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Natural Disaster and Emergency Preparedness – What’s HR’s Role?

Of late, the topic of emergency preparedness has been an increasing concern for everyone. Fire drills and safety procedures are discussed in offices yearly, to keep everyone abreast of how to be safe if the work environment becomes a danger zone. Yet there is one aspect of this topic that many organizations haven’t considered. From HR’s perspective, what can an organization do to be prepared?

Hurricane Sandy alerted many on the East Coast of the United States about the importance of being knowledgeable of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), and Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) during a natural disaster. In particular, employers should remember that, from these federal laws’ perspectives:

Nonexempt employees: The FLSA only requires that nonexempt employees are paid for the hours they actually worked. If during a natural disaster an employee cannot work for an amount of hours or days, the employer is not required to compensate for the lost time due to the natural disaster.
Exempt employees: The FLSA requires that employers pay exempt employees, even if the worksite is closed or unable to reopen for less than a full workweek, due to inclement weather or other disasters. However, employers can require that these exempt employees use accrued leave time.
FMLA: In essence the FMLA does not require that employers give employees time off to attend to personal matters due to a natural disaster. This would include cleaning debris, salvaging belongs, or searching for missing relatives. However, an employee can qualify for FMLA leave if one of two things occur:
- As a result of the natural disaster, the employee suffers physical or mental illness or an injury or “serious health condition” that causes the employee to be unable to perform his / her job. For example, an employee’s chronic anxiety or blood pressure that flares as a result of dealing with the natural disaster could fall into this category.
- If a spouse, child, or parent with a serious health condition becomes affected due to the disaster, resulting in the employee needing to care for the ill family member. For example, a family member with Diabetes suffers from the storm, as his / her medication must be refrigerated and the storm caused a power a power outage in said family member’s home. The employee may need to stay in order to administer the medication, triggering FMLA.
- Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA): The purpose of OSHA is to make certain that “every man and woman in the Nation” has “safe and healthful working conditions” (29 U.S.C. section 651(b)). As a result, employers must protect their employees in the event of a natural disaster affecting the workplace. Under OSHA, employers must be cautious in encouraging employees to come in to work during adverse weather, when the worksite could have possible safety hazards. In addition, good weather can be a safety issue. Exhaustion and dehydration can be triggered by working extended shifts and working in hot conditions.

Keep in mind that these laws provide minimum guidance to employers. Organizations can always go beyond the letter of the law, to minimize disruption and hardship for employees, and to build a strong, positive culture. In addition, employers must be aware of state laws which can impact employee compensation and leave.

It is critical that employers and employees alike be familiar with your state’s Office of Emergency (OEM) website for updates. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has a complete listing of all OEM sites. These websites will have more information to prepare you and your employees for natural disasters or any other unfortunate event that could cause harm in your local area. The resources available typically include an emergency checklist, a local hazards page, and relief and recovery information.

No one looks forward to disasters that negatively impact workflow, or disrupt life in general. We all wish that such events would never happen. However, the reality is that such events will take place. As such, it is essential to be prepared, so the impact can be minimal. Take time now to study the resources provided above. Examine the situations explored above, to determine your organization’s position on meeting the legal requirements or going beyond the letter of the law. Test your organization’s phone tree, or build one if one does not exist. Practice fire and evacuation drills before there is a problem, and ensure all employees know the marshaling point in the event it is necessary to leave the workplace. Gather personal e-mail addresses and cell phone numbers, and update every three months, to ensure communication options during a disaster. Taking the time now will enable your organization to be safety conscious in 2013 and beyond.

Harnessing the Power of Flare(TM)

In November of last year, Astronology explored the basics of a Human Resource Information System, or HRIS. As we mentioned in that article, such technology can be beneficial in assisting with HR administration. It is also an effective tool for boosting efficiency & productivity, and removing physical paperwork off one’s desk. In response to readers’ requests, in this Astronology article, we give you a closer look at Astron Solutions’ Flare™ and many of its different modules.

What is Flare™?

In short, Flare™ is a cloud-based framework that allows you to track your employees from their first days of work to their last days with your organization. You can customize your Flare™ suite to fit your organization’s needs. All data stored in the system is password protected and housed on secure servers with 99.9% uptime. You have the ability to upload employee information & reporting relations, and store an unlimited number of users and employees. Some of Flare™’s most attractive features are the customizable modules and the individual, reasonable pricing per module.

But what’s included in Flare™? Let’s dig deeper into some of the more popular modules.

Performance Appraisal Module

According to a 2011 SHRM poll, 98% of organizations reported that they have a formal employee performance evaluation process. Although you may have one in place, are your performance reviews completed on paper? Why not cut time and resources with an online performance review system? With Flare™’s performance appraisal module you can eliminate the hard copy and streamline everyone’s work by having employees’ appraisals pre-populated with their job description and other desired demographics. In addition, this module is designed with features to ensure all sections are completed prior to submission, to perform mathematical calculations for accurate scoring, and to check for potential legal issues. Other user favorites include these features:

Self-Reviews,
HR approvals,
Summary reports, and
Electronic or traditional paper signatures.

Pay for Performance / Merit Increase Module

“While there are pros and cons to using a merit increase approach, in today’s world a majority of organizations attempt to link pay increases to employee performance,” explains National Director Jennifer Loftus. “With limited merit increase budgets typically around three percent of pay, it’s essential that organizations make clear distinctions in pay increases between the high performers and low performers.”

If the thought of working with multiple spreadsheets and checking formulas makes you dizzy, however, consider Flare™’s pay for performance module. In three easy steps you will be able to assign all employees with proper merit increases, meeting your merit increase budget and having the necessary reports for senior management. This module is able to calculate increases as a percent of base pay, lump sum, or a combination of both. Factors such as position in range and performance appraisal score can also be taken into consideration.

