Inclement Weather Poses FLSA Challenges

Inclement Weather Poses FLSA Challenges

Jan 16, 2018 | FLSA Challenges, Inclement Weather Policy

When work closes because of inclement weather, exempt and nonexempt employees are treated differently under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). This is a concept most employees and employers struggle to understand.

It is suggested to review and follow the existing inclement weather policy, should the company have one.

But… What is the actual law?

If the company closes for weather-related reasons, nonexempt employees are not entitled to pay. The employer can allow nonexempt employees to use accrued paid time off, vacation, or sick (PTO) to cover their absences. If PTO is not available, the time off is unpaid. Some employers have mandatory use of PTO policies which is acceptable.

Some employers provide a fixed number of paid inclement weather days per year.

As for exempt employees, the application of weather-related absences is more complicated. In the case where an employer is open for business but an exempt employee chooses to stay home, that employer is not entitled to pay the employee for that day because he/she chose to remove themselves from the workplace for personal reasons. If the employer has a PTO policy and the employee has accrued time, the employer can use the PTO to cover their absence. In the event there is no accrued PTO available, the employer can reduce the employee’s pay for the absence, in full-day increments, without violating the salary-basis test of the FLSA.

However, if the employer decides to close for weather-related reasons, the employee’s full salary must be paid for the week even though he/she may not have worked the full workweek.  In this scenario, the employee is available for work, but it is the employer who has made the work unavailable to the employee.

Bottom line… Employers should not reduce the weekly compensation from exempt employees for partial days caused by bad weather.

For a relevant DOL opinion letter, check out the link below.

https://www.dol.gov/whd/opinion/FLSA/2005/2005_10_24_41_FLSA.htm

4 Practical Tips To Maximize The Impact Of Sexual Harassment Training

4 Practical Tips To Maximize The Impact Of Sexual Harassment Training

Dec 21, 2017 | Compliance, Sexual Harassment Training

Sexual harassment compliance training is generally not HR professionals’ favorite thing. There is a lot of gray area in terms of what constitutes harassment. This gray area makes it difficult to distinguish whether something is sexual harassment or not, and creates a challenge for bystanders who have witnessed an iffy situation to know if they should or should not report of the situation.

There is a high chance that your employees have or will encounter an iffy situation. Providing them with clear and thorough training will help them to better distinguish a sexual harassment scenario and will increase their knowledge on how to correctly respond.
To maximize the impact of your company’s sexual harassment training, consider these 4 tips:

1. Make It Mandatory

From new hires to company executives, ensure each employee completes a thorough sexual harassment compliance training program. Mandatory training sends a message that all employees, despite their titles, are expected to represent themselves and their company in a way that is considerate and respectable. A lack of support from company leaders sets a poor example and generates a negative impact on the importance of training for the rest of the office. When factoring in schedules and company budget, utilize different training methods. Smaller group training sessions help employees to feel more comfortable asking questions and are more willing to participate in group discussions. Virtual training is another alternative but should have an interactive component like instructor-led live training sessions.

2. Keep It Recent and Relatable

You cannot expect your employees to read and memorize the company’s sexual harassment policies. Create an ongoing and interactive training experience with customized character-driven situations that resonate with your workplace. Show your employees workplace scenarios similar to what they’ve been dealing with in their workplace. Employees will start to see what could really happen to them personally as well as what may have happened to the company from a legal position. Discuss real-world topics such as hugs, jokes, dating in the workplace, alcohol at work-related events, and off-site and after-hours activities.

3. Check Your Culture

Do you allow inappropriate comments? Do you allow cursing? On-site drinking? Allowing this behavior creates an inappropriate environment. An inappropriate environment is usually what sparks sexual harassment. Harassment can range from extreme forms such as violence, threats, or physical touching to less obvious actions like teasing, mocking, or repeatedly bothering coworkers or refusing to talk to them. It can be based on a person’s race, ethnicity, religion or gender. Establish an Open-Door Policy for your employees to anonymously ask questions, get answers, and share experiences through a hotline, specific human resource person or email address, or outside party.

4. Safety Checks

Don’t limit sexual harassment training to a one-time event. It is important to have awareness campaigns periodically throughout the year. Provide tools like relevant brochures, helpful websites and blog links, videos and webinars to help employees identify and report improper behavior in the future. Hang anti-sexual harassment posters on notice boards in common work areas and send out emails reinforcing what was taught during training. Give employees a clear and concise outline your sexual harassment policy, reporting and investigation process, and penalties for non-compliance. When your company does health and safety surveys, collect data about sexual harassment and abuse. Analyze the data and reevaluate your training methods for the next time you have a sexual harassment training. Periodically conduct workplace audits to monitor any incidences of sexual harassment.

