Employment branding is the process of positioning an organization as an employer’s choice in the labor market. Employment branding is essential to analyze because employers can understand what motivates individuals to work for and continue working for particular organizations. Some employers such as Google, Apple, Sony, etc. have created images that are universal icons which remain competitive in the labor market. Employers can analyze their own employment branding simply by seeing into their strategies employed.

Employment strategies cover several components which often influence retention. Some strategies encompass:

• Creating positive, compelling images of the organization that convey social responsibility and industry impacts.
• Providing clear and consistent messages about what it is like to work at the organization through viral phrases such as “commitment to innovation”,” teamwork”, etc.
• Encouraging the best potential candidates to apply for jobs with advertisements using media.
• Decreasing the time-to-fill and cost-per-hire ratios.
• Lowering turnover by offering competitive packages and enjoyable work environment.
• Linking the employment brand with the company’s product brands by reinforcing the public’s image of the organization.
• Giving employees a sense of pride in their company by knowing they are working for an employer that has a competitive edge and/or positive contribution to society.

To help build and/or improve on a brand, it is vital to consider the channel of how employment branding is marketed upon others. Some popular channels are the company’s website, media ads (on television, radio, print), collateral materials such as brochures, having appearances at job fairs, campuses, or at other types of sponsored or non-sponsored events.

In today’s job market, employment branding is becoming important as the demand for skilled and talented workers increases. With the latest reliance on technology, the job searching and recruiting process has also impacted who is and who is not applying with particular organizations. The need for employment branding cannot be overlooked since it implies that hiring and retention rates may be stabilized. The goal is to make sure employees are satisfied, ensuring business goals are met, while being competitive and unique to one’s own core values.

Large corporations have long utilized e-recruiting strategies and tools to seek and secure top talent. As technology has evolved towards more cost-effective rates, more and more small to mid-sized employers have turned to e-recruiting as an affordable strategy to find, attract, and select job applicants for their companies’ hiring needs. Nowadays, one of the more popular e-recruiting tools is social media.

Social media is an online version of media that enables real-time, dynamic dialogue among readers and viewers to participate in content development, as opposed to traditional media which delivers static content. Social media networks have started out popularly for personal interests. In recent years, numerous business applications and approaches have emerged to market and promote products and services, as well as companies themselves for employer branding and recruitment purposes. Through social media, employers can gain a wealth of information about specific job candidates.

However, before fully engaging in “social recruiting,” be clear about your company’s strategy. If the strategy is non-existent or weak, little accountability for results exists. Best strategic practices include:

• Finding passive candidates. Social media can help you identify and develop relationships with top performers who are not active job-seekers yet.
• Focusing on talent groups. Participate in groups which share information and engage in dialogue based on common industry interests and certain skilled professions or talents.
• Facilitating education connections. Students – whether in a college or a vocational program – are highly tied to and accessible through technology such as social media.

Fully familiarize yourself with social media to help keep prospective candidates engaged throughout the recruiting process. When you finally have the real need to hire, you will already have your top candidates right at hand.

Published last October in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, a Duke University study estimated the cost of obesity among U.S. full-time employees to be $73.1 billion. According to the study, the cost of obesity accounted for (1) employee medical expenses, (2) job productivity loss (due to health problems), and (3) work absenteeism. Facing such mounting and costly challenges, an employer can hastily make adverse employment decisions against overweight or obese employees and thus jeopardize the business with risks of unfair discrimination claims. So, what responsibility must you as the employer exercise in order to provide a workplace free of weight-based discrimination and harassment?

Covering employers with 15 or more employees, the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) prevents discrimination based on a disability and requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations to a qualified employee with a disability. In general, obesity is not covered under the ADA, but morbid obesity is. Although no clear rule exists on whether obesity is a disability even under the recently amended (and more employee-friendly) ADA, employees have successfully made “regarded as” ADA claims. For example, if an employer refuses to consider a job applicant due to a perceived obesity of the individual, then the failure to hire may be deemed as an act of unlawful discrimination. Obesity-related conditions (i.e. diabetes and heart disease) may also be protected by the ADA. Moreover, be aware of state-specific laws which may provide additional or more stringent.

Whenever faced with hiring or managing overweight employees, some employer guidelines include:

• Establishing employee handbook policies emphasizing equal employment opportunities regardless of personal appearances.
• Reviewing job descriptions for any questionable weight requirements not related to the essential job functions.
• Avoiding assumptions about which job tasks an overweight employee cannot perform.
• Working with employees on mutually agreed-upon reasonable accommodations in order for the individual to perform the essential functions of the job.
• Educating managers on, at minimum, the basics of the ADA and related federal and state discrimination laws.
• Training periodically all employees and managers on how to address inappropriate or unprofessional behavior which may lead to weight -based discrimination.

In addition, to help counter the rising costs associated with obesity in the workplace, take a closer look at how you promote a healthy work environment. Your company could stock vending machines with healthy snacks instead of soda and candies, implement a voluntary weight reduction program, or partner with a local fitness center to offer special employee discounts. Maintain a healthier workplace culture over time, and your company could find the costs of employee obesity a diminishing issue that positively affects the bottom line.

