Life and Times of a Staffing, H.R. Professional

IRS Releases HIRE Act Questions and Answers

2010-04-10T18:41:00.000-07:00

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has created a new webpage to assist employers with questions on the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act, recently enacted legislation that provides tax breaks to employers that hire and retain new employees in 2010.

The “HIRE Act: Questions and Answers for Employers” page provides frequently asked questions and answers broken down by two major categories: the payroll tax exemption for hiring qualified workers and the business credit for retention of certain newly hired individuals in 2010. Sub-categories on the payroll tax exemption include FAQs about the payroll tax exemption and qualified employers; qualified employees; and claiming the payroll exemption. A menu of the questions and answers is available on the IRS website.

2010-04-05T13:40:00.000-07:00

The Senate recessed without giving final approval to an extension to the COBRA subsidy program, so workers who are involuntarily terminated after March 31, 2010 will not be eligible for the subsidies for healthcare continuation coverage.

The Senate is scheduled to return April 12, when proponents of an extension are likely to push for Congress to act.

The COBRA subsidy program was created by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) . Under the law, as amended, workers who are or were involuntarily terminated between September 1, 2008 and March 31, 2010 are eligible for 65 percent COBRA subsidies. Workers can receive the subsidies for up to 15 months.

The Senate recessed without voting on House-approved legislation that would extend the program through April. While the Senate has yet to act on that legislation, th

Employee Motivation: Key Steps to Improve Employee Attitude

2010-03-16T11:38:00.000-07:00

Step 1—Identify What Motivates Employees

Ask your employees what motivates them. If you have trouble determining an employee's motivators, ask what would make him or her more excited about their job. If an employee seems hesitant or unsure, suggest several different motivators and get their reactions.

Most employees want:

* Good supervision from a leader who can guide and direct their activity.
* Clear goals and expectations that are mutually understood and agreed upon.
* Accurate and timely feedback that fairly reflects their performance and helps them improve.
* Interesting work, or at least the opportunity for interesting assignments from time to time.
* Challenges that help them learn, grow, and test their talents and stretch their abilities.
* Responsibility and the chance to take on important tasks and show what they can do.
* Recognition for their efforts in the form of praise, rewards, and advancement.
* Respect
* Fair treatment

Motivated employees want:

* Opportunities for growth
* Control over their work
* Participation in decisions
* To be part of a team, and enjoy the camaraderie and sense of achievement that comes from being part of a successful team.

Step 2—Identify and Address Barriers to Employee Motivation
Negative Outlook

When you ask what motivates a worker, you make get some negative responses like:

“If you want to motivate me, give me a raise.”

“Don't ask my opinion if you don't want to hear it.”

“Promotion means more headaches. Who needs it?”

There are positive ways to counter these negative responses. For example:

* If you want to motivate me, give me a raise. Employees often see money as the key to motivation, and sometimes it is. If you cannot grant a raise, you may want to ask the employee if anything else would inspire motivation. You may find that at times employees who want a raise can also be motivated by other means.
* Don't ask my opinion if you don't want to hear it. Employees who make this or similar statements may be upset because their ideas were not adopted by the group or the organization. Talk with employees openly about their ideas and the ideas of others. Explain that while all the ideas were worthwhile, only some could be pursued at this time. Make sure employees understand that their participation is always valued and will be needed again.
* Promotion means more headaches. Who needs it? Employees may be frustrated by not advancing or may be intimidated by the idea of advancement or promotion. Respond by talking to these employees about why advancement is important, to their careers and to the organization. Talk about the support that is provided for employees who are promoted, or want to be. Share with them some of the satisfactions or rewards that may make the headaches worth it and make sure they understand that you have confidence in them to make the best of any new roles.

Lack of Knowledge, and Fear

A combination of lack of knowledge and fear are big reasons why employees are not motivated or show poor attitude at work. For example, fear stifles motivation when a new worker refuses to ask questions lest he or she seem incapable of doing the job. Supervisors can remind new workers again and again that their questions are valued and important and encourage them to ask.

