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This is a sequel to the earlier article on crisis management and contingency planning in HR management. In earlier literature, we started analyzing the approach to managing crises and contingency planning in staff management. We started off with establishing communication with employees in anticipation of and during the occurrence of any crisis. Below are additional factors to consider.

Chain of Command:

There should be an agreed-upon and well-publicized policy on who will take control in an emergency and where they will be located. The chain of command should detail who will be responsible for communicating with employees, customers, and the press as appropriate. Similarly, identify not just the contract people necessary to fill the chain of command but also any professional training needed in specialist areas, such as PR and media communication. If employees are prepared to handle a crisis, they will be better able to deal with this. With proper preparation, you are less likely to end up with stress disorders, absenteeism, or an embarrassing portrayal of the incident in the media.

Business Continuation:

It is vital to draw up plans to allow for the business to continue operating. Such plans should consider all of your likely worst-case scenarios and how you may handle these.

What are the essential components of your business where continuity is vital? What’s the staff succession plan in that particular department? The continuity plan should minimize any disruption and economic loss in the event of significant problems. Consider not only major catastrophes but also smaller events that are more likely to happen. For instance, if your building is evacuated by the police officer or fire brigade and staff cannot get back in, what help can HR offer staff members who cannot access their money, keys, phones, and travel cards? Do you have emergency communication points people can call to get quick, accurate information and assistance?

In the event of not being able to use your normal premises for whatever reason, an alternative emergency venue should be agreed upon in advance. This could be a hotel, a town hall, or even working from home. If this is going to last for some time, as is the case with COVID-19, there will be the need to make alternative arrangements available in the long term.

There could also be a crisis where the health and safety of employees will be paramount, and although the workplace remains intact, there are other risks to be considered. An example would be the epidemic of infectious diseases. Not only would you face severe absence levels for a prolonged period, but your responsibilities under health and safety guidelines at work would also mean steps may need to be taken to reduce the risk of infection to staff and those with whom they come into contact.

Lack of preparation for losing staff is the single biggest gap in most business continuity plans. Consider the impact on your business on the loss of staff, identify the critical services you need to concentrate your resources on, and ensure you have sufficient trained staff to cover for missing colleagues.

Data Backup and Technology Failures:

The possibility of losing information held on a computer should be accounted for in advance. A backup held off-site is the safest way to avoid losing everything in the event of a crisis. This can be done in a secure and confidential manner that complies with data protection rules.

Consider what to do if your main server goes down or if your telephone system fails. Can you contact people via another means?

Support and Counseling:

If a crisis does occur, you will want to have mechanisms in place to help your employees deal with the ramifications. Do you have staff who are trained to give bad news? Are they aware of the likely normal reactions to trauma? Do you have an employee assistance program in place with 24-7 coverage?

Ensure that you have emergency procedures in place to help anyone who may be traumatized by any crisis, and don’t overlook the human aspect of those who carry on. For instance, many people were extremely nervous about traveling by tube following the London bombings. Providing counseling and support can make a huge difference in terms of assisting people in getting back to work, but simple, inexpensive gestures such as offering more flexible working hours or taxes where necessary can also help reduce stress enormously in such cases.

Test Your Plans:

Clearly, we wouldn’t recommend anything too drastic to test your contingency plans, but you should ensure that employees are kept familiar with them and that your plans are regularly tested to ensure they are robust and active. Presenting departments with scenarios and then carrying out test procedures once per year can help iron out any problems that may be present in your plans.

Review and Update When Necessary:

As with all procedures, review them regularly and fine-tune them so that if a crisis does occur, you are adequately prepared. Be aware of new risks that face your organization. Hindsight may be a wonderful thing, but if possible, it is better not to learn through it.

Further Information:

The following websites provide helpful, practical advice on emergency planning matters.

• M15
• Centre For the Protection of National Infrastructure
• Also, see the Gov.UK website for dealing with terrorism and national emergencies and foreign travel advice.
• UK Resilience
• COVID-19 guidance for employers and businesses is produced by the Department for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and Public Health England.

Legal Consideration:

An employer that fails to safeguard the health and safety of its workers and visitors can face criminal prosecution leading to imprisonment, and if the case goes to a crown court, an unlimited fine may apply.

The HR unit in particular is obliged to take the lead in ensuring the health and safety of employees and visitors alike. Some of these arrangements are backed by specific legislation in respective countries. The UK, for instance, has the Management of Health and Safety Work Regulations 1999 law which requires employers to consider all potential dangers to employees and visitors and conduct a risk assessment. In this regard, HR is required to take appropriate preventative measures and establish appropriate procedures to follow should there be a serious danger to people working in the business.