If you’re a business owner, CEO or CFO, you probably think that you have the right to deduct from any employee’s paycheck who happens to owe the company money, for whatever reason.  But in light of recent events, you may need to inject some caution into such a decision ...because that God-given “right” (as they view it) may be far more constrained than you think.

Let’s take a specific case.  Say your business uses company-owned trucks for product and service delivery.  John Jones, one of your best employees, smacks up one of those trucks one day, and your investigation reveals that he was primarily at fault.  Now, because he has been on balance a good worker, you don’t want to let him go;  and you know it would be futile to demand restitution of the damage amount in a lump sum.  So in a mutual review of the situation, you steer John to agreeing to a small voluntary payroll deduction until the damage amount is repaid.

A win-win, right?  John stays employed and the company gets its money back.  You’re so pleased with the outcome that you send John off for a 3-day driver safety course, on the company nickel.  A textbook example of enlightened management, you think... should be written up as a Harvard B-School case.  It doesn’t cross your mind that there could be any sort of legal issue with such a terrific, mutually-satisfying outcome.  Except for one little detail...

It all depends where your business is.
If your business is in a state with workplace laws no more restrictive than the Federal code, you’d be in the clear.  The US Fair Labor Standards Act allows employers to make deductions for damages to employer property if such deductions do not bring the employee’s pay for time worked below the minimum wage in any given workweek.

But if you are a Massachusetts business, your nifty little arrangement just broke the law! ...in this case, Section 148 of the Massachusetts Wage Act.  A recent case before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court virtually mirrored our example ...except, that company had worked similar arrangements with 27 John Joneses, and had deducted $21,487.96 from their wages over a 2-year period.  The Court required the company to make full restitution to those employees, and in addition assessed a civil penalty of $9,140.  And then they took the opportunity to clarify the law, as follows:

“An arrangement where (the company) serves as the sole arbiter, making unilateral assessment of liability as well as amount of damages with no role for an independent decision maker, much less a court, and apparently, not even an opportunity for an employee to challenge the result within the company, does not amount to ‘a clear and established debt owed to the employer by the employee.’”

And of course, the fact that the employee agreed to the deduction has no weight, since the validity and amount of the supposed debt was never properly established. 

A couple of morals here... 

• You need to be up on all the laws (national and state) affecting treatment of employees, know where to find these laws, have a payroll service to help you with these matters ...and/or you need backup from a good workplace attorney. 
• Do not assume that because a planned action would fly with common reason or even Federal laws, it will be equally acceptable under your state’s code. 

For more on the Mass case referenced above, you might look at Constangy’s Client Bulletin #434.  For more on what companies should do to stay clean on this issue, see the post by David Casey and Vanessa Hackett in The Littler blog. 

According to 33% of respondents on a recent HR Support Center poll, the number one employer nightmare issue is “poor performers.” The concept of performance management is simply a method to enhance business success.

One key component of performance management is to bridge the company’s goals with the employee’s goals by creating development plans. For example, an employee may seek to obtain additional computer software training and/or certification to gain specialized skills to become more competent in the current job position or better qualified for a potential promotion. In terms of a company’s business plans and goals, the employer can provide employees with a great opportunity to understand where a business is, where it wants to be, and how they fit. For example, a business goal may be to increase sales by 15% using XYZ tactics.

When reviewing employee goals and business goals, sometimes, there is a disconnect. Managers may have long assumed that employees were working toward certain business goals when they were not. Employees may have built interests moving completely in different directions – a very frustrating but avoidable situation.

Five Tips for Employers:

1. Constantly question, understand, and communicate how to align the company’s business goals while assisting employees to achieve their individual goals. 
2. During the interview process, learn about each candidate’s goals early on. 
3. During employee performance evaluations, determine how well goals have been reached. 
4. In the course of planning and implementing new ideas or initiatives, take into account how the attitudes and motivation levels among your employees have changed, if at all. 
5. Establish realistic goals that are time sensitive, measurable and achievable, and determine what you can do to assist your employees during the process.

While course corrections are expected, performance management is most effectively applied when managers and employees are in constant alignment and mutual agreement with their individual, professional, and business potentials.

The Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act was signed into law on March 18, 2010.  This provides incentives to companies who hire and retain unemployed employees.  This act provides for:

• the elimination of the 6.20% employer portion of Social Security tax through the end of 2010.
• up to a $1000 Retained Worker Tax Credit (RWTC) for employees who stay employed for 52 consecutive weeks.

To be eligible for the credit, employees must sign an affidavit stating that they have not been employed for over 40 hours in the last 60 days prior to employment.

Other provisions include:

• Eliglible employees must have been hired after Feburary 3, 2010 and before December 31, 2010.
• FICA tax credits apply for wages paid between March 19, 2010 and December 31, 2010.
• Eligible employees cannot be family members of the business owner
• Eligible employees cannot be hired to replace another employee, unless that employee was terminated either voluntarily or for cause.

The RWTC will equal the lesser of 6.20% of eligile employees' pay over the  52 week lookback period or $1000.