Step 3—Develop an Employee Motivation Program

An employee's performance, actions, or attitudes can damage both their careers and the organization. In such cases try first to come to an agreement about acceptable behaviors through informal discussions. If that doesn't work, meet with the employee and develop a formal employee motivation program. Get input from the employee. This is a chance to listen and find out about the employee's concerns.

A great motivation program should include the following elements:

* Clearly explain what the employee needs to do to meet expectations, and how what the organization will do to provide support or assistance. Correction works best when it is perceived as a partnership.
* Monitor the employee's progress with care and meet frequently with the employee to review the plan and the employee's conduct.
* Provide encouragement, praise, and recognition as the employee's work improves. Make it clear that the employee's value in the workplace is increasing.
* Some employees are motivated by discipline. They don't take their work seriously until they are threatened with some kind of sanction for unacceptable or inadequate performance. But discipline should be used only as a last resort for problem employees who fail to respond to other, positive forms of motivation.
* Make it clear that resorting to discipline is not punishment by you or the organization but a consequence of the employee's own performance and behavior. Put the responsibility squarely on the employee, where it belongs.
* Once you have warned an employee or applied necessary discipline, be sure to use other positive motivators as well to encourage improved performance. Discipline alone is rarely enough to turn a problem employee around.

Step 4—Add Motivation to Employee Training

Start off with a bang. Get trainees involved right away. Take a few minutes at the beginning of the session to grab their attention and create a little excitement. Encourage participation by having employees take center stage and describe something they already know about the topic, or give them the opportunity to ask a question about the topic they'd like answered during the training session

Keep their attention focused. You talking and trainees just listening is probably the least effective way to train. Experts tell us that in most cases hearing only accounts for 10 percent of learning, whereas more than 80 percent comes via the sense of sight. This means safety training activities should be heavily weighted in favor of hands-on practical experience, interactive discussion with the trainees doing most of the talking, question and answer, and activities that have a visual impact.

Make it real . Reality TV is really popular, so why not try some "reality" training? Have a speaker come in to give a short presentation about the topic. For example, you could have an employee who was injured on the job talk about his or her experience and what he or she learned from the accident as it relates to your topic.

Send them away all fired up. Although safety training sessions may seem like the end of a long road for you--a process of preparation, presentation, and evaluation--remember that for trainees, it's only the beginning. The rest happens on the job. If they don't apply what they learned in the session to their work, you've wasted a lot of time, effort, and money. So send them back to the job fired up about safety and eager to use what they've just learned. Have a good wrap-up session prepared for the end of training. Make sure trainees leave with a sense of accomplishment to reinforce that they've learned something really important. Also be sure they don't go away empty-handed. Give trainees a handout or booklet to serve as safety reminders and job aids. And be sure to tell them that your door's always open any time they have questions, problems, or suggestions related to the training session.

Give rewards as appropriate. Some can be earned and some by chance. An example of an earned reward would be giving each trainee a certificate of completion at the end of a session. A chance award could be placing a gift card under one chair and at some point in the session, ask people to check their chairs. Or you could give out small gifts, such as bite-sized candy bars or a company logo mug, to trainees who participate in the discussion.

Obama Aims to Boost Paid Family Leave Programs

2010-02-04T11:32:00.000-08:00

President Barack Obama's budget proposal for fiscal year 2011 includes $50 million in grants for states that choose to launch paid family leave programs.

Obama wants to create a fund within the Department of Labor to help states launch paid-leave programs cover their start-up costs. Obama argues that while the Family and Medical Leave Act allows workers to take job-protected time off unpaid, many families can't afford to lose that paycheck.

A few states have already approved paid family leave programs, including California, New Jersey, and Washington.

The paid family leave program in Washington was scheduled to go in effect in 2009 but was delayed until 2012 because of a budget shortfall. In New Jersey, workers started collecting paid family leave benefits in July 2009. California's paid family leave program began in 2004. The programs provide wage replacement for a set number of weeks and are funded by workers' contributions

Teamwork in Washington?

