Attention, employers: It just got more expensive to violate the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) and the Employee Polygraph Protection Act (EPPA).

Cost of noncompliance goes up

Here are the DOL’s new maximum penalties for violating the:

• FLSA: $2,050 for willful or repeated violations of minimum wage requirements, $13,072 for child labor law violations and $59,413 for child labor law violations resulting in the child’s death
• FMLA: $176 for failing to properly notify employees of their rights under the act
• OSHA: $134,937 for willful or repeated safety violations, and $13,494 for failing to post safety information or failing to abate safety threats, and
• EPPA: $21,410 for violating the act.

Click here for the DOL’s complete list of fines and additional information.

Is your workplace compliant? Find all the mandatory labor law posters you need right here.

The post DOL announces penalty increases for 2020 appeared first on HR Morning.

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The workforce is constantly evolving and companies across all industries are adapting to ever-changing employee desires. Smart employers are striving to create a positive employee experience. That requires constantly refining how they approach human resources to ensure that they can continue to recruit and retain top talent.

From flexibility and competitive compensation to professional development opportunities and a focus on wellness, workers are seeking out desirable benefits when deciding where they want to work. While every industry has its own challenges, the unique characteristics of the healthcare sector have caused it to lag behind other industries in some respects.

I came into my position as chief human resources officer for Banner Health, one of the largest nonprofit hospital systems in the U.S., without any healthcare background. But we have moved to adopt fundamental principles for growth to ensure that we are serving the needs of current and future employees.  

To help become an ideal “Employer of the Future,” we have implemented a three-pronged strategy:

This strategy is helping us to live our mission: just as Banner has worked hard to optimize all aspects of the healthcare experience for customers and patients, we are equally dedicated to meeting the needs of our diverse, demanding workforce.

For HR professionals working
toward similar goals, these five tips are essential for recruiting and
retaining top talent, regardless of your industry:

Flexibility

Flexibility is key to recruiting and retaining top talent. Employees today want to decide how, when, and where they work. It can be as simple as allowing employees personal options in how they dress, while still aligning with company policy. This may not be a new concept in every field, but it is not yet common in healthcare. Another option is flexible scheduling: allowing people to work less than full time or a modified work schedule. Banner, which is the largest employer in Arizona, offers telecommuting options which have led to more than 2,200 team members working from home.

Customized career paths

It’s increasingly important
to balance what employees want today with what they will want tomorrow. More
and more, employees want to create their own career ladder, instead of feeling confined
to a narrow path. They also want more transparency–knowing where they stand
and receiving more frequent feedback.

Particularly at large organizations, policies need to work for a diverse base of employees with very different jobs and life experiences, ranging from Gen Zers to Baby Boomers and beyond. Workforce diversity is growing across all industries, and we, as HR pros, must customize our approaches and our interactions with employees to make sure their needs are being heard and addressed.

For example, physician burnout is a very serious issue in healthcare nationwide. Physicians have far different wants and needs than other employees, so we created a Physician HR Team to ensure that we listen to them and tailor our approach to better support them. We also created a Physician Development and Experience Team to help us design a new mobile technology, the Clinician Experience Project.

This technology offers short suggestions for physicians on all facets of their work. Whether it’s how to help a patient more efficiently, how to have a courageous conversation with a colleague, or how to improve patient experience scores, this library of over 600 insights and bits of advice, provides a tailored value-add for our talented physician community.

Fresh perspectives

We all develop job descriptions with criteria we would like new hires to meet. However, don’t let these expectations hinder you from making unorthodox strategic hires. Sometimes a person without the expected background will bring a fresh perspective that will shake things up for the better. Banner has made a conscious choice to hire from outside healthcare. We currently have 26 executives from other fields, including banking, retail, hospitality, and customer service, and this shift in hiring is serving us very well.

