Horizon Point Consulting

Category: Human Resources

We know HR. Read our Human Resources blog archives for stories and best practices from our work with real clients and personal experiences in the world of HR.

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.
September 15, 2020
Stop Selling When Interviewing Candidates

When I was a recruiter, interviews started off with a little overview of the organization. I’d tell them a little bit about what it was like to work for our company and also cover information about how the interview and hiring process worked before launching into questions.

I often had the chance to sit with hiring managers interviewing candidates as well. The difference in how the hiring manager handled the first part of the interview related to information about the company was always interesting. Some said very little if anything about the organization or their department and/or team, while others gave a dissertation on it all. Some bragged and bragged about how great it was to work at our company, others gave the good, the bad, and the ugly about what the work and the environment was like.

Turns out, there is a way to do this and a way not to if you want to hire the right candidates. According to research by Jennifer Carson Mar and Dan Cable on the effects of selling on interviewers’ judgements, it’s not so much on how the candidate portrays him or herself in the interview, it’s about how the interviewer portrays himself or herself and the organization.

Amy Cuddy describes the findings of the study well in her book Presence:

“The more the interviewers were focused on attracting candidates, that is the more they wanted to be liked, the less accurate they were at selecting candidates that would do well after being hired in terms of performance, good citizenship, and core values fit.

The takeaway is this. Focus less on the impression you are making on others and more on the impression you are making on yourself. The later serves the former.”

So, if you want to hire people who will perform well, get along well, and share the values your organization espouses, stop selling, and be authentic.

I wonder if the implications of this study extend to other areas of HR? When do we need to sell and when do we not?

When do you turn on your selling style and turn it off at work?

Like this post, you may also like:

3 Reasons to Make Realistic Job Previews a Part of Your Hiring Process

June 30, 2020
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

June 9, 2020
The Most Popular Slide in All My Leadership Trainings

I often glance at what people take note of when they are a part of one of our training sessions. Not the notes or handout questions we make them fill in, but the notes where they turn over to a blank handout page or pull out their own notebook and jot things down. The notes people take because they want to make sure they remember something.

The times when people say, “Can you go back to that slide for a minute please?” And then they start furiously writing.

We also get feedback from all participants at the end of each session in order to see how the training will affect their behaviors at work going forward. What will they do differently we ask? What will they use?

After gathering this feedback and paying attention to what people take note of, I think this slide is the most meaningful slide in all of our trainings:

I think this slide is even more meaningful given our current situation with the COVID-19 crisis. I’ll be covering this slide as well as others and the tools that go along with it in a webinar: Leading in Crisis hosted by our friends at the Huntsville Madison County Chamber tomorrow, Wednesday, May 6^th from 9 am- 11 am.

Click here to register. Click here to download the handout for the webinar. It has tools that go along with this information.

I hope you can join us as we learn more about leading in crisis, especially through employing the bright spot philosophy and the accomplishment list.

What do you to help you lead in crisis? What has been the best training takeaway you’ve experienced?

May 5, 2020
3 Tips for Surviving the Rollercoaster of COVID-19

Feel like you’re on a rollercoaster of emotions these days? Yep, me too.

When we are living out a well-ordered life full of routines, adjusting to a life that has no or new routines can be a challenge. And living on top of our family members day in and day out with little to no break isn’t a walk in the park either. The newness of it can bring some enjoyment and much needed time to just be, then the next minute the newness can make you totally want to lose your ever-loving mind.

For example, one day last week, I was riding a high, sitting in a comfy chair with a lovely view, reading a book while the baby napped on my chest and my older kids were playing outside. The unique situation of having nowhere to be and the opportunity to read a book in the middle of a random Thursday was ideal. Five minutes later, my kids come running in screaming because one has dumped water all over the other one. They’d had just a little too much togetherness. I get onto the one that has been mean, and he smarts his mouth off to me, and I totally lose it. A transition from sheer joy to sheer anger all in about sixty seconds.

And work is no different from home when it comes to the see-saw of highs and lows. One minute I’m excited that our PPP loan is funded. Not five minutes later I’m dealing with the emotions from a long-time client wanting to cancel their contract with us due to the current situation.

My example pales in comparison to the highs and lows that front line healthcare and other works are dealing with. The emotion of seeing a patient go home after four weeks on a ventilator to then go back into the ICU and lose a patient to the virus all in the same day is the real rollercoaster of these times.

So how do we navigate the rollercoaster of emotions at home and at work? And as leaders, how do we help others do the same? I think a video of my kids riding down a hill on their bikes for the first time is a metaphor for how we survive this all:

1. Recognize and acknowledge the emotions you are feeling. Name them and help others do the same. As you can see in the video, the cream of our cookie, our middle child, takes off down the hill with no fear. As her older brother waits his turn at the top he says, “I’m scared of that hill.” As crazy as it sounds, him just verbalizing this (which is hard for him to do) I believe was the step he needed to actually push off and go.

I am scared, I am angry, I am happy. I am all of these things at once. Asking people around you about how they are feeling and allowing them to verbalize their emotions to you can be the best leadership step in helping them tackle the hill. Being vulnerable enough to express the emotions you yourself are feeling to others also sets a strong example and helps you work through being able to push off and go do the next right thing.

2. Peddle fast to capitalize on the momentum of the hill. I don’t know about you, but when I was young and would ride up and down hills, I’d coast down and enjoy the ride. Thinking consciously or not I’d conserve my energy; I’d take a break from peddling. Which made it all the harder to get up the other side.

As you can see, my two take the exact opposite approach. They are peddling their hearts out down the hill. When things look easy, or when emotions are positive and exhilarating, it’s time to peddle faster to prepare you for when things get hard.

If you’re on the high side of the rollercoaster, write a positive note of encouragement to someone, do something you truly enjoy, write down what you’re grateful for, celebrate. This will help provide the momentum needed to get up steep climbs of negative emotions and difficult situations that will come your way.

3. Recognize that we all deal with different situations and different points of the rollercoaster differently; don’t judge or condemn others or yourself for this. The middle child had no fear getting started down the hill but listen to her scream as her brother is headed down the hill. She’s screaming (and you’ll be able to see her if you look) because she was about halfway up the other side of the hill when she fell on her bike because she didn’t have the stamina to get up the other side. No fear going down, all screams going up. Her brother was the opposite. He was scared to go down but had the stamina to make it up the other side.

For too many reasons to count (both nature and nurture related) people deal with the exact same situations differently. And from one day to the next a single person may react totally differently to the same thing on a Tuesday than they did on a Sunday. Don’t be surprised by this and help people where they lack the courage to go down the hill or the stamina to get back up the other side. Help yourself too by not beating yourself up when this happens.

After about a week of tackling the hill, our middle gained the stamina to get all the way up on the other side. She did because we offered her grace when she couldn’t at first by carrying her bike up to the top for her, then teaching her strategies to keep her momentum going, then offering her big words of encouragement as she was in the midst of getting to the top on her own.

Tackling the peaks and valleys of the current situation with grace is the best we can ask of ourselves and of others. When we acknowledge our emotions and those of others and help each other through the ups and downs, we walk away a little stronger, with a little more stamina to tackle the next set of peaks and valleys that will certainly come our way.

How do you navigate the rollercoasters?

April 21, 2020