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October Hot Topics:
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Risky Business: Failure to Train Employees
- AmCheck Payroll Tip of the Month: Paydays Law Description by Fred Patterson
- Enterprise Risk Management: Pinpointing Key Contributors to Risk by Eric Sheetz
- What Can Your Small, Mid-Sized or Start-Up Business Have That the Fortune 500
Companies Have? by Diane Fries
Risky Business: Failure to Train Employees
Employers make decisions every day that will affect their employees, and their business, in a direct manner. One of the most important of these decisions is making sure proper training is implemented and strict adherence to California or Federal employment regulations is followed. Training is also a major component towards the goal of efficient, high-level performance of employees.
Once an employee is hired, perhaps the most critical factor of their employment is to provide them with comprehensive training on various topics, such as, but not limited to: discrimination, harassment, job-related training, employment laws, violence prevention and safety training. This training can only benefit the employer as employees will be better equipped to handle various tasks efficiently and be better prepared in the event of an accident or injury. In the event of inadequate training, a terminated employee has more ammunition to use against you should that employee file a wrongful termination claim.
Note that it is important to retain evidence that an employee participated in the training. For example, in a lawsuit dating back to 2003, an employer, embroiled in a harassment claim, could not defend itself against the claim because it could not be established that the plaintiff’s manager had actively participated in harassment training. This happened even though there appeared to be some pretty convincing evidence that the manager had in fact participated. This evidence included an internal requirement that managers receive harassment prevention training as well as the Human Resources Director conducting meetings with managers annually to speak about this subject.
Don’t forget leadership skills! Management and leadership training may be considered just as important as compliance training. A foundation for companies should be management training to promote high-level performance, not just “avoidance” or “what-if” training. Some of the aspects of this instruction could include performance feedback and the fairness of an evaluation. It may also entail employee discipline procedures and making sure a discipline system is in place and that any such discipline is properly documented and on file. With additional education in conflict resolution and coaching job skills, claims against employers can be greatly reduced.
Employment terminations are always touchy. Companies are encouraged to complete a thorough examination of all policies and procedures, and provide all managers with training on these policies as well as communication and documentation training.
An increasingly popular way of offering employee training is via “elearning”. Web-based compliance training is the choice of many employers. It is reliable, and with the ability to track training online, it serves as accurate documentation of who participated and completed the training and in what area the individual was trained. It is no longer sufficient or acceptable to merely post an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) or Harassment policy and/or pass out an employee handbook; training should also be provided. Other advantages of online compliance training include the convenience of being able to complete it from home, a hotel or at the office, as well as the low cost of many of the courses.
Complying with California or Federal employment regulations and administering proper training can seem overwhelming and somewhat daunting to an employer. Working with employment experts is the best way to assuage these feelings and to insure accurate and timely training policies and programs are in place. This is as important as ever with more discrimination and harassment cases being filed. In fact, charges filed with the EEOC have increased 7% from last year.
In conclusion, employers should add consistent training to their business plan and budget accordingly for these programs. An investment now will reap great rewards in the future with improved employee performance, less exposure to legal claims and fines.
Human Resources Professional Group offers a robust listing of both classroom and online training programs. Classes include required unlawful harassment for managers, employee communications and proper documentation to leadership development and effective discipline. We also offer a full range of safety and health and compliance courses. Classroom programs are delivered at your work location by an experienced subject matter trainer. Contact us to see if may assist you with your training needs. rdavies@hrpg.com or 619-421-0074.
AmCheck Payroll Tip of the Month: Paydays - Law Description
By Fred Patterson, District Sales Manager, AmCheck
As businesses of all sizes look to reduce costs, I get quite a few questions on how frequently employers must pay their employees. For the latest regulations for the state of California, please see below:
A private employer must pay wages at least twice a month. Paydays must be on days designated in advance by the employer as the regular paydays. Employers with a semi-monthly pay schedule must pay for in which labor is performed between the 1st and 15th, shall be paid between the 16th and the 26th day of the month during which the labor was performed; and labor performed between the 16th and the last day of the month, shall be paid between the 1st and 10th day of the following month.
Employers with a bi-weekly pay schedule shall pay employees within ten (10) days of the end of the payroll period. Employers with a weekly pay schedule shall pay employees within seven (7) days of the end of the payroll period.
Monthly paydays are permitted for FLSA-covered, salaried executive, administrative, professional, computer related, and highly compensated employees, with the entire month’s wages due on or before the 26th day of the month.
Some industries, such as agricultural, ranching and domestic workers, must be paid on a different time frame.
For more information or questions regarding your payroll processes, please contact Fred Patterson III, District Sales Manager for AmCheck, a payroll solutions firm with offices throughout the United States. Fred may be reach at fred.patterson@amcheck.com. (619) 595-7900.