Author:

Phidelia Johnson is a global Human Resources Practitioner with eighteen years of leadership success. With a focus on streamlining Human Resources administration, she’s well-equipped to find the right solution to a myriad of concerns. Her experience as a commercial business leader gives her a unique ability to advocate for both the employer and the employee.
In her down time, Phidelia is a master of her kitchen, creating wonderful dishes filled with passion and flavor. If she’s not cooking delicious food, she’s stretched out with a good book. She hopes to use her experience to help others, guide company leaders to best practices, and help build better professionals and stronger organizations.

Human resource officers play a vital role during mergers or acquisitions. The function of the HR department is to collect and analyze data from the target organization and assess whether or not the decision to merge is viable. To reach a decision, HR personnel will collect and analyze information related to HR and subsequently identify issues, risks, costs, opportunities, and potential savings.

The HR leadership of both companies should be able to quickly develop strategies to help the companies achieve the synergies they are looking for. Before a merger or acquisition takes place, the HR managers of both firms should advise management to prepare a roadmap in advance so that the merging companies can stick to it as the M&A process goes through.

The strategy should emphasize the organizational communication structure, layoffs (if any), and an amalgamation of corporate cultures. This initiative on the part of HR leaders helps management conform to a specific set of objectives, thus removing all the misunderstandings and differences that may arise in the future.

By expanding its interventions, the HR department of any organization can facilitate a successful M&A. Since HR covers the employees of an organization and deals with critical issues related to employees, the involvement of HR professionals is imperative for successful mergers and acquisitions. Thus, during an M&A deal, HR plays the role of a catalyst as well as a coach to enable the employees of the merging companies to work together collectively and creatively.

What Are the Potential HR Issues During Mergers and Acquisitions?

From implementing new company policies to navigating talent retention, here is a list of the leading HR challenges you may face during the merger and acquisition process:

• Assessing cultural differences
• Downsizing and talent retention
• Maintaining benefits and contracts
• Working under the new business regulations

1. Assessment of Cultural Differences

When two organizations merge, there may be an issue of cultural conflict. One company’s focus may be on sales, while the focus of another company may be on customer service or product innovation. Even the decision-making process can be different, with one adopting a top-down approach while the other has a more democratic approach. It is the job of HR to determine the compatibility between the two entities and then integrate them into a cohesive whole.

The challenge is getting two different work cultures to click. HR needs to analyze demographics, work practices, and even company values ​​to build a better foundation for a smooth transition. Employee conflict issues or situations where work processes lead to conflict also need to be addressed quickly and systematically.

Essentially, HR needs to develop a good understanding of both work cultures, particularly concerning any sociology cultural differences between the two organizations in different locations.

2. Downsizing and Talent Retention

Each merger and acquisition process is different. In some cases, there will be no changes in personnel; in others, the changes can be drastic.

When organizations branch out into overseas territories, acquire new facilities, or merge with other corporations, there is always a need for either downsizing or talent retention. This will usually lead to a reorganization within the company. The main challenge, then, is to adapt to this restructuring so that the key players remain within the company, still enjoying the benefits and work processes they used to experience. It is also about ensuring job security.

Negative employee feedback is a common occurrence during the M&A process because change can sometimes feel threatening. HR must be open in its communication of planned changes and build trust within the transitional process. If you’re expanding into overseas markets, you don’t want to be weakened by considerable losses in key talent who have the necessary knowledge to operate in that market.

3. Benefits and Contract Retention

One of the main challenges HR faces during the merger and acquisition process is maintaining employee benefits.

This may include many different aspects such as:

• Health insurance
• Annual leave
• Pension allowances
• Childcare subsidies

These are complex issues for HR professionals because each person within an organization is different and requires different treatment depending on their background, position, and employee role.

It is necessary to use proactive financial management during mergers and acquisitions. While legal and finance teams prepare records of contracts, payment terms, and accounting history, HR needs to review contracts for employees to ensure they are consistent with any new infrastructure.

4. Working Within the New Business Regulations

A critical exercise for HR is to gain a comprehensive understanding of the new laws and regulations that are found in a new market.

Trade laws, tariffs, and any legal fees associated with mergers and acquisitions are essential to understand how to navigate smoothly.

Fortunately, within the M&A process you will be taking in a wealth of knowledge about these new terms and working within them for a long time, so ideally you can try to commit them to memory for future use.

Similarly, HR needs to be aware that both labor and employment requirements change from country to country, meaning any contracts for migrant workers need to change to reflect that.

For example, many European countries maintain a fourteen-week maternity leave allowance for employees, but the US doesn’t require such leave.

In emerging markets, regulations have the potential to be misdefined, so it is more important for HR representatives to remain adaptive and proactive within their knowledge and practices in order to maintain compliance.

