Make no mistake…no matter what kind of business you have and no matter what kind of emergency you think you could imagine encountering…you should always have an emergency plan in place way before any type of emergency actually occurs. An emergency plan provides peace of mind to all employees both prior to and during an emergency. Here are some things to keep in mind should you need to close your facility: What type of circumstances could lead to you needing to close your business? Who are the people capable of making the decision to close? Should you need to close for any reason, how will that decision be communicated to employees and the public (if need be)? Make sure this is included in your policy.  How will you handle employee compensation if your business is closed?  Can employees still do their job from home?  Determining the answers to these questions and more ahead of time will make an emergency situation as smooth as possible. In case you& ...

Traditionally, the HR department is seen as a necessary expense, but recently finance departments are taking a more active role in areas traditionally exclusive to HR. A recent survey by Towers Watson and Forbes Insights offers some data points on why this is happening. Over 300 HR and financial executives were surveyed during the research. Though finance executive agreed that setting the strategy for reward program was usually handled by the HR department, most of the financial executives indicated that they have become more involved in the budgeting of those programs. The survey also polled the future expectations of the financial executives. These questions indicated that a full one-third of the financial executives thought their role in the reward program strategy development will continue to expand and half now expect to have primary responsibility for the rewards programs in the near future. The majority of both the HR and finance executives felt their companies are lagging behind their competitors i ...

Here’s a question: If one of your employees, known to smoke pot, accidently set himself on fire, do you have to prove he was high to avoid the worker’s compensation claims? The answer may depend on what state your business resides in. In a recent workers compensation lawsuit, understanding the subtleties of the state workers comp laws helped the panel to arrive at the claim’s ruling. An employee of a marina in Lake Shoals, Arkansas tested positive for drug use after accidently setting himself on fire while using a risky technique to open a barrel of oil. The employee was previously instructed to use a pneumatic air chisel, but he elected to routinely use an acetylene torch instead. The barrel erupted and burned himself and a co-worker. The Arkansas appellate court ruled that the positive drug test following the incident, placed the burden of proof on the employee to show that drugs had nothing to do with the accident. The court said Arkansas law presumes that illegal substances caused a ...

The California Commission for Health, Safety and Workers’ Compensation recently released a study that determined that mandating safety standards under the state Injury and Illness Prevention Program (IIPP Program), did not change the safety rate of companies more than ones that voluntarily implement similar safety practices. In 1991, the IIPP program began requiring California companies to construct a written safety plan that focuses on safe work practices, employee safety training, along with many other areas of safety. The study presents data that describes an unexpected situation. Two-thirds of the companies that had IIPP violations in California consisted of companies that did not implement a written safety play, as mandated by the IIPP. But, those companies also tended to have better safety records than the companies that had no IIPP violations. Since the IIPP Program inception in 1991, California has see no improvement in its worker fatality rates. It seems companies are driven more by the f ...

Recent research published by Bersin and Associates Research illustrates the mismatch between your efforts to develop your employees and their own personal goals. Over 80% of companies offer tuition assistance. Many of the big companies (over 10,000 employees) spent upwards of $3,700 per year per employee on tuition reimbursements. But, over a quarter of the companies surveyed do not measure the effectiveness of their tuition assistance program in any way, possibly due to the view that tuition reimbursement is sacred and considered a standard benefit. The attitude seems to be, “If we’re going to offer it anyway, what’s the point in measuring it?” Common participation rates for engaged companies are as high as 10% of the workforce, while other companies hover as low as 1% participation. As more employees utilize the program, the overall visibility and perceived value of the program goes up. As a business owner, you can help with the participation of the tuition reimbursement programs ...