Creativity and innovation

Fostering creativity
throughout the workforce is critical for employee satisfaction and for ensuring
your organization continues to innovate and evolve. Redesigned workspaces can
help boost creativity and collaboration. Giving team members the opportunity to
share work space and ideas is an inexpensive perk. Other strategies, such as
“Focused Fridays” which consist of no meetings and limited emails allowing
leaders to spend more time with their front-line team members and reimagined meeting
agendas that put rules in place for meetings, including when, who, and how long
they should be, can optimize productivity and balance collaboration with other
demands on employee time.

Technology that helps

Technology has changed workflow, productivity, and information access, but often with added burdens for workers who are already under pressure. We are implementing a new human capital management system to help streamline processes.

Our HR department utilizes 11 different systems, but unfortunately, most don’t talk to each other. An employee might complete their annual goals, but those goals don’t download into their performance evaluation, which in turn doesn’t load into their compensation or their development summary. So, we’re deploying new technology to collapse those 11 pieces into one.

During rounds, nursing staff regularly visit each patient on a unit or meet with physicians or other colleagues to discuss each patient’s progress, setbacks, etc., since the previous rounds.

Banner recently rolled out a rounding app for our nursing leaders that helps them better address the needs and wants of our patients, as well as better engage with their direct reports. The app notifies housekeeping to clean a room once a patient checks out, recognizes team members on the spot for outstanding service, follows up on patients and medication, and sends out other alerts. These features help nursing leaders focus on what’s most important – their patients and team members.

Employees are the heart and
soul of any organization and HR practices must embrace that truth. The more you
work to understand what your employees want and need and what really motivates
them, the more you’ll be able to recruit and retain the very best people.

The post Become an “Employer of the Future” — Five tips for recruiting and retaining top talent appeared first on HR Morning.

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You’d love to have employees working for you who are the type that always want to learn new things and grow, right?

Right.

Engaged
employees spend more of their time working to improve their performance through
training and development.

They are the
type of workers every company wants, and they expect their employers to create
a positive experience for them by matching their ambition with effective
training.

For firms and HR professionals trying to create a positive employee experience, it’s essential that your team of in-house trainers is ready to lead the way.

But who will
train the trainers?

Great managers don’t necessarily make great trainers.

So, if you truly want learning to take place, it’s best to give your manager/trainers the help they need to take training to the next level, so you can create a more positive employee experience.

Here are 10
ways to do that.

1. Provide
the big picture

Make sure you let trainees know right from the start why they’re learning whatever you’re teaching. Giving the big picture reinforces to trainees what needs to be accomplished by the end of the session. Then a trainer should break it down into smaller pieces, all the while referring back to the big picture so people see how it all fits together.

2. Repeat
names

When
training a small group, try to start the session off with a smile and a
personal greeting. Then attempt to use the attendees’ names at least three
times during the training session. It helps them feel like part of the process,
and will motive them to do better and pay attention.

If you tend
to forget people’s names, try associating them with someone famous or someone
you know.

Another
technique for retaining someone’s name is to repeat the person’s name back to
him or her when you first meet or when the person enters the training session,
if you already know them. For example you could say, “Hi, Jeff, it’s nice to
meet you.” Or “Hi, Mark, so glad you could make it.”

3. What’s in it for me?

If you want
adults to retain training material, you must show what’s in it for them.
Reason: Adults best retain information they consider useful. It’s the way we’re
hard-wired. If you fail to show adults how they’re invested in the material,
the cerebellum won’t let the info travel to the cerebrum to be stored. It’s
vital trainers tie the material to their audience.

4. Apply
what was learned

After you
show trainees what’s in it for them, you need to give them an immediate opportunity
to practice what they just learned.

The adage –
use it or lose it – applies very much to adult learners.

Whether it’s
in the form of a training exercise or a game, or letting the trainees demonstrate
something, they will retain it better the sooner they get to use their new skill
or knowledge.

5. Tie it to
experience

Adults are
not a blank slate. Every trainee brings some prior learning to the table, and that’s
especially true of adults.

Adult
learners have a lot of experience and knowledge they bring to a training session.
Whether it’s right or wrong, it will have an impact because it’s in their
brains and influences how they perceive things.