Obviously, HR has a lot on its plate when it comes to mergers and acquisitions. However, it is possible to maintain a successful M&A process by obtaining outside assistance—especially help pertaining to mergers and acquisitions and particularly in foreign markets. That’s the job of a global PEO, and you can discover the vital work they do in our guide.

Other Issues for HR Executives in Mergers and Acquisitions

The Top Ten Issues in Merger and Acquisition Transactions

• The Purchase of Stock
• The Sale of Assets
• The Merger
• Cash vs. Equity
• Working Capital Adjustment
• Escrow and Earnings
• Representations and Warranties
• Target Compensation
• Joint and Multiple Liabilities
• Closing Conditions

What Is a Significant Reason for the Failure of Many Mergers and Acquisitions on the Part of the HR Department?

Often cited root causes for such a high failure rate include not being vendors, culture shock at the time of integration, and poor communication from the beginning to the end of the M&A process.

What Are the Benefits of Mergers and Acquisitions?

Benefits from mergers and acquisitions include:

• Obtaining quality employees or additional skills, knowledge of your industry or sector, and other business intelligence.
• Acquiring access to money or valuable assets for new development.
• Having access to a lifeline in the event that your business is performing poorly.
• Reaching a broader customer base and increasing your market share.

Stages of Mergers and Acquisitions

Keep in mind that there are three stages in mergers and acquisitions: the run-up, the transition, and the integration. HR has a vital role to play in each of these stages.

During the first phase, perform your hard and soft due diligence. This should involve identifying cultural challenges from the outset (ideally long before the deal is closed) and the processes needed to address them. Explain the type of integration required. Clarify the levels of HR planning needed; for example, participating in “100-day plans” and designing the new organization. Begin planning how to deal with the “people mechanics” of mergers before the transition begins.

During the second phase, structure and staffing organizations should articulate roles and responsibilities for finding and retaining key talent to implement a specific policy and process to enable appropriate high-performance work processes. Structure and staffing overall provide training as necessary and track progress against transition goals. Ensure transition values and principles are followed in all transition activities. Build a culture that supports business strategy, policies, and procedures for all people to support the new organization’s business objectives more directly and quickly strengthen its culture by driving employee behavior toward crucial goals. Deal with redundancy and support line managers as needed.

During the third phase, continue to build critical processes for a newly aligned high-performance culture, ensuring, for example, that performance management systems and reward management systems act as coaches and mentors to senior management while making sure that the line managers are the role models for the desired behavior. Combat potential resignations following a merger by continuing to address the issue of employee retention in the new organization’s culture. This can be done, for example, by monitoring the organization’s strengths through survey design and working towards a strategic HR agenda, including communication of the evaluation based on the Strategy Support Team Development Integration Success ACT. Act as a knowledge hub, spreading good practice around the organization.

HR Due Diligence Checklist:

• General Human Resources
• Contracts
• HR Policies
• Profit
• Compliance
• Post-Merger Integration

Author:

Phidelia Johnson is a global Human Resources Practitioner with eighteen years of leadership success. With a focus on streamlining Human Resources administration, she’s well-equipped to find the right solution to a myriad of concerns. Her experience as a commercial business leader gives her a unique ability to advocate for both the employer and the employee.
In her down time, Phidelia is a master of her kitchen, creating wonderful dishes filled with passion and flavor. If she’s not cooking delicious food, she’s stretched out with a good book. She hopes to use her experience to help others, guide company leaders to best practices, and help build better professionals and stronger organizations.

Questions about workplace ethics have no single or simple answer, as any answers will depend upon situation specifics. Even issues that seem relatively straight forward can present numerous hidden traps, both legal and ethical, to the people trying to resolve them.

To make things even more complicated, HR practitioners have well-defined professional responsibilities but simultaneously have responsibilities as private citizens, work colleagues, and maybe as a friend. When an ethics question arises, HR professionals need to understand exactly what role they are playing. As a representative of the company, you have one set of responsibilities; as a concerned private citizen, you have another. Situations are easier to navigate when these two converge, but that’s not always the case.

According to Laura Sack, a New York City-based partner and co-chair of the East Coast employment practice of law firm Davis Wright Tremaine, “it’s a very tough topic” in an HR professional’s world. These situations are not always black or white, but the questions you face may still have legal implications.

Make Boundaries Clear

The stakes involved in ethical questions are often high, if not for the company, then for the employees and managers involved. For instance, what would an HR professional generally do when he promises to hold something in confidence but that pledge proves impossible to keep? John Boyce, vice president in charge of human resources for enhanced network provider Vail Systems Inc. in Deer field, faced that conundrum at his previous employment while training new workers at a refinery. He initially told them he would keep any safety violations they witnessed before their next training session in confidence so they could discuss them openly. Expecting to hear stories of minor issues, such as goggles not being worn at work, he was rather stunned to hear two workers describe how they were instructed to vent poisonous gas into the air—a clear violation of company policy and safety procedures that could have killed them. Taking the two men aside, he told them that he had no idea of how their lives had been put into jeopardy and that despite the earlier assurance of confidentiality, he was left with no choice under the circumstances than to report the incident. When the employees objected, an apologetic Boyce responded, “You wouldn’t want to work at a place where these things are not reported.” Although he was able to transfer one of the employees to another department, the second had to remain with his original team, which he described a year later as “going through hell.”

