CHAPTER

5

Workforce Planning and Employment

A wealth of information is available in case law to guide HR professionals in their compliance with federal legislation and regulations. Common sense can help as well. Workforce planning and employment is important to both PHR and SPHR candidates. Twenty-four percent of the PHR exam and 17 percent of the SPHR exam will focus on this area of knowledge.

Workforce planning and employment is where you will find all the information about staffing, recruiting, interviewing, equal employment opportunity, affirmative action, new employee orientation, retention, terminations, and employee records management. These are core functions for HR management in any organization. Master these and you will have a strong foundation for HR performance in your employment group.

The official HRCI Workforce Planning and Employment functional area responsibilities and knowledge statements are as follows:

Responsibilities

• Ensure that workforce planning and employment activities are compliant with applicable federal laws and regulations.

• Identify workforce requirements to achieve the organization’s short- and long-term goals and objectives (for example: corporate restructuring, workforce expansion or reduction).

• Conduct job analyses to create and/or update job descriptions and identify job competencies.

• Identify, review, document, and update essential job functions for positions.

• Influence and establish criteria for hiring, retaining, and promoting based on job descriptions and required competencies.

• Analyze labor market for trends that impact the ability to meet workforce requirements (for example: federal/state data reports).

• Assess skill sets of internal workforce and external labor market to determine the availability of qualified candidates, utilizing third-party vendors or agencies as appropriate.

• Identify internal and external recruitment sources (for example: employee referrals, diversity groups, social media) and implement selected recruitment methods.

• Establish metrics for workforce planning (for example: recruitment and turnover statistics, costs).

• Brand and market the organization to potential qualified applicants.

• Develop and implement selection procedures (for example: applicant tracking, interviewing, reference and background checking).

• Develop and extend employment offers and conduct negotiations as necessary.

• Administer post-offer employment activities (for example: execute employment agreements, complete I-9/eVerify process, coordinate relocations, and immigration).

• Develop, implement, and evaluate orientation and on-boarding processes for new hires, rehires, and transfers.

• Develop, implement, and evaluate employee retention strategies and practices.

• Develop, implement, and evaluate the succession planning process.

• Develop and implement the organizational exit/off-boarding process for both voluntary and involuntary terminations, including planning for reductions in force (RIF).

• Develop, implement, and evaluate an affirmative action plan (AAP) as required.

• Develop and implement a record retention process for handling documents and employee files (for example: pre-employment files, medical files, and benefits files).

Knowledge of

• Applicable federal laws and regulations related to workforce planning and employment activities (for example: Title VII, ADA, EEOC Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures, Immigration Reform and Control Act)

• Methods to assess past and future staffing effectiveness (for example: costs per hire, selection ratios, adverse impact)

• Recruitment sources (for example: employee referral, social networking/social media) for targeting passive, semi-active, and active candidates

• Recruitment strategies

• Staffing alternatives (for example: outsourcing, job sharing, phased retirement)

• Planning techniques (for example: succession planning, forecasting)

• Reliability and validity of selection tests/tools/methods

• Use and interpretation of selection tests (for example: psychological/personality, cognitive, motor/physical assessments, performance, assessment center)

• Interviewing techniques (for example: behavioral, situational, panel)

• Impact of compensation and benefits on recruitment and retention

• International HR and implications of global workforce for workforce planning and employment

• Voluntary and involuntary terminations, downsizing, restructuring, and outplacement strategies and practices

• Internal workforce assessment techniques (for example: skills testing, skills inventory, workforce demographic analysis)

• Employment policies, practices, and procedures (for example: orientation, onboarding, and retention)

• Employer marketing and branding techniques

• Negotiation skills and techniques

Core Knowledge of

• Needs assessment and analysis

• Organizational documentation requirements to meet federal and state guidelines

• Diversity concepts and applications

• Technology to support HJR activities

• Qualitative and quantitative methods and tools for analysis, interpretation, and decision-making purposes

• Employee records management

• Techniques for forecasting, planning and predicting the impact of HR activities and programs across functional areas

Key Legislation Governing Workforce Planning and Employment

Now that you’ve reviewed the Workforce Planning and Employment responsibilities and knowledge statements, we recommend that you review the federal laws that apply to Workforce Planning and Employment (see Figure 5-1). It would benefit you, the reader, to refer back to Chapter 2 on these specific laws prior to reading any further in this chapter.

Figure 5-1 Key legislation governing workforce planning and employment

While legislation is important, of equal value is the case law that comes from court interpretations. Over the decades since the civil rights laws began to impact the country in earnest, the U.S. Supreme Court has heard and provided its clarification to many questions. See Figure 5-2 for the vitally important cases dealing with Workforce Planning and Employment.

Figure 5-2 Case law that applies to workforce planning and employment

For more information on each of these cases, see Appendix B.

Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action

While it is true that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was the first civil rights law in the United States that embraced employment issues, it was not the first civil rights law in the country. That would have been the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which said that anyone born in the United States is a citizen and any citizen, regardless of race, has the right to enter into contracts, sue and be sued.

Before the assassination of President John Kennedy in November 1963, Congress had argued for many months about extending protections from discrimination based on race, religion, national origin, and color. The Senate just couldn’t make any progress. Then some Senators from Southern states devised a strategy to end the arguments and defeat the bill once and for all. They proposed an amendment that would add “sex” as a protected category. They reasoned that nobody would vote in favor of protecting women against discrimination in the workplace. Well, the idea didn’t work out so well for them. It backfired and the bill passed with five protected categories, including sex. President Johnson signed the bill into law in 1964.

In 1965, President Johnson looked around the country and noticed that the Civil Rights Act he had signed the previous year was pretty much being ignored by employers of all sizes. He asked his staff to evaluate the problem and come up with some recommendations about how he should address it. They devised a program called “Affirmative Action” that would force certain federal contractors to implement the Civil Rights Act. President Johnson issued Executive Order 11246 requiring contractors to take affirmative action for minorities and women in their hiring and promotion programs. That didn’t have much impact, however. It wasn’t until President Nixon’s administration implemented some regulations and created an oversight agency that employers began to pay attention.

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)

In 1964, President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, which had been working its way through Congress since the time of Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy. Title VII of that law deals with employment-related equal opportunity provisions. Sometimes these terms are used interchangeably, although they should not be. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 has other titles dealing with public housing, education, and more. (A title in a law is like a chapter in a book.)

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 created a five-member commission that stands alone with allegiance to no government department. Its Commissioners are appointed to five-year staggered terms. A Council General, the Commission’s head lawyer, is also appointed by the President. All appointments must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate. There is a Chair, Vice Chair, and three Commissioners. By design, three of the positions are appointed from the sitting President’s political party and the other two are selected from the political party not in power. Even though the President appoints the Commissioners, the EEOC does not report to the White House. It is independent.

Commissioners can file charges against employers, but more often the EEOC staff receives complaints of employment discrimination from employees and job applicants. Because the Civil Rights Act of 1964 applies only to employers with 15 or more employees, whose business is engaged in interstate commerce, smaller employers are not subject to its oversight. The EEOC also has jurisdiction over federal government agencies that are considered part of the Executive Branch, reporting to the President, and state and local governmental units as well. Size of payroll does not matter for governmental employers. That limitation applies to private employers only. EEOC has divided its staff into two specialty groups, one handling the public sector and the other handling the private sector.

The EEOC has enforcement authority for:

• Civil Rights Act of 1964

• Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967

• Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978

• Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990

• Equal Pay Act of 1963

• Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008

When the EEOC investigates a complaint and determines that there is justification for that complaint, it says the case has “cause.” When a case has “cause” the EEOC will attempt to find a “make-whole” remedy that can include any of the following reimbursements:

• Back pay (for up to two years)

• Reimbursement for out-of-pocket expenses (for example, job search, doctor visits)

• Front pay—unlimited (based on how long it might take to get another job)

• Compensatory damages (for example, pain and suffering, emotional distress)

• Punitive damages (for example, punishment of the employer with dollar limits based on payroll headcount as specified by the Civil Rights Act of 1991, shown in the following table)

Table 5-1 notes the limits on punitive damages relative to the number of employees within an organization.

Table 5-1 Cap on Punitive Damages for Title VII Cases¹

Table 5-2 notes the number and nature of EEOC charges filed in fiscal year 2012.

Table 5-2 Quantity of EEOC Charges in Fiscal Year 2012²

EEOC Complaint Investigation Procedures

Complaints must be filed with the EEOC within 180 days from the date on which the action was taken that caused the charge of illegal discrimination. In states that have a reciprocity agreement between the state’s Fair Employment Practices agency and the EEOC, the filing period is 300 days.

