HR Solutions Weblog

As an employer have you ever thought, “Do I have the correct employees in the job?”  Employees that are a natural fit are happy in their job, remain on the job longer and are most productive.  Often in business, clients promote employees into jobs because “they are doing well in their current role”  so there is assumption they can and should be promoted into something with more responsibility.  Unfortunately, more often than not, these employees fail in the new role, and management is baffled. 

Other times, as we start small businesses, we hire the people that we feel will be most loyal – friends and family.  That works fine for a few years until the business starts to grow; suddenly your college buddy who majored in “communications” is running your operations department.  All is fine when you are  putting out 1000 orders per year and your profit margin is 2%.  But now that you’ve been marketing you have taken on 20 new clients, your production is going to increase by 300%, your warehouse needs to grow by 40%, you need to hire 20 new production workers and some management personnel….can your old college buddy still handle the job? Probably not.  

The subject of web surfing doesn’t come up weekly from our clients, it comes up daily!  What are you employees doing while they should be working?  The numbers are staggering:

• 70% of all web traffic to Internet pornography sites occurs during the work hours of 9am-5pm.
• 64% of employees say they use the Internet for personal interest during
  working hours
• 37% of workers say they surf the Web constantly at work.
• 77.7% of  U.S. companies keep tabs on employees by checking their e-mail, Internet, phone calls, computer files, or by videotaping them at work.
• 63% of companies monitor workers' Internet connections and 47% store and review employee e-mail.
• 90% of employees feel the Internet can be addictive, and 41 percent admit to personal surfing at work for more than three hours per week.
• 60% of Security Breaches occur within the Company - behind the Firewall
• 30-40% of lost productivity is accounted for by cyber-slacking.
• 32.6% of workers surf the net with no specific objective; men are twice
  as likely as women.

Can you really afford to not be monitoring your business internet and e-mail usage?

Some, and I do emphasize some, of the criteria to classify an employee as Exempt:

·      Must be paid at least $455 per week

·      Primary duty must be to perform work requiring advanced knowledge, also defined as work that is “predominantely intellectual in character and which includes work requiring the consistent exercise of discretion and judgment

·      The advanced knowledge must be in a field of science or learning, AND it must be “customarily acquired by a prolonged course of specialized intellectual instruction” typically at the college level.

Again, the criteria above are just a starting point and it is always better to err on the side that benefits the employee, i.e. classifying them as non-exempt where they would be eligible for overtime.  Do you want to ensure your employees are properly classified to meet FLSA exempt and non-exempt status, contact HRSolutions, LLC for an audit of your jobs?

RELIGIOUS ACCOMMODATION IN THE WORKPLACE – HOW MUCH AND WHEN?

How should an employer respond when a religious accommodation is requested?   HR  Solutions, LLC suggests you discuss the employee's specific bona-fide  religious needs and accommodations options with them.  We also believe it is critical to completely understand the specific religious requirements of the employee’s religion – all easy information to access via internet or a phone call.  However, employees do not have to justify or prove their religious belief to the employer; but the employer is required to accommodate – subject to undue hardship – any of the employee’s sincerely held religious beliefs. When considering potential accommodations, you should evaluate any impact an accommodation would have on your company and determine whether it fully eliminates the conflict.   Let’s review the law:

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of l964 (“Title VII”) prohibits employers from discriminating against individuals because of their religion in hiring, firing, and other terms and conditions of employment. Title VII also requires employers to reasonably accommodate the religious practices of an employee or prospective employee, unless to do so would create an undue hardship upon the employer.  This means that:

• Employers may not treat employees more or less favorably because of their religion.
• Employees cannot be required to participate—or refrain from participating—in a religious activity as a condition of employment.
• Employers must reasonably accommodate employees’ bona-fide held religious practices unless doing so would impose an undue hardship on the employer.
• Employers must take steps to prevent religious harassment of their employees.

But the burden to accommodate isn't always entirely on the employer!  A good-faith attempt to meet their religious requirements must be made by the employee within their religious guidelines first.  Note that employers aren't required to give the employee his preferred accommodation just to meet religious needs.  Often, a special request for religious accommodation is too burdensome for a small business and a reasonable “half-way” request may be all the company is capable of giving.  It is then the employee’s responsibility to be flexible as possible in a mutual good faith negotiation with the employer.  

Religious accommodations for work schedules
The most common religious accommodation conflicts occur over work schedules.  You may need to deviate from your standard scheduling practices slightly;  however, I wouldn’t do so until you have verified that this is a true bona-fide requirement of the religion.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that you need not violate a valid labor contract, force other employees to work undesirable shifts, or hire substitute or replacement workers if that accommodation would require more than a minimal monetary cost.