Employer Solutions Blog | Sage HRMS

Meet Charlie Judy. Charlie is a global HR executive and talent management blogger. Charlie is a Human Resources Executive with expertise developed globally in organizations recognized for their people-centric environments; he brings two decades of broad and progressive experience as a strategic business advisor and HR steward to organizations and their employees; he is the global director of HR strategic development and operations for Navigant Consulting, Inc. where he is responsible for optimizing the firm’s Human Capital function. Charlie Judy is also the author of the talent management blog HR Fishbowl and tweets at the handle @HRFishbowl.

Joey Baird, Sage: We are huge fans of the HR Fishbowl blog and frequently share your posts with our followers. How do you decide which topics to write about?

Charlie Judy: Most of my articles really are consistently focused on making HR easier, making it more of an extension of who we are as people. I try to speak to how people can just learn to leverage what is already part of their makeup and not waste time on stuff that doesn’t add a lot value to the career experience.

When I first started the blog, the online space, especially around social media, was dominated by people and groups who weren’t necessarily living and breathing the practice of HR every day. Their voice was crucial but only one part of the discussion. I really wanted to make sure the true “trench HR” practitioner had a voice.

You’re active in social media with not only your blog, but also on Twitter. Do you ever get to engage with any of your followers in real life at either Tweet Ups or HR conferences?

Yes, I attend several conferences each year. I’d love to attend more, but they are just really time consuming. I will be at HR Tech this week in Chicago, and I’m going to try to pop into HRevolution as well. I’d put those on everyone’s lists.  

I also enjoy the national SHRM conference. It is a pretty amazing event. It’s hard to find an HR conference with that kind of scale. The level of vendor participation is great, the content is extensive. It’s important HR professionals hit this one every now and then.  SHRM in general has also really done a good job of getting more plugged into the social space, and I’ve enjoyed supporting that foray.

I try to make it to at least one State SHRM conference a year – I was the emcee for the Illinois Conference again this year; there were close to 800 people and, as always, it really had a world-class speaker line-up. It’s amazing with the volunteer organizations for the State can put together – these are no small undertaking.

Many of the bloggers on your FishRoll are favorite HR bloggers of ours, as well. Are there any up and comers in the industry whom you haven’t mentioned yet on your FishRoll? 

There are too many to even mention and I’d be afraid to leave someone out. I admittedly don’t read as much as I’d like. And I do all that I can to encourage others to get their voice out there…I wish there were more. The echo chamber is alive and well – we need to mix it up if we can. I’d encourage all of your readers to go out there and find a few blogs they love and follow them regularly – the goodness you can get from this space is first rate.

Do you have any other important initiatives that you support that you’d like to get on the radar of our readers?

Well, lately side project stuff has slowed for me; I like to front-load most of my speaking and other activities during the calendar year because my day-job gets tough towards the end of the year.

I’m involved in a longer-term project which will hopefully get some energy behind it here in the near future. Last year I spent three days locked in a cabin in the middle of nowhere with some of the brightest cats in the talent management, marketing, social media, and leadership space, discussing ‘the future of work.’ We put together a Manifesto around what we think it might or should look like. It is our fundamental belief that what work becomes is something we all have a large responsibility for and that only through strong grassroots efforts might a sea-change occur. We’re all getting together again soon to talk about where to take this next – stay tuned on that one.

We are running a Facebook contest right now giving away free access to HR training, and we’re asking people about their most important HR tip. What is your tip to share with others?

I have a list of well over 200 of them that I call “Fishbowl Logic.” One of my favorites is that “it’s hard making things easy.” If we want to be really good at delivering HR services to and enriching the career experience for our employees, we have to do that in a way that isn’t burdensome or extraneous or doesn’t bring any perceived value. One of the best ways to do that is to make it easy for them to access, take advantage of, and ultimately get something out of what we do for them. But that takes a real concerted effort. It’s partially about removing the clutter. But it also involves challenging every aspect of what we’ve done, asking why it is we do it that way, and sometimes not liking the answer.