Job Description Module

According to Jennifer, “the Department of Labor is stepping up their investigations of wage and hour complaints. One of your best defenses in an FLSA audit is up to date and accurate job descriptions.”

Need an accessible place to keep record of your job descriptions? Need reminders to update your organization’s descriptions more frequently than every five to ten years? Flare™’s job description module is for you. This module allows you to design a job description template so all job descriptions are consistent in content type. Authorized staff can prepare draft updates to job description content to be approved by HR. The Flare™ job description module also contains tests for FLSA compliance and a point factor job evaluation system to streamline your work and reporting systems.

Staff Advancement Monitor™

About 52% of respondents from the 2013 Global Assessment Trends report listed developing leaders as a top priority for their organization. Is leadership development a priority for yours? If so, Flare™’s Staff Advancement Monitor™ module assists you in developing custom primary and secondary competencies and developmental activities for future leaders. The results tracked in this module can be used for employee promotion recommendations. Additional features include a listing of all participating employees, their mentors, and targeted goal positions.

Finders Keepers™

The 2013 Global Assessment Trends report also mentioned that 55% of respondents cite engagement of the workforce as a priority this year. Do you want to know if your valued employees are engaged with their work… or with your organization? Would you like to get opinions on where managers can make improvements? With the Finders Keepers™ module, you can! This module allows authorized users to create much needed customized surveys to gather employee opinions, new hire perspectives, and even exit interview data. On-line, real-time reporting makes data analysis a breeze!

Total Rewards Statements

77% of organizations feel as though they communicate employee benefits effectively. If you want to ensure that your employees are aware of your organization’s reward program, consider Flare™’s Total Rewards Statement module! With this module, you will be able to securely inform your employees of the value of their total compensation packages in real-time. Information captured and reported by Flare™ in both narrative and graphic formats include and are not limited to salary, variable compensation, and benefit cost and value information.

Flare™ has many more modules for you to explore, including Applicant Tracking and On-Boarding, Time and Attendance, Pre-Employment Testing, Human Capital Audit, HRIS, and Learning Management System. Are you curious to see where Flare™ could fit in your organization, and with your existing HR technology? Reach out to Astron Solutions today and inquire about a demo!

The Top 2 Reasons for Turnover

A 2010 Deloitte Shift Index survey indicated that about 80% of workers hate their jobs. Such a statistic can be alarming for every organization. With dissatisfied employees lies the high probability of constant turnover, a formidable challenge organizations try their hardest to avoid.

By means of a collection of over 14 years of exit interview data, Astron Solutions has compiled a list of top reasons why employees leave their places of employment for seemingly greener pastures. In this issue of Astronology, we will explore the top two reasons for employee turnover, and techniques you can use to avoid losing your employees.

Reason #2: Dissatisfaction with the Supervisor

Dissatisfaction of employees with their supervisors is a serious concern for all employers. Inevitably, personality clashes will happen. However, an overall cohesive environment is needed to keep everyone happy. A large contributor to this dissatisfaction is lack of communication. An NBRII article mentions, “The biggest problem with any relationship is lack of communication. And that extends beyond the personal life and into the work life.” Employees may be shy about speaking of concerns they may have, especially if those concerns may run against the grain and contrary to what a superior would like to hear. Something must be done to encourage this type of honest communication before it is too late. Conducting yearly satisfaction surveys is an excellent way to promote this communication.

Reassuring employees that their thoughts will be completely anonymous will allow employees to speak up on the matters that most concern them. Designing a survey to include employees’ thoughts on their direct superiors will allow for more honest views and feedback. An anonymous survey will also give each supervisor a starting point to address, and hopefully correct, issues that fall squarely on the supervisor’s shoulders. Besides allowing employees an opportunity to voice their opinions, it is also important for the employer to communicate to these employees that their opinions have been heard, are being considered, and there will be action taken. Employees need to know that their opinions matter…that the employee matters to the organization. Not sharing a high level overview of the survey results with the employees, on the other hand, is an excellent way to breed additional discontent among employees.

Reason #1: Change of Career Objectives

The number one reason employees leave an organization is for a career change. Ironically, many of your employees may not be aware of their opportunities that exist right within your organization. Are you continually communicating the opportunities for growth that employees have with your organization? During the annual performance appraisal process, do all leaders take the time to find out where the employee sees himself in the future? Do all managers jointly set career development goals with employees? These approaches can facilitate employee retention among individuals who think it is necessary to change employers to move up the corporate ladder or onto a different career path.

Employee mentoring is another valuable approach for keeping employees on track with their career goals, giving them valuable reasons to stay with an organization. There are many options to mentoring, ranging from project-oriented mentoring, formal (structured program) mentoring, and even informal mentoring (schedule and monitoring designed by mentor and mentee). These programs are affordable, as the mentors are employees with experience in the organization and the profession for a minimum number of years. Although some employees will leave despite one’s best efforts to support their career objectives, taking the initiative builds trust. Providing the chance to map out an employee’s goals, and using the assistance of the organization in order to achieve these goals, can be an enticing incentive to stay.

Is your organization experiencing turnover woes? “Even in an uncertain economy, employment opportunities await top talent – talent your organization can’t afford to lose,” explains Jennifer Loftus, National Director for Astron Solutions. “All organizations must proactively continue to re-recruit their employees every day. If not, another employer will!” If you need assistance with your employee retention game plan, Astron Solutions offers consulting and services and various areas such as:

Compensation Review
Incentive/Variable Compensation Programs
Performance Appraisals
Employee Communications
Succession Planning
Exit Interviews

Reach out to us and schedule a complimentary consultation today!