The American Health Care Act (AHCA) passed the U.S. House of Representatives on May 4, 2017 by a very narrow margin (217 to 213). This bill is the House’s version to repeal and replace the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA, ACA, Obamacare…take your pick). There is a great deal of punditry, commentary, and emotion involved on both sides of the aisle as it relates to the AHCA and repealing the Affordable Care Act, but getting down to brass tacks, what is really in the repeal bill?

Lightspeed Evolution of LGBT Employment Law

If you think the world of staffing is constantly changing, you should try keeping up with the trends in LGBT employment law. From the recent Seventh Circuit Court’s decision in Hively v. Ivy Tech Community College to the EEOC’s strategic enforcement plan, the law is changing rapidly as it pertains to discrimination and the LGBT community. This is to say nothing of the rapidly changing public sentiment concerning LGBT issues and the negative publicity that ensues should you be caught on the wrong end. As of 2011, there were an estimated 700,000 transgender Americans and that number is much likely higher. Of these transgender Americans, 90% have experienced harassment, discrimination or mistreatment in the workplace. It is also important to note that where LGBT anti-discrimination laws exist, the rate of harassment/discrimination claims is roughly the same to other sex and race discrimination claims. In this post, I will try to outline some basics in this rapidly developing area of employment law and human resources.

Choosing software for your staffing agency isn’t a decision to be taken lightly. This choice will go a long way in determining the effectiveness and efficiency of your organization.  It’s essential that you go into the process with a comprehensive understanding of your current situation and how the right staffing software could improve it.

What to do when a client or contingent worker friend requests you on Facebook?

With the ubiquitousness of social media, particularly Facebook, any staffing agency is left with the issue of what kind of policy they should set for their internal employees, recruiters, and sales staff. To “friend” or not to “friend” is far from a simple decision and one that no matter what you decide needs to be effectively communicated to your staff. There are serious legal ramifications that could arise from accepting friend requests on Facebook related to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) or Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) given how freely most people post on their Facebook profiles. While there is nothing inherently illegal about “friending” clients or contingent workers, if you choose to do so, treading lightly is key.

One of the many advantages of doing what I do is that I get to work directly with many of our clients on their operations and get to know how their business works from the inside out. One of the questions that often comes up is how to increase the efficiency of the back office operations without having to add staff. Since back office operations are often classified as a cost center or overhead, maximizing its efficiencies can help increase your bottom line not to mention the sanity of your back office staff! There are several ways that any staffing agency can use to improve these operations such as:

Something that is about as time-worn as the employment application in many staffing circles, the background check, is being further complicated by new federal, state and local laws as well as privacy concerns. Is it time for your staffing agency to make the background check go the way of the dodo bird? As with most human resources questions like this, the answer seems to be “it depends”—at a minimum you may want to reconsider your usage and scope of background checks if not eliminate them altogether for reasons we will discuss.

A bill introduced to the California State Assembly by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher (D – San Diego) called the Opportunity to Work Act could have wide ranging effects on staffing agencies doing business in California. The bigger concern is that oftentimes as California goes, so does the rest of the country. The Opportunity to Work Act would require California employers with 10 or more employees to offer additional work hours to existing staff before hiring new employees OR contracting for contingent workers.   This bill would apply to employers with workers anywhere in the state, not just at a single location. Specifically, it would require:

The primary keys to success for any Staffing Agency is to have the ability to convince other businesses that you can provide them with the best possible talent to fill their needs and the recruiting skills to find the people that can do just that. It’s that simple! But if you are successful in those two endeavors, there is another matter that will need your attention – how to manage the resulting payroll, billing, funding, A/R, workers compensation, and a myriad of other not so engaging tasks.

We have all seen job postings for staffing agencies that specifically state “local applicants only” and think nothing of them. You don’t want the hassles of remote interviewing, relocation costs, or want to fill the position as quickly as possible that should be legal and allowed….right? Well, as with many things in HR, the best answer is “it depends” as in it depends on a lot of circumstances and the locals only practice may or may not be legal.

It has become inescapable to consume any sort of media and not hear, read, or watch coverage of President Trump’s Executive Order signings and/or protests of them. Without delving into the political side of the discussion, just what are Executive Orders (political wonks often refer to them as EOs) and how can they affect you and your staffing agency? In short, Executive Orders are legally binding orders signed by the President to Federal Administrative Agencies (IRS, EPA, Department of Labor, etc.) These orders are usually issued to direct these agencies in their execution of established laws or policies. Executive Orders do not require Congressional approval and have the same legal weight as laws passed by Congress.