The charge must be made in writing. It must contain:

• The employee’s name, address, and telephone number

• The name, address, and telephone number of the employer (or employment agency or union) the employee wants to file this charge against

• The number of employees employed there (if known)

• A short description of the events the employee believes were discriminatory (for example, the employee was fired, demoted, harassed)

• When the events took place

• Why the employee believes (s)he was discriminated against (for example, because of race, color, religion, sex [including pregnancy], national origin, age [40 or older], disability or genetic information)

• The employee’s signature

It is common for the Compliance Officer to ask the employee what remedy (s)he would like in the situation. That can become important during a conciliation conference if the charge is found to have merit.

Once the complaint has been received by the Commission, a letter will be sent to the employer within 10 days explaining the charge and asking for the employer’s response.

The employer should conduct an internal investigation using the steps outlined in Chapter 4 if that has not already been done. Unfortunately, once a charge has been filed with either the EEOC or a state enforcement agency, the employer is banned from speaking about it with the employee. There may be no direct contact between the employee and employer on that issue. Of course, normal day-to-day interactions are permitted, but nothing related to the charge of illegal discrimination. If an internal investigation has not been conducted before the EEOC’s notice of filing, it will be handicapped by the ban on interaction with the employee.

At the completion of the internal investigation, the employer will prepare a written response to the Commission explaining what it has found in its investigation. This is the employer’s opportunity to explain its side of the story. Based on that input, the EEOC’s Compliance Officer (CO) will either suggest mediation or open an investigation so it can gather more information. There may be requests for more written information from the employer. There may be an on-site visit so interviews can be conducted with people involved in the issue, and witnesses to what happened. How long that will take is an open question. It could be a relatively short period of time (2 or 3 months), or it could go on for a couple of years. Typically, cases are resolved within 12 to 18 months. The EEOC’s case backlog continues to hover around 100,000.

At the conclusion of the EEOC’s investigation, it will always issue a Right to Sue or a Notice of Rights, which explains to the employee their right to file a lawsuit in federal court. Each investigation concludes with one of the following types of findings:

• No Reasonable Cause The charge of illegal discrimination could not be substantiated.

• Reasonable Cause The charge of illegal discrimination is substantiated by the evidence and a Letter of Determination is sent to the employer and employee inviting the parties to join the agency in seeking to resolve the charge through conciliation. If conciliation fails, the EEOC will issue a Right to Sue letter to the employee who is then free to locate an attorney and proceed to federal court. The Commission may also decide to pursue legal action itself. It can sue the employer on behalf of the employee.

• Administrative Closure If the employee requests the case be closed without an investigation or during an investigation, the Commission will cease its activities on the case and issue the employee a notice that (s)he has the right to proceed to federal court.

Remedies for cases found to have merit can range from back pay (up to 2 years), retroactive promotion, retroactive benefits, reimbursement of medical expenses, and other out-of-pocket costs along with other “make whole” compensation. Those are called actual damages. If the employee wants to pursue reimbursement for compensatory damages (emotional and psychological damages) and punitive damages (punishment to the employer) it is necessary to pursue the complaint in federal court.

EEOC Guidelines

Since 1979, the EEOC has issued over 40 policy statements, policy guidance, enforcement guidance, and revised guidelines. Some of them have been rescinded. Among the most important are:

• Consideration of Arrest and Conviction Records in Employment Decisions under Title VII (April 2012)

• Employment Tests and Selection Procedures (December 2007)

• Unlawful Disparate Treatment of Workers with Caregiving Responsibilities (May 2007)

• Reasonable Accommodation and Undue Hardship Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (October 2002)

• Disability-Related Inquiries and Medical Examinations of Employees Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (July 2000)

• Application of EEO Laws to Contingent Workers Placed by Temporary Employment Agencies and Other Staffing Firms (December 1997)

• Americans with Disabilities Act and Psychiatric Disabilities (March 1997)

• Workers’ Compensation and the ADA (September 1996)

• Current Issues of Sexual Harassment (March 1990)

• Veterans’ Preference Under Title VII (August 1990)

• Indian Preference Under Title VII (May 1988)

• Guidelines on Sexual Harassment (1980)

NOTE You can find a complete listing on the Commission’s website at www.eeoc.gov.

One particular highlight in the Commission’s publications are the Guidelines on Sexual Harassment from 1980. These were issued to aid employers in traversing the legal minefield of evolving employment requirements before the U.S. Supreme Court began issuing its opinions on the subject in the 1990s. They are still relevant today.

Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures (1978)

The Uniform Guidelines, as they are generally known, are among the least understood regulations in equal employment law. They are actually ensconced in the Code of Federal Regulations at 41 CFR 60-3.

Refer to Chapter 7 for more information about the application of the Uniform Guidelines on Employee and Labor Relations. Chapter 9 has additional information—about how the Uniform Guidelines apply to compensation and benefits.

NOTE If you don’t wish to purchase a copy of the regulations from the U.S. Printing Office, you can search the Internet for “41 CFR 60-3.” Any professionally certified Human Resource Manager should possess a copy of this regulation.

Any employer with 15 or more workers on the payroll is subject to the Uniform Guidelines. (Any employer subject to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is also subject to the Uniform Guidelines.) They require validation of all employment selection steps and tools. As an example, let’s assume that our employment selection process involves the following steps. We are required to determine that each step is free from illegal discrimination (disparate impact) and that it has validity for selecting someone to fill the specific job in question.

Our employment selection steps are as follows:

• Job application form completed (or resume submitted)

• Written test (specific skills such as typing or accounting and specific knowledge such as building codes or engineering practices)

• Interview with job’s supervisor

• Interview with coworkers

• Background check

One of the greatest liabilities employers accept comes through purchasing an “off the shelf” employment test. If said test has not been validated as a nondiscriminatory selection tool for your specific job content, you probably shouldn’t use it. You can find paper-and-pencil written tests for clerks and accountants in some stationery stores and large office supply warehouses. They often have no validation information that would indicate what type of job knowledge or skills they are designed to test. Employers should avoid these products if they don’t plan to conduct validation studies themselves.

The Uniform Guidelines requirements exist so that disparate impact can be controlled. Disparate impact, also known as adverse impact, means one or more groups suffer a numerical disadvantage compared to other group(s). This usually occurs when a seemingly neutral policy or employment selection device (or process) results in discrimination against a Title VII protected class. Numerical and statistical analysis are tools used to detect disparate impact. HR professionals should be acquainted with the “80% test” which is sometimes called the “4/5ths rule.” Simply said, if any protected group is selected at a rate (percentage) that is less than 80 percent the selection rate of the most favorably treated group, there is possibly a problem. An example is shown in Chapter 7. Courts have acknowledged that it is necessary to use statistical analysis techniques to eliminate the possibility of chance in the selection results. So, often we see statistical significance testing methods such as standard deviations and probability analysis being used. Ultimately, the only method available to “prove” disparate impact is linear regression analysis. Statisticians love that because they are usually the only ones who understand it. Regulations say, “Users are cautioned that they are responsible for compliance with these guidelines.” It is not the publishers of the test that are liable; it is the employer who uses the test that carries the liability.

NOTE HR professionals will be very cautious about what employment selection tools are used in their organizations. While it may be difficult to corral managers and executives who feel it is okay to use any technique or tool they wish, it is necessary to have them understand that they can single-handedly cost the organization a lot of money if they are cavalier about these requirements.

Validation of Each Selection Step Is Required by the Uniform Guidelines

The Uniform Guidelines say, “If the information [required] shows that the total selection process for a job has an adverse impact, the individual components of the selection process should be evaluated for adverse impact.” For our purposes, the terms Adverse Impact and Disparate Impact will have the same meaning. So, test the overall results and if a problem pops up in that test, drill down to the individual steps in the selection process and test each of those.

You may find the following information about validation on the exam.

Jumping back into the selection process, recall that we have discussed the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures (Chapter 2 and earlier in this chapter). If you have 15 or more employees and are involved in interstate commerce, or are a government entity at the state or local level, you must comply with these requirements for validation of your employment selection steps.

Content Validity

If you use testing that is specifically related to what is done on the job and how it is done on the job, then you will have met the Uniform Guidelines requirements. This is called content validity. Don’t fudge. You must test for the knowledge, skills, and abilities that are specifically required on the job. And you must test them in the same way they are used on the job.

For example, a township fire department asked each firefighter candidate to take a physical test that was conducted out in back of the firehouse. There was a starting line, a ladder, and a hose connected to a water source. The candidate was required to pick up the ladder and run it over to the firehouse, lift it into position against the firehouse, return for the hose, carry it up the ladder, and squirt the roof of the building. Some people objected to that test and the judge hearing the case asked if that was exactly what was done on the job. The fire chief said, “Yes, it is, except for one thing.” The judge asked was that one thing was. The chief replied, “The job requires all of those things to be done, but we normally assign people to work in pairs.” So the department was testing for what was done on the job, but not the way it was done on the job.

