The OFCCP has quietly adopted a new "tipping point test" to determine whether federal contractors might have pay practices that discriminate.  The OFCCP provided no official announcement of this new test, but in the first quarter of 2008 audit letters went out to contractors requesting 12 additional pieces of workforce information from companies who failed. 

If you fail the "tipping point test", the OFCCP will also request: 

1. Employees' identification numbers
2. Gender
3. Race or ethnicity
4. Date of hire
5. Dates in the position
6. Birth date
7. Current pay rate
8. Status - part time/full time
9. FLSA status - exempt/non-exempt
10. Job title
11. Salary grade
12. Employees' location

Here's how the test works - Pay data is reviewed to determine if: 

• there are average pay differences of at least 5% (previously this had been 2%) between gender or race groups within the same pay division and these differences affect at least 30 females or minorities negatively
• the number of females or minorities that fall into the negatively affected pay divisions make up at least 10% (previously was 30%) of the entire workforce for that gender or racial group.
• the percentage of the female or minority workforce in the affected pay divisions is at least three times as large as the percentage of males or non-minorities in pay divisions where the males or non-minorities are affected negatively. 

You will probably want to perform the "tipping point test" yourself as you are preparing your affirmative action plan.  You should know if you'd pass or fail before the OFCCP asks the same question.  If you don't pass the test, be prepared to explain why (e.g., employees' education or experience) or fix the underlying issues.   

Don't forget that the EEO-1 Report, formally known as the Employer Information Report, must be filed by next Tuesday, September 30th.  This report is the means by which employers provide the federal government with a count of their workforce by ethnicity, race and gender, divided into specified job categories. 

This will be the second year using the new race and ethnicity categories which were introduced for the reports due in 2007.  Last year, employers weren't required to resurvey employees using the new race and ethnic categories before filing their report; however, many followed the EEOC's recommendation that they resurvey as soon as possible.  As a reminder, the EEOC's preferred method of collecting this data is through self-identification by employees versus visual identification by employers. 

The new report still requires that you use employment data from any pay period between July and September.  Private employers with 100 or more employees and federal contractors with government contracts of $50,000 or more and 50 or more employees are required by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to file an EEO-1 Report. 

Many human resource software systems, such as Achievant's, can assist you in streamlining the preparation of these required reports.  Core HRIS systems capture this demographic data.  If you aren't currently using one, please contact me and I'd love to share with you what Achievant is doing.

The US House of Representatives passed the ADA Amendments Act of 2008 on September 17th by a voice vote following the Senate's passage of the bill.  President Bush is expected to sign it into law any day now.  This Act provides some of the most sweeping changes to federal employment law in more than a decade. 

Here are some of the highlights (the who, what, when) of the bill. 


When Do the Amendments Go Into Effect?  
January 1, 2009

Who Do They Affect? 
Employers previously covered by the ADA (15+ employees).

How is a Disability Now Defined? 
The Act provides employers a broad standard that they must adopt to determine if someone is "disabled".   Consequently, I would expect more employees are going to be covered by the ADA and you should make employment decisions with that assumption in mind.

How is a "Major Life Activity" Now Defined?
Previously the ADA was silent on this definition, but the amendments provide a laundry list of activities such as eating, working, thinking, etc. which will now be considered major life activities.  Also, the operation of any major bodily function is considered a major life activity. 

How is "Regarded As" Addressed? 
An individual must now only show that the employer perceived the individual as having a mental or physical impairment, not that the impairment substantially limits a major life activity.  However, if the impairment lasts for six months or less and is minor, it doesn't qualify. 

What Now?
I believe that this bill will make it easier for workers to prove discrimination.  It will loosen some of the stringent standards set by the courts that require a disability to be "construed broadly" and will cover more physical and mental impairments.  I believe that we will see a shift away from threshold issues (does the person meet the standards to be considered "disabled") to liability issues.  Employers will need to defend against these like any other employment action (i.e., show that the employer had a legitimate, non-discriminatory reason for its decision). 

Went to the grocery store for the umpteenth time over the weekend, seems we are always forgetting something.  I always see the automated check out line but rarely do I go through.  Shopping for a large family we are rarely under the limit to take advantage of the service.  Frustrated at being back again for just a couple of items I chose the automated route, since for this quick trip I qualified.  In and out quickly I thought about the reasons why the industry chose to implement such a service.  Clearly it is to cater to the ease and low maintenance of customers who have simple and minimal requests versus the customer attention needed for those of us that come with a cart full if not overflowing with children in tow.