I have to ask . . . do you or your family have any fish?

That’s a great question; I do not have any fish. I was home one day with the kids, and in a moment of weakness I succumbed to their urging that we go to the pet store and get a lizard as a pet. The kids were ecstatic. . But while we were there I realized that taking care of a lizard wasn’t anywhere as easy as taking care of fish. So we went home with the idea to try and convince my wife about getting fish. She didn’t like the idea of anything in a tank and set into how much of a pain my dog was already. So sadly we remain fishless (and lizardless).

The moniker HR Fishbowl comes from the notion that people are constantly on the outside looking into our profession; everybody thinks they’re an HR expert and with that comes a great deal of scrutiny and critique. It’s just like being in a glass bowl.

There are two sides to the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) trend now that IT departments are facing off against human resources professionals. Each side of this polarized debate has valid points, but finding ways to work together is essential for employee engagement and business security. The key to solving these issues and creating a friendly workspace is collaboration which, while facilitated by BYOD programs themselves, can be difficult to promote acceptance with at first.

HR Support

A Forrester report recently showed that more than three-fourths of company technology is already purchased by employees and used for both home and work purposes. The study went on to say that, based on previous adoption trends, BYOD will probably be the ruling institution among SMBs and big business alike within the next three years. These devices have proliferated in personal life and tend to go with workers whenever they travel already, representing a savings for businesses that don’t have to invest in new technology to make operations more flexible.

IT Resists

While this cuts costs and increases productivity for the workforce, it could result in a security problem in terms of increased data breach probability. The trouble with BYOD initiatives is that it’s already difficult enough getting employees to follow security procedures for company-owned technology, but introducing personal devices make people feel like they have more liberties with data protection. This could result in serious danger to business continuity, and by default complicates the job of IT personnel who have to buff up endpoint security to account for anticipated lackluster personal device security.

Some IT and HR professionals share the concern, though, that it could enhance FLSA compliance issues. Studies have found that workers tend to keep at job tasks even after they should have stopped for the day, resulting in overtime and reporting issues. Seeing as some of the problems of BYOD are shared, these departments need to get together and offer ideas on how to effectively solve each of them. By finding a middle ground, companies should discern a way to save data and money at the same time.

What do you think about BYOD? Should employees be allowed to use their own devices? Let us know on Twitter by mentioning @JoeyBaird with your answer.

In this first installment of a five part series, we interview Mollie Lombardi, a research director for Aberdeen Group’s human capital management practice. She has surveyed and interviewed thousands of end-users to gain a better grasp of the key challenges facing human resources and talent management leaders. Mollie has an extensive background in writing and speaking about topics such as strategic talent management and employee engagement. 

Joey Baird: You have a very impressive background in HR. What notable changes have you seen in the industry throughout the years?

Mollie Lombardi: It’s been interesting. Even in just the past 10 or 15 years, we’ve seen periods of extreme growth followed by severe economic downturn. And in the midst of that turmoil, organizations always have struggled with the same key questions:

• Where do I find talent?
• How do I grow talent?
• How do I hang on to my best people?

But I would say that the way we answer those questions has changed. Technology has caught up with our desire to have greater transparency, and it has allowed us to reach employees wherever they are through mobile and social tools. The questions remain, but our arsenal to go after them continues to evolve.

How do you see social media playing a factor in the HR industry? Do you think the importance of social media is positive or negative?

I think that in the end, it is a positive. But a lot of organizations still struggle to “control” social media. They’re missing the point. You can’t control social media, so you simply have to live the way you want to be perceived. Social media can be an amazing window into your organization’s culture, your brand, your mission, and your goals. It can be a powerful tool to help connect you to potential employees, as well as retain and engage your existing employees.

