Doug Houser:
From Rea & Associates Studio, this is unsuitable, a management and financial services podcast for entrepreneurs, tenured business leaders, and others already to look beyond the suit-and-tie culture for meaningful measurable results. I'm Doug Houser. On this weekly podcast, thought leaders and business professionals break down complicated and mundane topics and give you the tips and insight you actually need to grow as a leader while helping your organization grow and thrive. If you haven't already, hit the Subscribe button so you don't miss future episodes, and if you want access to even more information, show notes, and exclusive content, visit our website at www.reacpa.com/podcast.
Staying compliant as an employer is more important than ever, but with ever-changing policies, it can be tough to keep up with the government requirements. As businesses struggle with employer retention and recruitment, it is imperative that you understand the current regulations. Today, Renee West, senior manager at Rea & Associates, is going to break down the most recent COVID regulations and best practices for employer retention and recruitment. Welcome to unsuitable, Renee.
Renee West:
Thank you very much, Doug. I'm so happy to be here and thanks for inviting me back.
Doug:
Yeah, always a pleasure to have you on because you're so, so well-versed in everything that's going on in the environment as it relates to HR compliance and regulation and all that. So much has changed this year, obviously. Can you give us maybe a quick understanding of the COVID regulations and how to help keep employees compliant? What are some best practices there?
Renee:
Sure, yes. It's definitely been a very challenging time for employers, HR professionals, workers, and there's been a lot of regulation changes, specifically related to COVID-19, the legislation that was put in place here in April that permitted different forms of leave for employers to offer their employees if they were to either come down with COVID have symptoms or need to take care of family members, so there are two different levels of leave.
From a compliance perspective, there's a lot that we could talk about as far as best practices and there's a lot of resources out there as well that we're happy to share, specifically from the CDC. The main thing is for employers just to ensure that they're providing their employees with safety information, safe workplaces, following social distancing. We've all heard that term, I think we say it four or five times a day, but the compliance piece is actually, we can break it down into a couple of different fields.
Doug:
Okay, so where are the best? I mean, if I'm a typical owner-managed business, maybe if I'm lucky, I've got somebody in my company that handles some of this, but it's certainly not their full-time gig, right, it's maybe a part of other duties, so what's the best resource for somebody like that?
Renee:
That's a great question, Doug. Basically, our firm has put together a COVID resource page for our clients and other individuals that are looking for this type of work and that's a culmination of information from the CDC, which has the federal regulations. The local health departments as well are a great resource for organizations and then you have the state health department as well, so those three in conjunction are great resources. There are hotlines that are free to employers or employees if they have questions, that they can reach out to these websites and call and talk to a person. They're very well-versed in everything that's going on. I've talked with individuals at all three of these different locations/hotlines and every time, they've been very helpful. If they don't have the answer right then, they will definitely circle back around to you with those resources.
Doug:
That's great, and obviously you, I know you sit in on and are involved with some of these organizations both at the state level and certainly local level, so you and your team have great resources to provide as well.
Renee:
Yes. We do, and it's always changing. As we've said, it's a situation where what I see in the morning is sometimes different than what we hear in the afternoon. Our local state SHRM is very active in trying to be up on the pending legislation and what we're hearing as to potential next steps. What we're hearing from the governor's office is maybe what's going to be next, so that's definitely a great resource for us to be a little ahead of what's coming out.
Doug:
Yeah, and this can also be a great time because we're on this topic, sometimes it's good to take a step back now and look at your overall HR policies, job descriptions, handbooks, things like that. I know you and I have been involved with a couple of new clients here recently were where they've taken the opportunity to kind of reset and update all of those things.
Renee:
Yes, definitely is, and we always say the employee handbook is something that needs to be continually updated, especially now, given that these new policies for the CARES Act that we talked about and the FFCRA leaves, these leaves and legislation are in existence until the end of December this year. More than likely, they're probably going to be extended as well, so there is definitely that. I mean, we need to have that in the policy. It might not necessarily be in the handbook, but it should be referenced and be a separate ancillary policy, but it does, it's required. Employers should look at their pandemic and their emergency response. What is their policies and procedures if something like this happens again or another emergency situation? It involves looking at everything from your safety policies to your leave policies. How does your family medical leave policy in conjunction with the FFCRA leaves? There's a lot of correlation with that as well.
Doug:
Yeah, absolutely. It's, I think, great time too, as we said, take a step back and update and evaluate and all that, but let's talk about another subject here, and that's retention and recruitment. Obviously, pre-pandemic, a lot of companies are having trouble finding people, all of that, now we see during this time, it's so different across different industries, right?
Renee:
It is.
Doug:
How do we deal with retention and recruitment during a time like this?