A great way
to get adult learners to retain training material is to tie it to something
they already know. By doing that, the brain doesn’t have to learn something
new. It just applies what it already knows to a new situation, which strengthens
retention and the learning pathways in the brain.

6. Repeat
key concepts

If you want
your audience to remember the key concepts, repeat them. Put them on a slide, a
dry erase board, a handout, etc., and repeat them several times.

Then at the
end of every session, review the key concepts again. Just like children learn
through repetition, so do adults.

7. Be brief

Keep your
instruction/lecturing time brief. Teach in 10- to 20-minute time chunks, then change
to an activity or group discussion. And every time you break from the short lecture
chunks, do a new activity. Even a fun activity becomes repetitive when done in
the same way every time.

8. Be simple

Don’t
overwhelm your audience with everything you know about the topic being covered.
Just give them the absolute-need-to-know information.

One of the
harder things to do as a trainer is break the information down into the
need-to-know information and the nice-to-know-but-not essential information. If
you try to cover too much at one time, your audience won’t retain the
information.

Trainers
need to ask themselves “What do my trainees need to know in order to do their
jobs efficiently and effectively, and keep their jobs?” The answer is what the
actual training session should be built around.

You can supplement the training with the nice-to-know stuff as handouts the trainees can take with them and read on their own time. Another way to think about it: If your training time was cut in half, which concepts would you include, and which would you make a handout?

9. Use honey

It’s not
only children that learn better with encouragement. Adults do, too. That’s why
the best trainers create a positive learning environment and celebrate small
successes, new learned skills and concepts, and deliver feedback in a positive
way.

10. Stay
relaxed

One factor
important to a fun training session is a relaxed, informal environment. If you
can avoid the classroom set-up, then do so. When a trainer stands up front and
everyone faces him or her lined up at desks or in chairs it creates a formal
lecture environment, which is rarely fun.

Get
creative. Set up small tables that you can walk between and interact with your
audience. Or if it’s a small group, having everyone sit around a big table is
better than the classroom set up. You just want trainees to face each other –
not just you – so they can interact easily with each other.

The goal is
to be close enough to engage the audience.

The post Great training is key to creating a positive employee experience appeared first on HR Morning.

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A New Jersey state court of appeals ruled in January that an employer is obligated to pay for medical marijuana when the prescription is treating a job-related injury.

The ruling in Hager v. M&K Construction is the first time a NJ court required an employer to compensate a worker for legal weed used to treat an on-the-job injury.

Quitting opioids

Vincent Hager suffered a severe spinal injury on the job and became addicted to prescribed opioid pain killers he took to address chronic pain.

He was later able to get relief – and stop taking the opioids – when his doctor prescribed medical cannabis as permitted under New Jersey’s Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act (the “MMA”). 

When the employer refused to reimburse any of the cost of the prescription, the worker sued.

A judge of compensation noted that the drug was effective and ruled the state workers’ compensation laws obligated the employer to reimburse the cost of medical cannabis and related expenses.

The company said the judge couldn’t require it to reimburse medical cannabis costs.

In its appeal, M&K argued the state law is preempted by federal drug laws, which criminalize the manufacture, possession or distribution of psychoactive cannabis.

Employer not abetting

The appeals court agreed with the workers’ compensation judge that there was no preemption issue because M&K was not engaged in aiding or abetting any of the prohibited activities by reimbursing Hager.

The appeals court also confirmed the compensation judge’s finding that medical cannabis may be a “reasonable and necessary” form of treatment under New Jersey’s Workers’ Compensation Act, particularly for a worker whose situation is similar to Hager’s.

New Jersey joins New Mexico in holding the CSA does not preempt state medical cannabis laws. The only other state whose courts have weighed in on the question, Maine, holds that the CSA DOES preempt state prescription pot laws.

The post NJ court rules workers’ comp must pay for prescription CBD appeared first on HR Morning.

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In any business, time is the most important
resource. Time equals money and wasted time equals wasted money. If you’ve seen
Avengers Endgame, there’s one line in the movie that pretty much sums this up:
No amount of money ever bought a second of time.