But you can’t fake it. If you want to be perceived as a great employer and corporate citizen, or a great consumer brand on social media, you have to be one. The level of transparency brought by social media leaves organizations with no place to hide—which will be the best thing for employees and employers.

Do you see social media alleviating or creating more problems in the workplace?

At first, social media might be seen to be causing more problems—but a lot of that is growing pains. It’s something new, and organizations have struggled to understand what it really means. But it’s not going to go away, and social media and whatever comes next will be a part of our lives. And at the end of the day, these tools are about communication. Open and honest communication within organizations will, in the end, alleviate more issues than it causes.

You’re a Boston University alumna with a degree in theater. What made you transition to the HR industry?

My job and field of study within theater was as a stage manager, and what a stage manager really does on a day-to-day basis is make sure everyone knows what they need to know, shows up where they are supposed to, and delivers for the audience. The stage manager also keeps extensive records for all the various stakeholders, such as producers, backers, and even the various unions that represent stagehands, actors, and musicians. So, in a lot of ways, it’s an excellent training ground for HR. And it was excellent training for the project-based nature of my consulting work.

I noticed you did some work with Harley-Davidson. How was that experience? Did Harley-Davidson set you up with a motorcycle—or at least a ride on one—in exchange for your services?

I’m afraid not. But I will say that touring its corporate headquarters and one of its factories is one of the more interesting client experiences I’ve had. It was pretty awesome to see the amazing collection of machines in the motorcycle section of the corporate headquarters parking lot on a sunny spring day.

What are some of your favorite Twitter accounts to follow? Do you have any bloggers you’d recommend to our readers?

I follow all the folks over at Fistful of Talent pretty closely: the FOT blog, the Twitter accounts of most of their contributors, and the personal blogs of folks such as Kris Dunn, Tim Sackett, Jessica Lee, and Andy Porter. I also closely follow Naomi Bloom for her insights on HR technology, and I like to keep up with Laurie Ruettimann for her irreverent commentary on topical issues and the latest updates on her cats.

What are the most important points organizations should understand when looking to recruit and retain talent?

I think the biggest one is to pay attention. If you’re trying to recruit people with certain skills or attributes, look at where the people you know have those skills and attributes spend their time outside work. Pay attention to how they interact, and model your hiring communications around things they already respond to. For retention, paying attention is even more important. A manager’s job should be to know what’s going on with the team. People convey their unhappiness long before they turn in their resignations. Getting tuned into the signals of disengagement is critical, both in terms of data, such as a drop-off in productivity or a slowing down in their contributions to internal and external social networking, as well as in terms of interpersonal cues.

The other important point is transparency. Whether someone works for you now or might work for you in the future, painting a clear picture of what it means to work with your organization and what the opportunities are for them as individuals is key to the decision to join or stay with the company.

Do you see a difference in what members of Generation X and Generation Y seek in job fulfillment compared with what those in previous generations consider to be important?

One of the biggest things I’m seeing about Gen Y is the need for advancement. I think to keep these employees happy, organizations are going to have to find ways to offer them mobility and new challenges. It’s not about everybody rocketing up the ladder to a vice presidency by the time they’re 28, but it is about helping younger employees see the types of career paths and opportunities they may have. I think we’re also going to see a more networked approach to work. People might come and go from jobs, but they will build relationships that cause them to continue to seek out work with certain groups of people or individuals. It is more of a loyalty to a team than to a particular corporate brand. People want work that interests them and to do it in an environment and with colleagues that they enjoy, and they are placing a premium on that versus a promise of a 30-year career with one employer.

We are also seeing that no matter the generation, there is a high demand for personalization. The continued consumerization of technology has made people come to expect on-demand access to all the information they need. If I can go to my bank’s website and see the entire history of my relationship with that bank, I want to be able to go to my HR system and see all my benefits transactions or schedule history. People have come to expect the ability to get the information they want, in the format they want, when and where they need it.

All of us at the Employer Solutions Blog thank Mollie for allowing us to interview her and we look forward to providing more thoughts from her next week!

