., Compulsory arbitration: Are mandatory agreements to arbitrate employment disputes enforceable under current law? CCH Journal of Alternative Dispute Resolution in Employment, Vol. 1, No. 1, June 1999.

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.

Four common sources of staff stress:

1. An inappropriate attitude toward failure–fear of failure, for example.
2. The belief that one is incompetent at one’s job.
3. Trying to accomplish too much in too little time.
4. The psychology of others can precipitate stress–see if others can help you chill out.

Take a look at what’s causing stress in your life, or in your employees’ lives. If one cannot change the attitudes that are causing the stress, then one must change the situation.

SOURCE: “The Stress You Make” by Genevieve LaGreca, September 1985. Copyright Personnel Journal/ACC Communications Inc. All rights reserved.