An organization where employees don’t track how they’re spending their time at work is,  therefore, an organization that is wasting money, particularly when 89% of workers have admitted to wasting time while they’re on the clock.

However, not all time tracking practices are
created equal. There’s more to time tracking than just the mundane act of
employees clocking in at the beginning of their workday and clocking out at the
end of their shift.

In short, time tracking that delivers real and
positive business results—better productivity, highly engaged employees,
cost-efficient projects, etc.—needs to go beyond mere tracking of work shifts.

What follows is a 7-point checklist to help
steer your workplace time tracking in the right direction. It’s also easy to
remember. Just keep in mind the age-old mantra: T.I.M.E. I.S. GOLD. It’s a
mnemonic which stands for the following checklist:

T ime Categories Identification

I nvestment in Time Tracking Technology

M anagement Support and Adoption

E mployee Appreciation of Time Tracking Benefits

I ssues of Privacy and Transparency Resolution

S mart Goals Setting

GOLD-Standard Evaluation and Evolution

Here’s how it works:

Time Categories
Identification

Bad time tracking practices result in dirty,
unusable data. One of the worst mistakes that you can make is not thinking
about the structure of the reports that you want to get from your time tracking
system.

One way to avoid this is to clearly and
specifically determine time categories. For example, one best practice is to
track activities based on projects. This will allow you to identify both
project efficiencies and inefficiencies. General day-to-day tasks can be
grouped together under an “Administrative” category and skills development
activities can be classified under “Training.”

Whatever you decide, make sure that everyone
is using these time categories consistently. You can achieve this by doing the
following:

• Having a required field for time category.
• An employee handbook or manual that clearly defines each category.
• Face-to-face training on how to use time categories.

Having these time categories will give you
insightful and usable productivity, project management, and time management
reports, enabling you to make smarter business decisions.

Investment in Time
Tracking Technology

In an age when digital transformation is making life easier for businesses, it’s quite strange how several offices are still tracking time using manual and outdated processes such as spreadsheets and punch cards.

These manual processes consume a significant
amount of time, not to mention that they’re highly inaccurate. According to a
whitepaper by Accelo: “[One] reason why timesheets are so painful to use is
that keeping track of time is manual. Since most timesheet applications don’t
allow users to enter time easily as they go, people end up having to use their
own manual way of keeping track of what they’re doing – like a notepad on their
desk, or a text document open in the background on their computer – and they
have to remember to be disciplined about tracking when they start and finish
working on tasks, only to then have to transcribe it all later. Only the most
disciplined of people are able to be relied upon to get this right.”

Enter automated time tracking technology.

While the time tracking technology you choose is not the be-all and end-all, it is a crucial ingredient of every successful time tracking system. It allows you to automate the process and record employee activities with accuracy and convenience. Added features such as payroll integration, PTO monitoring, and project reporting are cherries on top of the cake.

Management Support
and Adoption

A top-down approach is best if you want your
employees to comply with your time tracking policy. This means that your fellow
managers, members of the upper management, and some C-executives should track
their time using the same systems, processes, and applications that your rank
and file employees are using.

Employee
Appreciation of Time Tracking Benefits

“I am so thrilled to track my work hours.” Said
no employee ever, and for several reasons.

Some employees may feel that time monitoring
is a form of micromanagement or an invasion of their workplace privacy. Many
may think that logging their hours could be cumbersome and add to their already
heavy workload. Scepticism toward time tracking is more of a norm than an
exception. This could manifest as low compliance to your time tracking policy
or a high level of resistance to a new time tracking implementation.

Managers and HR leaders can turn these
negative sentiments around by making sure that their team understands the value
and benefits of having time tracking in place.

Here are just some of the benefits you could
highlight:

• Better project planning by having benchmark data. This prevents scope creep, reduces overtime work, and keeps projects on track, which contributes to overall employee wellness.
• More accurate payroll for hourly employees, with minimal, if not zero errors on timesheets.
• More opportunities for remote work with web-based office time clock software.
• Accurate recording/crediting of accrued paid time-offs.
• Productivity incentives for deserving employees.