Criterion-Related Validity

Demonstrating this type of validity involves empirical studies producing data that show the selection procedure(s) are predictive or significantly related with important elements of job performance. This is a scientific study of the test used with a sufficient number of successful incumbents to determine there is a statistically significant correlation with the job content. These studies are, by their very nature, long and expensive. They should be performed by the test publisher. Or, by the test user…employer. Remember that the Guidelines tell us that it is the test user (employer) who is responsible for any disparate impact caused by use of the test. It isn’t the publisher who is liable.

You can use your own written test without a criterion-related validity study if you make the test specifically related to the work done on the job. Otherwise, if you purchase a written clerical test “off the shelf,” for example, you must be able to demonstrate that it is predictive of success on the clerical job for which you will use it.

One employer purchased a general clerical test battery that tested basic arithmetic skills, typing skills, and spelling skills. That test battery was administered to all job applicants in the organization. So anyone applying for a clerical job would have to take the tests, but so would anyone applying for a laboratory cleaning job, a delivery driver job, or a food service job. Clearly, the test battery didn’t apply to many of the jobs for which it was being used. The employer was wrong in how it applied the tests.

Construct Validity

Construct validity is another data-based way of determining that an employment test has validity for the job in question. It should show the “procedure measures the degree to which candidates have identifiable characteristics which have been determined to be important in successful performance in the job…”³ Those measurements are done through detailed study of the test results and success of incumbents on the job. Such validation can be extremely expensive to demonstrate.

Federal Contracting and Affirmative Action Requirements

In 1965, President Johnson recognized that employers were not implementing Equal Employment Opportunity provided for in the Civil Rights Act of 1964, so his administration created affirmative action requirements to force the portion of the employer community engaged in federal contracting to implement the new law. Affirmative action requirements demand the inclusion of all qualified individuals in consideration for job openings.

It was common practice in 1965 to fill jobs without any announcement. Decisions were made in private (secret) and, in particular, minorities and women had no knowledge that a job opening even existed. Affirmative action rules changed that for federal contractors. They said contractors had to assess their workforce and determine where there was a need for more minorities and women. Then the regulations required contractors to implement “outreach and recruiting programs” to invite qualified minority and female candidates to participate in the selection process.

When an employer decides it wishes to get revenue from the federal government, it subjects itself to these rules governing that process. Just as it is necessary for any organization earning money in this country to pay income taxes according to the IRS regulations, it is necessary to abide by U.S. federal government contracting rules if you wish to have the revenue from selling goods or services to the government.

NOTE Construction contractors who wish to get revenues from building roads, dams, or office buildings for the government are also subject to affirmative action requirements, although rules for construction contractors are different from those for goods and service contractors.

Goods and Services Contractors

If the employer has 50 or more employees (full time, part time, casual, term) on the payroll and it has contracts valued at $50,000 or more, there are affirmative action obligations that must be met. There are also other obligations under the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR)—FAR obligations are usually managed by the accounting department and affirmative action obligations are usually managed by the human resource department.

Under the employment affirmative action obligations there are three types of affirmative action plans required. One covers minorities and women. Another covers disabled people. And, the third covers certain veterans of the U.S. uniformed services. Written plans are required for each type of affirmative action effort. As we said earlier, affirmative action requirements are the government’s way of ensuring that equal employment opportunity laws were properly implemented. They got a bad reputation because people used them in ways that they should not have. Today, the U.S. Supreme Court has clarified that affirmative action programs are not quota systems. Nor are they set-aside or preferential treatment systems.

Executive Order 11246 sets the basic requirements upon which these regulations were established. 41 CFR 60-1 and 60-2 set out what is required for minorities and women. Affirmative action for disabled is regulated by 41 CFR 60-741. Finally, affirmative action programs for covered veterans is governed by 41 CFR 60-250 and 60-300.

Affirmative action programs involve outreach and recruiting. Equal employment opportunity means equal access. So, if you are building a pool of candidates for a given job opening, anyone who is qualified for the position should have access to the pool (equal opportunity) and you should reach out to qualified groups of minorities and women to invite them to participate in the selection process (affirmative action). Once the pool has been established with qualified candidates, the nondiscriminatory selection process should be applied to ultimately make a job offer to the best qualified person. The notion of affirmative action is that if someone isn’t in the candidate pool, they can’t possibly be selected. So, we must be sure that minorities and women are represented in the candidate pools.

Construction Contractors

Unlike the obligations for goods and service contractors, those who engage in construction projects have a different set of requirements. Known as the 16-point program, the regulations are found at 41 CFR 60-4 and apply to any contractor or subcontractor with a federal or federally assisted construction contract in excess of $10,000. The construction affirmative action plan requirements focus on craft and laborer jobs with specific numerical targets for total minorities based on the job location. A table of locations and goals for minorities can be found in 46 F.R. 7533. If you haven’t looked at this table recently don’t worry; the table has not been changed since 1980. There is one uniform goal for representation of women in construction jobs and that is 6.9 percent. No management or professional jobs are included in these requirements.

NOTE An employer who must meet the construction contractor requirements may not need to meet the requirements of goods and services contractors. An exception to that rule might be a design and build engineering and construction company that has both a service contract for engineering and a construction contract for building the project.

A separate set of AAP documents must be created for each work location (or campus facility) where 50 or more people are assigned to work. Work locations with fewer than 50 people should have those jobs and incumbents “rolled up” into the plan where their boss works. If there are no remote work locations with 50 or more people, all company employees should be reported in the corporate headquarters plan.

Compliance Evaluations by OFCCP

Enforcement of affirmative action regulations is accomplished by an agency in the United States Department of Labor called the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP).

There are approximately 160,000 federal contractors and subcontractors in the United States that are large enough to warrant preparation of affirmative action plans. Of that number, around 4,000 goods and service providers are selected each year for compliance evaluations as a test of their compliance with all the federal regulatory requirements. That equates to roughly a 2.5 percent chance that any one of them will be selected for audit. An additional 450 construction contractors are selected each year to undergo audits of their 16-step Construction AAPs. There are three primary types of compliance evaluation that the OFCCP conducts.

• Normal Compliance Evaluation Audit of physical establishment identified by a street address or campus location. This can be for either a goods and services contractor or a construction contractor. The requirements are different, but the off-site and on-site activities are much the same.

• Opening Conference The Compliance Officer will visit the contractor and interview the senior executive, discussing the employer’s EEO/AA policy and its implementation.

• Desk Audit A Scheduling Letter is sent by the OFCCP to the contractor requesting a response with specific documentation in the employer’s response. These documents will be examined by the OFCCP Compliance Officer (CO) in the OFCCP office. There may be additional documentation demands and those will be examined in the OFCCP office as well. If all compliance requirements have been met, the evaluation can be closed with a Letter of No Violation.

• On-Site Visit The Compliance Officer may find it necessary to visit the contractor’s work location to interview management or non-management personnel. The CO also may find a need to inspect the physical facilities to determine that there are proper and equal restrooms or changing rooms for both men and women. Poster inspection is another task undertaken during the on-site visit. The OFCCP has said it will make an on-site visit in every fiftieth audit even if there is no “indication” of a problem at the desk audit stage.

• Closing Conference A meeting when the CO provides feedback to the contractor about violations found and expectations for corrective action.

• Closure of the Evaluation The OFCCP will close the audit once it has finished its evaluation of all regulatory requirements.

• Notice of No Violation Given to contractors that meet all the requirements.

• Notice of Violation Given to contractors that have one or more deficiencies in meeting the requirements. This usually results in a Conciliation Agreement, which can permit the OFCCP to monitor the contractor for up to two years going forward. A Conciliation Agreement is a formal contract with the government that specifies specific corrective actions the contractor must take. It can also specify a remedy for a discriminatory practice with back pay awards and other such financial settlements.

• Functional AAP Compliance Evaluation When a contractor has gained approval of the OFCCP for its functional establishment, it becomes subject to selection of a compliance evaluation of that functional establishment. A functional establishment is composed of everyone in the contractor’s enterprise working in a functional area such as sales and marketing or administrative support.

• Corporate Management Compliance Evaluation Sometimes called a “Glass Ceiling Audit,” this audit looks at the corporate headquarters organization and analyzes issues surrounding executive compensation, succession planning, mentoring programs, and developmental programs. This type of compliance evaluation was created by the OFCCP to identify illegal discrimination at senior corporate levels. Glass ceiling is the term that refers to an invisible barrier beyond which women may not progress in the organization. Since the term was first used, its meaning has expanded to encompass minorities as well as women.

It is the current policy of the OFCCP to avoid another compliance evaluation in the same AAP establishment for a period of two years following the successful closure of an audit.

