Human Capital Management Blog

Had the pleasure of attending the North Country Human Resource Association (NCHRA) 2016 One-Day Conference. Hats off to President Cherie Moore and her team for another job well-done. Let's check out some quick notes from the legal updates.

FMLA administration is another one of those administrative burdens demanding HR to manage more spreadsheets, conduct more regulatory upkeep, and consult with more lawyers. At the average cost of $78,000 to defend and FMLA suit, employers can't afford to get it wrong. The reality is that most employers are either not doing anything to track FMLA leave, or they are doing it poorly. With the onset of Paid Family Leave, employers are looking for ways to improve employee leave management and reduce the potential for FMLA abuses. For those looking for FMLA outsourcing or a technology solution to FMLA administration, here are five benefits of using FMLA software.

Benetech recently hosted a webinar entitled Improving Strategic Decision-Making: The Unsung Case for Human Capital Management Software. For those who attended I enjoyed our time and appreciate all the great feedback. There was a question posed by one of the attendees that I received after the fact, and saw it as a great question worth sharing with regard to the relationship between tactical HR and strategic HR.  Question: How does this (improving tactical decision-making) relate to strategic decision making? You are talking about tactical things. Strategic thinking is longer term, for instance, what kind of employees will we need for our new product line.

(2 minute read) The worst thing you ever want to hear in a difficult performance review is, "well, I never knew that was so important to you."  One of the biggest problems with performance reviews is that, too often, employees don't discover what their evaluation criteria is until the are sitting face to face and looking at below average scores. Of course they're frustrated with the performance review process. Growing consensus amongst leaders is that performance reviews must be part of an ongoing conversation. Here's a performance review best practice that I picked up in the Marine Corps, and it proved an effective way to drive a performance driven culture in my platoon.

  (2 minute read) Overtime reclassification is going to hit employers with some significant compliance costs in the first year. The DOL speculates that employers will spend $592.7 million to comply with the pending regulatory update. And that is before factoring administrative costs for managing overtime and tracking employee time.

(2 minute read) According to Department of Labor (DOL) regulations, all employers subject to FMLA regulations must display the DOL’s FMLA poster “prominently where it can be readily seen by employees and applicants for employment.” This past week, the DOL has issued an updated FMLA Poster… …I know, try hard to contain your excitement. Nonetheless, with increasing FMLA lawsuits, the following info is essential to employers subject to FMLA.

When considering a new HRIS or Human Capital Management Software purchase, increasing numbers of employers are looking for integrated HR systems, automated processes, and intuitive report writing. Understandably so—most have built their HR administration software suite from various different providers with wonky integrations. If you want a truly integrated HR technology, you have to take system-architecture into consideration, and here’s why. WARNING: This is not a terribly exciting read, but if you are serious about finding a truly integrated workforce solution, this is must-have information.

(1 minute read) Absenteeism has numerous associated costs to an employer. One report recorded the total percentage of payroll associated with lost productivity due to employee absences was as high as 6.2%. That’s roughly $310,000 per 100 employees. While we can’t eradicate employee absenteeism, employers can certainly apply some best practices in curbing FMLA abuses and improving FMLA management. Here are a few considerations.