We need to shift away from explaining what sexual harassment is and drift towards creating a culture of respect and civility. We need to shift away from explaining how to avoid situations in which harassment can be questioned and towards ways to encourage trust. For more information on how Highflyer HR can provide effective sexual harassment training solutions, Contact us at (844) 398-7800 or getstarted@highflyerhr.com.

Avoid These 4 Common ACA Reporting Mistakes

Avoid These 4 Common ACA Reporting Mistakes

Dec 1, 2017 | ACA Reporting & Compliance, Applicable Large Employer, Employment Classification, Health Benefits, Measurement Periods

1. Applicable Large Employer “ALE” Member Identification & Responsibilities

  • Failure to understand the IRS penalties for not complying with the ACA including,
    1. the employers shared responsibility payment for failure to offer minimum essential coverage,
    2. employers shared responsibility payment for failure to offer affordable minimum essential coverage that provides minimum value (assessed if penalty 1 does not apply),
    3. failure to file correct information returns, and,
    4. failure to furnish correct payee statements.
  • Failure to perform annual ACA testing.
  • Failure to accurately combine ALE employer and employee information.
  • Failure to include any other ALE members on the 1094-C Part IV report.

2. Measurement, Stability, and Employment Periods

  • Failure to establish annual measurement and stability periods for determining which employees are to be offered health care coverage by the employer.
  • Failure to document all information necessary to identify full-time employees.
  • Failure to adopt policies explaining,
    1. its look back measurement period,
    2. description of how the employer is classifying its new employees, and,
    3. explanation of the time frames and start/end dates of the non-compliant measurement, Administrative, or Stability Period.
  • Erroneous reporting of employment periods including hire, rehire, and termination dates in Payroll and Time & Attendance platforms. (e.g. Inaccurate documentation explaining how an employee who has been rehired is a new or continuing employee.)
  • Failure to oversee disruptions in service of 13 weeks (or 26 weeks for an employee of an academic organization) for purposes of reconciling with employment status and with health benefits eligibility.

3. Classifying Employees

  • Failure to organize and accurately document employment classification with one of four labels:
    1. Full-Time
    2. Part-Time
    3. Variable Hour
    4. Seasonal
  • Misclassification of an employee, leading to the risk of a penalty. (e.g. Classifying new employees, who should be classified as full-time employees, as part-time employees or variable hour employees.)
  • Misclassification of contingent workers, leading to the risk of a penalty. (e.g. Freelancers, independent contractors, consultants, or other outsourced and non-permanent workers who are hired on a per-project basis are misclassified as full-time employees.)

4. Health Benefits

  • Failure to explain which affordability safe harbor the employer has elected to use.
  • Failure to document affordability plan for the employee.
  • Failure to sufficiently document offers of health coverage, including an explanation of the product being offered, effective applicability dates, the price of each option, and whether the coverage provides minimum value.
  • Failure to document when the health coverage offer was made. (e.g. Employee not returning his/her selection of coverage or waiver.)
  • Lack of awareness of the effect of Flex Credits (amount employer gives employees to purchase benefits), opt-out payments (payments made to employees who decline enrollment in an employer’s group health plan), and similar arrangements on the reportable amount of the employee’s required contribution to the monthly premium on line 15 of the 1095-C.
  • Errors in reporting on the Form 1094-C and Form 1095-C. (e.g. Inaccurate code combinations on line 14, 15, and 16 of Form 1095-C.)

aca due dates

To receive insights and a free risk assessment of your company’s ACA compliance practices with our HR industry experts call us at (844) 398-7800, or email us at getstarted@highflyerhr.com.

5 Things Your Competitors Can Teach You About Open Enrollment

5 Things Your Competitors Can Teach You About Open Enrollment

Sep 6, 2017 | Benefits, Communication Strategies, Open Enrollment

Open Enrollment can be an overwhelming period for both employers and employees. The season brings brokers and HR professionals an annual administrative headache with stress factors of the options of new plans and shifts in the level of participation.

It is a good strategic move to monitor what is working for your competitors and adapt some of their methods and techniques to maximize your own performance and growth. Here are 5 things you can learn from your competitors about open enrollment.

1) Plan Ahead, Start Early

Communicate early & often – don’t bombard your clients with loads of information at one time. Provide them with the dates of Open Enrollment, an overview of changes, and what this means to them.

Communicate clearly – don’t make assumptions about how well everyone already understands their benefit plans. We fight an endless employee benefits battle with half of the effort towards finding ways to communicate offerings that are understandable and easy to grasp. Make difficult benefit decisions easier by keeping everything organized and easy to follow with tips, guides, and checklists. Use Open Enrollment as an opportunity to listen to your clients to see what they do and do not understand.