The lesson he learned was that HR professionals have to set boundaries around what “confidentiality” means. While he had promised confidentiality to the employees he was training, keeping that promise would have resulted in potentially putting the lives of the affected employees in harm’s way, unbeknownst to the management.

Next Course of Action

Many common situations that confront HR professionals may seem like ethical dilemmas but are actually professional judgment calls. For example, if an HR staff member suspects an employee is the victim of domestic violence, are they then obligated to call the police?

What if an employee asks to forgo a pay increase because accepting it would mean enduring a cut in social services benefits?

What if another is using a parking placard intended for people with disabilities and bragging to coworkers that it actually belongs to her brother-in-law and she only borrowed it for her own convenience?

In such an instance, does HR have an obligation to look into such matters?

The answer varies; HR must first determine whether the issue involves the employer or not, and then they must decide if it is appropriate or necessary to get involved.

To do that, the following issues have to be critically examined:

• To my knowledge, is there a potential legal issue for the company at stake?
• Is someone safe or are they in jeopardy?
• Does this conflict with the company’s culture, mission, or policies or what we expect of our employees?

If one answers in the affirmative to the aforementioned questions, then an action on the issue should be imminent. What exactly should that action be? The above examples cannot be classified as ethical issues for HR but rather as judgment calls for HR to make. Another school of thought sees the issue as not being that simple, however; “ethical” versus “legal” is a false dichotomy, as many issues that have a legal twist also border on ethics concerns. In that case, the point of contention is whether or not the legal issue is sufficiently clear and pressing as to make an ethical decision seem irrelevant. For example, Mac Donald said, “Where I live, there is a legal duty to report suspected child abuse. If an HR professional comes to suspect that the legal duty is sufficiently strong, then no one should need to engage in nuanced ethical reasoning. If you are not sure whether there are legal issues, you need to consult a lawyer and bear in mind that the areas that first seem gray often are better understood when they are clarified and you learn more about them.”

Many ethical dilemmas depend on a precision of fact. This is where anxiety sets in when an HR practitioner hears that an employee is somehow involved in a domestic violence situation, for example.

From the outset, it is abundantly apparent that there is a thin line between ethics and legality. HR practitioners must be sensitive to the boundary between the two in order not to dent the image of the organization while remaining in good standing with the laws governing their jurisdiction and industry.

Author:

Phidelia Johnson is a global Human Resources Practitioner with eighteen years of leadership success. With a focus on streamlining Human Resources administration, she’s well-equipped to find the right solution to a myriad of concerns. Her experience as a commercial business leader gives her a unique ability to advocate for both the employer and the employee.
In her down time, Phidelia is a master of her kitchen, creating wonderful dishes filled with passion and flavor. If she’s not cooking delicious food, she’s stretched out with a good book. She hopes to use her experience to help others, guide company leaders to best practices, and help build better professionals and stronger organizations.

What Are Human Resources?

“Human resources” refers to the individuals who make up the workforce of an entire organization. The term is also applied to business sectors or even entire countries when it comes to labor economics. Human resources also refers to a function within organizations, the purpose of which is to implement policies and strategies when it comes to the management of individuals. Human resources as a title is often abbreviated to the acronym “HR.”

Why Do HR Professionals Need Legal Knowledge?

There is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all HR position. Some HR managers are entirely responsible for hiring, while others focus on employee development, salary, and benefits. These professionals are frequently faced with on-the-spot judgments that might have serious legal ramifications. Understanding basic HR-related regulations gives them increased confidence to make these decisions.
In order for an organization to avoid costly legal fines and other penalties, compliance with employment laws is essential. Below are the employment laws that every HR professional should know.

LAW DETAILS:

1. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act is administered by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and covers an employer who has fifteen (15) or more employees. It prohibits discrimination against any individual on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.

2. FLSA

It establishes minimum wage ($7.25 per hour in 2013), overtime pay (one and one half times regular rate of pay), and child labor standards. Waiting periods, on-call requirements, training/meetings, and travel time as well as rest periods, meals, and breaks are all covered under this law.

3. FMLA

The Department of Labor administers the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) that allows employees who have worked at least 1,250 hours in the previous year to take unpaid, job-protected leave for specified family and medical reasons. Watch the free ERC webinar on FMLA Serious Health Conditions for more information.