Affirmative Action Reporting Requirements

In addition to the Affirmation Action requirements for contracting, there are also annual reporting requirements for federal contractors. EEOC rules require all employers with 100 or more employees to submit a report showing sex and race/ethnicity headcount by job category, and that report is also required of federal contractors subject to affirmative action requirements. That means federal contractors with 50 or more workers must submit the required reports even before they have grown to a 100-person payroll.

One report set is known as Standard Form 100. Today, it includes the EEO-1, EEO-3, EEO-4, and EEO-5. Reports labeled EEO-2, EEO-2E, and EEO-6 have all been discontinued.

• EEO-1 applies to private sector employers and is required annually by September 30.

• EEO-3 applies to local unions with 100 or more members. Filing is required biennually in even numbered years.

• EEO-4 applies to state and local governments with 100 or more employees. Filing is required biennually in odd numbered years.

• EEO-5 is formerly known as the Elementary-Secondary Staff Information Report, and is a joint requirement of the EEOC and the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) of the U.S. Department of Education. It is conducted biennially, in the even numbered years, and covers all public elementary and secondary school districts with 100 or more employees in the United States.

Another report that is required of all federal contractors by September 30 each year is the VETS-4212, previously the VETS 100A. Effective 2015 the VETS-100A report is being renamed to VETS-4212. This form was changed to collect information about the currently defined categories of covered veterans. Any federal contract dated after December 2003 requires submission of the VETS-4212 report.

The Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Act (VEVRA) requires federal contractors and subcontractors with contracts worth $25,000 or more to annually collect and report certain data on the covered veterans in their workforce on the Federal Contractor Veterans’ Employment Report VETS-100 report form. The Jobs for Veterans Act of 2002 (JVA) amended VEVRA’s reporting requirements and tasked the DOL with the responsibility for these amendments. In 2008, the DOL issued regulations that created new requirements for the VETS-4212 report form starting September 30, 2009, for all contracts entered into or modified after December 1, 2003, of $100,000 or more.

The following are the covered veteran categories for the VETS-4212 form:

• Disabled veterans

• Active duty or wartime campaign badge veterans

• Recently separated veterans (within the past three years)

• Armed Forces Service Medal veterans

NOTE Completion of each report, the Standard Form 100 and the VETS-4212, requires an employer identification number that can be obtained online. Once the employer identification number has been issued for each report, it will be reused in each subsequent filing period.

Contrary to what some people believe, it is not necessary to “file” your affirmative action plans with the government each year. Only when you get a notice of audit called a Scheduling Letter is it necessary to send copies of your AAP documents to the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP). That is the U.S. Department of Labor agency that has been given authority and responsibility to enforce the federal regulations requiring affirmative action on the part of federal contractors. AAP documents are created by the contractor for use by the contractor in the implementation of action plans contained in the AAPs.

It wasn’t long ago that the EEOC changed the race/ethnic and job categories in the EEO-1 Report. Those changes were not made in the EEO-4 or any other Standard Form 100. Tables 5-3 and 5-4 show how race/ethnicity and occupational categories are now defined.

Table 5-3 New EEO-1 Report Race/Ethnicity Categories

Table 5-4 New EEO-1 Occupational Categories

Placement-Rate Goals and Good Faith Efforts

As part of affirmative action, each year qualifying federal contractors also have to re-compute the gap between their incumbency race and sex mix and the availability of qualified workforce within a reasonable recruiting area. This must be done for every job group separately. A job group is a collection of similar job titles with similar responsibilities and compensation with similar developmental or promotional opportunities. The gap can be large enough to require a placement-rate goal. That means for the coming year, special outreach and recruiting efforts will be made for the job group to ensure representation of each candidate pool created for that job group will contain at least the percentage of minorities and women that availability analysis tells us exist.

NOTE Even the government recognizes that it is difficult to hire less than one whole person. Therefore, goals need only be set when the gap exceeds one whole person.

Federal regulations require the contractor to make “Good Faith Efforts” to address the placement-rate goal. These efforts will likely involve special outreach and recruiting actions, such as contacting associations of minority or women professionals and asking for qualified candidates for job openings, or reaching out to universities and technical clubs specifically for minorities and women. Remember that it is necessary to document all of the good faith efforts so they can be discussed during any possible audit from the OFCCP.

Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP)

When affirmative action programs were first created, there were several enforcement agencies, nearly one in each federal department. It wasn’t until 1978 that President Jimmy Carter consolidated all of the enforcement groups into one agency that would eventually be called the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP). Organizationally, it came to rest in the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL).

The OFCCP has responsibility for enforcing the following:

• Executive Order 11246 (Affirmative Action Plan requirements for minorities and women)

• Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act (affirmative action requirements for disabled)

• Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act (affirmative action requirements for veterans)

• Americans with Disabilities Act (job accommodation requirements for disabled)

• Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act

The OFCCP has developed regulations for contractors to follow during their implementation of these laws and Executive Orders. Those regulations have the weight of law and specify what federal contractors are expected to do and how they will be audited by the OFCCP when they are randomly selected from the contractor pool. In that regard, the OFCCP is a law enforcement agency. The EEOC is also a law enforcement agency. They are just enforcing administrative laws rather than criminal laws. These regulations are in the Code of Federal Regulations at 41 CFR 60. Chapter 60 has many different components that give the OFCCP its administrative power over contractor affirmative action programs.

Affirmative Action Plans for minorities and women must contain:

• Commitment to Equal Employment Opportunity

• Responsibility for implementation

• Internal review and reporting systems

• Problem identification

• Development and execution of action-oriented programs

• Statistical analysis reports (including: Workforce Analysis [or Organizational Structure Report], Job Group Analysis, Availability Analysis, Analysis of Incumbents Compared to Availability, Placement Rate Goals & Goals Progress Report)

Affirmative Action Plans for disabled and veterans categories do not currently have any statistical analysis requirements, although the OFCCP has proposed some regulatory changes that would establish those requirements. If your organization is a federal contractor, it is a good idea to remain current on these requirements as they evolve. At the time of this writing, only narrative sections are required in AAPs for disabled and veterans.⁵

Outreach and Recruiting Requirements for Affirmative Action

The purpose of affirmative action programs is the establishment of outreach and recruiting efforts. To better understand this, it is helpful to look at a comparison of EEO and affirmative action.

Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) is the foundation of affirmative action. EEO means anyone who is qualified for a job opening should have access to that job opening. Before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 it was common practice for employers to fill some job openings with “hand selected” incumbents. Sometimes the position was never even announced until it had been filled. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 said that type of employment practice was not acceptable. Today, openings should be announced and candidate pools established. Anyone who is qualified for a job should be given access to the candidate pool. Then, sorting, and selection should be done based on nondiscriminatory procedures. (Remember the discussion of the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures earlier in this chapter?) The objective of EEO selection procedures should be to include everyone who is qualified and then select the best qualified from among all candidates.

As EEO is supposed to provide equal access, affirmative action is supposed to provide outreach and recruiting efforts where there are gaps between incumbent representation and computed availability. If you compute availability of women among professional civil engineers to be 40 percent in your recruiting geography and your incumbents have a 20 percent representation of women, you will likely be required to establish a placement rate goal of 40 percent for your professional civil engineer job group. That means you should have at least 40 percent women in your candidate pool for that job group. Each time you have a job opening in that job group, at least 40 percent of the candidates will be women. And, because there are more trained and experienced women in that type of work these days, you will undoubtedly be finding some to be best qualified in your selection process. Gradually, your female representation will grow. It may take a few years of effort, but you will see the demographics shift so that your incumbency more closely mirrors availability. The same type of comparisons need to be done for each of the minority race and ethnic categories.

In summary, employers must abide by many administrative laws. EEO and affirmative action requirements are only two of them. EEO is equal employment opportunity. It requires all individuals to be given access to job opportunities for which they are qualified. Affirmative action is a program requiring employers who are federal contractors to engage in outreach and recruiting to entice qualified minorities, women, disabled individuals, and veterans into the job applicant process.

Recordkeeping Requirements

One regulation the OFCCP has put in place is a definition for Internet Applicant that governs much of how federal contractors collect and retain data on job applicants. This definition applies to applications submitted through the Internet, by fax, or by any other electronic process. It does not apply to applications taken in person or through the U.S. mail unless the contractor wishes to apply the same definition to those sources.

An Internet applicant is someone who

• Submits an application, resume, or other expression of interest in employment

• Has been considered for a specific job opening

• Possesses all the basic job qualifications for the open job

• Did not self-eliminate from considerations by taking another job elsewhere, stating she/he is no longer interested, or failing to respond to employer communications

In addition to the job applicant records, contractors are required (under 41 CFR 60-1.12) to keep and maintain

• Any record created by the employer pertaining to hiring, assignment, promotion, demotion, transfer, layoff or termination, rates of pay or other terms of compensation and selection for training or apprenticeship.