So too the concept of automating HRIS Systems.  Think about the time and energy dedicated to update files manually; Time and Attendance, Performance Assessments, Applications, Etc.  Clearly the grocery industry has seen the benefits to automating items that while necessary do not need the same human interaction or customer service and spend their time with customers and interaction that needs that little extra touch to keep customers coming back for more.  Automating HR processes could help organizations in the same way.  Automating HR allows employees to get requests handled much more efficiently through self-service and at the same time info and files are updated in real time while giving HR staff including leadership the opportunity to get out of the tactical day to day and spend time getting to the strategic initiatives that are vital to an organizations success.  

There are reports this morning that a private email account republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin used for both personal and state business has been hacked and the contents distributed on the web.

There are no details of how her account was breached.  Maybe her password was tinkerbell or moose or something easy to guess or maybe the hackers used more sophisticated methods.

Either way an account breach is a major concern and is something Achievant is asked about often when our human resource software.

We use a variety of ways to minimize the risk of an account breach and allow clients to customize those features to their own specifications.

1. User Name complexity.  Achievant clients can set the complexity rule for user names.
2. Password complexity.  Achievant;s HRIS Software allows clients to set the level of password complexity to whatever they want.
3. Account lockout.  Our software allows you to determine how many failed login attempts triggers an account lockout.  And for how long.
4. Password expiration.  We allow clients to determine how often passwords expire.  It can be 1 hour, one year or whatever they want.

Breaches happen.  And not just to VP nominees.

SnagAJob.com has recently coined a new tern - "new collar" workers.  These are employees ages 18 to 29 who are content as hourly workers and see themselves as staying put in hourly jobs for the rest of their career or in other words, career hourly employees. 

A SnagAJob survey conducted in May/June 2008 reports that:

• 48% who don't have a college degree expect to be a career hourly worker, 30% expect to be salaried.
• 25% of those with college degrees are career hourly workers, 62% expect to be salaried. 

The Top 5 "New Collar" Industries are:

1. Retail - 18%
2. Service/Customer Service - 16%
3. Health  Care - 16%
4. Office/Business - 10%
5. Restaurant/Food Service - 8%

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 59% of US workers are paid by the hour.  The take-away for employers might be.....a paradigm shift that hourly employees should be viewed as potential long-term employees.  When asked what was the best thing about their job, this group valued...

1. Co-workers
2. Pay/Benefits/Interacting with customers (in a 3-way tie)

Compared to other generations, this is a very different value system.

 

 

On November 4, Ohio will vote on an initiative which could make it the first state to require employers to provide paid sick leave.  The Healthy Families Act would require employers with 25 or more employees to guarantee full-time workers at least seven days of paid sick leave each year.  This time could be used for their own illness or to care for a sick member.  Part-time employees would receive a prorated portion. 

What's unique about this is it is the first effort nationwide to take this initiative directly to the voters after state legislatures failed to pass it.  Employers strongly oppose the legislation saying it would drive jobs away and depress wages and benefits.  In addition, they argue that it was be administratively difficult to deal with - it calculates in 15 minute increments, doesn't define what constitutes a legitimate sick day for mental health, doesn't require a doctor's note and makes no provision for employers who already offer sick leave.  Advocates say paid sick leave would reduce costs by allowing workers to stay home to recover instead of spreading it to coworkers. 

I was astonished to learn that the Bureau of Labor Statistics says 43% of employees in the the private sector do not have paid sick leave.  Wow!  At least 11 other states are considering similar bills at this time.  This will be interesting legislation to watch. 

We all struggle sometimes. Knock on wood, god willing, cross your fingers, etc Achievant hasn't experienced a system outage in over a year.  News this morning that Google is experiencing at outage to some of its services reminds me that anyone can fall down.  Sometimes IT just happens.

You know how sometimes you just know that something has to be true?  You don't have a solid reason for why...just a gut feel.  Believe it or not, those things happen in HR all the time.  We sometimes find ourselves thinking "I'm sure there is a law about that", and most certainly we in HR have a form for it! 

Well, that happened to me the other day.  I was helping a client who mentioned that they don't track their nonexempt employees start and stop times throughout the day, only total hours worked that day.  Now my gut told me that wasn't right.  After all companies spend thousands of dollars on time and attendance software solutions that tracks punches, round minutes, etc.  Today time and attendance software ranges from high tech using biometrics to swipe cards, to web based time sheets.  Seems like if you could get by without all the detail, wouldn't more companies do it? 

