All posts by stu

Company Culture, Construction, Employee Recognition, Engagement, HR Resources, HR software, Human Resources, Retention, Social Media

Keeping a Remote Workforce Connected

How can you improve your company’s employment experience when your employees are not located in a shared centralized environment? Whether your workers are out on construction sites, dispatched on a daily schedule of customer visits, working from home, or staffing client locations, the challenge is the same: how to create a unified and satisfying workplace community, identity, and culture.   Being realistic, the expectation is not to overcome every alienating aspect of remote employment.  But if your goal is to achieve an edge over the other competitors in your industry, this might be all it takes to make a significant difference in employee satisfaction and retention.

One trending way to promote community is to deploy a social intranet platform.   Thanks to innovative web-based applications, this no longer requires a dedicated network, IT staff, and expensive software.  In fact, some products offer a free basic level of service, such as Slack.com.  Since we know that employees use their mobile phones to stay connected with their social networks, your business can use this comfort and create an online place for employees to connect with co-workers and the company.

To experiment with this option, Consultstu has built a mock-up intranet environment for internal testing on Slack, and it seems to offer reasonable functionality without any optional upgrades.   Membership can be configured using  any email address, no need for a shared company email domain.  While Slack is marketed primarily for work project collaboration, we are more interested in its potential for small business social cohesion, creating something similar to a Facebook venue but without intruding or overlapping into your employees’ public social online world.  We named our Slack site “ConsultStu-Breakroom,” because that is the environment being simulated: the socialization that would take place if your workforce gathered every day under the same roof.

We had some fun testing Slack and adding content.

Multiple communications “channels” can be created for various purposes.  This allows for a single channel to be reserved for company communications: open enrollment, meetings, etc.  Other channels can be used to recognize birthdays or anniversaries, post pet photos, organize participation in a local 5K, or find out who has the best chili recipe.

For those who think socialization is something for management to guard against rather than encourage, consider what Alan Kohll has to say in a recent Forbes article: “Employers who support social connections in the workplace and help employees form strong relationships with one another help build a successful workforce.”  There is a natural human craving for connection and recognition, and providing remote workers a platform to build a workplace community is worth your consideration.  Contact us at ConsultStu if you would like to visit our Slack “breakroom.”

 

 

 

HR Compliance, Insurance, Posters, Workers Compensation

New Florida Workers’ Comp Poster in 2019

Yes, recently the Florida Division of Workers’ Compensation released a new version of the Florida Workers’ Compensation poster commonly known as the “broken arm” poster. The newly released version of the “broken arm” poster now includes a URL, in addition to a phone number, for reporting suspected fraud.

Click here for copies of the English poster and Spanish poster. Alternatively, an employer can obtain the new poster from their insurance agent, or by calling their workers’ compensation insurance carrier. The new poster will have a “Revised February 2019” date in the bottom left corner.

If you download your own poster, add a sticker (to the bottom right corner) that contains your current insurance carrier name, address, telephone number, insurance policy number, and the injury reporting hotline, Put the poster in a conspicuous place for all employees to see.

Do you need help keeping up with the changes in Human Resources, safety and risk management? Consultstu offers customized, affordable #FractionalHR services to small to mid-sized businesses. Give us a call at 727-350-0370.

Hiring, Outplacement

Available Talent in the Tampa Bay Area – Purchasing and Materials Management

As an outplacement service to our clients, we would like to highlight the availability of the following employment candidates. Note: we are NOT acting as paid recruiters.

To obtain this resume, contact [email protected] or call 727-350-0370.

LOGISTICS, PURCHASING & MATERIALS MANAGEMENT
Pinellas County Manufacturers: Candidate seeking senior position in the supply chain arena:  logistics, purchasing, materials management, and/or production coordination.  Strong negotiation and leadership talent.   Adept at identifying business opportunities and developing productive relationships.  Master’s degree in International Business Administration.  Employment background includes experience and expertise in financial services.

Compensation, EEO-1 Form, EEOC, Record Keeping

When must the EEO-1 Form be filed in 2019?

In early February, following the federal government shutdown, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced that it extended the deadline for submission of the EEO-1 Report until May 31, 2019. The EEOC pledged to provide additional details and instructions for the 2018 data submission, including the date when the EEO-1 Survey site will open.   The EEO-1 Reporting website now has the details.

The filing of the EEO-1 report is mandatory for employers with more than 100 employees, and federal contractors or subcontractors with more than 50 employees.

While waiting for the reporting site to open, your company can report any changes.  For instance, if your company needs to update their company contact information, send an email to [email protected].