• Other records having to do with request for reasonable accommodation, and results of any physical examination

• Job advertisements or postings

• Applications

• Resumes

• Any and all expressions of interest through the Internet or related electronic data technologies...such as online resumes or internal resume databases

• Records identifying job seekers contacted regarding their interest in a particular position

• A record of each resume added to its internal resume databases, and a record of the date each resume was added to the database

• A record of each position for which a search of an internal database was made and, corresponding to each search, the substantive search criteria used and the date of the search

• A record of the position for which each search of an external database was made, and corresponding to each search, the substantive search criteria used, the date of the search, and the resumes of job seekers who met the basic qualifications for the particular position who are considered by the contractor

• Tests for employment screening or selection

• Interview notes

Gender Discrimination and Harassment in the Workplace

As much as we would like to think that discrimination against employees based on sex or gender has been eradicated from the workplace, there is still a thriving complaint-handling business in both the private and public sectors. To help combat that problem, the federal government has provided general guidelines.

Gender-Neutral Job Advertisements

Returning to the discussion of EEOC guidelines, the EEOC has issued guidance on how employment ads should be constructed. Back in 1964, most employment advertisements were seen in local newspaper classified sections. Prior to the Civil Rights Act, it was common practice for newspapers to have separate categories for “Jobs for Men” and “Jobs for Women.”

The EEOC guidelines say such designations are illegal under the law. There are some exceptions where jobs require either men or women, but those are few and they must be justified based on a Bona Fide Occupational Qualification (BFOQ). Examples of jobs that might be gender or sex-specific would include restroom attendant, wet nurse, actor, or actress. Today most gender-specific job titles have been changed to gender-neutral titles. For example, mailman has been changed to mail carrier; waitress and waiter have been changed to server; and, stewardess has been changed to flight attendant.

The EEOC guidelines also require a “tag line” in all job advertisements. At a minimum employers should show “EEO Employer” or “Equal Opportunity Employer” at the bottom of each of their job advertisements. Additional wording may be added if the employer wishes. Some have used sentences such as, “Minorities, women, disabled, and veterans encouraged to apply.”

Types of Harassment

In addition to providing protection for gender discrimination, the Civil Rights Act has provided for protection against harassment as well. Before the Civil Rights Act and the case law that has come out of its application, harassment on the job was a fact of life for some individuals and these folks were faced with the option of putting up with the harassment or quitting their job and going to work somewhere else, hoping that harassment wouldn’t be a problem at the new location.

Sexual Harassment

Sexual harassment has been defined by the courts over the last several decades (see Figure 5-2: Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson; Harris v. Forklift Systems Inc.; Faragher v. City of Boca Raton; Ellerth v. Burlington Northern Industries; Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Service, Inc.). If you go back to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, you will not find the term “sexual harassment” in the law. It has been created from these court cases. And, as it turns out, there are two types of sexual harassment: quid pro quo and hostile environment.

Quid pro quo means “this for that.” It is usually an issue when a supervisor makes sexual demands of a subordinate. It represents abuse of power. It can literally mean, “If you give me sexual favors, I’ll let you keep your job.”

Hostile environment harassment can happen to employees by other employees (peers), or even people who are not employees—for example, by vendor representatives just visiting the employee’s workplace to deliver drinking water or office supplies. Hostile environment sexual harassment exists when behavior is repeatedly unwelcome and of a sexual nature. It can be verbal, physical, or visual, involving any of these types of behavior:

• Verbal conduct such as epithets, derogatory jokes or comments, slurs or unwanted sexual advances, invitations or comments

• Visual conduct such as derogatory and/or sexually oriented posters, photography, cartoons, drawings, or gestures

• Physical conduct such as assault, unwanted touching, blocking normal movement, or interfering with work because of sex, race, or any other protected basis

• Threats and demands to submit to sexual requests as a condition of continued employment, or to avoid some other loss, and offers of employment benefits in return for sexual favors

• Retaliation for having reported or threatened to report harassment

It should be noted that an employee is not required to give notice to the employer that the behavior is unwelcome. Sometimes, fear for one’s job or simple social discomfort will prevent people from speaking up to say they don’t like what is going on. It might only come out in a complaint to the EEOC at some later time. “She laughed along with the rest of us” is not a valid defense to charges of sexual harassment if the behavior was something that should have not been permitted in the workplace to begin with. The only acceptable form of touching in the American workplace these days is the handshake.

What is the standard for employers who learn of a problem with sexual harassment in their organization? The federal requirement is that employers address the problem rapidly and thoroughly. Some state laws require employers to go as far as to guarantee that the problem does not occur again, which is beyond federal requirements.

Harassment of Other Types

It isn’t only sexual harassment that is illegal in the American workplace. Harassment based on race, age, religion, national origin, color, disability, or pregnancy is also illegal. In fact, harassment on the basis of any protected class is illegal.

NOTE Remember that jokes at the expense of others are usually not a good idea. And if you are a supervisor or manager engaging in such behavior, you can plan on some serious consequences if you end up in court.

Employment liability for workplace injuries is usually handled with liability insurance. These days, insurance is available to address employment decisions but it is very expensive and it comes with a very high deductible. That insurance is called Employment Practices Liability Insurance (EPLI). It does offer employers some amount of coverage to protect against judgments against the employer and the punitive compensation awards that might accompany those judgments. EPLI covers employers for harassment or other illegal discrimination complaint charges and violation of laws about working conditions, among similar alleged bad acts. They usually have a very large deductible requirement and carry expensive premiums.

These injuries are not Workers’ Compensation injuries. They are psychological and financial impacts felt by employees subjected to illegal employment discrimination. Peace of mind and the financial security of employment can be taken away in these situations. Courts assign dollar damage awards to compensate for such injuries.

For individual supervisors and managers who engage in employee harassment, no insurance protection is available, and the employer is not obligated to defend the supervisor against legal challenges. Ordinarily a supervisor would be indemnified by the employer because, although the supervisor was making individual decisions, it was done within the scope of their job as an agent of the employer. It is when the supervisor steps outside the boundaries of the normal job requirements that things get sticky. Employers depend on managers and supervisors to make decisions every day. However, harassment is not a duty assigned by the employer to any manager or supervisor. It is behavior that is illegal, and in most cases runs counter to employer policy. No insurance policy will pay for such illegal behavior unless it is a specific covered hazard in the policy. Additionally, supervisors who engage in harassing behavior with their employees will find that their homeowner’s liability coverage won’t protect them either. It will decline coverage saying that it was an intentional act, not an accident. Think of someone who gets behind the wheel of their car and intentionally runs over the neighbor’s garden. Their automobile policy won’t cover them because it was an intentional act. Thus, any court assessments or fines will have to come from the supervisor’s personal financial resources. Some have lost their houses because of that insurance provision.

Employer Prevention Obligations

Under federal provisions, employers subject to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 are responsible for having a policy that clearly states what behaviors are considered unacceptable in the workplace. Additionally, they are responsible for enforcing that policy with disciplinary actions when necessary. That may include dismissal in some instances.

As with any other discipline, it should be consistently applied. Similar situations should produce similar outcomes. Treating people differently because of their race, sex, or other basis could generate its own set of discrimination complaints.

Organizational Staffing Requirements

Staffing is the lifeblood of an organization as people are required to make any organization run. Getting the right ones into the right jobs is the function known as staffing.

Forecasting Placement Opportunities

Forecasting results can be converted into employee headcount and budget impact, and the consequences can demand other staffing needs. Adding production workers can cause an increase in payroll support work levels, for example.

Identifying job openings before they exist is the activity known as forecasting. It is best performed with the aid of operations managers who will be supervising the new positions. Given what is anticipated for growth (or force reduction) a manager is able to convert workload into staff requirements. Determining the portion of jobs that will be part time versus those that will be full time is another contribution of the forecasting process.

Forecasting staffing needs is usually done in terms of the number of full time equivalent people. That unit value is also favored for budgeting activities. Full Time Equivalent People (FTE) Required = Total Functional Work Load / Work Load Handled by One Person

Compliance with WARN Act

In contrast to forecasting for growth, when you have 100 or more employees and undergo a large downsizing of your staff, as you read in Chapter 2, you may be subject to the WARN (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification) Act.

