Horizon Point Consulting

Author: Lorrie Coffey

  • Selecting an HRIS that’s Right for You

    Selecting an HRIS that’s Right for You

    Relatively early in my HR career, I worked for an organization that decided they wanted to move to a new HRIS. The parent company owned a PEO and a temporary staffing agency and wanted to go from using two separate systems to one combined system for both services. The executives vetted systems and made their decision. My team was trained on the new system and was responsible for manually entering over 3,000 employees from the old systems into the new system. This process took weeks and some very long hours, including weekends. And we ran into issue after issue where the system didn’t contain the fields we needed, didn’t have tax tables set up correctly, and so much more. We kept going back to our executive team and explaining the shortcomings of the system. Our test payrolls were a total failure. We became beyond frustrated, discouraged, and honestly, felt that the executives were brushing off our concerns.

    While that horrible experience is forever engrained in my memory, it was a huge learning experience for me and taught me that there are some key things to think about when vetting a new system.

    1)    Involve the right people. While executives need to be involved and ultimately make the decision, talk to the people who are in the trenches day in and day out. Invite them to system demos, allow them to ask questions, and ask for their feedback.

    2)    Make a list and check it twice. If you have a system that you are looking to replace, ask why. What is it about that system that is lacking, what are your must-haves in a new system? What are those bells and whistles you’d like to have but could live without? And what are those things your current system has that you absolutely do not want in a new system? If you don’t have a system in place, sit down with those right people and brainstorm. What’s on their wish list, and which wishes are needs versus wants?

    3)    Anticipate growth. Don’t select a system based on where your organization is today, select a system that will get you to where you’re going in three to five years, and maybe even beyond. There are some systems that are better for smaller businesses and there are some systems that are better for larger businesses. If your organization is growing rapidly, you may want to focus your search on a more robust system that has more to offer. If you’re a smaller organization, you may not need all of the features that a larger system may offer (and you’d pay more for).

    4)     Check references. Ask around before selecting a system. If you have narrowed your search down to one or two systems you really like, get feedback from other organizations who use that system. Find out what they like and don’t like about it. Don’t ask the vendor to provide you with references, they are going to connect you with companies they know are happy with the system. You want to hear the good and the bad. One way to do this is to ask other HR professionals you know or pose the question to social media outlets. I see this done a lot on Facebook HR groups, and respondents give honest feedback. And keep in mind, what is a negative for one organization may not be a key factor for you in your decision, so weigh the feedback you receive appropriately.

    So, what happened with the HRIS that my former employer selected? After months of entering data and trying to work with the vendor to get the system to do what we needed it to do and finding out that the vendor had only recently acquired the system from another company and didn’t understand yet the full scope of the product themselves, the executives made the tough decision to back out of the contract and stick with the two old systems we already had in place. It was a huge expense and costly mistake for the organization. And one that could have been avoided if they involved the right people, understood their needs and sought out references.

  • Are Your Employees SAD? How to Help Employees Who Struggle with Seasonal Affective Disorder

    Are Your Employees SAD? How to Help Employees Who Struggle with Seasonal Affective Disorder

    It’s that time of year. The weather is changing, the leaves are falling, and you’re SAD. But you’re not alone. Nearly 10 million Americans suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder. While SAD is most prevalent in those ages 18 to 30, it can affect anyone, and the effects are different for everyone. 

    Symptoms of SAD include: 

    • Fatigue
    • Loss of concentration 
    • Insomnia/Inability to wake up
    • Mild to severe depression
    • Weight loss/gain

    Employers may see these symptoms in the form of attendance issues, decreased productivity, mistakes in work completed, or a lack of concentration in meetings. Your initial reaction may be to consider disciplinary action, but before you do, consider the behaviors you’re seeing. Are these recent changes to an otherwise well-performing employee? If so, did these changes occur around the change of the season? While SAD affects most people in the cold weather seasons, some individuals do suffer SAD in the warmer season as well. 

    So how can you help an employee who may be suffering from SAD? 

    • Utilize your EAP. If your organization provides employees with an Employee Assistance Plan, now might be a good time to remind employees of this benefit. Send out a communication to all staff reminding them of the EAP benefit and the services it can provide to them. 
    • Up the lighting. Take a look around your facility at the lighting. Are all areas well lit or does your office exude that dim ambiance? While dim lights might be preferred in the summer months, you might want to turn up the lights in the cooler months. 
    • Encourage employees to get outside. If your office is in a great location for walks, encourage your employees to take advantage of that and get moving outdoors. Consider forming a walking team that meets daily to get outside and walk for 15-20 minutes. Think about setting up a basketball hoop, volleyball net, cornhole, or other outdoor activity to encourage employees to get outside during their breaks or lunch. 
    • Talk more. Check-in with your employees more often, just stop by to say hi and see how they’re doing. And be an active listener. If you listen, you may read between the lines that they aren’t as okay as they say they are. 
    • Offer flexibility. If possible, consider a more flexible work schedule. That may include shifting your hours and letting employees arrive a little later or it may mean allowing affected employees to work from home on their bad days. 
    • Offer up FMLA and/or ADA. Understand that while most people who suffer from SAD are able to struggle through, some aren’t. In some cases, SAD can be debilitating and lead to severe depression. In these cases, employees may need and qualify for FMLA and/or ADA accommodations. 
  • Is Employment Really At-Will?