Renee:
Another great question. You mentioned it's two-fold: It's the retention of who you have as an organization now, the employees that you have now, more than ever, it's crucial to provide them with a safe workplace and ensure that they continue to work and remain a part of your team and can keep consistency in their products that they're helping you to put out from a quality perspective as well. We tell employers it doesn't have to be something that's expensive for you to help retain your employees. Communicate with them, put something in place that you're doing timely and consistent communication. You're letting them know what the safety guidelines are, you're letting them know that you've put in place social distancing requirements to protect them and their families, so it's that reinforcement and having lunches for them or doing hazard pay is another example of that.
The recruitment landscape, yes, has changed dramatically. The ability to go to a job fair and recruit individuals. They are having job fairs, they're having them all virtual now, or having a face-to-face interview in an office setting, that's transitioned and pivoted into Skype interviews, phone calls. Organizations really are thinking outside the box of how to recruit and still be able to find people when they're afraid to sometimes maybe leave their house, so it's definitely very challenging, but it can be done.
Doug:
I know it is interesting, too, across different businesses. My area, obviously, construction, they're still very busy, most clients are still trying to hire people. I know, for example, our firm, too, we're still trying.
Renee:
Right.
Doug:
We're still hiring, we're growing, but yet you have other industries where they're shedding people and there's certainly a lot of people unemployed. During this time, how can you connect? What are some resources or suggestions you have in terms of the recruiting process right now? How has that changed?
Renee:
Sure. It's definitely important. Companies, as you mentioned, some are able to continue hiring, some are at a standstill at this point. Recruiting perspective, whatever organizations can do to continue to recruit and reach out to their local resources, utilizing their OhioMeansJobs offices is a great resource. They've worked with displaced workers that are available and could be looking for work. Your chamber of commerce is another avenue to speak to and just your networking of who you're talking to on a daily basis. There's also software where you can go into indeed.com and pull up resumes for free that are candidates seeking employment.
It's also important to think, too, there are some very qualified, displaced workers out there, and now is a key time for companies to really look for those maybe higher-level or those strategic hires that are hard to find throughout the course of the year but are more available now, so it's definitely there's an opportunity there for employers to grow and be ready for when the economy does rebound and we have the need to bring more people into your organization. That can be tough when everyone is hiring and competing for the same talent. Now, there's a little break where if you strategically plan correctly, you can make some really good, solid hires.
Doug:
That's a great point that you bring up there, to be a counter to what may be the rest of the market is doing and be able to take advantage of that now, that's a great point.
Renee:
Right.
Doug:
Talk about with recruitment, obviously, as you mentioned, we're having to do a lot of these things more virtually or remotely, and I know you've been long an advocate of this, what are some tools that folks can do to prescreen and take advantage of trying to prescreen candidates before you get to that point, some type of either a personality test or competency things? Do you have any tools you advocate for there?
Renee:
Sure, definitely. As you mentioned, always a big proponent of hiring the right fit for a position. You can hire anybody for a role, but knowing what you're looking for and knowing the competencies and how an individual can react in certain situations is crucial. We at the firm have utilized Predictive Index. We've also utilized Caliper, that looks at individual's innate traits, and we offer that assistance to our clients when we look at developing strategic recruitment of how can we pre-screen, but we're sure that maybe the last three or four candidates that we give you really match the fit of what you're looking for, and that's crucial.
Doug:
Yeah. Great, great point as well. I think taking advantage of that technology and those tools that have become so much more useful in recent years is certainly helpful.
Renee:
Right, right.
Doug:
Let's talk about training employees. Oftentimes, we see this. I know back in the financial crisis, '08, '09, I was in the corporate finance world at that point and all the training programs just went away, I mean, they just axed them all, and they discovered, of course, five, six years later, that was a huge mistake because we had this big void in talent, so how do you continue to invest in training and those types of things during this time?
Renee:
That's very key for employers is there's downtime. You might not be producing a normal schedule, so what can you offer your employees which can also help with the retention of upgrading their skills? There are programs available through the state. If you look at the Ohio [inaudible 00:13:22] site, there are training programs and incentives in programs in place to help employers provide that training to their workers. SharedWork Ohio is also a program where rather than laying off everyone, if individuals have reduced hours, then they can supplement that with training, so being able to really show their employees that even though it is a very challenging time, that the company cares enough to offer them opportunities to grow, it's two-fold: It's going to help the organization is going to help that employee as well, and as we mentioned, anything to help with retention is key.
Again, reaching out to your areas. A lot of companies in a lot of organizations are starting to pull together to do maybe a virtual training on Excel, or I'm just throwing that out there as an example, so a lot more companies are working together to do things as a group to help with the cost of those and not having one company, but having others share in that, and again, your chamber of commerce is another avenue that can help with talking with them and seeing if they can help you schedule something.
Doug:
Yeah, I know certainly in some areas that the chambers are very active and putting on programs. I know in the construction industry, for example, the Builders Exchange and others are very active in, whether they're additional training programs, there are various apprentice programs now. As you say, it's a great time to invest in that.
Renee:
It is.