Should it be necessary to reduce your employee headcount by 50 or more full-time workers, you must comply with the WARN Act requirements. At least 60 days before the layoff is to occur, or the plant is to be closed, notice should be sent to the State Rapid Response Dislocated Worker Unit as well as the chief elected official of the local government where the layoff or closure will occur. Notice must also be given to each union or other employee representative at the facility that will experience the force reduction. In companies without union representation, each affected worker must receive this notice. Specific content is required of these notices, including the following:

• The name and address where the mass layoff or plant closing is to occur, along with the name and telephone number of a company contact person who can provide additional information

• A statement as to whether the planned action is expected to be permanent or temporary and, if the entire plant is to be closed, a statement to that effect

• The expected date of the first separation and the anticipated schedule for making separations

• The job titles of positions to be affected and the name of affected employees in each job classification

The WARN Act Employers Guide states, “An employer who violates WARN is liable to each affected employee for an amount equal to back pay and benefits for the period of violation, up to 60 days. This liability may be reduced by any wages the employer pays over the notice period. WARN liability may also be reduced by any voluntary and unconditional payment not required by a legal obligation.”⁶

Workforce Planning, Forecasting, and Predicting Metrics

The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) represents over 250,000 members around the world. It has partnered with the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) to develop standards for the business of human resource management. Just as there are standards for sizes of nails, nuts, and bolts, there will soon be a variety of standards dealing with employee management issues, including diversity management, staffing, and retention. To learn more about the most recent developments, check in with SHRM for announcements of new standards.

Basic Workforce Planning and Forecasting includes these action steps or tasks:

• Establish list of assumptions about the future period in months or years (revenue growth rate, facility plans—new locations, acquisition plans involving other organizations, downsizing projections).

• Compute FTE requirements for each organizational grouping (department, division, group, and so on).

• Establish comparison of FTE forecast with incumbency to determine new opportunities or downsizing amounts.

• Identify internal sources for qualified job candidates (review inventory of job skills for each employee).

• Identify external sources for qualified job candidates (include sources that may not yet have been utilized for diversity or new skill requirements).

• Develop a plan for recruiting from external sources that identifies specific actions to be taken. (Internet sources should be identified as well as any other media that targets groups that should be represented in candidate pools when jobs open up.) Social media has shot to the top of the recruiting sources list. Even smaller organizations are finding that websites such as Facebook.com and LinkedIn.com can produce job candidates quickly and inexpensively.

Workforce Analysis Techniques

Often, managers will have a need to assess their workforce and what things are influencing it. Questions arise such as, “Why is turnover so high?” “Why are new hires only lasting for six months before leaving?” Some of the following analysis techniques can help determine the answers.

• Supply analysis techniques A strategic evaluation of supply chain options such as sourcing alternatives, plant locations, and warehouse locations.

• Trend and ratio analysis Ratio analysis compares current results or historic results, but always at a point in time. Trend analysis compares historical results with current results and identifies what may happen in the future based on the trend of data in the past.

• Turnover analysis There are many possible reasons for employees leaving the payroll, including resignation, dismissal, death, long-term disability, and transfer to another subordinate company within the same parent company. Identifying the reasons that employees are leaving provides the data needed to analyze trends and identify potential problems within the organization. If supervisors are causing high resignation rates, it may be appropriate to train the supervisors, or take some other action to reduce the rate at which their subordinates are leaving.

• Flow analysis This can involve analysis of data, analysis of production line movement, or analysis of order processing, among other possibilities. How processes operate and how flows of products, data, or other items go through those processes is the objective of this type of monitoring.

• Demand analysis techniques It is interesting to look forward to determine what customers, clients, or patrons will want in the future.

• Judgmental forecasts These are projections based on subjective inputs. This method is often used when there is a very short time for drawing a conclusion, or data is outdated or unavailable.

• Managerial estimates An individual or a group of management people use their experience and knowledge to identify the most likely future characteristics without any additional data analysis.

• Delphi technique This is a method of determining the future outcome and then manipulating a group to reach that conclusion or goal statement. A group of people is forced into polarized positions; then the facilitator suggests a resolution and guides people to support that idea. Ultimately, the group will endorse the facilitator’s suggestion because the group has accepted the facilitator as one of its own. It is unethical and used more frequently than might be suspected.

• Nominal group technique A variation on the brainstorming process for group creativity, the nominal group technique alters that process a bit. As a forecasting process, the facilitator can ask a question such as, “What will be our best selling product next year?” The large group is then divided into small groups of five or six members. Then each person spends several minutes silently brainstorming on their own, seeking all the possible ideas they can come up with. Next, each group collects its members’ ideas by sharing them around the table, and each is written on a flipchart. No criticism is allowed, but clarification in response to questions is encouraged. Each person then evaluates the ideas and individually and anonymously votes for the best ones using some form of grading system (for example, a score of 5 for the best idea, 4 for the next best, and so on). The group then collects and tabulates the points awarded to each idea and the one with the highest score is the winner.

• Statistical forecasts These approaches to analysis use mathematical formulas to identify patterns and trends. Once identified, the trends are analyzed again for mathematical reasonableness.

• Regression analysis Linear regression is a tool often used in forecasting and financial analysis. It compares relationships among several variables. A variable is something for which the value changes over time. In hiring, one variable is the number of job openings to be filled. Another variable is the number of job applicants received for each job opening. How these things can be related and used in predicting the number of people who will meet the job requirements can be determined through linear regression analysis.

Multiple regression analysis allows us to ask the question, “What is the best predictor of…?” If we want new employees to remain on the job successfully for at least one year after hiring them, we can use multiple regression analysis to determine how factors such as educational degree, educational institution, general experience, specific job experience, multiple language skills, or community involvement can contribute to that longevity requirement.

• Simulations We can simulate a process or condition in order to predict an outcome. For example, we can build a simulation of a management problem in order to measure how non-management people handle the problem. That allows us in turn to predict whether or not each participant would be successful if promoted to a management position. This is commonly done in industrial assessment centers.

• Gap analysis techniques Measuring the distance (or difference) between where you are and where you wish to be is known as gap analysis. If you have to train all employees in certain safety procedures, you can use gap analysis to determine what portion of the population has yet to receive the training, or any portion of the training.

• Solution analysis techniques Another approach is to define the problem, identify a variety of solutions, and then assess each solution through use of statistical comparisons. It involves asking the question, “What is the likelihood of success for this solution?” It can employ the mathematical process of regression analysis to assess the variables influencing each solution’s implementation. For example, it might be possible to solve the problem of turnover by creating a management skills training program. It also might be possible to solve the turnover problem by providing different employee benefits, more appealing to the workers. It could also be that offering continuing education to employees would have an impact on turnover. Each of those solutions could work. You can determine how well each works by using regression analysis to calculate the contribution each could make to the problem of turnover control. This analysis considers that there is some value to be contributed by each different solution. If you can’t choose all of them, where will you get the greatest impact for your investment of time and money?

Staffing Effectiveness Assessment and Metrics

When considering staffing metrics specifically, there are actually two types of staffing to consider measuring: staffing of the overall employer organization and staffing for the HR organization within the larger employer group.

Effectiveness of staffing in HR is usually measured by the ratio of HR workers to the total organizational headcount. It used to be that executives expected one HR person for every 100 employees. Today, those ratios are influenced by more sophisticated considerations having to do with strategic planning (succession planning, training, and development) and implementation of special programs (mergers and acquisitions with large cultural differences). “Cheap” isn’t always the most effective route to success.

Overall staffing success can be measured through consideration of turnover rates (before and after mergers and acquisitions), the level of professional staff remaining after a raid by a respected research university, or the quantity of employees who remain on their job for at least 12 months after being hired.

Each organization must devise its own measures for staffing effectiveness. Identify the factors that affect staffing and retention. Isolate those factors that are unique to the organization because of special conditions. Create measurements for normal conditions and a separate set of measurements for the unique conditions. Complete the statement for each condition, “I know our staffing programs have been successfully effective because they _________________.”

Strategic Workforce Planning

Strategic workforce planning involves all of the basic processes with the addition of key components such as succession planning. Succession planning is a sensitive subject because it identifies top candidates for each executive position and the developmental steps necessary for each of them to become qualified for the higher level job when an opening occurs.

To begin, a succession plan should contain an assessment of each employee, detailing whether that person is “Ready now for promotion,” “Ready in the future for promotion,” “Best to remain in current position,” and “On performance improvement program.”

• Ready now for promotion means the employee could move into a specific higher position and be successful without further developmental activities. The employee currently has all of the knowledge, skills, and abilities required of the higher job.

• Ready in the future for promotion means that there are some specific knowledge, skills, or abilities the employee must attain before being ready for the higher level job. There may be specific plans to send the individual to training programs, or to move them into other specific jobs for experience needed before being ready for the promotion. Other developmental activities might include assignment to specific task force groups or additional education in certain university programs. If an advanced degree is needed, that should be identified (for example, Master of Business Administration).