2009-12-15T06:14:00.000-08:00

President Obama proposed a new economic stimulus program including a call for the complete elimination of capital gains taxes on small businesses and a new tax credit for businesses that add or keep employees. Many Republicans encouraged him to take the same action in the first stimulus package. Capital fuels business growth and removing this burden from small businesses frees them to create new ventures and to move into new markets. The President this week also invited House Republican Leadership for a meeting at the White House to work together on a jobs plan.

Jobless claims rise, trade gap narrows

2009-12-10T09:26:00.000-08:00

The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless benefits rose more than expected last week, but a surprise narrowing in the trade gap in October suggested the economic recovery was becoming entrenched.
Initial claims for state unemployment insurance rose 17,000 to 474,000 last week, the Labor Department said on Thursday, after five straight weeks of declines.

Productivity Growth Revised

2009-12-08T09:11:00.000-08:00

The Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics has revised its report on productivity in the third quarter of 2009. The bureau revised productivity down from 9.5 percent to 8.1 percent. Still, the productivity increase was the largest since the third quarter of 2003. The 8.1.-percent gain reflects a 2.9-percent increase in output and a 4.8 percent decline in hours worked.

Labor productivity is calculated by dividing an index of real output by an index of the combined hours worked of all persons, including employees, proprietors, and unpaid family workers.

The revised productivity measures released were based on more recent and more complete data than were available for the preliminary report issued last month.

In the third quarter of 2009, unit labor costs fell 2.5 percent, as productivity grew at a faster rate (8.1 percent) than hourly compensation (5.4 percent). Unit labor costs declined 1.4 percent over the last four quarters. The bureau defines unit labor costs as the ratio of hourly compensation to labor productivity; increases in hourly compensation tend to increase unit labor costs and increases in output per hour tend to reduce them.

Manufacturing sector productivity grew 13.4 percent in the third quarter of 2009, as output rose 8.4 percent and hours worked fell 4.4 percent. The third quarter gain in manufacturing productivity was the largest since the bureau began the survey in 1987.

All stressed out and no where to go

2009-11-24T09:52:00.001-08:00

Teamwork helps solve problems

2009-11-23T06:40:00.000-08:00

FMLA update

2009-11-06T05:15:00.000-08:00

President Barack Obama last week signed legislation that makes several changes to the family military leave provisions of the Family and Medical Leave Act. Employers should act now to make the necessary changes.

The National Defense Authorization Act for 2010 (HR 2647) expands an employee's right to family military leave for an “exigency” associated with a family member's call to service in a foreign country. Under the new law, employees with a family member who is either in a regular component of the Armed Forces or a reserve component of the Armed Forces will entitled to “exigency leave.” Before the latest legislation, “exigency leave” was limited to employees with a covered family member in the National Guard or reserves only. Plus, the “old” law covered “contingency operations” only, which were defined specifically by regulation.

The new law also makes changes to the military servicemember caregiver leave provisions of the Family Medical Leave Act. The new legislation entitles employees to take up to 26 weeks of FMLA leave to care for a family member who is a servicemember or veteran who is undergoing medical treatment, recuperation, or therapy, for a serious injury or illness and who was a member of the Armed Forces (including a member of the National Guard or Reserves) at any time during the period of 5 years preceding the date on which the veteran undergoes that medical treatment, recuperation, or therapy. Previously, the 26 weeks of leave applied to employees caring for active military servicemembers only and not veterans.

Art of War

2009-11-05T06:06:00.000-08:00

Opportunities multiply as they are seized.

Thinking.............. and then more thinking............

2009-10-28T12:09:00.000-07:00

Problems cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them.

Albert Einstein

2009-10-26T05:21:00.001-07:00

Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. The mediocre mind is incapable of understanding the man who refuses to bow blindly to conventional prejudices and chooses instead to express his opinions courageously and honestly.

Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein once said......................

2009-10-23T04:40:00.000-07:00

Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution. Albert Einstein

Ivan Seidenberg on leadership

2009-10-15T05:16:00.000-07:00

H1N1: Is your Business prepared??