I had to know.  OK, so I'm one of those people that the moniker "inquiring minds want to know" aptly describes.  So here is my journey:

My first stop on my quest to learn more was to look it up on the Internet.  Isn't that our answer to everything these days?  The DOL had what looked like a promising section titled "Hours Worked - Reporting and Recording.  But it was a little vague for my liking.  It stated that the FLSA requires employers track "time and day of the week when employee's workweek begins.  Hours worked each day and total hours worked each workweek".  I wanted to know more specifics. 

So, my second step was to email the US Department of Labor - Wage & Hour division for clarification.  I received a response within 48 hours, but again it was a response, not an answer.  They advised me that the office best suited to answer my question regarding time keeping requirements is the Indianapolis IN District Office and they can be reached at 317-226-6801. 

I admit it, I was initially dismayed to find out that an answering machine answers their phone.  Although I was invited to leave a message, I had no expectation of ever hearing from them again.  Well, I almost fell off my chair when a DOL rep returned my call within the hour.  She was friendly and personable and had an actual answer, not just a response.  
  
It turns out you are not required to track starting and stopping times!  Who knew?  Obviously there are times when the starting and stopping times are important, (i.e., tardiness issues, documentation of hours worked by minors, etc.) but other times it may not be needed.  In fact, it may be just the thing to show the company's support of flexible work schedules. 

It just goes to show, we never stop learning. 

 Now that football season is upon us
 (Go Colts!) whether you are a fan or not you have been besieged with general information and advertisements and all the updates on the season ending injury to Tom Brady of the New England Patriots.  That incident plus a whole lot of updates on the start of the season made me realize that many HR Directors could step into the role of General Manager (GM) of a NFL team.  Now I know many will quickly respond that a head of HR does not make you qualified for the position (which we are also hearing a lot in the world of politics, don't worry I am not going there).

 

Think about some of the aspects of a GM and see if you don't agree with some of the similarities.  Brady goes down and the rest of the league and fans are about to see if they have a strong succession management plan in place as they insert Matt Cassel into the starting role.  We also saw the job posting go up and the Application Tracking system yielded Matt Simms and Tim Rattay.  Granted their resume management was more of a phone call but clearly someone (probably the job of the GM) had to have their hand on the pulse of what other quarterbacks were available.

 

Let's look at my team the Indianapolis Colts.  Thank goodness for the players it is just the beginning of the season.  Their Performance Reviews as a team and as individuals are pretty low if not abysmal, while the Chicago Bears will receive some very positive feedback.  Off the field examples exist as well, as players are released or suspended due to non-compliance or team policies.  The Colts just let two players go this week; (1) for compliance reasons, (1) for employee performance reasons.  Starting to sound similar to what HR professionals do everyday?

 

Let's end on probably the most obvious of all in my mind, compensation!  No, sadly, I am not saying that HR Leaders are compensated the same as General Managers.  I am referring to managing compensation and contracts for players.  We hear about the huge offers before the season even begins.  Imagine all the details and info that a GM has to look at and into before putting together a compensation package/offer.  They have to look at past Performance Reviews, check into 360 Feedback, what kind of Training & Development they have received (what college did they play for).  I think examples go on and on…

 

Enjoy the games!  I hope your team wins, unless they are playing the Colts!

 

 

Joe Barrett

Achievant  

It's an HR person's worst fear.  If we haven't done it at some point in our career we've certainly had nightmares about it...distributing confidential information to the masses.  In the high tech world we work in, the chances of this happening increases exponentially.  We've all had experiences where we replied to an email commenting on someone without noticing they are cc'd, had multiple IM's up and replied to one thinking you were replying to another one, left something on the copier, etc. 

I read an article the other day about this very thing.  Carat, a media agency, was planning a major restructuring of its US operations, which of course included layoffs.  The Chief People Officer (CPO) intended to send an email to senior managers outlining this course of action and accidentally sent it to the entire company.  YIKES!!  The communication reported the agency's planned "messaging" for the staff and even included a PowerPoint presentation. 

What next, the CPO did what we'd all do...call IT to try to get it back.  But, that's like trying to put the genie back into the bottle.  By then, it had been opened, read, and forwarded on.  As an ad agency, their tie to the various media outlets is tight and it was probably only minutes before the story was leaked. 

It is yet to be seen what the repercussions will be for the CPO...warning, demotion, termination?  Is was an accident, but as the senior manager they should be accountable.  What do you think?

I read an interesting article the other day about an "outside the box" financial education joint venture.  Finance Center Federal Credit Union (FCFCU) and Warren Central High School/Walker Career Center, opened a student run credit union inside the career center.  The goal is to teach students about money management.  This is the second one of these for FCFCU.  They opened one in 2007 at the J. Everett Light Center in the MSD of Washington Township.   