In the meantime, you can follow Mollie on Twitter, @mollielombardi, connect with her on LinkedIn, and read more about her work with the Aberdeen Group.

In this acronym-rich industry of ours there’s still one acronym that I hold above all others because its truth is undeniable: GIGO. For those of you who might not remember this one, it stands for “garbage in,  garbage out” – and it describes what we all know too-well: the poorer the quality of the data in our HR application, the less value we’re going to get out of that application.

GIGO has been with us practically since the dawn of the computer software age; and yet, in our excitement over new products, new gadgets, and (most of all) new catch-phrases, GIGO has to a great degree been pushed off to the side. Organizations have been too-accustomed (and too forgiving) in accepting “bad data” in their software applications, and when the economy falters and organizations downsize their staff, the incremental increase in bad data is simply accepted as the cost of doing business with fewer people to do it.

Don’t you believe it.

Chalking up the increase in bad data to a reduction in staffing is an all-too convenient excuse, and – if anything – staff downsizing should bring the subject of bad data to the forefront of a business and make addressing it a corporate imperative.

But here’s the thing – most HR organizations think of data quality in terms of data entry; making sure that required fields aren’t left blank, making sure that validated fields have valid responses, and seeing to it that date fields contain date values, numeric fields contain numeric values, and so on. Now all of these things do help to improve the quality of data, but they far from all you can do to improve data quality.

Consider the following: 

• Making sure that phone numbers have the correct number of digits
• Making sure that email addresses include the ‘@’ symbol
• Making sure that “follow-up” or “service” dates are no more than ‘x’ days out
• Making sure an employee’s vacation time does not go negative
• Making sure that pay raises do not exceed ‘x’ percent (and that a person’s salary is commensurate with their position)
• Making sure that the personnel data in your HR application is in agreement with the personnel data in your other business applications, such as accounting or sales systems

The above is just a small example of the types of “data integrity” conditions that you can watch for in your HR system; generally speaking, these conditions resolve themselves into the following:

• Checking for missing data (e.g., no cell phone number)
• Checking for incorrectly-formatted data (phone numbers, SSNs, email addresses, etc.)
• Checking for conditionally-missing data (e.g., if field ‘a’ = ‘x’, then field ‘b’ must have a value)
• Checking for conditionally-invalid data (e.g., if field ‘a’ = ‘x’, field ‘b’ cannot have values ‘y’ or ‘z’)
• Confirming that date, time, & numeric values fall within acceptable ranges (e.g., a “next scheduled maintenance” date cannot be more than ‘x’ days in the future, or “vacation available” cannot go negative)
• Performing cross-application data validation (e.g., an employee in the HR system should have the same email address as in that employee in your ERP system)

As mentioned earlier, most HR organizations’ attempts at improving data quality usually begin and end with only the first item above – making sure that HR required fields are not left blank.

So – do yourself, your HR staff, and your employees a favor; the next time you go into your HR application and you see something that makes you want to say “How did that happen?” – don’t just chalk it up as the price of doing business. Implement an HR data-quality system that automatically checks for (and responds to) that “bad data” the moment it appears.

After all, everyone makes mistakes; it’s having to live with them that we can do without.

For almost a year now I have been talking about Return on Employee Investment because I believe every organization should look at their decisions with this idea in mind. Employees are the single most important asset of a company and numerous studies have shown that customer satisfaction is directly related to employee satisfaction. 

For small businesses, hiring and retaining the best employees are some of the most difficult tasks because of competition for the best talent. Larger organizations have an advantage because they can use their size to offer employees a plethora of benefits and access to technology at a reduced cost.

Today, I am extremely excited because a new idea is being introduced into the market to help solve this problem and aid in the competition for the best talent. I’m proud to announce that we’re launching a forward-thinking new cloud services platform named Sage Source. 

