Workforce Management for the Public Sector

Are Non-Cash Awards More Effective than Cash?

"Recognition that Resonates" is the title of an article from Workforce Management that seems to give creditability to the fact that Cash isn't always needed to motivate employees.  In fact, it seems that Non-Cash programs may be more effective.

If your organization is looking for a way to get your employees Engaged, this article illustrates how cash may be nice, but non-cash based recognition may be much more appreciated  and effective with your employees.   The article also eludes to non-cash programs as being a retention tool. According to a study by the Forum for People Performance Management and Measurement at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, which is sighted in the article, non-cash programs were viewed as being more effective in getting employees to achieve eight out of ten corporate goals according to a study of 235 corporate managers. 

Top 5 Mistakes Organizations Make Regarding FLSA

The Fair Labor Standards Act, FLSA, can be very confusing.  Steven Siegel, Partner in the Fort Lauderdale office of the law firm Fisher & Phillips LLP recently wrote an article for Workforce Management entitled "Top Five Employer Mistakes Under FLSA."  The article list the top five mistakes made by employers as:

1. Believing that salaried employees are automatically exempt from overtime
2. Misclassifying assistant managers
3. Automatic deductions for meal breaks
4. Not paying for overtime that has not be approved in advance
5. Allowing employees the right to "waive" their right to overtime

The article elaborates on each of the five mistakes. 

Simple Mistake Could have Led to Identity Theft!

Just the other day my wife and I were conversing over dinner about identity theft.  She expressed that she did not understand why organizations don't take greater care with their employee's information.  She went on to tell me that that she had received a misdirected fax that contained the names, and social security numbers for an entire family.  She showed me the fax, and sure enough, an HR employee was faxing to their insurance carrier, health insurance enrollment information for one of their employees.  The fax contained the names, social security numbers, and birthdays of each member of the family, along with list of health related questions.  The employee must have dialed the wrong fax number, as it ended up coming to my wife's fax machine.

My wife stated that she could not believe that with today's technology, that an organization would be so careless.  I told her it was a mistake, and not intential.  She asked me to remember how I felt when someone at a restaurant took my debit card information and charged over $500 worth of merchandise, all because the debit card information was printed on the receipt.  I had to admit,...

Automating the Human Resources/Personnel Department of a School District (Part I)

By James Fields

As I have been meeting with Superintendents and Assistant Superintendents I have noticed one very common trend.  School Districts do an outstanding job of data collection and data analysis on their students. However, many school districts have been slow to embraced technology in their Human Resources/Personnel Departments.  These departments have historically been seen as administrative offices. Administrators are seeing that Human Resources is a discipline that is the cornerstone for building a successful organization.  The challenge is that Human Resources also has numerous administrative tasks it has to perform.  Without automating these administrative tasks, the department will not be able to focus on the strategic aspect of HR.  The department also will not have the data needed to make strategic decisions.

Below is part one of a series that I will post outlining the steps, tasks, and considerations required to successfully automate a Human Resources/Personnel Department. 

How Payroll Debit Cards Can Help You and Your Employees

reprint from HR.com

By Gary Lott, ADP

Gary Lott, General Manager for ADP wrote this article which was published by HR.com.  In this article Gary outlines how Payroll Debit Cards are not just beneficial for employers, but also the employee.  He outlines some of ways that the cards are being used by employees.  Here is the article:

 

Failure to Track Teachers Could Cost State

That is the title of an article published today by News-Leader.com out of Springfield, MO.  Under the No Child Left Behind law, states are to have "highly qualified" teachers in every core classroom.  The article reports that the state of Missouri is one of four states that failed a review and are being requireed to submit data and a plan to the US Department of Education, or face losing $2.2 million in federal funding.   The other states are Utah, Hawaii, and Wisconsin. Link

Based on the article it seems that one of the clear challenges that the state faces is the inability to obtain the proper supporting documentation from the school districts.  This is a clear indication that districts are lacking Human Resource Management Systems (HRMS). The article goes on to

Cutting Your Labor Budget without Cutting Heads!

Many of your organizations may looking for ways to trim, cut, or in some cases chop your budgets, and may consider a headcount reduction as an answer.  Yes, eliminating a job or position is a way of reducing your budget, but it has some negative by-products.  There is a much less disruptive way to reduce your labor budget.  You can accomplish this through enhanced management of your workforce, more commonly referred to as "Labor Management".  What is "Labor Management"?

New guidelines to clarify HSA contributions

BenefitNews.com

The IRS recently eased the rules on comparable contributions to health saving accounts, giving employers more flexibility in offering health benefits. Under current federal law, an employer that has made a contribution to a worker's HSA must make a similar contribution to the HSAs of all comparable participating employees. Employers that failed to make such a contribution faced an excise tax equal to 35% of the aggregate amount contributed by the employees during that calendar year. The new regulations, which take effect on Jan. 1, 2007, exempt employers from the comparability rule with collectively bargained employees because they are "not comparable participating employees, if health benefits were the subject of good faith bargaining between such employee representative and such employer or employees." What's more, the rules provide further clarification on HSA contributions through a cafeteria plan. For example, "if employees are allowed to contribute to an HSA by salary reduction through a cafeteria plan, all employer contributions to the employee's HSA will be treated as being made through a cafeteria plan," thus excluding the employer from the comparability rules

ADP to Acquire Employease

ADP has announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Employease.  ADP's Major Accounts Division of Employer Services has been selling, implementing, and supporting the Employease product under the name ADP HR/Benefits since October 2004.  Download the actual press release below.

Download adp_to_acquire_employease_capping_successful_strategic_partnership__financi.pdf 

Can we go Paperless?

As many organizations are trying to find ways to reduce their budgets, many of them would like to go paperless.  They are realizing that printing checks for employees is an expense that can be eliminated or reduced by going paperless.  Organizations across the country are wanting to drive more and more employees to direct deposit, and then rollout online paystatements.  The States fall into one of four categories with regards to paystatements:

1. No Requirement States
2. Access States
3. Access and Print States
4. Opt-out States

Refer to PaperlessPay.org for a map of the States that fall into each of these categories, and the regulations surrounding each of these categories.  Please note that making direct deposit a mandatory benefit for an employee is a labor law requirement determined by each State.