This summer students began working at the Walker site.  The benefits are two-fold: 

1. the students obtain real work experience
2. the students expand their financial literacy

Students in grades 11 and 12 who are enrolled in the Finance Academy will be required to work in the center.  Both students and teachers will be able to bank at the center. 

I was fortunate to attend several excellent presentations at the Indiana SHRM Conference.  One of my favorites was "Learning from the Mistakes of Others - Aligning Your Strategy with New Metrics" by Karl Ahlrichs.  Karl presented a new spin on how we typically think of metrics.  He reminded us that although metrics are typically rear windshield (i.e., trailing), they can also be front windshield (i.e., leading).  For example, turnover is a rear windshield metric....they've already left.  Engagement is a front windshield metric...they're still here. 

Forward looking metrics are situational to your business.  The goal of human capital metrics is to provide meaningful correlations that help predict behavior and human capital investment demands well ahead of the annual budget.  Consider looking at metrics differently.  Perhaps instead of measuring turnover rate, consider turnover quality, training payback versus training cost, etc.  Turnover quality - bifurcate the ones you wish you'd kept and examine why are they leaving. 

The metrics you use should look objectively at the data and you should not color the analysis with preconceived notions.  You must build a feedback loop to adjust, then re-test, adjust, and so on. 

Karl was an excellent speaker.  If you have an opportunity to attend one of his sessions I encourage you to do so. 

Over the last couple of days, I have been out of the office attending the Indiana SHRM conference.  I hope that you had a chance to attend too. 

On Tuesday, I spent most of my day "manning" the Achievant display at the Expo.  What a great opportunity to meet potential clients and share with them our system capabilities in the areas of performance management, time and attendance solutions, learning management, as well as a core HRIS system.  In addition, many of our current clients stopped by just to say "hi"!

Over 1,000 HR professionals attended this year.  Achievant and HR Dimensions provided the grand prize drawing, a laptop computer.  I was able to attend a number of sessions and will be blogging about them over the next few days.     

The international space station has a virus.  I don't mean like The Russian Flu, I mean like a computer virus.  NASA has reported that the space station command and control computers are infected with a virus designed to swipe online gaming passwords.

Ummm... yikes.

What does HRIS Software have to do with the international space station?  The same vulnerabilities NASA needed to guard against are some of the same dangers your HRIS System vendor needs to guard against.

NASA says it doesn't know how the virus got there, but I have a guess.  Someone playing an online game while on the clock at NASA had their computer infected and then, by whatever route, that infection made it to the space station undetected.

HRIS Sysetms stored a great deal of sensative data in any number of their modules: applicant tracking, performance management and many of the other modules, if compromised, could reveal personal data.

Almost eveyone inspects the data center where HRIS Software is housed, but very few companies inspect the policies and procedures from the offices where an HRIS Software vendor's employees will access and maintain that software.

This seems like a likely scernaio of what happened with the sapce station.  A threat vector was not sufficiently closed and a (fortunately harmless) virus made it to a place no virus has gone before.

Tomorrow Achievant will be exhibiting in the HR Marketplace of the 2008 Indiana SHRM Conference (http://www.indianashrm.org/INSHRMconference.htm) and announcing a very exciting partnership with HR Dimensions (www.hrdimensions.com).  Together we are giving away the grand prize - a Dell laptop.  

What a wonderful opportunity to speak with over 1000 HR executives about the issues they face on a daily basis.  On the flip side - what a great opportunity for them to listen to a number of excellent speakers, network with their peers and peruse the latest in HRIS software. Which brings up an interesting question - do you always give your best effort when away at conferences like this or do you take a mental break? 

With how fast everyone is moving it's easy to attend events with no real plans to network or stroll the exhibit hall.  Don't be tempted.  Take full advantage of your peers - introduce yourself to 10 new contacts.  Take full advantage of the exhibit hall - find out what's new in marketplace even if you're not in the buying mode. 

Finally, regardless of whether or not you have a need for help with performance management, applicant tracking, time and attendance or HRIS please stop by and say hello.  Don't worry, we won't bite.

Yesterday, one of our smartest employees did one of the dumbest things ever.  She opened an e-greeting card from someone she didn't know.  Within seconds she knew she had a problem.  It could have been the anti-virus warning that popped up or the freaky image that suddenly became her desktop background.  Either way, the first thing she did was raise the alarm.

You may be asking yourself what a virus outbreak and HRIS Software have in common.  To me, the commonality is in the quality of the response.  Anyone can sell you a talent management system.  In fact, any two pieces of HRIS Software are likely to be very similar.