Enterprise Risk Management: Pinpointing Key Contributors to Risk
By Eric Sheetz, Commercial Insurance Broker, The Michael Ehrenfeld Co.
Over the past few years, enterprise risk management (ERM) has captured the attention of many corporate executives. ERM goes beyond traditional risk management, with its focus on insurable risk, to contemplate all of the risks to which an organization is exposed.
Given the challenge of identifying and managing every risk exposure, many risk managers and chief risk officers who use ERM have begun to zero in on the top 10 or 12 major risks that their organization is facing, and then develop strategies to address those risks. An important difference between traditional risk management and ERM is that, once an entity has identified its key exposures, it then must determine if each potential event represents a risk or a reward.
Identifying and classifying risks is the first step in an ERM program. It creates a solid foundation for the steps that follow, in which risks are prioritized and plans are developed to manage them. There should be no confusion about the fact that simply identifying the risk does not constitute an ERM program. It is merely the first and remains one of the most important steps in the risk management process. An organization still needs to complete the other aspects of the ERM process. However, it all begins with a sound foundation that is based on a thorough risk identification procedure.
As this trend continues, it is essential for executives, key managers, and boards of directors to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements and for the corporation to achieve the goals of a robust ERM initiative.
For more information or questions regarding your companies risk exposure, please contact Eric Sheetz, Property and Casualty Insurance Broker for The Michael Ehrenfeld Co. at ESheetz@ehrenfeldinsurance.com (760) 809-8510.
What Can Your Small, Mid-Sized or Start-Up Business Have That the Fortune 500 Companies Have?
By Diane Fries, Partner, e-Booking Online
It happens almost every day. A large company, often listed in the Fortune 500, makes a strategic acquisition of a small entrepreneurial company to increase their product portfolio and to increase revenue. Usually when this occurs the small company core business remains very much the same as before the acquisition. After all, the large company typically prefers to maintain the core technology and entrepreneurial spirit existing in the acquired business. But for support functions that is not the case. The administrative infrastructure of the smaller company disappears being ostensibly outsourced to the parent company.
Why? The larger company already has an effective HR, Legal and Accounting infrastructure can absorb the administrative functions of the smaller company. When it comes to accounting, this makes particular sense. An accounting department is expensive to form and sustain. It requires a skill set that is not often possessed by the entrepreneur founder/manager. Typically and effective and cost efficient accounting department contains at least four levels of staff and expertise: clerks/bookkeepers, accountants, controller, and CFO. Each has a defined role based on skill and compensation level.
Trained clerk/bookkeepers and deployed for recording daily transactions efficiently, timely and accurately. These staff are counted on to crunch through the data entry so that meaningful financial reporting can be prepared. These staff are unusually lower paid since they are not skilled in making reliable and accurate accounting decisions.
Degreed accountants supported the Clerk/bookkeeping staff tackling issues related to more challenging transactions and to provide best-practices guidance: Coding transactions for proper budget tracking and applying the matching principal. The accountant function is key to support proper internal controls by reviewing the work of the clerk staff and by preparing monthly balance sheet reconciliations. The accountant also performs analytical review preparation procedures prior to financial statement preparation.
The CPA level controller is more senior and seasoned than the accountant and enlisted by all excellent accounting departments. This key contributor provides guidance to all accounting contributors addressing the more complex accounting issues. Also the controller ensures internal control by reviewing financial statements and performing analytical review procedures.
At the top of the accounting department is the familiar CFO who guides the organization in its long term strategic goals. The CFO leads the organization in planning, guidance through the budgeting and planning process, and ultimately driving the financial plan. The CFO also represents the organization in forming strategic relationships with banks, insurance providers and the technology partners. The buck stops at this level.
Logically it can be an unnecessary overhead burden to continue to staff each of these roles in a small organization. Therefore, as a common practice, when large company purchases a smaller company one of the first measures taken to cut costs and increase the profitability of the purchased company is to eliminate the on-site accounting department and have the roles absorbed by the parent companies established accounting department. In effect, the accounting function has been outsourced with all the necessary functions provided by the parent company on an as-needed basis.
Your small, mid-sized or start-up company can and should realize the same benefits of the large company TODAY by outsourcing your accounting function to an organization that can provide each of these roles on demand. Rather than have a fully staffed department you pay for the service when it is required and keep your overhead and administrative costs at a level that maximizes profitability.
Diane Fries is a Founder and Partner at e-Booking Online. Contact Diane at dfries@eb4qb.com.
e-Bookkeeping provides the benefits of a large company outsourced accounting solution customized to fit your company’s specific need and your company pays only for the services it needs. |
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