Today, the EEO-1 survey site states that it will officially open for 2018 data on March 18, 2019. Visit the EEO-1 website for general information about the opening of the 2018 EEO-1 survey.  If you need help or have questions, contact us.

Company Culture, General HR Questions, Human Resources, Recruiting, Retention, Self Appraisal

Live Your Company Culture

Walking the talk.  A Deloitte survey showed that 84% of senior leaders thought they were regularly communicating the company’s beliefs and values …  however, only 67% of employees felt that was true.  There was another gap between executives and employees who believed that senior leadership acted in accordance with the company’s core values and beliefs.   Are you living your company culture?

We can debate whether culture drives engagement, or whether a company’s positive communication practices build up its culture … but does it really matter?  Workers who feel valued at work, recognized for their contributions and included on how they fit within the company future will feel connected and engaged.  Genuine and authentic leadership, manageable workloads and competitive pay and benefits cement the connection.

As a small business owner, you constantly juggle several balls in the air while changing hats all day long.  We understand your need for a playbook of simple techniques that demonstrate company culture and encourage engagement.  There are no Jedi mind-tricks being attempted here, and none of these implementations will succeed unless backed up by genuine intent.  Give your employees credit for being able to perceive if there is a big disconnect between your company’s stated values and the actual day-to-day actions of management.  If leaders are hypocrites and self-centered, then the organization will have a culture of employees looking out for themselves.

If your small business is serious about retaining productive employees, strengthening your team and building a great workplace, start with improving your communications.  Here are 10 communications techniques to create meaningful connections with employees.

  1. Write an open letter to employees – define your core values in a letter to employees. Post the letter in the workplace and add to the Employee Handbook.
  2. Link business objectives to your core values and talk about both. If obtaining an important new client is your business objective, connect the new business with your values.  For example, if innovation is a core value, the new big client may allow you company to expand its product line to a new industry or introduce new features to your service offering.
  3. Lead by example – make sure leaders are walking the talk.
  4. Create a company award to recognize employees that live by and communicate your company values. Name the award after an employee who does a great job living company culture.
  5. Hold a regular all-hands employee or town hall meeting to keep employees informed about four things: review financials, review new business/accounts, recognize achievements and general company news. Consider holding at least once or twice a year.
  6. Obtain a company internal communications portal or engagement App (such as Slaak, Staff Connect, the Employee App, etc..).  For remote field employees that do not use a computer, a mobile app is an excellent way to stay connected. Employees can check the App for new & events, connect with co-workers, access training and receive push notifications about company updates.
  7. Use social media to build collaboration and connection with your team and create a powerful platform to build your brand and attract new employees to the company. Document employee events, recognize employees, announce community involvement, and show off new and innovative tools and equipment.
  8. Create new company promotional products (that employees like) and add core values to the products.
  9. Add a core values tab to your company website.
  10. Inject core values to all important HR-related processes. Add interview questions that determine alignment with the core values, include core values in your job descriptions and acknowledge examples of core values in performance evaluation.
Company Culture, Downsizing and Restructuring, Outplacement, Resume

Outplacement Services for Tampa Bay and Central Florida companies

In today’s hot business climate, layoffs are not a common topic.  However, any Florida business should be prepared for organizational changes in the face of increasing competition and rising customer expectations.  Sometimes change causes a layoff or downsizing event.   Tampa Bay area companies can make transitioning easier for their laid-off employees by adding outplacement services as part of a severance package.   The goodwill generated by outplacement programs may also offer some protection from employment lawsuits or unfavorable online company reviews, as well as preserve the company’s brand and reputation in the community.

What are outplacement services?  Outplacement is a service offered by employers (at no cost to the employee) through a third party provider, like Consultstu LLC.  The services are typically offered to help employees impacted by workforce restructuring or layoff.   Outplacement can also be offered to an employee that is unable to successfully grow their role with the company, or meet the changing needs of their position.

Our local, personally delivered outplacement services are available to companies in Tampa, St. Petersburg, Clearwater, Sarasota, Bradenton, Orlando and Lakeland.   Our consultants provide high touch assistance to transitioning employees, especially those that have not searched for work recently. Last year, a medical device manufacturer contracted with Consultstu LLC to offer affordable outplacement services to several employees that were laid off due to a business restructuring.  We received an outstanding Google review due to the positive feedback reported to Human Resources.  We love helping others thrive in transition.  Our services include:

  • Personal Coaching
  • Resume Writing
  • Linkedin profile
  • Elevator speech
  • Company and market research
  • Networking
  • Interview practice

We are results oriented and take steps to track the progress of our clients.  Find out why outplacement services will help laid-off employees find new employment more quickly and navigate the ways of today’s job market.  Let the team at Consultstu LLC share your workload, so you have time for everything else.