Sage Source is an easy to use employer and employee portal that allows employers to offer services to their employees that they only dreamed of and all with minimal administration.  It also provides value in savings to small and mid-sized companies by giving them access to business related services at enterprise savings levels. The initial release provides immediate value to companies in several areas and the savings and value will continue to grow as we continue to add more business and employee services to the platform. 

I can honestly say that this is the most exciting thing I have seen to help small businesses engage their employees in a long time. Sage HRMS customers on a current Sage Business Care plan will have immediate access to the new offering and I invite you to learn more now by visiting the Sage Source website.

As we close the books on 2011, many businesses are looking at strategies and tactics for the new year. Given recent waves of market uncertainty, this year poses a unique challenge for decision-makers and C-level executives. While there are numerous financial considerations ranging from healthcare compliance to tepid consumer confidence, human resource managers have been forced to align their practices with the evolving global economy.

With these considerations in mind, here are my five top HR trends to look for in 2012.

1. Succession Planning

With an aging U.S. workforce and an anemic job market, HR teams will need to develop strategies to help mitigate employee turnover and assuage executive departures. A Mercer survey released late last year found roughly one-third of U.S. workers are considering leaving their jobs, with younger workers more likely to quit.

The Mercer study pointed out that workers are feeling less attached to their organizations, both emotionally and psychologically. They don’t necessarily believe that the organization they work for has their interests in mind.

On top of low employee morale, the aging baby boomer generation will present even more challenges to HR managers. For these reasons, succession planning for leadership and high-skills professionals will be extremely important in 2012. Have you thought about how you could quickly replace certain positions at your company?

2. Social Media

While its role within the realm of marketing and customer service has been clear, social media has been more of an enigma to many HR professionals. Problematic workplace issues can arise when employees engage in social media without a formal company policy in place. For example, they may divulge trade secrets, violate confidentiality, or lessen their productivity.

The National Labor Review Board also ruled on a few cases this year regarding the role of social media in the workplace. Generally, the NLRB sided with employees and their freedom to post content without fear of work-related repercussions. However, savvy HR managers will tap the considerable benefits of a workplace social media strategy to engage employees.

3. Human Resources Technology

HR management systems and related technologies help boost efficiency and increase productivity in areas such as payroll compliance, employee scheduling, data management, recruiting, and security.

With a variety of budgetary, hiring, and regulatory constraints looming in 2012, HR managers and executives are apt to be overwhelmed. Demand will rise for HR technologies that help to allay these burdens.

 4. Aligning HR and Corporate Goals for Increased ROEI

In an uncertain business climate like today, HR mangers are consistently being asked to explain the costs and benefits of employee-related programs and benefits, their Return On Employee Investment or ROEI. But this is not readily quantified. Relative to other business units, HR departments cannot point to costs and revenues as a measure of effectiveness. This is a problem for HR managers. One evolving solution is “strategic alignment,” using HR metrics as appropriate. 

In broad terms, strategic alignment means using HR processes to align business units and individual employees with the strategic goals identified by senior management. For example, management needs clear, direct, and constant communication with employees to implement strategies. More specifically, it means that HR managers modify traditional HR processes—recruiting and hiring, employee retention and development, and compensation—to implement the strategies developed by senior management.

Human resource departments that align their goals with their organization’s goals will accomplish more and increase their productivity in 2012.

5. Healthcare Reform

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will continue to be implemented in 2012, and it will impose new compliance burdens each year until 2018. While the law is likely to remain mostly intact, the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to make a monumental ruling on its constitutionality this summer.

Either way, HR managers will likely need to collaborate with other departments to address healthcare compliance standards. A recent Towers Watson survey found 38 percent of finance executives believe strategy development will be more of a shared role, compared to 24 percent among HR leaders.

Companies are only beginning to address the complex decisions triggered by healthcare, says Towers Watson. But these decisions will have a direct impact on the broader set of employee rewards.

So there you have it, my five key human resources trends to watch in 2012. I’d love to know what you think. Comment below or let me know on Twitter by replying to @SageHRMS!

