The cost to administer the prehire test is about $10 per candidate, so that’s not a big financial drain. The resources the company invested over the last ten years tweaking and perfecting the test are where the real expense came in. But this employer has found that stores staffed by high-scoring new hires consistently outperform those staffed by run of the mill candidates. On average, each employee in the top quartile brings in an extra $18,000 in sales per year.

Customization Isn’t a One-Time Effort

Luxottica constantly gathers performance information and feeds it back into the test optimization process. This doesn’t just perfect the test and make it a more accurate predictor of future performance; it also accommodates evolution as the marketplace continues to shift. Each Luxottica brand has its own customized pre-hire test to match associates with store cultures and customer demographics. The employer is careful to consult with legal counsel annually to ensure that changes to the assessment tests don’t restrict the hiring process in a way that could be viewed as discriminatory.

Onboarding Can be Tailored Too

Prehire testing isn’t the only type of hiring software tool that can benefit from customization. Acculturation onboarding is another area where constant improvement based on workforce analytics can yield benefits. Since an employee’s experience during the first 60 days on the job often have a significant impact on everything from productivity to retention, having the ability to update and refine an acculturation module could be very beneficial. For example, you might want to have an onboarding process that features different components based on job position. A manager would have additional training and development to complete while an entry level employee might be inducted into a mentoring program. To find out how our Acculturation Portal can help you customize the new hire experience at your company, contact Emerald Software Group today at 770-569-5122.

This example should be a lesson to all HR Project Managers: set realistic goals and be open to a phased approach.  There are several reasons this approach is best but first and foremost, clients should listen to their consultant and ask them what they deem as a reasonable schedule of implementation.  If you have a good consultant, most of them have been in the trenches for many years and can speak from experience.  By trimming the scope of a project, an aggressive schedule becomes more realistic and most team members on both sides of the aisle should have buy-in.  By going live with a reduced scope, there is certainly an ROI to be gained, albeit not as much as a completed project but certainly better than nothing.  Team members will have an opportunity to learn the new system prior to implementing additional functionality in future phases of the project.  And, last but not least, you will most definitely get a win with your executive team by meeting a reasonable deadline.  How do you eat an elephant?  One bite at a time…

Basics of the Decision

The Chamber of Commerce argued that the state was pre-empting federal law by instituting license revocation as a penalty for non-compliant businesses. In fact, the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 does restrict state and local governments from doling out civil and criminal punishments above and beyond those imposed at the federal level – with one exception. The right to determine licensing laws is reserved to state and local governments to use as they see fit when it comes to “encouraging compliance” with existing federal immigration laws. The Supreme Court found that the right to issue a license implies the right to revoke a license as well. The Court also found that Arizona was within its rights to make e-Verify use mandatory.

Why Does the Chamber Care?

The Chamber of Commerce makes the argument that increasing the sanctions against employers who hire undocumented workers would result in discrimination against legal immigrants and workers perceived as potentially undocumented because of their ethnicity. Of course, there are already laws in place making such discrimination illegal and requiring that all users of e-Verify prominently display workplace posters explaining job candidate’s rights.

It’s pretty evident that the Chamber of Commerce is actually supporting what it perceives to be the interests of employers rather than workers. While business owners do face many HR challenges in running a profitable enterprise, the Chamber’s approach may end up doing employers more harm than good. Businesses that lag behind in revamping their I9 administration processes to comply fully with state and federal laws are going to be hardest hit by the increase in audits. The Chamber might better serve businesses by promoting greater compliance with existing laws and helping employers avoid legal pitfalls by providing education about non-discriminatory hiring practices.

Our Universal Onboarding system can help you achieve better compliance with proper I9 administration whether or not you employ workers in a state with mandatory e-Verify use.

This new agreement solidifies the partnership between government agencies. The goal is to increase the effectiveness of communication and share in the process of investigating employers in Puerto Rico who are suspected of violating PR or Federal laws. To facilitate this process, inspectors from both agencies will be educated about the various rules that govern wages and how these overlap.

Employers in Puerto Rico Should Seek Greater Compliance Now

With the support and resources of the federal government now available on an unprecedented level, the DOL in Puerto Rico is likely to increase enforcement efforts. Employers would do well to review their policies, practices, and procedures (especially for wage and hour recordkeeping) to ensure compliance.