To anyone seeking employment opportunities, we welcome you to download our new Professional Resume Questionnaire to help you create a high impact resume!

300 Log, Construction, Employee Injury, OSHA, Record Keeping

Are Contractors Required to Submit Injury data to OSHA?

Yes, if your construction company employs at least 20 employees.  This new legal obligation was added to contractors several years ago.   OSHA implemented the new recordkeeping rule to require specific employers (including construction contractors) to electronically submit to OSHA information from its OSHA 300A form (Summary of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses).  Do you know that there are several OSHA recordkeeping and reporting rules and responsibilities for contractors?  Let’s recap the rules affecting contractors so you can stay in compliance.

First, small contractors (10 employees and less) are exempt from the general OSHA rule that requires a construction contractor to maintain the OSHA 300 log (Log for Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses).  Large contractors (more than 10 employees) are required to maintain the OSHA 300 log (containing employee injuries) and create/post the OSHA 300A Summary of Injuries for company employees to see.

Second, all contractors, regardless of size are required to report a worker fatality to OSHA within 8 hours, as well as any amputation, loss of an eye or hospitalization (admission to hospital) of a worker within 24 hours.

Third, construction contractors with at least 20 employees (including all construction contractors with a NAICS code starting with 23 and Building Material Dealers (code 4441), must submit injury and illness summary data (from the OSHA 300A form) to OSHA electronically.  This rule is called ITA (Injury Tracking Application) reporting.  Starting this year, the largest construction contractors (with more than 250 employees) are no longer required to submit to OSHA information from the OSHA 300 log and other specific data about employee injuries.

Every year, the deadline for posting the OSHA 300A Injury Summary form is February 1st.  This year, March 2, 2019 is the deadline for electronically reporting your OSHA Form 300A data (reporting calendar year 2018 data).

Need help understanding the rules?  Let the team at Consultstu share your workload, so you can have more time for everything else.

Company Culture, Employee benefits, Employee Recognition, HR Resources, Human Resources, Retention, Rewards

Employee Engagement for Small Business

There are some occupations  — astronaut, surgeon, or prima ballerina, for example —  in which people rarely succeed without being rocket-fueled by commitment and passion … and it is unlikely that their employers spend much time worrying about their level of “engagement.”  But I think it is probably safe to say that most people are driving to their jobs every morning with an inner sense of purpose that is moderately-to-considerably less intense.  Whatever your industry, your employees can feel more fulfilled and connected in a workplace that encourages and fosters engagement.  Most don’t.

Engagement is tricky because it is impossible to force it or to fake it.  And it doesn’t help that most working conditions are designed in ways that actually suppress it.  Routines, dress codes, all the impersonal rules and regulations or professional conduct, strict schedules, deadlines, and stress, are all natural joy-killers.  The employment contract, in its lowest form, is an impersonal exploitative exchange of needed labor for needed money, with no regard for psychological enrichment .  If you have employees working at this level, they may view “engagement” initiatives as a cynical attempt to squeeze more from their end of the bargain.  And if you regard your employees at this level, you might be spinning your wheels trying to convince them otherwise.

But if you are like most of our clients, 1) you have a sincere desire to cultivate a more meaningful, authentic work experience, and 2) you are operating under significant budget, schedule, and customer pressures.  If you are working in good faith, with limited resources, to elevate the employment contract on BOTH sides, toward mutually rewarding benefits, we can help.  The ideas here are easy to implement, but they all take a step further than just “doing something nice” for your workers, because engagement is different than rewarding.  By demonstrating to employees that their unique personalities, histories, and points of view are noticed –  you can cultivate feelings of connectedness and a spirit of personal commitment.  We offer below some relatively painless ways to jump start your engagement efforts.  By implementing one or more techniques, see what you can achieve in 2019!

1) Self-Managed Office Rewards.  Do you occasionally buy a pizza lunch for the office?  It’s a super nice gesture, and usually well-appreciated, but it does little to foster engagement.  Take whatever monthly budget you have for those pizzas, and assign rotating control over determining how to treat the office.  This cultivates engagement because, while being given a slice of pizza puts one in the role of a child, being handed the controls is an assignment of trust and an opportunity to exercise influence.  The resulting efforts will include a variety of hits, misses, feedback, and creativity … not to mention a helpful awareness that it’s not so easy to make employees happy!  One employee may stock the breakroom with bags of chips that will last a long time but aren’t very exciting.  Another will have to decide whether to arrange a  catered spaghetti lunch even though a couple co-workers don’t eat gluten.  Somebody else might want to schedule an on-site yoga class!  It doesn’t take a huge budget to invite your employees to learn about, appreciate, and surprise each other while making their own impact on the workplace.