4. ADA

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is enforced by four federal agencies with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in charge of private employment laws. Title I of the ADA prohibits discrimination against qualified individuals with disabilities in job application procedures, hiring, firing, advancement, compensation, job training, and other terms, conditions, and privileges of employment. An employer must also make a reasonable adjustment for a qualified applicant or employee’s known impairment.

5. ADEA

The US Department of Labor’s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is in charge of enforcing the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA). The ADEA forbids discrimination in hiring, promotions, salaries, training, benefits, layoffs, terminations, and other employment terms and conditions against anyone beyond the age of forty. Individuals under forty years of age are not protected by this legislation.

6. OSHA

The Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) is the principal federal statute that oversees workplace health and safety. It ensures that employees work in a safe and healthy workplace devoid of known hazards such as poisonous substances, high noise levels, mechanical threats, heat or cold stress, or unhygienic circumstances.

7. PPACA

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) was signed into law in 2010 by President Barack Obama. The bill establishes health insurance exchanges and increases Medicaid eligibility and Medicare coverage, among other things. It also introduces an individual mandate and an employer mandate that compels all individuals to purchase healthcare coverage.

8. Workers’ Compensation Act

Ohio’s Workers’ Compensation Act establishes a system whereby employees are provided with reasonable accommodation if their injuries result from their employment. Employers contribute money to a common state insurance fund that compensates workers injured while on the job. Employers are immune from full liability if an employee is injured while employed.

9. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act is administered by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and covers an employer who has fifteen (15) or more employees. It prohibits discrimination against any individual on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.

10. Equal Pay Act

The Equal Pay Act (EPA) is administered by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and prohibits sex-based wage discrimination between men and women in the same establishment who perform jobs that require substantially equal skill, effort, and responsibility under similar working conditions.

11. Pregnancy Discrimination Act

The Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) is administered by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and prohibits sex discrimination on the basis of pregnancy or a pregnancy-related condition. Women who are pregnant or affected by pregnancy-related conditions (except elective abortions) must be treated in the same manner as other applicants or employees with similar abilities or limitations. This law applies to employers with fifteen (15) or more employees.

12. Ohio Pregnancy Discrimination Act

Even if a business is not covered by FMLA, under Ohio’s law (Ohio Administrative Code Chapter 4112-5-05(G)), female employees are entitled to take leave for a “reasonable period of time” for pregnancy and childbirth. In addition, the Commission has determined that at the end of the leave, the employee must be reinstated to “her original position or to a position of like status and pay, without loss of service credits or other benefits.”

13. NLRA

The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) is administered by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and defines the rights of employees and employers including their right to collectively bargain and engage in concerted activities such as grievances, strikes, etc. for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid and protection.

14. EPPA

The Employee Polygraph Protection Act (EPPA) is administered by the Department of Labor and prohibits most employers from using lie detector tests during employment or pre-employment screenings. Employers generally cannot require or request any employee or job applicant to take a lie detector test. They also cannot terminate or discipline an employee who refuses to take a lie detector test, nor can they discriminate against a job applicant for refusing to take one.

15. ERISA

The Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) is administered by the Department of Labor and protects the assets of individuals so that funds placed in retirement plans during their working lives will be there when they retire. ERISA only requires that those who establish plans must meet certain minimum standards; however, it does not require any employer to establish a pension plan.

16. COBRA

The Department of Labor administers the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) that gives workers and their families who lose their health benefits the option of continuing group health benefits provided by their group health plan for a limited time under certain circumstances such as voluntary or involuntary job loss, a reduction in hours worked, a transition between jobs, death, divorce, and other life events. Individuals who meet certain criteria may be compelled to pay the entire premium for coverage up to 102 percent of the plan’s cost.

17. FCRA

The Federal Trade Commission is in charge of enforcing the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) that governs the collection, transmission, and use of consumer information. The legislation guarantees the truth, impartiality, and privacy of personal information held by credit-reporting organizations. Anyone requesting a report must show that the information will be used for a legal purpose before it is released.

18. GINA

The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) is administered by the EEOC and prohibits the use of genetic information in health insurance and employment. The act prohibits group health plans and health insurers from denying coverage to a healthy individual or charging that person higher premiums based solely on a genetic predisposition to developing a disease in the future. The legislation also bars employers from using individuals’ genetic information when making hiring, firing, job placement, or promotion decisions.

19. HIPAA

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is administered by the Department of Health & Human Services and requires health care providers and organizations to develop and follow procedures that ensure the confidentiality and security of protected health information when it is transferred, received, handled, or shared. The law also reduces health care fraud and abuse, mandates industry-wide standards for health care information on electronic billing and other processes, and requires the protection and confidential handling of protected health information.

