All posts by stu

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.

 

 

 

Affordable Care Act, Group Health Insurance, IRS

IRS Delays Deadline to Furnish Form 1095-C and 1095-B forms for 2019

On November 30, the IRS announced that it moved back the deadlines for when employers must furnish Forms 1095-C and 1095-B in early 2019. The new deadlines are:

1. Employers with 50 or more full-time employees (including full-time equivalent employees) shall furnish a Form 1095-C to all full-time employees no later than March 4, 2019.

2. Self-insured employers with fewer than 50 or more full-time employees (including full-time equivalent employees) must furnish a Form 1095-B to all responsible individuals by March 4, 2019.

However, the deadline for employers to file all Forms 1094 and 1095 with the IRS remains February 28, 2019 (or April 1, 2019, if filing electronically).  If your company is newly covered by the Affordable Care Act reporting provisions, visit the IRS webpage on the ACA for Employers.

Business Expenses, Employment Poster, Human Resources, Minimum Wage, Posters, Restaurants, Tipped Employees, Wage and Hour

2019 Florida Minimum Wage Increase

Don’t Forget – Workplace Posters Must Be Updated!

On October 24, 2018, the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity announced that the 2019 Florida minimum wage will be increased from $8.25 to $8.46 per hour, effective January 1, 2019. The agency is mandated to calculate a minimum wage rate each year based on the percentage increase in the federal Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers in the South Region for the 12-month period prior to September 1, 2018.  For full time minimum-wage employees, this will calculate to an annual wage increase of $436.80.

For restaurant and other hospitality employers who may take up to a $3.02 per hour tip credit against the minimum wage, the new 2019 wage requirement for tip-receiving employees will be $5.44 per hour.

On January 1, 2019, all Florida employers are required to display the state-mandated minimum wage poster in a conspicuous manner for employees.  Update your Florida Minimum Wage Poster for 2019 here and replace your 2018 posters.   (Also available here in Spanish)

 

Hiring, Recruiting

Available Manufacturing Talent in the Tampa Bay Area

FLORIDA EMPLOYERS TAKE NOTE …. AVAILABLE TALENT IN THE MANUFACTURING SECTOR!
October 2018

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 any or all of these resumes:

Contact [email protected] or call 727-350-0370 

OPERATIONS
Hernando, Pasco, or northern Hillsborogh County Manufacturers: Candidate seeking managment level postion in manufacturing: Operations, Quality Systems, Processes, or Documentation. Currently directs day-to-day manufacturing operations for 60,000sq. ft. medical device facility, generating $75M+ in annual production. 20 years of industry experience and a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting.

SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
Pinellas County Manufacturers: Candidate seeking senior position in Supply Chain Management. Responsible for leading supply chain from sourcing to shipping. Exceptional leadership skills and a history of meeting and exceeding performance goals. 30 years of hands-on experience directing every facet of warehouse operations: shipping, receiving, inventory control, kitting and order fulfillment.

PRODUCT ENGINEERING
Pinellas and Hillsborough County Manufacturers: Candidate seeking management level position in product engineering. Skilled in product design, development and testing with 15 years of experience and a strong focus on delivering process and assembly qualified designs for manufacturing at highest quality/lowest cost. Holds several Patents and a Master’s degree in Plastics Engineering.

Company Culture, Employee benefits, Employee Policies, Human Resources, Retention, Rewards

Must Love Dogs … or, How to Retain Talent in a Pet Crazy Culture

With unemployment at a 17 year low, employers are reawakening to the need for effective talent retention strategies.  One of the hottest trends in corporate perks recognizes the astounding level of devotion American workers have for their furry, four-legged companions.  No matter what your budget, there are options for your company to offer animal lovers another reason to love their job, and another reason to love YOU, the employer who understands that Mr. McNibbles the Chihuahua or Schnitzel the Miniature Schnauzer is  a member of your employee’s family.

Here are some suggestions for making Fido happy  …  and to encourage your highest producers to stay:

  1. The ultimate gold standard of pet perks is the dog friendly office.  According to a 2016 survey by Banfield Pet Hospital, 82% of employees feel “greater loyalty” to a company that allows pets in the workplace.  Glassdoor, Procter & Gamble, and Amazon are some examples of employers that welcome dogs, and the vacuum company Bissell even has a designated Pet Area equipped with water, toys, and a bathing station.   Granted, this approach is not feasible for many companies, and requires careful consideration of liability issues and other drawbacks.    Not everyone’s precious pooch is capable of professional-caliber behavior, and you may find that not every pet parent is ready to admit it.   Management must be prepared to referee occasional conflicts, and, if you have to reject too many barky, whiny, gassy, or weak-bladdered participants (speaking about the pets here!), it may be the employer who ends up in the dog house.   Less radical options might be an annual participation in “Bring your Dog to Work” day, or, as we do here at ConsultStu,  schedule occasional one-day doggie “office passes” on a special incentive basis.
  2. In-house doggie daycare.  If you have extra space, implementing a modest on-site pet-sitting operation would not require enormous investment, and would eliminate many of the problems associated with allowing pets to roam freely throughout the workplace.   Integrate a bit of communal area for visits, walk breaks, or outdoor lunch seating, and your employees will never want to work anywhere else.   Since it would require some additional staffing to provide supervision and care for the fur-kids, this is most practical for mid-to-larger companies.
  3. Subsidize third party pet-sitting.  Regardless of how much or how little of the cost you plan on covering for employees, negotiating with local providers may result in substantially discounted rates.  In addition to workday pet care,  you might offer employees free kennel-boarding during authorized business travel.
  4. Offer free or discounted pet insurance.  Plans, premiums, and level of coverage varies widely … to begin your research, here is a link to Consumers Advocate’s 10 top pet insurance providers for 2018.
  5. Team with local pet rescue organizations.  Maybe an adoption drive can be set up once or twice a year on your premises, or socialization trainers can regularly bring foster animals on-site to enjoy some interaction and help them become adoption ready.