In related news, the USCIS has launched a Spanish language version of its informational web pages about E-Verify. This means Puerto Rican employers now have better access to this tool for verifying worker eligibility. This will be especially important for PR employers who want to win federal contracts (or subcontracts) since the use of E-Verify is a requirement. Other private employers may also wish to explore the pros and cons of using this free online tool to see if it will streamline and add consistency to their I9 administration process.

Emerald Software Group Can Help

Universal Onboarding is equipped to present new hires with onboarding forms in the language of their choice (including Spanish). It can also be interfaced with E-Verify if desired. Updated policies and forms can be added at any time to inform new hires of their rights and explain how wages are calculated.

Prevention Tops List of Priorities

Discussions so far are centering on prevention as the gold standard. If someone gets hurt on the job, the first question OSHA asks is “could this have been foreseen and avoided?” Employers are going to have to take a step back from just looking at protocols and protective equipment on a task-by task basis. There will be no one-size fits all solution for developing a safety program under I2P2. Each work environment, and the actual work processes that take place in that environment, will have to be evaluated as a unique “organism”.

Customization Based on Worker Input is Essential

Bringing in an outside consultant may be part of the solution, but employers must also learn to involve their workforce from start to finish in developing, implementing, and continuously improving a safety program. The downside to this approach is that it will be more resource intensive. It may also bring disagreement between management and workers to the surface to finally be dealt with (which can be good or bad depending on how well the situation is handled). The upside is that workers are much more likely to adhere to a program that makes sense from their viewpoint and that respects the value of their input.

No More “Bloody Pocket Syndrome”?

One major change may be in the field of safety incentive programs. Many employers currently use a punishment and reward system that may tend to discourage honest reporting of injuries. If an incident is not reported, the hazard that caused it is unlikely to be identified and fixed, leading to additional injuries. When reporting simply results in the employer taking immediate steps to correct the unsafe working condition instead of penalizing employees, reporting accuracy is expected to improve.

HR’s Role in I2P2

Collaboration in program development, policy revision, and workforce safety training are all areas where HR will play an important role. This will include bringing employees up to speed on how to spot and report hazards before an injury occurs. Our Universal Onboarding and Acculturation Portal applications are flexible enough to support these changes to your safety program as it relates to new hires. Contact us to find out how we can incorporate your new forms and orientation materials into these modules.

Categorization Impacts Enforceability

A company that hired an independent sales representative was denied a preliminary injunction enforcing a non-compete agreement. The federal court of appeals found that the worker was actually an employee of the company rather than an independent contractor. The covenant itself was not necessarily in violation of Pennsylvania law (although the laws in that state don’t look favorably on non-competition contracts).

However, the main sticking point for the courts was that the company had treated the sales rep as an employee. This included exerting a great deal of control over how the rep conducted business. By doing so, the company had effectively breached the agreement to the extent that it was no longer enforceable.

Another interesting point affecting the case was the timeline. The employer had the sales rep sign the agreement 6 months after he commenced work. Pennsylvania state labor laws prohibit employers from requiring employees or contractors to sign a restrictive covenant after hiring unless there is a change in the relationship such as a raise, promotion, or other incentive that would benefit the employee or contractor.

What this Means for Pennsylvania Employers

First, employers must make every effort to classify workers correctly so that agreements won’t be breached by the very nature of the employment/contracting relationship. Second, restrictive covenants should be signed during onboarding rather than being negotiated after the fact whenever possible. With automated Universal Onboarding, there is no risk of accidentally overlooking an important form, policy, or agreement during hiring.

• How does entering this kind of contest benefit employers?
• How does it benefit employees?
• What are the downsides of participation, and what happens if you don’t win?

Employers’ Perspective

The benefits most employers hope to gain from entering a workplace ranking program are an increase in brand awareness and better recruiting results. It allows businesses to showcase what makes their workplace culture stand apart from the crowd. Of course, employers may find additional, unexpected benefits such as an increase in retention as workers realize that they really do “have it good” where they are.

Employees’ Perspective

There are plenty of consulting firms that do internal surveys for employers to gauge worker satisfaction and engagement. However, these surveys may leave workers feeling disempowered since they know that the results will only be reviewed internally and might not result in any real change. When workers’ responses determine how highly an employer ranks, employees can feel like their voices are being heard beyond the walls of the workplace.