2009-10-01T07:28:00.000-07:00

H1N1 (Swine Flu) Vaccine Expected to Be Available in October

2009-09-22T07:17:00.000-07:00

The Food and Drug Administration has approved 4 vaccines against the H1N1 flu virus (formerly known as swine flu) for 2009. The FDA expects the vaccines to be distributed nationally in October.
Based on preliminary data from adults participating in clinical studies, the 2009 H1N1 vaccines induce a robust immune response in most healthy adults 8 to 10 days after a single dose, as occurs with the seasonal influenza vaccine.
As with the seasonal influenza vaccines, the 2009 H1N1 vaccines are being produced in formulations that contain thimerosal, a mercury-containing preservative, and in formulations that do not contain thimerosal. The FDA said that people with severe or life-threatening allergies to chicken eggs, or to any other substance in the vaccine, shouldn't be vaccinated.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has recommended that H1N1 vaccination efforts focus on 5 key groups of people:
Pregnant women,
People who live with or care for children younger than 6 months of age,
Healthcare and emergency medical services personnel,
Individuals between the ages of 6 months through 24 years of age, and
People from ages 25 through 64 years who are at higher risk for novel H1N1 because of chronic health disorders or compromised immune systems.
The agency said that the following groups should receive the vaccine before others if the vaccine is initially available in extremely limited quantities:
Pregnant women,
People who live with or care for children younger than 6 months of age,
Healthcare and emergency medical services personnel with direct patient contact,
Children 6 months through 4 years of age, and
Children 5 through 18 years of age who have chronic medical conditions.
The CDC said that once the demand for vaccine for the prioritized groups has been met at the local level, programs and providers should begin vaccinating everyone from ages 25 through 64 years.
Health officials are recommending that the H1N1 vaccine be used alongside the seasonal flu vaccine.

National Drug Free Work Week Set for Oct 19th-25th

2009-09-14T07:56:00.000-07:00

Obama Administration gets this one right! E-Verify

2009-09-01T05:57:00.000-07:00

FREE OSHA Forklift Certification

2009-08-26T07:02:00.000-07:00

Staffing Secret

2009-08-25T04:47:00.000-07:00

Recovery

2009-08-25T04:30:00.000-07:00

HR Guidance for Responding to H1N1 Virus (Swine Flu)

2009-08-21T04:11:00.000-07:00

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released guidance to help employers prepare for and respond to both seasonal flu and H1N1 Flu (Swine Flu) during the upcoming flu season.
The guidance includes actions employers should take now, important elements of a flu preparedness plan, and recommended responses for the flu season. The guidance includes additional strategies to use if flu conditions become more severe and some new recommendations regarding when a worker who is ill with influenza may return to work.
The CDC recommends that all employers and employee be prepared for the flu. Employers should work with employees to develop and implement plans that can reduce the spread of flu and encourage seasonal flu and H1N1 vaccination (when that vaccine becomes available).
The CDC recommends that employers' plans address such points as encouraging employees with flu-like symptoms or illness to stay home, operating with reduced staffing, and possibly having employees who are at higher risk of serious medical complications from infection work from home. The World Health Organization declared a pandemic of the H1N1 virus in June 2009--the first pandemic since 1968. Across the country, there have been more than 43,000 confirmed and probable cases of H1N1 infection, including more than 5,000 people who were hospitalized and more than 300 people who died.

COBRA Enrollment Doubles After Launch of Subsidy Program

2009-08-20T04:01:00.000-07:00

Enrollments in COBRA (health continuation coverage) rose from less than 20 percent to nearly 40 percent since the U.S. government enacted a new subsidy program, according to a report by Hewitt Associates, a consulting firm.
Signed into law in February 2009, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) provides for a 65 percent subsidy for COBRA continuation premiums for up to 9 months for workers who have been involuntarily terminated. To qualify for the subsidy, individuals must have a qualifying event for COBRA coverage that is the employee's involuntary termination during the period beginning September 1, 2008 and ending December 31, 2009.

Health Care Reform??

2009-08-17T11:55:00.001-07:00