It’s normal for employees to be wary of new
systems, especially if they don’t know what’s in it for them. Explaining the
benefits of time tracking to their overall work performance and experience is
an important ingredient in every successful time tracking initiative.

Issues of Privacy
Resolution

One of the friction points managers and HR leaders observe when implementing time tracking is workplace privacy invasion. You don’t want to create mistrust among your employees by making them feel that Big Brother is watching their every move.

The reality is, almost all forms of employee monitoring is legal as long as they’re done with consent. The operative word above is consent.

According to research by Dtex Systems: “77% of employed Americans would be less concerned with their employer monitoring their digital activity on personal or work-issued devices they use to conduct work, as long as they are transparent about it and let them know up front.”

Avoid being shady, vague, or hazy when
explaining how time tracking works to your employees. Don’t withhold
information and make sure that you’re clear on the following 3 points:

The time tracking technology you’re using and
how it works; especially how it collects and stores data.

What activities you’re going to monitor and on
which devices.

How you’re going to use employee activity data
outside of timekeeping purposes.

Smart Goals Setting
and Monitoring

Just like any aspect of your business
operations, time tracking should be associated with objectives that are
specific, measurable, assignable, relevant, and time-based; commonly known as
S.M.A.R.T. Goals.

Some of the common time tracking goals
include:

• Productivity improvement
• Overtime hours and cost reduction
• Increase billable hours
• Improve project scheduling and
  forecasting

Having SMART Goals attached to time tracking
enables you to ask the right questions and arrive at the right insights to
improve your staff’s performance.

GOLD-Standard
Evaluation and Evolution

Setting SMART Goals as mentioned above also
allows you to set a benchmark on how time tracking is contributing to your
workplace’s overall productivity, efficiency, and profitability—a gold standard
so-to-speak.

As your business grows and as you implement
changes, you need to constantly evaluate this benchmark so it remains
applicable and ensures that you are aiming for the right targets. You might
need to evolve your processes, systems, and even your technologies from time to
time.

As you can see, even in time tracking the only
constant is change.

It may not be
written in your job description in black and white, but as a manager or HR
leader, you are one of the primary protectors of your organization’s most
precious asset: time. Great managers are effective resource managers and this
includes making sure that in the workplace, every second counts.

The post A 7-point time tracking checklist for managers and HR leaders appeared first on HR Morning.

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As technology leaders, we have the opportunity and responsibility to ensure that our teams – whether regional or globally based – conduct work with the efficiency and maximize performance, using software and hardware solutions to deliver the best products and services to our clients and customers.

Our mission as technology experts is to review existing systems, analyze new solutions and remove barriers to performance always with an eye on maximizing budget and minimizing disruption.

We are the technology gatekeepers of our businesses, but we also have the responsibility to understand that at the heart of all our technology solutions is the human touch.

We never lose sight of the fact that our most important assets are the people in our ecosystem. Our colleagues, customers and vendor partners are all integral to our success.

In an age where speed is paramount to maximize performance and we have new solutions to integrate on a regular basis, we must keep at the core of whatever we do the understanding that technology enhances our work. But it can never and should never replace our ability to genuinely connect to one another.

Here’s how great technology can foster and help our teams by building human connections and maximizing performance.

Creating a Collaborative Culture

We can always implement technology solutions to power our workforces, remove friction and improve performance, but if a culture is not built on collaboration, then the technology can often serve as a barrier to building bridges within an organization.

At the heart of every company, we want to instill a culture where collaboration is not only useful – it is needed. Whether our colleagues are global, spread across a country or down the hall, we need to share ideas and encourage voices from different perspectives to be heard.

Before implementing a new technology solution, truly take time to understand what your team needs and wants. Consider crowd-sourcing different solutions among teams to garner internal buy-in and ensure that the technology truly fits the need.

Seeing is Understanding

I am excited to work in a company that is dedicated to making people healthier and happier through nutrition and has a global work force reflecting our customer base.

I encourage everyone to put down their phones and whenever possible, walk down the hall to speak with a colleague. While conference calls are great – I encourage our teams to make video conferencing integral to all communication.