    Is Employment Really At-Will?

    One of the questions I often help employers work through is can they terminate an employee. And too often I hear “But we’re in an at-will state” or “we’re an at-will employer”.

    At-will employment is often misinterpreted to mean that an employer can terminate an employee whenever they please, and while at-will employment policies do state that the employee or employer can terminate employment at any time, with or without cause, and with or without notice, there are limitations to that on the part of the employer. 

    First, all states are at-will employment states. Some states have added legislation that further limits the bounds of at-will employment, but the overall objective is the same. 

    So what does at-will employment really mean? 

    Yes, employees can resign their positions at any time, with or without notice, and with or without reason. And yes, employers can impose penalties if employees do not give notice within the limits of federal, state, and local laws, such as setting a vacation policy that requires 2-weeks’ notice to receive a payout of accrued, unused vacation time upon termination. And yes, if an employee gives a 2-week notice, the employer can opt to take that notice effective immediately, and it’s still considered a voluntary resignation. 

    But what at-will employment does not mean is that an employer can terminate employment with or without notice, and with or without cause, if doing so violates other employment laws. 

    When reviewing an employer’s request to terminate an employee, there are a few things that I take into consideration:

    1. Is the employee in a protected class? For example, are they female, are they over the age of 40, are they a minority, are they disabled?
    2. What is the employer’s reason for wanting to terminate employment? Are there performance issues and if so, have they been addressed with the employee, and has the employee been given the opportunity to improve performance? And have those performance issues and conversations been documented? Is it an attendance issue? Is there documentation of poor attendance and disciplinary action for violation of the attendance policy? Is there a written attendance policy? 
    3. Is the termination a layoff? If so, is it truly a layoff or is the employer using that reason as means to get rid of an employee they just don’t want? While there are no legal limitations on how long a position must be vacant in order to constitute a layoff, the adhered to standard is six months unless there is a significant change in business. If an employer lays off an employee and refills the position in 2-3 weeks, chances are it wasn’t really a layoff but an excuse to terminate an employee they didn’t want. 
    4. Is there an employment contract that impacts Employment-At-Will? Employment contracts are a legally binding document that outlines the terms of employment, and often includes the length of employment under the contract and penalties for terminating the contract early, both for the employee and the employer. Such contracts may create limitations to employment-at-will.  
    5. Would a judge find this termination justified? If an employee were to file a lawsuit for wrongful termination, how would a judge see it? Have I as an employer covered all my bases to make sure the termination was within the law? Documentation is critical to this decision. If an employer wishes to terminate an employee, they must be able to show justification for that decision. 

    Employment-at-will is not a free pass to terminate employees “just because.” The employer is still responsible for ensuring that the termination is justified and within the limits of federal, state, and local laws. 

  • Turn Your Passion into Your Career

    Turn Your Passion into Your Career

    Forgive me if I get teary-eyed, but my oldest just started his junior year of high school. And while he still has two years left, the serious conversations have begun- careers, colleges, and scholarships, oh my!

    Since he was little, he’s always known that his biggest passion is music. And I’ve encouraged him to explore that over the years, he’s got such a knack for it. He’s self-taught on drums, guitar, bass guitar, and he has an amazing voice (my house is rarely quiet!). Last year his high school partnered with a local music conservatory to start a music production club and he was hooked. He would spend weekends at the conservatory learning how to use music production equipment and playing around with creating his own music. A year later he’s still hooked. After saving up his own money he bought a (ridiculously expensive) music production software program and spends hours creating music, learning how to use the software, and taking online courses to learn from the professionals. He’s also starting to slowly collect his own production equipment.

    I’ve always encouraged my children to find their passion and then figure out how to make it a career. I often get asked why I chose consulting instead of working as an HR Manager or Director for a company and my response is simple and honest- I tried it briefly and I just wasn’t happy. My passion is helping companies. I love to go into an organization and help them build up an HR function where there wasn’t one or help them fix an HR function that’s broken, then I want and need to get out and move on to the next. I thrive on that challenge, but once the challenge is completed, if I don’t move on I stop thriving.