I’m back with our regular feature about the Return on Employee Investment (ROEI).  Throughout the series I’ll speak directly to what ROEI is, how organizations can maximize it and how they can calculate it. 

While some turn-over is unavoidable and to some extent even desirable, turnover among your top performers is largely avoidable. And it is certainly worth the investment. People don’t necessarily tell the whole truth in exit interviews about why they are leaving. Managers should, of course, know in advance who is leaving and why.

A high turnover rate is likely due to a combination of reasons. Thus, increasing employee retention also requires a combination of measures. An employee will be motivated to stay at a company when they feel comfortable, well respected, fairly compensated, and (dependent on position and character) see possibilities for growth and personal development. Here are some of the areas an employer can invest in to lower the employee turnover rate:

Information

It is clear that no manager can make informed decisions without proper information. HR or employee analytics can help management y decide where to invest, identify the top performers, determine what employees need to best perform and what they value. Analytics also give provide a consistent way to monitor the results of any measure taken, HR analytics really are the ace up your sleeve.

Modern human resource management systems contain a wealth of information that can give managers and executives the insight needed to make the best possible decisions about the workforce.

Communication

A lack of (or poor) communication, both top-down and between teams or peers, causes frustration and misdirected energy. For HR departments, communcation is key and company communication can be greatly enhanced by publishing the company’s values, vision and mission. Provide easy access to the company handbook. Make use of the technology for employee self-service portals and performance appraisal systems and encourage employees to use these available resources. 

Work environment

BusinessWeek cites that a “San Francisco design firm Gensler found that of more than 2,000 workers around the U.S., two-thirds believe they are more efficient when they work closely with their colleagues. But 30% said that their workplace doesn’t promote spontaneous interaction and collaboration—a sentiment that’s leading many companies to rethink the office environment.”

Widespread usage of social media and web 2.0 technologies has proven that these spontaneous interactions and collaboration are no longer limited by physical borders. Employee collaboration and business social networking have already demonstrated value in terms of improved employee performance, creativity, communication and informal learning.

Employee Recognition

Most companies reward employees and recognize a job well done with a combination of compensation and benefits. But there are many more tools in the employee reward arsenal. To compete in the global workforce environment, an effective employee recognition program is a necessity.

Successful recognition programs motivate workers in ways that increase their level of engagement. According to the Human Capital Institute (HCI), “best practices” for applying recognition programs include:

• Creating a culture of recognition in the workplace that includes both formal and informal methods of recognition.
• Making sure that employees get rewarded in a way that is valuable to them by providing a wide variety of recognition rewards. Emphasizing higher quality performance, rather than just increased amount of effort.
• Recognizing employees frequently to maintain consistent engagement.
• Ensuring that rewards are linked solidly to business objectives and/or desired business cultural values.

Training

Effective training and development programs are excellent instruments to reduce employee turn-over. When employees feel like their careers can develop no further at an organization, it is often time to leave. Good training programs can help your employees learn the skills needed for new projects and challenges, or even a higher position within the company.

Compensation and Benefits

Without an adequate and competitive package of compensation and benefits, it is difficult for any company to hire or retain top talent. The challenge for small-business owners is figuring out how much their competitors pay, and what package of benefits deliver the best retention results. If the main goal is to motivate talent to stay with the company, in other words to create ‘stickiness’, it is important to choose a balanced package of benefits from many available programs:

• Work/Life balance: Holidays, paid time off, flexible work arrangements
• Financial security: Retirement plans, pensions, disability insurance, life insurance
• Health and medical insurances: health insurance, dental, vision flexible spending or health savings accounts, gym memberships
• Career development/Personal growth: Tuition reimbursement, onsite lectures, computer based training subscriptions
• Other: Discounted auto, home, or pet insurance, savings clubs for shopping, employee loan programs to purchase computers.