With video technology, we not only hear a person’s voice, we can discern so many non-verbal cues. Do the people I am speaking with understand what I am saying? Did I just experience someone’s discomfort with a presentation?

Is someone trying to contribute ideas but keeps getting interrupted? Seeing our colleagues provides so much more insight, a richer conversation and an opportunity to build deeper relationships.

Leading by Example

Having served in a global CIO role for many years, I find it important that executives truly understand what it’s like living in another country and culture, and how culture impacts technology decision and usage.

I have taken teams to China, for example, and given them their cell phones to get around a city, purchase groceries and rent a bike, while communicating via WeChat.

Through these experiences, these leaders begin to truly understand what it is like for colleagues and customers in their country to complete daily tasks. They learn firsthand the technology sophistication and norms of some countries, and the incredible challenges others face.

Nothing can take the place of having key
internal stakeholders experience for themselves what the challenges and
opportunities our global teams face without walking in their shoes.

Recharging People

We spend a lot of time thinking about powering our technology tools. From our servers to our laptops to our devices, energy is key to our efficiency. Just like our digital equipment, people need to take a moment to recharge as well. That means stepping away from your devices and desk, to sit with a colleague and have coffee.

Teams recharge in many ways and taking time out to think, walk, relax – not search and post – provides opportunities to refuel, recharging creative thinking.

As leaders, we have an enormous responsibility to enhance our existing technology tools with innovative solutions. Every day there seems to be an amazing new opportunity to introduce our organizations to technologies that enhance performance and streamline job functions.

While our role is focused on continuously evolving our companies, we also need to be careful not to follow every “shiny object” at the risk of losing the human touch of connecting to people.

So, put down your phones and tablets. Go across the hall and chat with a colleague, make all your calls (when possible video ones) and take time to recharge not only your devices – but yourself as well.

High-though high tech—with the
importance of the human touch– is limitless.

The post The human touch: How great technology helps teams maximize performance appeared first on HR Morning.

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We deal with emotions in
every interaction, every single day. From work to home to social events, life,
and family, our emotions range the gamut.

So, when expectations are high and, often, resources are low, managing emotions in the workplace can seem like the norm rather than the exception.

If you are in a position of
leadership, you have the added pressure to set the tone for others to follow. That’s
why managing emotions in the workplace is never an easy thing to do when you’re
also trying to manage a team to productivity.

Aiming for an “emotion-free” business environment, while perhaps a nice thought, is completely unrealistic.

Too many unforeseen events
make it impossible to work in an emotionally controlled environment. The secret
to success is learning how to manage emotions in the workplace, whether you are
in an entry level position or the CEO.

Here are some proven and valuable ideas to help you navigate the sometimes messy world of alpha personalities, divas and leaders in the making, and to come out in one piece and victorious.

Honesty
Goes a Long Way

No one likes to work with
Mr. or Mrs. Perfect. If you’re honest about your struggles, your team will kick
in an extra layer of loyalty and trust because they can relate to you.

In fact, it might make them more mindful about creating chaos themselves. It’s good to be honest. Try it, you won’t be sorry. This doesn’t mean you have to divulge all the little personal details of your life. But being more open about certain things will strengthen the bond of the team. What you’ll more than likely find is a co-worker who opens up and says something like, “I often feel that way” or “Let me tell you how I deal with…” Personal relationships strengthen leading to more professional success.  

Don’t
Wait for Armageddon

As a leader, go deeper and
look for what is triggering an employee’s emotional behavior in the first
place. This positions you to deal with issues at their root level and provides
insight into the “danger zones” to avoid. You will be in a much better position
to prevent an outburst by avoiding the boiling point. Don’t pretend chaos isn’t
happening. Help whomever is having a meltdown gain their sanity back. The key
is to deal with workplace emotions swiftly, but without making
the other person feel attacked or threatened. Be clear about what is being
criticized and focus on the outcome not the process of resolving the issue.