Doug:
I always say that, and we talk about it as businesses, right, that people are our most important assets, so what better time to invest in that than now?
Renee:
Sure.
Doug:
I think that gets overlooked a lot. What about, we've seen a lot with obviously the CARES Act and there's other pending legislation which is stalemated and things like that. Any sense either at the federal or state level as to things that might be imminent, or obviously, these are just your best guess, what might be coming down the pike here?
Renee:
Sure, definitely is. We've put on a webinar earlier this week where we talked about the president's executive orders putting into play for the unemployment and different legislative pieces that Congress is now still trying to work through that. I think the biggest one that is the concern for the states, especially for Ohio, is employment and where that stands with that federal supplement that was $600 previously. We are hearing, obviously, there's going to be lower than that. The order that the president put into play was proposed at $400 a week versus 600, but I know that, again, that could be changed, so it's definitely an opportunity for... There's just a lot of uncertainty out there and that's creating a lot of stress for employers, for employees with just not knowing really where that stands, but that's probably one of the biggest from a federal standpoint that we expect to hopefully see something soon.
Doug:
Yeah, and from the state perspective, too, obviously, and we've talked about this before, they have different requirements, obviously, in terms of balancing the budget and now the unemployment program, which has been leaned on so heavily during this time. They're funding issues there with a lot of these programs, right?
Renee:
That is correct. That is correct. Especially for the state of Ohio, previously, the federal $600 was paid entirely by the government, now it's proposed that the new unemployment federal package, whatever that will be, is going to be either 400 paid, so you have 300 of that covered by the government, but the other hundred is expected to be paid by the states, so you then have states where unemployment, they're pretty much nothing there in those accounts, so then going to be able to fund that, so that's another piece of the puzzle as well.
Doug:
Yeah, it's certainly a difficult time. When we talk about the other thing, obviously, we're in an environment where stuff is so polarized and we see this mask/anti-mask, all these types of things. What do you do within your own business when you encounter these types of behaviors to try to get consistency and all of that across your employee spectrum?
Renee:
That's a million-dollar question, [inaudible 00:18:08].
Doug:
Yeah.
Renee:
I've talked with a lot of clients and colleagues here over the past couple of months in reference to the mask and in different things and the biggest thing that we tell clients and employers is to reinforce why you're doing what you're doing. Yes, there are mandates that are in place from a statewide level, like the mask, there's social distancing, and we're implementing these to keep our employees safe and to keep their families safe, and yes, you're always going to have those that will not want to abide or buck the system, but as an employer, if you have safety guidelines in place and look at it as if this was not a pandemic issue but as a safety issue, you can still discipline and send individuals home. If they're causing issues and not abiding by the regulations that you put in place, you have that ability to still make your workplace safe, and that's a big...
Some companies don't want to, "Oh, I don't want to, I don't want to rock the boat and say something," but then the cause of not doing that could be even more surmountable. If you have an employee that comes in that's positive and doesn't care what they're doing and they go to the lunchroom and infect everyone, you could be liable for Workers' Comp cases because they were exposed at work, so looking at it, I guess the lesser of two evils of, do you want to have that crucial conversation or do you just want to let it go? We're really seeing that. I've seen, I've heard from a lot of companies, especially throughout the state, that organizations have really stepped up and really done a lot. There's always some that it is what it is, but I think overall, they understand the importance of what we're doing. They don't want to see another shutdown coming, so I think that that's another response back to individuals is we're doing what we need to do now so we aren't looking at another shutdown in October or November.
Doug:
Yeah, I think that's a great point. It's about safety and respect for your fellow associate. I want to make sure that the company continues to be able to be successful and provide for everybody and their families, so yeah, that's great, great insight there. Really appreciate it, Renee, and I always enjoy talking with you, and this is why I say, "Gosh, any type of employer or owner-managed business, you've got to talk to a professional like Renee because there's just so much to think about."
Renee:
Yes, there really is, and I've said it numerous times here in the past couple of months. As you know, I've been in the HR industry for over 27 years and I've never seen the quick legislative changes and everything that's happened in the past four or five months that it's, for me, who's been in this field, I can't imagine how individuals feel, that they're like employers that don't know where to go for resources and they have questions, it has to feel overwhelming for them, so that's where we definitely want to be a resource and are happy to help with questions.
Doug:
Yeah, absolutely. You're an awesome resource. I would certainly advocate for any small business, any owner-managed business of any kind, even if you have your own professionals, double-check with Renee and her team. Well, thanks again, Renee.
If you want more business tips and insight, or to hear previous episodes of unsuitable, visit our podcast page at www.reacpa.com/podcast and while you're there, sign up for exclusive content and show notes. Thanks for listening to this week's show. Be sure to subscribe to unsuitable on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or wherever you're listening to us right now, including YouTube. I'm Doug Houser. Join us next week for another unsuitable interview from an industry professional.
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