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volume II issue VI June 2014 |
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Are You In or Are You Out? The Pay-to-Quit Fad Imagine a manager calling his employee into the office and giving him an ultimatum, "If you quit right now, I'll give you $2,000." Sounds like a dream scenario, right? Well, Zappos made it a reality in 2008 in what the company calls "The Offer". And some companies have followed suit since, including Zappos' parent company Amazon, which announced it, too, would pay employees to quit in its recent letter to shareholders. What these pay-to-quit programs iterate is the idea that companies want to employ talent that believes in the company and its mission, not simply the money. As Jeff Bezos wrote in his letter to shareholders, "In the long-run, an employee staying somewhere they don't want to be isn't healthy for the employee or the company." Pay-to-Quit as a Short-term Solution While Zappos and Amazon hold the pay-to-quit policy yearlong, other companies are considering the model on an ad-hoc basis to deal with a change in leadership or purge excess employees. Read more. Using Social HR to Reduce Turnover There's one statistic that hangs heavy over the head of every HR manager: employee churn. In January, Fast Company reported that men will hold an average of 11.4 jobs in their lifetimes and women will hold 10.7. Meanwhile, the median number of years a U.S. worker has been in his or her current job is just 4.4–a sharp decline from the 1970s and a far cry from the "company man" era. While it may be more likely that a business will lose employees, that doesn't make their departures any less painful. With high turnover rates, it becomes more difficult to maintain corporate knowledge and a consistent workplace culture. This constant ebb and flow of new employees has significant effect on employee morale. And according to a study by the Center for American Progress, which reviewed 30 case studies in 11 research papers relating to turnover published between 1992 and 2007, businesses spend about one-fifth of an employee's annual salary just to replace that worker. That's money that could be well spent elsewhere. Even though it's increasingly unlikely that business owners will be able to retain employees for a lifetime, successful companies must make adjustments if they hope to keep turnover as low as possible. Social HR is the key. For many businesspeople, "social HR" computes to "social recruiting," particularly to using LinkedIn and other social networks to find new employees. But social HR is a philosophy. It's seeing your employees as human beings who are critical to the fabric of your business' culture. Social HR is public. It's about accountability not only to a supervisor, but to a team. It's working to have employees that are more loyal, considerate, honest, invested, teamwork-oriented, enthusiastic, and committed. Read on. What is an Employee Engagement Survey and why would I need one? An employee engagement survey measures things such as how passionate employees are about their work; how proud they are to tell people where they work; if they believe in the mission of the organization; and if they feel their work is valued and their talents are utilized. It has been shown that engaged employees (those that are absorbed by and enthusiastic about their work) are more productive and creative on the job. Unfortunately, only about 30% of employees are actually engaged while another 50% are disengaged, meaning they are basically just along for the ride. But an even more startling statistic shares that approximately 20% of employees are "actively disengaged". These employees often dislike their job and/or employer and may even undermine performance. While disengaged employees just get through their day, adding little to the organization and flying under the radar, actively disengaged employees 'act out' their disengagement and lack of job satisfaction with destructive results often decreasing productivity for themselves and others around them. Actively disengaged employees become a cancer in the organization (aka the bad apple ruining the bunch). A Gallup study estimates that actively disengaged employees cost the U.S. economy half a trillion dollars a year. Read on. How to Keep Your Unpaid Internship Program Legal The summer internship season is starting up, so it is a perfect time to evaluate your organization's unpaid internship program. Unpaid interns can gain valuable, real world experience (tremendously helpful in this sluggish and increasingly competitive job market), and employers are often perceived to receive something valuable in return: free labor. Recently, a surge of class action lawsuits have been brought by former unpaid interns alleging they were actually "employees," and thus entitled to minimum wage and overtime pay, against companies such as the Hearst Corporation (owner of fashion magazine Harper's Bazaar), Fox Searchlight, NBC Universal, and Condé Nast. Although unpaid internships in the public or private non-profit sectors are generally permissible, as are situations where individuals volunteer their time for religious, charitable, civic, or humanitarian causes, internships in the for-profit private sector are another matter. An intern in the for-profit private sector is entitled to minimum wage and overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), just like any regular employee, unless his internship meets cetain requirements qualifying it as "training" rather than "employment." Employers can avoid wage and hour violations for using unpaid interns by meeting six requirements. Keep in mind that while some courts have treated these as factors to consider, the Department of Labor takes the position that an employer must meet all of these requirements to keep its unpaid internships legal. Read on for a more detailed review. Severance Agreements Under Attack by the EEOC Two recent lawsuits filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) underscore the federal agency's intent to continue, and even expand, its attack on severance agreements. Generally, a severance agreement offers a departing employee money or other benefits in exchange for a release of any and all claims. Employers may offer a severance agreement in a variety of circumstances, including where there are no anticipated claims against the company. Moreover, public policy favors the voluntary settlement of employment disputes. That said, the EEOC has long taken the position that, while employees may waive the right to file a private lawsuit against an employer, they cannot be precluded from filing charges with the EEOC or participating, in any manner, in an EEOC investigation, hearing, or proceeding under EEOC-enforced statutes Read more on two specific cases currently being reviewed by the EEOC. |
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> FEATURE ARTICLE Are You In or Are You Out? The Pay-to-Quit Fad > TIP OF THE MONTH Using Social HR to Reduce Turnover > Q & A What is an Employee Engagement Survey? > LEGAL UPDATES How to Keep Your Unpaid Internship Program Legal Severance Agreements Under Attack by the EEOC Area Temps, Inc. 1228 Euclid Avenue Cleveland, OH 44115 Toll Free: 1.866.995.JOBS www.areatemps.com |
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