Link Between Gender and Crying

Women are six times more likely than men to cry at work. Tears are the workplace equivalent of a “check engine” sign. It could mean we are overworked, we are sick, we feel angry or we are frustrated. Rather than seeing tears as a sign of weakness, they signify that there is an underlying need that should be addressed. Get to work and address it. Men experience emotions too. They just have different ways of expressing and dealing with them.

Manage Your Own Emotions at Work

Last but not least, if you are a leader feeling overwhelmed, take a well-deserved breather. Keep it short, no need to explain, simply say, “You know what, I need a break. I’ll be back in 30 minutes.”  And just like that, take a break. Taking time to focus on your own mental health and well-being is one of the most important things you can do for professional success. Neglecting your emotions will have adverse effects. Not only will this help you tremendously, but as a leader it’s setting an important example for your employees that says it’s okay to take care of yourself.

When it comes to emotions in
the workplace, leaders have a complex challenge where the ripple effect
of any emotional situation can run deep. This area is
seen as an area where great leaders can really set themselves apart by
approaching emotions as something healthy for the
business. It is believed that these profound social changes, in tandem with the
new scientific insights into the ways each gender operates, will transform the
future of interpersonal dynamics on the job.

The post Managing Emotions in The Workplace appeared first on HR Morning.

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With an active flu season well underway and concern growing over the spread of potentially deadly coronavirus infections outside of China, it’s a good time to re-emphasize your contagious disease health response plan with all of your employees.

The Centers for Disease Control has numerous wellness and safety templates and information packets you can customize and distribute to your team. www.flu.gov/plan/workplaceplanning/toolkit.html

But there are also potential legal risks associated with outbreaks like the coronavirus. Check with counsel and your insurance partner to be sure you have covered all your bases, but here are three top-line travel-related considerations:

1. Sending an employee to a high-risk area during this outbreak creates legal exposure under OSHA’s General Duty Clause.  A travel ban is in effect for the epicenter of this outbreak in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. But cases of the disease are already confirmed well outside of China and history shows that travel bans are ineffective at slowing the spread of easily transmitted viruses. Employers whose business involves travel to China or other areas subject to travel restrictions should explore alternatives for the duration of the threat, such as videoconferencing.
2. Personal travel gets even more tricky, because it brings in the ADA. Demanding employees restrict private activities, including travel to high-risk areas, out of fear they might later become ill or disabled, might expose you to a disability discrimination claim. Provide all information, share expert recommendations, but avoid banning personal travel outright.
3. An important caveat: You can require that anyone traveling to those areas or who is otherwise at higher risk of exposure get examined before returning to work. Not everyone infected with the virus will show symptoms but they will still pose a risk of infecting others. ADA’s prohibitions on medical inquiries and required exams stop when an employee might pose a direct health threat to others.

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A lot of the time, it can seem like being insanely busy at work is just the norm. Good employees are always tackling big projects and saying yes to more work, right?

But being too overwhelmed can lead to burnout and slip-ups. The problem is, a lot of hard workers can find it difficult to say no when they’re asked to take on more.

Think, then answer

So how can you decide when to say yes and when to say no?

Leadership expert and coach Scott Mautz has a good system to help you determine whether you can actually take on the assignment. Here are five questions to ask yourself.

1. What’s really involved? We may try to kid ourselves, but things almost always take longer than we think. Understand the scope of what you’re signing up for before saying yes. Think about how much time and effort the task will actually take — and it’s better to err on the side of caution.
2. What’s the cost of saying ‘yes’? There might be more effort required than completing the actual assignment. For example, you might need to learn a new skill or get assistance.
3. Will taking this on serve my mission? Think about whether this task will help you contribute to your career goals. Does the assignment really matter? If it’s a small, mundane task, it most likely isn’t worth your time.
4. Is this on my ‘to-don’t’ list? Are there specific things you try not to get sucked into? Is this one of those things?
5. Can I give a different ‘yes’? If you can’t do the task yourself, but want to help out the asker, suggest an alternate solution or co-worker to assist. This shows support without burdening yourself.