    I want that for my children, I want them to find a career that they are passionate about, that they thrive in, that makes them want to get up every day and go to work. Not one that makes them dread the next day. And I want them to understand that money doesn’t equal happiness. I’d much rather my children have a career that they love that pays just enough to get by than to choose a career they hate just because it pays well. I want them to find a career that doesn’t feel like work. And I think my oldest is well on his way to doing just that.

    Is your career your passion or your prison?

  • The Misconceptions of Business Continuity Planning

    The Misconceptions of Business Continuity Planning

    Last week I had the privilege of leading a workshop in partnership with the Huntsville-Madison Chamber of Commerce to discuss Business Continuity Planning with leaders in our area. The Covid-19 Pandemic caught many organizations unprepared and they have struggled through how to keep their business going during this time.  One reason for the lack of preparedness is misconceptions organizations have regarding Business Continuity Planning. 

    Misconception #1: My organization doesn’t have the time to create a Business Continuity Plan. And besides, we’ll never need it. 

    Yes, Business Continuity Planning takes time. It’s not something you can create overnight. And it takes input from multiple sources within your organization and possibly even outside of your organization. A successful Business Continuity Plan is designed by a team, not an individual. And even once designed, it requires regular review and updates. But the time you spend up front to create a solid Business Continuity Plan will save you time should you ever need to respond to a large-scale emergency. It will also ensure that you’re able to get your organization back up and running quickly and efficiently and minimize the impact to your employees & their families, clients, vendors, and your revenue. 

    I think it’s safe to say that many organizations now understand and acknowledge that they do have a need for a plan. But they’re scrambling to try and create that plan as they respond to the impact of the pandemic and doing so could be detrimental to the design of the plan.  

    Misconception #2: My organization isn’t big enough to need a Business Continuity Plan. 

    Regardless of the size of your organization, you need to assess your potential risk due to possible large-scale emergencies and determine how you would need to respond in order to keep your organization afloat and to insure the safety and well-being of your employees, their families, and your customers.

    One of my biggest concerns during the pandemic has been small businesses and how they will survive. Many small businesses were required to close their doors and that had a major impact on their revenue and their ability to retain employees. Sadly, some may not survive. Creating a plan to help assess the impact and determine how to respond could be the difference between surviving a large-scale emergency or having to close your doors permanently.  

    Misconception #3: Our employees will know what to do in the event of a disaster. 

    Employees are trained and prepared to handle small-scale emergencies and can usually do so without much direction. Your system goes down temporarily, your power goes out for the day. But they aren’t trained or prepared to handle large-scale emergencies. They look to leadership to guide them and through that guidance to put them at ease. And leadership needs to be prepared in advance to provide that guidance, to make critical decisions and implement those decisions, to reroute employees to assist with the restoration of critical functionality, and to honestly be the calm in the storm. 

    Watching leadership flounder in a time of crisis could be devastating to an organization’s employees, customers, and vendors. It could also have a negative consequence on your organization’s public image and reputation. 

    Misconception #4: We’ll just communicate with our employees if the need arises. 

    Last summer my father had open-heart surgery which resulted in pneumonia and a second surgery. I remember talking with my mother when he was readmitted to the hospital trying to determine who needed to be notified, who was going to notify them, and what they needed to be told. Neither of our minds was in the right place to be making those decisions at that time (and I’m sure we forgot some people). 

    The same goes for organizations. Determining who needs to be notified, who is responsible for notifying them, and what information to share should not be done in the middle of a stressful situation. Plan your communication in advance. By doing so, you can create a checklist of who needs to be informed and when, who will handle that communication, and what needs to be shared. The information you provide to your employees may be quite different from the information you share with customers and vendors. And some notifications may need to be made as soon as possible, while some can be delayed. By creating a list in advance and drafting scripts for each group, you can efficiently get that communication out and be sure that all necessary parties receive notification. 

    Misconception #5: We have insurance policies to cover us. 

    Most insurance policies will cover physical damage, many will not cover, or fully cover lost revenue. Review your insurance policies and determine if you need to adjust limits on a regular basis. In addition, your organization may want to consider adding Business Interruption Coverage. 

    While these policies can certainly help in a time of need, none of these insurance policies are going to get your organization back up and running. They may provide financial assistance to do so, but it is up to your organization to respond to and recover from an emergency. 

    Designing and implementing a Business Continuity Plan is no small feat, but if the Covid-19 Pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that the unexpected can happen and we need to be prepared for if and when it does. Is your organization prepared? 

     

    Here are some additional resources on Business Continuity Planning: 

    Preparing for the Worst: Business Continuity Planning

    Defeating the Kobayashi Maru, the No-Win Situation 

    4 Keys to Leading Through Crisis

    Creating a Business Continuity Plan Webinar & Worksheets