You may learn more about this act on the IRS web site.  Click here for the HIRE Act Q&A for employers.

 

There are new regulations impacting the E-Verify system for federal contractors. Federal contractors are obligated to utilize the E-Verify system to figure out if employees are eligible to legally work in the United States.

On or before September 8, 2009 it was not mandatory for employers to use the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ E-Verify system. Employers were able to use it for new hires on a voluntary basis, if they had for at least 120 days contracts valued more than $100,000. Effective after September 8, 2009, however, new and current employees who work on a contract must be reported through the new E-Verify system. 

Considerations for Employers:

• Get More Familiar. Learn about the new E-Verify system whether or not you currently have federal contracts to ensure more proficiency and efficiency.
• Know the Contracts. Make sure your point person with the HR role and responsibilities is aware of any federal contracts to help stay in compliance.
• Plan It Out. The entire staff may need to go through the E-verify system which can pose various administrative (i.e. time and costs) and employee morale issues.
• Conduct Regular Checks. Regularly track to ensure you have up-to-date employee I-9 information and that they meet current compliance standards.

It is unlawful if employers choose to ignore the new rules and regulations and not apply them consistently and fairly in their line of business. So, know if you have federal contracts, and be consistent with Form I-9 and other employment verification documentation practices to avoid misrepresentation and discrimination.

The Obama administration has proposed an extension to the COBRA premium subsidy in its fiscal year 2011 budget.  If adopoted into law, the subsidy would be availale to employees laid off from March 1, 2010 and December 31, 2010.  The subsidy would be provided for 12 months.

This would be the third extension of the COBRA subsidy plan.  In February of 2009 the subsidy was for 9 months, In December of 2009 the subsidy was extended to 15 months. 

For more information on this topic, see Stephen Miller's aricle on the Society for Human Resource Managment (SHRM) web site here.

With recent pandemic flu outbreaks, some employers have grown confused as to which types of employee absences from work may be protected by the federal Family Medical Leave of Absence Act (FMLA).

First of all, FMLA protection is entitled to employees working for a covered employer and who have worked for their employer for at least 12 months, for at least 1,250 hours over the previous 12 months, and at a location where at least 50 employees are employed by the employer within 75 miles. Such employees are provided up to 12 weeks of job-protected, unpaid leave during a 12-month leave year for specified family and medical reasons, which may include the flu where complications may occur.

Employers should consider the following examples to avoid discriminatory practices:

• Employees who are infected.
• Employees who are not infected.
• Employees with certain family members who are infected.
• Enforced company policies.

If the company has an Employee Handbook policy requiring employees to go home sick when they show symptoms of an illness reaching pandemic levels such as the H1N1 flu, that time off may qualify as FMLA-protected leave, if a serious health complication develops. An employee with an infected family member (i.e. spouse or child) is not protected under the FMLA unless a flu-related complication results and thus creates a "serious health condition" as defined by the FMLA. An employee who wishes to stay home because he or she simply does not want to be exposed to the flu from others at the workplace is not protected under the FMLA. An employee who is infected may be protected under the FMLA under certain circumstances when health complications arise. Be sure to obtain a certified note from the employee's attending physician.

As an employer, it is crucial to establish flexible sick leave policies that are non-discriminatory. Whether an absence should be paid or unpaid depends much on your company's relevant policies and employment contracts. If employees must miss work, you may provide alternative options such as telecommuting. In addition, consider contacting an HR professional regarding any state-specific regulations that may require stricter guidelines for pandemic sick leave circumstances.

If you’re following the continuing saga of the financial meltdown, you might be under the impression that many employers are doling out seven-figure bonuses like Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, AIG and the rest.

In reality (as has become crystal-clear over the past year or so), Main Street isn’t Wall Street, and operates on much more traditional principles.  So as you would expect, the number of employers that are still paying out bonuses during this recession has dropped substantially ...as has the relative size of the average bonus.  But there are still companies doing well enough to use this vehicle to reward their top employees;  and if yours is among them, we wanted to provide you with a cautionary note on the subject.

Most companies want to maximize the psychological impact on their bonus-eligible employees;  and some do so by skipping withholding Federal income tax on the bonus,
thereby making the take-home portion appear as large as possible.  It’s probably no surprise that Uncle Sam doesn’t much care for that approach.  Further, you risk putting your top employees in a serious crack come April 15th, when at best they may owe a penalty and at worst may be unable to pay their tax due.  Few wage workers have the discipline required to make an estimated payment, or minimally to sequester the sizable amount out of that windfall bonus that isn’t really theirs.

The right way
What you should do is withhold Federal income tax from bonuses at the supplemental tax rate of 25.00% (in fact, 35% for those fortunate enough to be receiving a 7-digit bonus);  or else the withholding should be calculated as if the latest pay check and the bonus were on the same paycheck.

It doesn't provide employees with quite as big a holiday surprise, but it also doesn’t set them up for a potential shortfall in April.  And in fact, come April they’ll probably get yet another nice surprise ...because in all likelihood they’ll be over-withheld, and will thus get a nice “mini-bonus” in the form of their Federal tax refund.