What's not going to be similar are the people behind the product.  When the virus hit that one user the first thing we did was isolate her from the network (well, isolate her computer, we didn't really do anything to her). 

Then, to make sure there would be no further spread of the virus we took all of our computers off the network.  We did this by simply unplugging the switch that handles all computer traffic.  We left the switch that handles all VOIP up and running.  In short, we had a good plan and were well prepared.  Within minutes we new the extent of the problem, had it isolated and were on our way to better times.

The same can be said of how we provide service.  Maybe you use our employee time and attendance module or our performance assessment module.From the day you kick off your implementation and everyday thereafter the achievant team is ready to answer questions, address issue and help you make the most of the tool you purchased.

Any two pieces of software Human Resources Software are going to be more or less the same.  But the people who support them, who make you successful are not.

Yes, the government is introducing yet another new form, the VETS-100A.  Large federal contractors will begin using the form September 30, 2009.  However, they should start collecting data for the new VETS-100A Report Form now or they won’t have the necessary 12 months of data to report.

Currently federal contractors with government contracts of $100,000 or more that were entered into or modified on or after December 1, 2003, are required to file the VETS-100 Report by September 30 of each year with the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), as are federal contractors with unmodified government contracts of $25,000 or more that were entered into prior to December 1, 2003.

But in 2009, federal contractors will have to file the VETS-100A Report for government contracts of $100,000 or more that were entered into or modified on or after December 1, 2003, as well as the VETS-100 Report for any unmodified government contracts of $25,000 or more that were entered into prior to December 1, 2003.

In a May 19, 2008 final rule on reporting requirements, the DOL Veterans Employment and Training Service announced that the new VETS-100A Report would not have to be filed until September 30, 2009, but added that contractors are to collect and maintain the data for the new report in 2008. The DOL noted that the VETS-100A Report calls for contractors to provide data on veterans’ employment for 12 months ending on a date in the report year between July 1 and August 31 that represents the end of a payroll period, as is the case for the VETS-100 Report.

The job categories on VETS-100 and VETS-100A differ slightly because VETS-100A incorporates changes that the Jobs for Veterans Act (JVA) of 2002 made to the Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), the law requiring certain federal contractors to engage in affirmative action for certain veterans.

You will want to determine the size of your federal contract in order to determine which form(s) to complete in 2009.

August 25 – 27th will be the 2008 Indiana State Human Resources Conference.  This year’s conference is being held at the Westin Hotel in Indianapolis.  Achievant is excited to be an exhibitor at the event as well as partnering with HR Dimensions to provide the prize for the Grand Prize Drawing.

I can’t wait to meet and mingle with over 1,000 HR professionals from all over the state as well as visit the booths of the other hundred exhibitors.  If you are attending I hope you will stop by our tradeshow booth in order to see a demo of our products for the first time, meet with a sales rep, ask questions, or just to say hello to me in one of the sessions.

If you’d like to attend the conference but haven’t registered yet or you’d like to learn more about the conference, here is a link - http://www.indianashrm.org/INSHRMconferencegrid.htm.  Personally I am looking forward to hearing several of the speakers including the session on Updating Your Compensation Programs by Debi Mueller, Vice President-Consulting at HR Dimensions. This session addresses best practices in compensation and explores the links to business strategies that will be needed to ensure alignment to productivity and pay for performance. I plan to pick up a couple more recertification credits to complete my SPHR renewal.

Simon Bailey will be the keynote speaker on Tuesday.  His topic will be Releasing Brilliance and will inspire us to take charge of and transform our lives from the inside out.  Clint Swindall will be doing the closing keynote on Engaged Leadership and will focus on leadership enhancement.

It should be a great conference with rich content and ample time to visit the trade show floor.

See you there!

Nope!  Not a picture of me.  Better balance than karate kid? 

Children went back to school this week and we returned to our Friday ritual of going out to breakfast on the way to school.  I think we have been doing this for about 5-6 years now.  While it is a bit chaotic getting us out the door at home in time to eat and still make it to school on time I really look forward to each Friday.

Usually, while waiting in line to order our bagels, muffins etc. I take a quick glance at my phone to see or remind me what the day has in store.  I was reminded and amazed this past Friday of  how many emails and communications I receive from HR Professionals well after hours.  I am not talking automated emails that we all receive.  I am talking about actual correspondence.  It is clear that the work/family balance is out of whack.  While we all go through this from time to time as projects and responsibilities hit critical mass I think many instances can be avoided.  An automated HRIS System could take away many of the tasks that consume an HR professional during the day ending the late night follow up communcations allowing me to focus on the bagel and muffin order and who wants chocolate milk versus orange juice.  www.simplifyyourlife