Whatever your company’s capacity is for extending pet perks, take advantage of this endearing and affordable way to enhance employee satisfaction and loyalty.  Dogs have an innate ability to make people smile, reduce stress, and encourage enthusiasm and optimism.    Find a way to let them be a part of your business success.

This article is endorsed by ConsultStu periodic contributor Pearl H.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HR Compliance, Human Resources, I9 Form, Immigration

Independent 3rd Party to Audit Immigration Compliance for Publix

If your company is pursuing a services agreement with Publix Super Markets, Inc., it will be required to complete an annual certification of its immigration law compliance using a qualified, independent third party; or retain a qualified, independent third party to complete all company employee I-9s on an on-going basis.  If the audit is chosen, it must be completed every 12 months.  The annual certification must be submitted directly to Publix consistent with the time schedule outlined in your Services Agreement.  Publix provides contracting parties with a sample Annual Immigration Law Certification form to use and Consultstu has revised the template for use with our clients.

Due to our extensive experience with human resources practices and I-9 forms, we have served as the independent third-party auditor for several Publix contractors in recent months.  Stuart Charlson has over 25 years of experience with human resources consulting and compliance services for small to mid-sized businesses.

Our audit and review will be conducted at your worksite, and involve a review of the Company’s I9 forms, written immigration-related policies, postings and E-Verify practices (if used).  We provide immediate feedback on your practices and identify any necessary corrections to bring immigration documents and policies into compliance with any and all immigration laws, including the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986.  At the end of the audit, we provide your company with the immigration law certification form to submit to Publix.  For more information on this service, contact our office at 727-350-0370.

Affordable Care Act, Business Expenses, Department of Labor, General HR Questions, Group Health Insurance, HR Compliance, HR Costs, Human Resources, Individualized Assessment, New Hire

What’s so funny about the updated ACA Exchange Notice Form?

Guess what was revealed in the latest ACA form update?  The federal government assumes that your business has a full-fledged HR Department.  I doubt this comes as any surprise to our small-to-mid-sized clients!

Earlier this year, the Department of Labor made a minor change to its model Health Insurance Exchange Notices, the ACA Marketplace notices that must be given to new employees within 14 days of hiring.  Don’t worry if you haven’t yet updated to the latest form, because the previous version still conforms to the functional requirements under Regulatory Notice OMB No. 1210-0149.  But to ensure that you stay up to date, click here to download the latest forms:  Updated Notice for Employers Offering Health Plans and the Updated Notice for Employers Who Do Not Offer Coverage.   (MSWord versions available here.)

It took considerable scrutiny to detect anything that had been changed in the updated Notice for Employers Offering Health Plans, but about three-quarters down the page we saw it.  Now, instead of directing employees with additional questions to contact the company’s “HR Department,” the line provides a blank space to fill in a contact.

Isn’t it just a little satisfying to imagine the DOL receiving enough real-world feedback to realize their inaccurate presumption?  We have many clients supporting 20, 50, or even 100-plus employees, and they know the growth struggle is real, and how frustrating it can be:  when your company is large enough to face the burden of ever-increasing regulatory compliance, but not yet at a size to undertake a salaried staff of HR professionals.  These businesses have no in-house HR department to navigate the complexities of DOL, OMB, ACA, OSHA, EEO, FMLA, etc., or to implement beneficial HR functions such as a drugfree workplace, anti-harassment training, safety programs, or I9 audits … not to mention that nobody in the office has enough time to continually monitor federal, state, and local agencies for the release of new forms.

This is the gap we try to fill for Florida businesses.  We specialize in providing as much or as little HR assistance that is appropriate for each one of the clients we support.  We can assist at an hourly rate with special one-time projects, or provide on-going support on a retained basis.  Some clients want us to handle their unemployment claims, OSHA injury logging, or new hire documentation.  Others prefer assistance in establishing their own procedures, policies, documentation and accounts necessary to take care of those functions efficiently on their own.  If fractional HR services sound like a solution your business can use, call or email us today.

 

That face you make when the DOL thinks you must have a dedicated HR department …

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