20. WARN

The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) is administered by the Department of Labor and protects workers, their families, and communities by requiring most employers with one hundred (100)or more employees to provide notification of sixty calendar days in advance of plant closings and mass layoffs. Faltering companies, unforeseeable business circumstances, and natural disasters are exceptions to the zero-day notice with the burden of proof on the employer.

21. USERRA

The Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) is administered by the Veterans’ Employment and Training Service (VETS) and protects service members’ rights to be reemployed when they return from a period of service in the uniformed services.Under this law, service members need to be reinstated to the same job, pay, and benefits that they would have attained if they had not been absent for military service. The law also protects service members from discrimination in hiring and promotion.

22. Immigration and Nationality Act

The Immigration and Nationality Act governs nearly all immigration issues. The law prohibits employers from discriminating against job applicants based on immigration status. It specifies the conditions for aliens to work in the United States on a temporary or permanent basis.The law also includes provisions that address employment eligibility and employment verification, including requiring employers to verify employees’ identity and work eligibility on the I-9 form.

23. Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (“Dodd-Frank Act”)

The Dodd-Frank Act requires public companies to comply with several disclosure and shareholder-voting provisions related to compensation practices. The law also provided the Securities and Exchange Commission with the authority to make rules and provisions regarding these requirements including say-on-pay, say-on-pay frequency, shareholder disclosure, and approval of “golden parachute” compensation.

What Should Evey HR Professional Know About Compliance Laws?

Failure to maintain compliance with any of the laws listed above can result in penalties against the employer or can even result in the employee bringing a lawsuit against the employer for damages. Compliance with various employment laws can take on a variety of forms, such as providing proof of insurance, submitting reports, or taking timely action upon identifying a law that is not being complied with. As a result, it is essential for every HR professional to not only know what conduct is required in order to ensure compliance with a law but also to know how to demonstrate compliance and keep appropriate records to protect a business. Staying on top of compliance laws and their requirements can help prevent problems well before they arise and ultimately ensure every employee’s safety and security within the company.

“But regardless of individual job function,” Briana Hyde, a lecturer at the Northeastern College of Professional Studies(Boston, Massachusetts), says, “compliance is a key responsibility of every HR role. The law touches every profession that falls under the HR umbrella in some way.”

Author:

Phidelia Johnson is a global Human Resources Practitioner with eighteen years of leadership success. With a focus on streamlining Human Resources administration, she’s well-equipped to find the right solution to a myriad of concerns. Her experience as a commercial business leader gives her a unique ability to advocate for both the employer and the employee.
In her down time, Phidelia is a master of her kitchen, creating wonderful dishes filled with passion and flavor. If she’s not cooking delicious food, she’s stretched out with a good book. She hopes to use her experience to help others, guide company leaders to best practices, and help build better professionals and stronger organizations.

Managing leaders is essentially when a direct report, through a positive relationship, is able to make their supervisor’s job easier. It’s all about creating value for your boss, and in return, they guide you to be the best possible employee. Many professionals endorse “managing up” as a winning exercise for professional balance and advancement. It has been dubbed a definitive answer for maintaining a powerful and effective relationship with your manager.

The Harvard Business Review defines “managing up” as “being the simplest worker you could be and developing cost on your boss and your company.” Managing in a conventional experience usually includes a downward direction of communication; for example, a directive from the executive level to rank-and-file employees. Organizational theory indicates that managing up, however, is just as vital to an individual’s career.
We all realize that trying to control people can be challenging, and lots of managers these days are overworked, burnt-out, and required to address the competing needs of dealing with humans and executing tasks on stringent timelines. Managing people can be overwhelming, and top managers are often ill-prepared to address the complexities of handling their personalities and their various views and ethics due to the fact that, well, humans are complicated. I know that managing people is complicated. However, I also understand that having an excellent supervisor is the most crucial distinction between a flourishing and toxic place of business. Most importantly, we’ve all heard the famous phrase, “People don’t quit their jobs—they quit their bosses.” This is exactly why some people want higher managers and gifted personnel to try and “manage” their superiors.
Managing up is usually recommended as an approach to make use of while handling supervisors who are incompetent, hands-off, indecisive, overwhelming, or who offer very conflicting directives. For example, if a supervisor is regularly not able to finish their duties, it’s regularly recommended that an employee should volunteer to tackle some of their bosses’ workload, as though that employee doesn’t have enough on their plate already. For a manager who gives you work at the last minute without forewarning and expects it finished on a short deadline, it’s often advised that the employee should strive to preempt their boss’s wishes, as though they aren’t already experiencing a cognitive overload with remembering their own personal responsibilities.