The post Always saying ‘yes’? 5 things to ask before committing appeared first on HR Morning.

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Of course you want to create a job advertisement that accurately reflects what you need. But does the ad always meet the needs of your target audience?

When creating job
descriptions to attract Millennials, most HR pros have little demographic and “psychographic”
experience, and so they especially struggle with Millennials.

That’s because these active young people are simultaneously looking forward to the financial aspect of a job, as well as self-satisfaction, and don’t’ forget the all-important entertainment value. Millennials want to have fun, too.

 Millennials are people who were
born between 1981 and 1996. This generation Y, or simply or Gen Y, is
characterized by extensive use of social media and digital technologies. 

Some research suggest
Millennials, as a group, are dealing with the highest unemployment rate since 2000.
Some experts believe that it’s because of the lack of experience and mistakes
they have made during a hiring process.

But there is another
side to this coin. Young people who have wide access to information of various
kinds are just much more demanding while searching for jobs.

So, if you are looking
to hire Millennials, it’s important to consider both their psychological and
practical needs, and to tailor your approach to their priorities.

Here are some ways to
create job descriptions that attract Millennials.

Since Millennials are
looking for comfortable conditions at their workplace, and they also want a
meaningful job to get fully engaged, consider including the following in your
job advertisement:

1. Highlight the impact they will be able to make while working for your company, for example, eco-friendliness or other ways to save the world.
2. Impress them quickly by a great design of your ad, a bright and catchy image, an interesting headline and a short vivid description.
3. Explain which perks and career growth opportunities your employees will get by staying with the company because Millennials do not believe that they will have any perspectives while staying in one place.
4. Specify the responsibilities, and accordingly, perks because too many requirements without any specifics do not seem to look appealing for Millennials.
5. Focus on the friendly working environment with teamwork and ways of spending free time together because a corporate culture meeting their values is quite attractive for young people.
6. Be accurate with your social media profile and try to support your company’s positive image with video clips, pictures of actual work-related projects and photos published there.
7. Mention the perks and try to be more specific about them by highlighting a strong and professional human resource team for millennials’ understanding that they are protected.
8. Focus on the tone and style of your job advertisements, and make them original, informal and fun without too many clichés or attempts to over-impress candidates.
9. Post your ads on social media picking out the platform which is the most popular one with your target audience — for example, Instagram.
10.  To avoid unnecessary repetitions and misunderstanding problems, you can also apply to some reputable writing services, such as Proessaywriter, to compose the job ad for you or to proofread your text.

While their own personal interests and psychological well-being are quite important for Millennials, they are also interested in the professionalism of your company or organization.

Millennials are
concerned about long-term goals and strategies of any  organization they plan to be a part of. If you
want to attract young talents who may become the most productive and ambitious
employees, it pays to:

• Be clear about the job title since Millennials who tend to be quite active in using search engines and social media, need this accuracy, optimization, and clarity to catch the eye and get them interested.
• Structure your job description providing potential applicants with the company’s overall mission, and then with the opportunities for professional development this mission suggests in terms of both hard and soft skills.
• Not be too focused on experience, but highlight competencies needed because most millennials are quite talented in many spheres, for example, they are technologically-savvy and able to learn fast;
• Avoid buzz words like ‘experienced’, ‘effective’, ‘qualified’ as well as some mocking things like ‘unicorn’ or ‘black belt’ which actually do not describe the real position, but may sound even offensive to Millennial job seekers.

Lastly, when dealing with Millennials as job candidates – the process of job application and further interviews should be as quick and meaningful as possible unless you want an applicant to find the very hiring process too frustrating.

Take home

It’s important to
emphasize once again that, if you want your job advertisement to be successful with
Millennials, keep their values and goals at the forefront of what you’re trying
to accomplish. 

Remember that this
generation is looking for a comfortable working environment, a great corporate
culture, the chance to do something meaningful and to grow.

A compelling job description that attracts Millennials should focus on the professional and personal needs of this group to get bright and dedicated candidates for your company.

The post How to write job descriptions that attract Millennials appeared first on HR Morning.

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