2) Where We Came From, Who We Are.  Ask current and all new employees to provide photo of themselves from the past – as a child, baby, or adolescent.  Select a common area in your workplace to display framed childhood photos of the entire staff (or post outside of each office or cubicle).  The collection must include owners or top executives … as with every other idea on this list, any exclusion of top management will generate a negative condescending vibe.  On one level, it’s simply fun to look at and recognize each other from childhood photos.  On a higher level, this activity acknowledges the individual histories and lifetime development of every employee, encouraging awareness of who played the violin, who was a middle kid, who grew up in a city apartment or a rural farm … you have an office full of multi-dimensional human beings who will feel more engaged when these aspects of themselves are shared.

 

3) Stand Together for Community:  Creating opportunities for employees to use their time and skills to serve others in your community cultivates engagement.  According to a Deloitte IMPACT survey: “millennials who frequently participate in workplace volunteer activities are more likely to be proud, loyal, and satisfied employees.”

The most popular method to support volunteerism is to offer employees paid time off for approved volunteer programs.  Don’t be too quick to write this off as impractical …. just an hour or two every quarter, or even a few hours once a year, can be profoundly gratifying.

Another option is to have one employee (or assign this function on a rotation basis) who can identify volunteer activities within the community, share information, and coordinate any desired participation.  Even if participation has to be done off of company time, find some way to support the efforts and encourage positive connections:

  • Assist activity coordination for both employee and employee family members
  • Provide water, snacks or other refreshments, or pop-up shade tents at group volunteer events
  • If possible, purchase t-shirts, hats, or other company gear for volunteers
  • Track, recognize, and reward employees’ volunteer services
  • Keep in mind that mandating unpaid volunteerism is not permitted

4) Celebrating What Matters: Hopefully you are already acknowledging birthdays, but you know what?  For most of your employees, birthdays are not the most significant event of the year.   In addition to celebrating obvious high profile events like marriage and childbirth,  drill further to uncover what is bringing joy to your employees: did someone finish a 5K, win a recipe contest, sign up for French lessons, buy a new car, adopt a rescue dog, or send their daughter off to college?   Whether you post company news via Facebook, Twitter, internal bulletins, or group meeting announcements … allow and encourage recognition of important events that are outside of the workplace.   If you don’t have an established venue for this type of communication, you could install a line of dry erase boards along a wall for employees to record the year’s timeline of events that hold significance, both inside and outside of the office.  At year’s end, employees can enjoy a visual recap of everything that made the year meaningful.

5) Old-Fashioned Suggestion Box:  It no longer has to be a physical box, but the rationale behind this classic concept is timeless.  Nobody knows more about how processes can be improved than the people doing the work, and if you aren’t open to listening to an employee’s ideas, you not only dampen engagement, but may be missing out on potential benefits.  There are multiple variations for implementing a suggestion program.  It can be anonymous or require sponsorship.  Topics can be unlimited and open-ended, or, creative solutions to specific problems can be solicited with deadlines.  Brainstorming sessions or voting may be incorporated to establish a path from suggestion to action.   Even if the specific parameters of your program are not perfectly optimal from the start, your employees will get the message that their voices can be heard.

6) Going To the Dogs: We’ve already written a separate blog on the power of pet-friendly policies to create strong employee engagement, so we won’t repeat the full article.

Note: Employee engagement will be one of ConsultStu’s featured themes throughout 2019.   Last year’s record employment rates, hot economy and wage increases have our clients facing recruitment and retention issues that have fast become major front burner subjects today.  Give your business a competitive edge by focusing on the employment experience and see how it can help your organization thrive.

300 Log, Affordable Care Act, Background screening, Company Culture, Construction, Employee Handbook, Employment Poster, Form W-4, General HR Questions, Holidays, Human Resources, IRS, OSHA, W4

Ten Step January Checklist for HR Fitness

BRING IT, 2019!   As we resume our normal work schedules, with the holidays behind us and all the local gyms at full capacity, it’s time to apply a little extra New Year’s energy and resolve to our HR practices.  From updating HR forms to adding up injury numbers, here is a ten step HR Fitness Plan to shape up your HR Operations for a compliant, organized, successful 2019:

Step One: Update your Applicant New Hire packet with 2019 forms.

  • Replace W4 with 2019
  • Ensure your DOL Marketplace Exchange form (mandated by ACA) contain current group health insurance renewal information (contribution cost and eligibility) on page 2 of the form.
  • Contact all third-party screening vendors (criminal background, MVR and drug testing) to verify that you are using the latest version of their disclosure and consent forms.