• Best to remain in current position means the employee has a satisfactory or better job performance rating in the current position. Performance appraisals indicate that there is not a high chance of success if promoted. It might be that the individual participated in a formal assessment program and was judged unlikely to succeed if promoted. In any event, remaining in the current job is the best for both the employee and the organization.

• On performance improvement program means anyone who is less than satisfactory in their current job should be provided with a specific plan for development of the deficiencies so he or she can be successful. If the improvement program does not help generate successful knowledge, skills, or abilities, the employee should be moved into a job where existing skills would be adequate, or the individual should be terminated.

Once the inventory of employees has been completed, identification of likely internal candidates for each executive position can begin. Usually, three people are identified as potential successors for each executive job. When doing so, first identify those who are “ready now” and then those who still need some developmental work.

When you are done, a chart of positions and likely successors can be created and published. Distribution of such plans is normally tightly controlled. There are many reasons for exercising restraint in distribution of succession plans. They include:

• If incumbents know they are identified as the possible successor to an executive, contractual expectations could be created that would raise legal liability problems.

• People who are identified as successors might conclude that they no longer need to produce at exceptional levels in the current job.

• People who are not identified as successors can experience a drop in morale resulting in production issues.

Those not identified as successors may leave the organization and the resulting turnover could reach unacceptable levels. In summary, succession plans are important when disaster strikes an employer’s organization or when large numbers are expected to retire, causing a gap in skills and knowledge, which is what has been predicted with the baby boomer exodus. Succession plans typically involve plans for filling vacancies at the most senior levels of management. However, it is possible to expand the coverage to any level of management. They can ensure trained, experienced people ready to take over a more senior job once the job becomes vacant. A successful succession plan will prevent uncertainty and costly delays in searching for qualified job candidates.

Job Analysis and Documentation

There are still many organizational leaders who think it is problematic to have job descriptions. Even with the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, job descriptions did not become a legal requirement. Yet, consider this question: If job responsibilities and duties are not clearly identified, how can an incumbent be held accountable for performance? Absent a written job description, communication issues can be serious and organizational efficiency easily suffers. Table 5-5 identifies the key content in a job description as recommended by SHRM.

Table 5-5 Job Description Key Content

Please also refer to Chapters 4 and 9 for more information about job descriptions, job evaluation, and essential functions.

Identifying Key Job Responsibilities and Essential Functions

When beginning the process of creating a job description, a job analyst, if your organization has one, should work with the manager of the position to develop a list of key job responsibilities and essential duties. (If there is no job analyst, managers are sometimes left to do the description development themselves.) A job description may be assigned to a single incumbent or represent a job that has many incumbents. Either way, it should identify the key functions to be performed by those incumbents.

Essential job functions are those things done by the incumbent that cannot be changed without altering the job so much that it becomes a different job. A complaint investigator receives complaints from employees and investigates them. Alter or remove that function and the job won’t be the same. It will become a different job.

To begin, one would ask what responsibilities are assigned to this particular job (for example, accuracy of all correspondence, bills, statements, receipts, checks, and other documents generated in the vice president’s office; or, developing protocol for use by laboratory assistants in generating research data). Responsibilities are things for which someone is accountable. One can be responsible for production on a given work shift, or for delivery of newspapers to a specific neighborhood.

Next, what duties are going to be assigned to the job (for example, coordinate and arrange meetings for the vice president and immediate staff members; or, develop the budget for laboratory operations and maintain control over budget expenses)? Duties are assigned tasks. One can be assigned to prepare all outgoing mail with proper postage, or to conduct training for laboratory personnel in proper safety procedures.

Third, what are the essential job functions (for example, all order processing, inventory management, and production of printed products; or, management of laboratory employees so that research objectives are met each quarter)? Each job may have many essential job functions or duties. While production of budget reports might be essential for an administrative assistant, maintaining a list of employee birthdays may be incidental to the job. Remember that it is only essential functions that are important when considering job accommodation requests.

Identifying Job Qualifications

Having identified the responsibilities and duties, it is a good idea to next make a list of job qualifications.

NOTE Remember that you must be able to prove that each qualification is valid under requirements of the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures.

First begin with qualification categories. Basic job qualifications can include education, specific experience, specific duration at certain responsibility levels (general management or senior operations management, for example), designated minimum test scores, or other such requirement. For each qualification category, there should be a list of standards and examples that can be used for all job descriptions. Selection from the list under each qualification category can result in a carefully thought out set of criteria to be used in preparing the job opening announcement and in the evaluation of job applicants during the selection process.

Some job requirements will specify mental and physical demands or there may be legal requirements such as certification and licensing. Some jobs may not be staffed by anyone without proper licenses—for example, attorneys, physicians, librarians, pharmacists, and in many locations around the country, a construction contractor. In some jurisdictions, it is permissible for someone to work on a job while in the process of being certified or licensed. Failure to achieve the proper level of certification by a given deadline can result in removal from the job.

Identifying Physical and Mental Job Requirements

As we mentioned, some job requirements will specify mental and physical demands. Physical demands of a job involve physical activity and work environment. If the job requires working in a warehouse freezer, temperature will be a factor. If the job involves roofing during the summer when temperatures reach 100 degrees or more, temperature will be a factor. If the job requires bending, stretching, lifting, carrying, sitting, fingering, grasping, reaching, standing, or walking, the incumbent will need to be able to do those things, or achieve an understanding with the employer for a reasonable job accommodation.

Mental demands of a job can involve things such as reasoning ability and mathematical and language skills. When setting mental job requirements ask questions about the job such as these:

• What education or experience is required for success on the job? Is a high school diploma needed? If so, why? What responsibility or duty in the job could not be fulfilled without a high school diploma? Is it possible that some level of experience could be a substitute for formal education?

• What language skills are needed on the job? Is it necessary to read and write English to perform this job? Why? What part of the job requires those skills? Perhaps the job requires response to verbal or written safety instructions. Perhaps it requires preparation of reports or delivery of briefings to senior management. Describe not only the verbal and written skills required but also what duties they will be used to perform.

• Are mathematical skills required by the job? If so, at what level? Is it necessary to be able to add and subtract so that proper change can be made at a cash register? Maybe it is necessary to use math skills to measure and cut proper lengths of lumber for a construction job. Or it might be necessary to have advanced calculus skills to understand movement of space vehicles in relation to the planets.

• What reasoning ability is needed on the job? Is it necessary to follow specific and detailed instructions? Or does the job require a level of thinking associated with problem solving and consideration of alternatives?

Job Competencies

Job competency is the ability to properly perform a job.⁷ According to Washington State Human Resources, there are four types of job competency: knowledge, skill, ability, and behavioral competency. It seems logical that knowledge of the job content is an essential part of performance success. It also appears realistic that employers could expect someone to have the skills and abilities to competently perform their jobs. We don’t always think of behavioral competencies, however. These are patterns of action or conduct that people exhibit that lead to job performance success.

Point Systems for Job Evaluation

Point systems for job evaluation are often found in use at very large organizations. They are also sometimes used by consulting firms such as the Hay Group (Hay System of job evaluation). Sometimes they are used by internal groups dedicated to evaluating job content to be sure the jobs are properly graded for compensation purposes.

The point-factor method, as described by SHRM, is one of four different evaluation methods. The four methods include job ranking, job classification, factor comparison, and the point-factor method. The four methods are further divided into two categories: non-quantitative and quantitative.

The discussion of job evaluation and each of the four methods is addressed in more detail in Chapter 9, “Compensation and Benefits.”

Point factors are designed to evaluate each job’s content based on a series of scales. For example, a job evaluation program might consider these rating factors:

• Mental development The degree of knowledge required to understand and think about the duties. (A scale might go from “1” requiring incumbents to follow orders to “10,” where professional competence equivalent to a doctorate level is required.)

• Experience The time required to accumulate practical knowledge needed for the job. (A scale could be built on the number of months in a career path.)

• Difficulty The degree of difficulty in making decisions required by the job. (A scale might go from “1,” requiring a choice between two solutions, to a “10,” where causes of problems and potential solutions are very difficult to establish.)

• Functional variety The number of functions performed on the job. (A scale could be based on the number of distinct functions performed by the job.)

• Inventiveness The amount of innovation or creativity demanded by the job. (A scale might go from “1,” no requirement for inventiveness, to “10,” where devising original concepts and techniques is a dominant component of the job.)

• Freedom The amount of freedom from rigid supervision and prescribed practices. (A scale could go from “1,” where there is no freedom to deviate from instructions, to “10,” where freedom exists to produce and results are judged on their overall impact on the organization.)

• Magnitude The amount of impact the job has on the overall organization. (A scale could go from “1,” with only slight impact on its local organization, to “10,” where there is a major impact on goals of the overall organization.)