No matter what kind of boss you have, professional specialists propose that managing up ensures your boss doesn’t absolutely weigh you down and that the company’s operations aren’t impacted. This premise, on a basic level, serves to prioritize capitalism and productivity over a worker’s mental health. We need gifted personnel to “manage up” incompetent and disorganized managers who are incapable of dealing with their own responsibilities, and we need that person to no longer be liable for handling their personal responsibilities as well as overexerting themselves by trying to manage their manager. I would argue that managing up is inherently inequitable, as it prioritizes the wishes of one’s supervisor over the worker. Instead of acknowledging that bosses simply need to be more effective, we would rather place the onus on the worker to be the savior of the company.

We may mask it as an exercise to help one’s value be acknowledged higher up in the event that they successfully navigate a way to control their boss. However, we then dismiss the extra emotional and mental toll a worker must endure to perform their responsibilities and be the ethical compass of the organization. We fail to understand the cognitive load it takes to anticipate your boss’s whims, take on the entirety that they want you to do, keep them accountable, and handle the strain one can experience by constantly taking over the responsibilities of their supervisor.

Career specialists who assert that it’s a wonderful professional exercise without advocating for the employees—who should be making extra money in the event that they are handling and doing the work of their boss—are missing a vital part of the picture. It is unjust to have a worker managing up without due compensation solely for the sake of higher morale for the company. Better morale doesn’t pay the bills.

I am not arguing that personnel shouldn’t strive to have positive and efficient relationships with their supervisors—developing a strong working relationship takes work on both ends. But this relationship shouldn’t cause an unbalanced workload or result in a worker doing their boss’s tasks. Creating a functional relationship may be accomplished through transparency, by brazenly sharing what you each want from the relationship to feel supported, and by placing clear boundaries.

Managing up is inherently exploitative, and we want to emphasize caution against suggesting this as a means of enhancing the functionality within an organization. Instead, we want higher managers with less insane workloads—or additional managers to lighten the load—so that employees can focus on their own responsibilities.

Author:

Phidelia Johnson is a global Human Resources Practitioner with eighteen years of leadership success. With a focus on streamlining Human Resources administration, she’s well-equipped to find the right solution to a myriad of concerns. Her experience as a commercial business leader gives her a unique ability to advocate for both the employer and the employee.
In her down time, Phidelia is a master of her kitchen, creating wonderful dishes filled with passion and flavor. If she’s not cooking delicious food, she’s stretched out with a good book. She hopes to use her experience to help others, guide company leaders to best practices, and help build better professionals and stronger organizations.

What’s a one-on-one meeting?

A one-to-one meeting is a regular check-in between two people in a company, typically a supervisor and an employee. It’s used to offer comments, keep each other in loop, remedy troubles, and help the participants grow in their roles.

The unfastened-shape, employee-centered nature of this meeting that goes beyond surface-level updates is what makes the one-to-one special. It’s often considered the most crucial meeting you can have because it lays the groundwork for a trusting and efficient work relationship.

What are one-on-one meetings used for?

When asked why they arrange one-on-one conferences, managers list numerous reasons:

• To recognize and remove roadblocks
• To use as a pulse check or check-in (essential for employee engagement and a great way to build consensus)
• To receive a status report (How are specific initiatives progressing?)
• To use as professional development or overall performance management (assisting their direct reports in setting goals and achieving professional objectives)

The worker’s perspective covers much of the same ground:

• To set goals for improvement
• To request positive feedback and increased control
• To gain knowledge of a person’s management style and get a sense of how they like to paint professional improvement, goal setting, and overall performance critiques.

The Advantages of One-To-One Conferences:

Advantages for Employees

As an employee, one-to-one meetings help you get the feedback and steering you need in order to achieve success in your position and further develop in your profession. Your manager will become an ally for your success by listening to you and providing timely guidance.

One-to-one meetings give you the protection of constantly knowing where you stand based on steady remarks from your manager. If you need to correct a path, you will probably realize it through this meeting and be able to repair it in time. Additionally, one-to-ones create space to bring up things that might be tough to deliver at some point during busy workdays.

Advantages for Managers

As a manager, one-to-ones assist you in monitoring your team members’ improvement, resolving issues early on, and enhancing employee retention.

One-to-one conferences are also a fantastic way to get well-timed comments that assist you in emerging as a better supervisor. By way of asking your team members how you could better guide them, you get useful information on what’s expected of you as a supervisor and discover ways you could improve your performance.

Advantages for Businesses

The effort managers put into connecting with their crew members determines whether or not the business achieves success! A healthy one-to-one meeting culture isn’t always the most efficient approach for individuals, but it can significantly affect the bottom line of your commercial enterprise.

There are three steps to understanding how these meetings can be improved:

1. Before Your Meeting

Set a Meeting Agenda

It’s important to have a final result in mind before your conferences. For example, it could be a task you want to delegate to try to build a stronger bond with your team members. The motive, a hard-and-fast structure or template, and planned points in your meetings are important to ensure your conference will head in the right direction.