Step Two:  Update workplace postings.  Click here for free posters.

Step Three:  Prepare to distribute W2 forms and ensure forms contain information about the Earned Income Tax Credit (most do, but good to check).  By January 31, 2019, employees need to be provided EITC information from the mandatory IRS Notice 797.  An extra option is to post the notice on employee bulletin board or payroll stuffers. Click here for information, payroll stuffers and posters.

Step Four: Review, finalize and post 2019 Company Holiday schedule for employees (Christmas and New Years are on Wednesdays in 2019).

Step Five:  Complete the last OSHA 300 log entries for employee injuries and illnesses in 2018.  Verify all reported cases are added. Drop any entries that do not meet the criteria for recordable cases.  Prepare the OSHA 300A summary for posting on February 1 through April 30.

Step Six: Review and request new certificates of insurance from subcontractors for 2019 policy renewals. If you have construction subcontractors, register for the Florida Construction Policy tracker database and add new subcontractors to your tracking list.

Step Seven: Count your 2018 employees. Determine if the company had over 50 employees according to the Affordable Care Act (ACA). If so, prepare IRS form 1095-C for delivery to employees by March 4, 2019 (delayed by IRS, read more).  The IRS has not postponed the deadline for filing forms with the IRS, either February 28, 2019 (under 250 employees and paper filing) and April 1, 2019 (if electronically filing).

Step Eight:   Send a copy of the new 2019 W4 form to active employees, as reminder that they should periodically review withholding and can make changes to their federal tax withholding for 2019.

Step Nine:   Ensure effective communication channels by requesting employee updates to address, mobile phone, email and emergency contacts.

Step Ten: Review the Employee Handbook and update as needed.  Does your Handbook contain policies regarding:

  • Workplace Safety?
  • Company Mission and Values?
  • Sexual Harassment?
  • Social Media?

For assistance with any of these HR actions, please contact us here at ConsultStu – we can help you meet your HR goals for 2019!  Click here to download a PDF version of this 2019 Checklist.

Exit Interview, General HR Questions, HR Resources, Human Resources, Retention

Exit Interviews and Why You Should Be Doing Them

A Google search of “exit interviews” will yield no shortage of articles questioning their value … not to mention some hard core detractors advocating that employees refuse to participate in them, such as this blog from tech industry commentator Alex Holderness.  While it is true that the concept of the exit interview carries some unavoidable flaws, the procedure is far from useless!  When performed consistently and competently, and analyzed effectively, exit interview data has the potential to help your business maintain a competitive edge, despite some inherent pitfalls.

The most common dilemma is whether outbound employees are willing to be sufficiently candid.  Notice I did not say “100% candid,” because that really would be getting into rainbow and unicorn territory.  But it is another thing to seek a meaningful degree of veracity, to be trained to interpret subtle diplomacy, and to maintain exit interview data compiled from multiple employees over time.  It is important to maintain the highest possible level of confidentiality, and ideally to implement a third-party filter to maximize the distance between specific interview content and any resulting corrective actions.  If interview reports must be kept on-site, always maintain them separately from personnel files.

Another challenging aspect of exit interviews is the question of objectivity.  On the opposite end of the spectrum from reticent employees are the occasional fearless bridge-burners, who can’t wait to unload – in massive detail – a history of atrocities suffered upon them by a hopeless assembly of incompetent managers, toxic colleagues, devious subordinates, unproductive policies, useless training, and inadequate facilities.  It’s not that their feedback might not contain one or more grains of truth, but how do you distill constructive criticism from a tirade that seems beyond all reasonable frames of reference?  Here it helps to have a skilled interviewer who can maintain a calm demeanor, and press for details to help identify complaints that can be substantiated, while gently exposing possible bias in others.  And of course, if any of the complaints involve potentially criminal accusations, it is essential to properly document any specific claims and perceptions expressed at the time of separation, and to take appropriate investigatory or legal actions.

Overall, the number one valid complaint about exit interviews is that companies don’t do anything about employee feedback.  Unfortunately, this is frequently true … and it explains why many consider them to be useless.  Please don’t be one of those companies!   Take the time to analyze the data on both an individual and compiled basis, and make it a task to validate, correct, and/or mitigate aspects of employee dissatisfaction.  Also consider teaming exit interviews with employee engagement surveys, which will be addressed in a subsequent blog, to maximize your opportunity to keep employees from leaving in the first place!  With wages and hiring trending upward over the past year, 2019 will be a great year to focus on the employment experience your company offers.

Feel free to contact us at ConsultStu LLC for assistance with the exit interview process, or download our Exit Interview form.

 

 

 

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