What do you think?  Does that list do a good job summarizing it?  Has your company offered any other benefits to help increase employee retention?

For the past four years, once or twice a year, I’ve stood before a room of students studying for the HRCI exam in the hopes of earning a PHR or SPHR designation. I’m there to teach the Strategic Management module. All of them walk in as HR Professionals. My goal is to get them to leave with a new attitude. If they want to be strategic, if they really want to impact their organization, they need to demonstrate they are Business Professionals with expertise in HR. It doesn’t sound like much of a change, but I think it’s huge.

In the past, an HR Professional advised and assisted managers in managing human resources. They gathered facts, diagnosed problems, provided solutions and offered assistance on employee-related problems. They provided service to a diverse customer base – employees, managers, executives, vendors, applicants, retirees, etc.  They exercised control or authority by reviewing and measuring employee performance. And they pushed a lot of paper.

In many cases, they became known as the people who did the hiring and firing, told people what they could and couldn’t do, and they organized the company picnic. They were perceived as members of the “Department of Sunshine and Rainbows.”

Don’t get me wrong. My Myers-Briggs personality inventory says I’m an “F” off the scale. I make decisions based on feelings. I understand and gravitate towards the people who say I’m a “people person,” so I entered the field of HR. But as an officer of a company, I’ve learned the role of HR has expanded.

Today’s successful HR practitioner must also have a strategic focus, a global, long-term, forward-thinking focus. They help create a culture and build an organization that meets its goals. They help an organization prepare for change; forecast human capital needs, manage talent, and develop systems that support strategic objectives.

Of course they still have operational and administrative duties. HR has a role in the day-to-day tasks that are necessary to run an organization and they have to deal with compliance issues and record keeping.

But, to be strategic, they must understand the perspective of their business partners; finance and accounting, marketing and sales, operations, information technology, and the employees. It’s the only way they will be able to collaborate and identify internal needs and emerging issues. Today’s HR professional must understand the entire business.

Of course, it takes time to understand the business – to step back and think strategically. To regularly meet, formally or informally, with business partners to get to know them and what’s going on in their world. An HR professional bogged down in paperwork and administrative tasks doesn’t have time to be strategic.

It also takes timely data and the ability to analyze the data to spot problems, identify trends and forecast future outcomes. It comes back to time. To be strategic, you can’t be spending time pulling paper out of files or trying to pull data out of different systems and cobble it together manually in a spreadsheet.

Luckily, like the HR profession, HR technology has come a long way too. Modern human resources management systems integrate with other systems for seamless data transfer. Automation and workflow helps tasks flow through a process without significant manual intervention. Dynamic reporting puts up-to-the-minute data at your fingertips without waiting for batch jobs or IT support. Web-based self-service empowers employees and managers by giving them access to appropriate information and let’s them “help themselves” without calling down to HR for assistance with day-to-day tasks.

When you’re considering HR technology, put on your business hat and think about the needs and goals of the organization. What system will help the organization deliver on its mission and achieve its goals? Of course, your expertise ensures it supports the HR function. Remember, now you’re a business professional with expertise in HR – not an HR professional.

With all the lawsuits related to the federal Family and Medical Leave Act, human resources managers need to make sure they do everything by the book when an employee gives notice that they’ll be out for an extended period of time.

The government mandates 12 job-protected weeks during a 12 month period for eligible employees who have recently had a child (through birth or adoption placement), need to care for an immediate family member with a serious health condition, have a serious health condition themselves or have to cover for a family member serving in the military. Eligible employees can also take up to 26 weeks for military caregiver leave during a single 12 month period.

Here are a several things an HR manager can do to stay compliant, protect the company and ensure a smooth transition for employer and employee alike:

1. Recertification: Before an employee goes on intermittent leave, request FMLA recertification. The law allows employers to request medical recertification once every 30 days under certain circumstances.

2. Discuss Vacation Benefits: Either employee or employer can decide whether a worker’s accrued paid vacation or sick days will go towards the 12 weeks of unpaid FMLA leave.