2) Don’t Rely on One Communication Strategy

Workplace demographics can be very diverse, with differing preferences. Not all participants are the same, and the benefits they require will differ. This diversity allows you to create more personalized and targeted messages. Tailor messages to specific plans while presenting in the clearest and simple format. Create a 1-page ‘Quick Guide’ for your clients outlining the benefits and disadvantages of each plan option providing a clear insight into advantages, costs, and expectations.

Participants learn differently and at various speeds. They have their own preferences of how to receive communication. Deliver messages through different types of communication channels (email, social media, text messages, videos/webinars, blogs, message boards, FAQs, mailers, direct meetings, etc.). Meet your clients where THEY are, not where it is easiest.

Work with clients to enhance employee engagement.

  • Give a Lunch and Learn about topics like the difference between HSA, HRA, and FSA.
  • Hold a raffle or give door prizes to the first 25 people to complete enrollment.
  • Provide Open Enrollment counseling. Multiple factors go into someone’s health plan decision from comparing options to spouse’s plans, to family and lifestyle changes. Host a ‘Family Day’ for employees to include their spouses. Educate employees on their healthcare options, benefits summaries, changes in plans, important deadlines, and offer guidance to choosing the best plan for their family.
  • Use social media to give clients tips on healthcare plans, the enrollment process, or unseen features of their health plan.

Offer an online learning center portal to clients filled with articles and video courses to help clients and their employees explore and learn more about new or existing benefits that are being offered. Take advantage of the employees’ competitive instincts by giving various rewards to the employees who complete the courses.

3) Regardless of Whether Great or Awful News, Give Your Clients Timely Feedback

There are so many online tools that can help you deliver better and faster customer service and help to better your time management strategies.

Check out these FREE tools to use and recommend to your clients:

Cam Scanner – scan documents directly from mobile device – and make them look like real scans, instead of rushing to send out documents, can get it done on the go

Dropbox – store documents in the cloud and have them accessible from anywhere – have client folders in order and handy whenever needed

PrimoPDF – app to convert to, or print a PDF document

PDF Merge – merge PDF’s into one singular PDF file

PDFescape – perfect solution for anyone who has a digital version of their signature on computer and would like to add to PDF documents – upload any PDF doc, add signatures, text, and dates where necessary

Google Hangout – face-to-face video conferencing, screen sharing, instant messaging, podcasts, mastermind calls

Sign Easy – a tool for those who are always on the go. Create an account, “draw” your signature, and start signing documents from any mobile device (Free Trial Available)

FREE tools to help with time management:

Buffer – save time and simplify your social media routine by scheduling posts on all your social media networks.

RoboForm – password management app, works as a browser extension and allows you to easily save and store login to websites with a click of a button.

BuzzSomo – analyze what content performs best for any topic or competitor, provides content discovery/blog ideas, content alerts, competitor research (plugin domain and see which content they’ve created that has done well with social shares)

Grammarly – this tool helps to make sure everything you type is clear, effective and mistake-free.

Awesome ScreenShot – image annotation tool, a browser extension that allows you to take a snapshot of a part, or all your screen, add annotations, comments, blur sensitive info, and share with one-click uploads.

4) Think Beyond Open Enrollment

Never stop communicating! Keep your clients in tune with what is happening and changing on a continuous basis. Once an employee is enrolled, they will need help using their chosen plan. Provide your clients with ‘After Enrollment Tips’ through help videos, webinars, telephone support, or hold educational meetings.

When Open Enrollment season ends, start planning for the next year. Look back at last year’s process to determine what went well and what could be improved. How effective was the communication strategy? Was quality customer service delivered? What were the most time-consuming tasks and how can they be simplified for next year? What were the top questions asked by clients? Knowing what your challenges are and will be will help you revamp your strategy for next year.

Measure your success by meeting with clients to review what they liked, didn’t like, or would change for next year to see which strategies worked and didn’t work. Act on this feedback to streamline a more efficient process for next year.

5) Have a Partner to Help

Utilize a human capital management software to add value to your clients, remain competitive, stay on top of changes with updates to keep clients compliant with laws and regulations, worry-free ACA reporting and filing, automatic broker alerts, and more. Consolidating your products onto one cloud-based platform allows you to add or remove products when needed as well as deliver a streamlined enrollment experience to your clients.

For more information on how Highflyer HR can provide effective open enrollment solutions, Contact us at (844) 398-7800 or getstarted@highflyerhr.com.