The HighFlyer Blog
Keep up with the latest trends, thought leadership, best practices, and compliance updates on our blog. We bring you the latest news, tips, and strategies for employee engagement, talent management, workplace learning, payroll, benefits administration, compliance, data and analytics, and more.
The Importance of Employee Engagement for Business Success
According to a recent Gallup poll, only 34% of U.S. employees are engaged at work, costing businesses an estimated $450-550 billion annually in lost productivity. As an HR or payroll professional, it’s crucial to understand why employee engagement is so important and...
An employee let us know they got a part-time job and would like to change their hours. Do we have to change their schedule?
No. An employee wanting to change their hours because they got a second job is not something you’re required to accommodate. Even so, we wouldn’t recommend immediately giving the employee an ultimatum to keep working their current schedule or resign. Instead,...
What should I do if an employee was paid incorrectly?
Mistakes are an unfortunate reality of doing business, but mistakes with payroll are different – and potentially extremely problematic. When you overpay an employee, you lose money. When you underpay an employee, you agitate him or her – and could potentially face...
Employee LinkedIn Job Title is Different Than the One They Were Given. Should We Say Something?
It depends. There are many reasons an employee may choose to use a job title on LinkedIn that is different than their official job title with your organization. For one, employees may feel that their job title doesn’t accurately or meaningfully describe the work they...
Can we make a policy that employees who quit without notice won’t get their final paycheck?
No, federal law requires you to pay employees for all hours they have worked. While you can and should have a policy defining job abandonment (e.g., if an employee no-shows and no-calls three days in a row, you’ll take that as a resignation), you are not allowed to...
How to Reclassify Previously Exempt Employees as Nonexempt
Any employee can be classified as a nonexempt employee, although we generally recommend that all employees in the same role have the same classification.That being said, exempt employees sometimes feel there is a certain “status” involved in being salaried and...
Personal Phone Use Policies
Question: Employees are spending a lot of time on thier phones (scrolling social media, browsing the internet, listening to music or podcasts). Can we prohibit personal phone use during work hours? Answer: Yes, you can limit or prohibit use of personal devices during...
Paying Employees for Time Spent Traveling to the Office
Q: We have a non-exempt employee who has been working from home. Do we need to pay her for time spent traveling to the office? She's been asked to drop off some files during her normally scheduled work hours. A: Yes, in this situation, we recommend paying this...
Employees Applying for Positions Elsewhere
Q: We've recently learned that one of our employees is planning to leave the company and has been applying for positions elsewhere. Can we terminate them? A: Terminating employment because an employee is looking for work elsewhere isn’t expressly prohibited by law,...
Asking Employees for Proof of COVID-19 Vaccination
Q: Can we ask employees for proof of COVID-19 vaccination? A: You can ask employees for proof that they’ve received the COVID-19 vaccine, but you need to be careful about how you ask for it and what you do with the information. You should ask employees to provide...