Ask the Right Meeting Questions
Prepare and share open-ended questions with employees such as “What challenges have you confronted this week?” or “What do you want to discuss in our one-to-one session?” In this manner, your team members can improve any key issues ahead of the meeting and you will have an idea for the topic of the meeting.

Assemble Observations
Giving constructive remarks is arguably one of the trickiest elements of a managerial function. While comments are great when given as soon as possible, one-to-one meetings provide an appropriately personal environment for handing over pieces of feedback that you might not want to provide in a busy workplace environment.

Determine Your Expectations
Your employees should understand what excellence looks like in their functions and the way they are able to develop. Establishing your expectations around everyday duties and the content of your one-on-one meetings is critical.

2. Throughout the Meeting

Start by Checking In

It’s a good idea to start with an easy check-in. Constructing an open environment will inspire honesty, let you pick out any demanding situations inside your crew regarding morale, and cope with any non-public issues your group members might be facing in the context of work. Sincerely checking in with your staff can help you build rapport and a human connection that lays a foundation of appreciation for your crew.

Keep it Brief
Considering that 67% of personnel say spending an excessive amount of time in conferences distracts them from doing their jobs, it’s essential to keep meeting concise, have clear objectives in mind, and ensure meetings are always essential and efficient. Unless you have something meaty to discuss, it’s a fantastic idea to carry out one-to-one conferences quickly. Staying centered and on topic for about half an hour (or much less) can assist in maintaining your focus.

Be Present
Make sure to give your one-on-one meetings your undivided attention. Members of your group desire to feel valued and heard, especially when loneliness and burnout are rife in today’s work climate. It’s well worth thinking about putting your smartphone on airplane mode and turning off inbox notifications to ensure you are present and practicing active listening.

3. After Meetings

Comply with the Results

Whether or not you observe or delegate to your group members, consolidating your notes with a summary and action plan after your meeting can assist in making certain each participant honors the agreements made in your conference.

Keep Going with Your Timetable
Your one-to-one conferences need to have a consistent presence in your schedule, and you and your direct reviews should prioritize them. They can be done weekly or bi-weekly—whichever works well for you. Open conversation is vital to building a healthy running relationship with and growing a feeling of pride and reason within your crew.

Making plans, getting ready, and handling your one-on-one meetings wisely could have a massive impact on morale and productivity. Identifying each person’s strengths and skills can lead to better collaborations, which can free up time in order for you to focus on your duties as a supervisor.

The use of one-on-one conferences will help you identify what team participants are exceptional and what they enjoy. This makes them feel extra engaged and improves your chances of maintaining expertise for the long term.

One-to-One Meeting Hints for HR

Get Everyone on Board
A one-to-one meeting culture is only viable if you have everybody, both managers and team members, on board. Human beings need to want to do something because they see that it’s beneficial.

Explaining to people what’s in it for them usually is no longer sufficient to cause them to buy in and invest in something they haven’t done before. They need to see the benefits of regular one-to-one meetings firsthand. As a result, their desire to be committed will be present from the start.

That’s where HR and leadership come into play. Setting up a one-to-one routine must be a top-down initiative led by example. For HR, that usually means getting leadership’s buy-in first, then assisting in talking about the brand-new approach to the entire corporation.

HR Software for One-to-One Meetings
Software programs can assist greatly in using the adoption of one-to-ones and make them more effective. It also helps provide a regular worker’s revel across teams and departments.

Utilizing a tool for ongoing performance management makes it easy to reference the latest observations and activities throughout a one-to-one meeting. Managers can easily follow up on the overall performance assessment, get an outline of the remarks the team individuals have acquired from their colleagues, and look at professional development information by having all feedback and comprehensive performance data in a single location.

Documenting ongoing feedback and conversations will also counteract any recency bias in overall performance critiques while making a performance overview or self-evaluation a great deal simpler.

Using HR or performance control software programs for one-to-one conferences also gives you treasured insights. Are managers having enough one-to-one meetings with their team members? Who may need a bit of a nudge? One-to-one meeting information allows you to step in if managers and personnel are not communicating often enough.

Author:

Phidelia Johnson is a global Human Resources Practitioner with eighteen years of leadership success. With a focus on streamlining Human Resources administration, she’s well-equipped to find the right solution to a myriad of concerns. Her experience as a commercial business leader gives her a unique ability to advocate for both the employer and the employee.

In her down time, Phidelia is a master of her kitchen, creating wonderful dishes filled with passion and flavor. If she’s not cooking delicious food, she’s stretched out with a good book. She hopes to use her experience to help others, guide company leaders to best practices, and help build better professionals and stronger organizations.