3. Handle IT Logistics: See IT about email access to the employee’s inbox. If the worker maintains outside communications ¾such as handling client accounts¾make sure those emails are forwarded to another employee during the absence.

4. Redistribute Workload: That employee’s work still needs to get done, right? Find the most appropriate way to have others handle that employee’s workload or possibly call a temporary employment service. Temp agencies can find workers to cover a job for a single day or for an extended period.

5. Check In: Employers are allowed to request that a worker on FMLA leave call in to report his or her status. Employees are still required under the law to give adequate notice and comply with a company’s call-in policy.  

6. Stay Compliant: Keep current with the law, and make sure your managers do too. Supervisors need to know the ins and outs of the law, as they will likely be the first line of communication between workers and the executives who oversee leave under FMLA. Employers are required to have an updated FMLA poster prominently displayed somewhere in the office.

7. Protect the Employee’s Privacy: Coworkers will probably notice their cube-mate’s absence, but employers should not disclose any employee medical information.

8. Watch the Weather and Holidays:  Calculate holidays and snow days while your employee is on leave, as an office shut-down day or national holiday may count toward the worker’s FMLA balance¾depending on whether they take a full week off or only part of it. Leave under FMLA is measured in work weeks, with intermittent or shorter leaves counting as fractions of weeks. Thanksgiving week offers a good example: If an employee on FMLA leave takes off the normally scheduled Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and the office is closed Thursday and Friday, then he or she is docked a full week of his or her FMLA balance. If the employee works the Monday and Tuesday, but takes Wednesday off under FMLA, then only Wednesday is deducted. However, since Thanksgiving week has three days, the day of FMLA leave is one-third of a week, rather than the one-fifth of a normal work-week.

9. Reassess an Employee’s Role: Other workers who are covering for an employee on leave may discover a huge mess in his or her wake, or the employee might refuse to adhere to company policy while away. Either situation can be grounds for termination. Companies can’t fire an employee for taking time under FMLA, but with legitimate reason can fire a worker upon his or her return. 

10. Prepare for Employee’s Return: When it’s time for an employee to return, they are entitled to their old job or an equivalent position with similar hours, expectations and salary. If he or she can no longer perform the old job due to a medical condition, make sure a termination would not violate the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Although this list is far from being comprehensive, it should be of help when trying to untangle some of FMLA’s provisions.  Also, remember that some states have different regulations beyond FMLA so keep current on all of these laws to remain in compliance and consult legal counsel when necessary.

Has anyone in your company requested FMLA leave? What kind of complications popped up?

A company is only as good as its human resources management but sometimes businesses and managers may not see it that way. Thanks to HR metrics however, human resources professionals can show their direct impact on a business and its profitability.

Having metrics in place is like finally using a scale when on a diet. Sure, it looks like you’ve lost weight and all of your efforts seem to be having an effect on your waist line, but there’s no way to be sure of the exact impact without a clear way to measure it. Hop on a scale and your weight loss goes from “I look great” to “I lost 10 pounds!”

Metrics for HR allow businesses to see tangible evidence of where staffing, compensation and benefit policies are working and where there is room for improvement. Areas that are often measured include turnover, open positions, employee engagement, cost per hire, cost per healthcare plan and customer feedback scores.

Human resource planning is essential to a business’s success, and metrics allow companies to have a more accurate way to measure HR success. Before, HR departments were mostly measured on how long it took to fill a vacant position, but today, we have so many more ways to weigh success.

Want to learn more about HR metrics?  Register for our HR R&R: Refresh and Recertify Webcast, Measuring Up – Using Metrics to Meet & Exceed Expectations. This month’s hour long live webcast focuses on providing HR professionals with the tools to effectively communicate with C-level executives.  You’ll learn how to speak the language of business through metrics for staffing, compensation, and benefits to effectively evaluate and improve performance within the HR function.