Potential Drawbacks & Poor Rankings

The downside of choosing to enter a “best workplace” contest is that it can represent a significant time investment. The larger your organization, the more total hours will be taken away from other tasks for employees to participate in the survey. If you’ve recently done other surveys, workers may be tired of taking them and respond poorly.

If your organization doesn’t rank well, that’s not the end of the world. You might find that changes are needed in your benefits communication, management methodology, or other areas. The survey results just shine a spotlight on the factors that may be affecting how employees perceive your workplace.

How Can Emerald Software Group Help?

Since corporate culture is a heavily weighted factor in how well workplaces are ranked by employees, a strong acculturation onboarding program could make a big difference. Our Acculturation Portal can support you in improving the new hire experience.

Experts Are Standing By to Help

Of course, where there’s a liability issue in HR, there are always lawyers and insurance companies on hand to offer assistance and advice. If your HR department is performing social media screening of job candidates (or existing employees), it’s actually not a bad idea to run this by an HR legal expert to make sure you aren’t crossing any lines. Then, double-check with your liability insurance partner to ensure you’re covered if someone brings a discrimination claim.

What Are the Dangers?

Why is carrying out an internet search potentially problematic? The main reason is that it gives HR access to information that they can’t ask for in an interview. You could find out a person’s age, whether a woman is planning to have a child, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, and much more. You might not be looking for that information. But once you have it, there’s no way to prove it didn’t affect your decision about whether to hire a job candidate. Read Joanne Wojcik’s full article to find out what advice legal counsel has for employers who want to use in-house internet searches anyway.

One potential way to use social media background checks with less liability is to hire a third party to do this for you. They can sift out any information that might be viewed as discriminatory and just present relevant data to you for decision making purposes. With our Universal Onboarding module, you can make this type of screening part of the hiring process by automatically sending new hire data to your vendor. That way, you are putting everyone through the same degree of screening and you have documentation of the results.

State Run Audits are Just Beginning

The SCDOL is actually planning to audit 4000 employers this year. Over 20 auditors have been brought on board to carry out this initiative. Businesses will be investigated for their compliance with the South Carolina Illegal Immigration Reform Act. The regulations under this Act supplement the federal I-9 requirements. Employers who do not use E-Verify must verify the legal status of workers via an SC drivers’ license or state issued ID. Out of state licenses may or may not be accepted depending on whether South Carolina deems the sister state in compliance with stringent standards for license issuance.

Punishment Has Several Aspects

The state DOL fines employers $100-1000 for each violation of the Act. They also report these employers to ICE for further investigation. Even worse from a PR standpoint, the state publishes the identity of employers who are caught hiring undocumented workers. Given the high state of emotions surrounding this issue, such negative publicity has a serious impact on consumer relations. Employers in South Carolina would do well to review their I-9 administration process and ensure that it complies with both state and federal laws. Universal Onboarding is one tool that can help both automate the process and bring it into better compliance.

Social Media Policies

Not having a social media policy is a serious oversight for employers these days. There are many illegal activities such as workers downloading or sharing pirated materials on company computers that employers can be held accountable for. However, an overly broad or restrictive policy can open a business to costly litigation as well. The recent case of a worker being disciplined for FaceBook postings critical of a supervisor shows that the NLRB is eager to step in and protect employee’s right to discuss working conditions.

HR should partner with IT to explore actual workplace behaviors to target illegal and unethical activity without overstepping the bounds of privacy and freedom of expression. All new hires should receive & sign an acknowledgement showing that they understand both the policy and the measures that will be taken to enforce it. Making responsible social media and general internet use a part of acculturation training is also advisable.

Federal Contractor Designation

Apparently, the OFCCP is expanding its definition of what constitutes being a federal contractor. Previously, organizations that received Medicare reimbursement were not included in this designation. However, that is changing and healthcare providers may have to significantly alter their hiring practices as a result. For example, many federal contractors must use E-Verify as mandated by the government.

This represents an ideal opportunity to fully automate the onboarding process to ensure that I9s are completed without errors and omissions in compliance with ICE best practices. Our Universal Onboarding module can play a role in this transition since we have the ability to interface employers with the free E-Verify web program for a seamless HR experience.