• Supervision The number of subordinates reporting to this job. (A scale could be developed based on the size of subordinate groupings.)

When using a point system, after each factor has been evaluated, the points are added up and the total points will determine the organizational level and/or the compensation grade for the job. The employer specifies a scale of point totals that is segmented into job levels or compensation amounts and can also be interpreted by organizational responsibility level.

NOTE A system designed to measure management jobs may not be appropriate for non-management positions. There may be a need for two different rating systems.

In order for any system of job rating to have value, the team of people that make up the rating board should establish a standard or benchmark that represents each level of rating possible. All other jobs should be rated in comparison to those benchmarks.

Annual Review of Job Contents

Although it is a “best practice,” an annual review of job descriptions is only a requirement for federal contractors, subject to affirmative action requirements for disabled individuals. Under affirmative action, while written job descriptions are not required, an annual review of job content is. In practical terms, it is difficult to review job content without a written job description.

Recruitment and the Application Process

New employees either replace or expand incumbency in any employer organization. Even a stable, healthy organization will need to replace employee losses due to resignation, death, disability, and other causes. These are some recruiting issues that must be faced in the process.

Internal and External Recruitment Sources

Often, employers search both inside and outside their organizations for someone who can fill a job opening.

Internal Sources

Some organizations overlook their own workforce as a legitimate source of qualified candidates when job openings occur. Internal recruiting can be handled either formally or informally. In union-represented organizations, a procedure for internal job postings is usually specified in the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) or union contract (Collective Bargaining Agreement—CBA). Details within union contracts (CBAs) might specify what information should be included in job postings and how long job openings will remain posted. Sometimes internal recruiting must happen for a specified number of days prior to any external recruiting efforts being made. In the absence of unions, the employer will have the opportunity to develop its own policies and procedures in this staffing area.

Often there are internal resources that might fill the needs of the job opening in question. Current employees are constantly changing, through education or temporary job assignments. They may be working on certifications that would better qualify them for a different job. It is important to consider these resources because they represent less expensive candidate pools than those built with external candidates. And it begs the question of whether it is necessary to have a database that tracks current employee skills and certifications. Training accomplishments, new educational achievements, and demonstrated skill performance should all be identified periodically (annually or more often) and the data entered into these types of databases.

Succession planning is a process of organizing the internal staffing process. It depends on identifying when job openings may occur, who is currently qualified to perform that job, and alternatively, who could be qualified through more training and/or development. Properly done, succession planning will enable you to identify two or three key candidates for each senior executive position in the organization. It will also enable you to identify the developmental process that will be implemented to prepare each of those candidates for the ultimate placement in the higher position. Developmental activities can include temporary task force assignments, temporary job assignments, rotational job assignments, or job swapping where two people change positions for mutual benefit. Succession plans are usually closely guarded because they contain very special and sensitive information. Sometimes HR professionals below the senior executive in HR are not even privy to succession plan content. Implementing a quality succession plan can take a year or more.

One tool that can assist the internal recruiting process is an employee skills database. Information tracked in this database will be confidential to a large extent. Yet it can help you identify qualified candidates for internal placement when the need arises. Your list of data content will likely be different from that created by other HR professionals in different types of organizations. Some of the basics could include:

• Typing (rate and accuracy)

• Specific software application skills (Microsoft Office, accounting programs)

• Driving (automobiles, trucks, forklifts)

• Licenses (attorney, physician, pharmacist, private investigation, nursing)

• Certifications (CPA, PHR, SPHR, surveyor, architect)

• Computer programming (languages)

• CPR/First Aid

• Credentials (teaching specialty)

• Craft specialty (welding, plumbing, electrician, carpentry)

• Advanced degree (MBA, functional specialty)

• Executive training

• Task force leadership

• Languages (specific language fluency)

Internal recruiting can contribute substantially to your overall placement needs. And, generally speaking, internal candidates are less expensive to obtain than external candidates.

Employers often find it is less expensive to recruit job candidates from internal sources. When people are already on the payroll, transferring them to a new job assignment reduces the costs associated with recruiting, hiring, and even sometimes Social Security and Medicare tax.

Here are some internal sources that can be considered before publishing a job opening in external sources.

• Promotions and transfers Internal sources include promotions and transfers. People can transfer within the same department, to other departments, or to other associated subsidiary companies. A promotion can be defined as an increase in job level, an increase in compensation, or an increase in responsibilities. Usually, morale is positively affected when workers see the employer making opportunities available to the existing workforce before searching outside for job candidates. Upgrades and, strangely, downgrades or demotions can also be considered internal sources for job placements.

• Diversity groups Diversity groups are sometimes called Employee Affinity Groups. They typically are organized along race, gender, disability, or veteran status (for example, African American Employees Association, Women Engineers Club, or AB Trucking Veterans Association). Sometimes they are sponsored by employers; sometimes they are not. Often, employers provide meeting space and refreshments in exchange for conversations with the groups on topics of diversity management, employee relations, employee development, and so on. Such groups can be a valuable resource for employer human resource management. Diversity groups should be included in external recruiting efforts, encouraging further referrals of job candidates from minority, women, disabled, and veteran populations.

• Retired employees A resource that is already trained, has organizational knowledge, and is experienced in job requirements should not be overlooked. It may be cheaper in the short run to bring back a retired worker to “fill in” temporarily than to hire another type of temporary worker.

External Sources

In contrast to internal recruiting is external recruiting, which is just as it sounds. External recruiting sources include the following:

• State employment services Free posting for job openings of all kinds.

• Industrial associations If the employer is a member of an industrial association, there are frequently job posting services offered by such associations, and they are usually free.

• Local educational Institutions High schools, community colleges, and universities will usually be glad to post job opening information so their graduating students can find employment in their chosen field of work.

• Veterans organizations Sometimes state employment agencies have linkages to veterans organizations and often have Veteran Coordinators on their staff to maintain those relationships. Get to know these people and how they can help with your recruiting efforts.

• Organizations for disabled Many qualified job seekers are classified as “disabled” for one reason or another. In many cases, the disability will have no impact on that person’s ability to perform the essential job functions. Don’t overlook a valuable resource.

• Advertising or posting on paid web services It has been said that, today, more than half of all white collar jobs are being filled through LinkedIn. LinkedIn.com is a paid resource for employers. Posting job openings requires payment of a fee. Other similar posting-for-a-fee web services include Monster.com, Amazon.com, ZipRecruiter.com, and others. Craigslist.com, as of this writing, is still a free service for employers.

• Traditional advertising Newspaper and magazine print advertising can take the form of classified ads or display ads. These days, magazines and newspapers have companion editions online. Buying advertising in one format can also provide the same advertising in the other format. There are also free job search newspapers that can be found in dispensing racks at local supermarkets, on street corners, and at newsstands. These list only job openings within a given geography. They are sustained by paid advertising related to job opportunities and placement, like those related to training institutions and universities, for example.

State Employment Services

Each state maintains an agency that serves the function of job placement assistant.⁸ Usually it is the same agency that manages the unemployment insurance distribution system. Federal contractors are required to post their job openings with the state employment service for the state in which the job will be located. Other employers are encouraged to post their job openings at these agencies, but they are not required to do so. There is no fee for employer use of these agencies. Anyone using the sites should retain a copy of the filings they post so there is no confusion in the future about what job content was described.

Recruitment Strategies

While for some posting job openings at state employment agencies is a requirement, it is nonetheless a recruitment strategy. Generally speaking, there are four key components of recruiting strategies that every organization should employ:

• Identifying your brand If you are the leading company in a specific arena, let people know that.

• Targeting specific candidate sources Identify the most likely sources for the type of candidates you seek. If you want professional engineers, look in engineering associations and college institutions. If you want electricians, look at the union organizations in the locations where your need exists. Target the specific sources you know will give you the qualified candidates you need.

• Working with your key sources When you find organizations that have job candidates that will fill your needs, cultivate relationships with the people in those organizations. Give them tours of your facilities and stress how it is possible for you to work together to reach mutually dependent goals. Federal contractors have obligations to foster these types of relationships with sources of veterans and disabled job candidates in addition to those serving the female and minority job seekers.

• Prepare your sales pitch Be prepared to sell your best job candidate on the benefits of working for your organization. Explain the environment, the working conditions, the side benefits, and the culture in a way that entices the job candidate to want to accept your job offer.

Branding and Marketing the Organization

Branding is a key recruiting strategy but branding differs from marketing. Branding is a strategic exercise, whereas marketing is a tactical process. Branding is also a method of conveying the key organization values while marketing is a process of encouraging people to purchase the organization product or service. They are often confused simply because they are so closely related.

HR professionals can help the organization advance its brand when discussing the organization with job candidates and employees. “Here are the things we value as an employer.” “Here is the way we do things around here.” “Here we have a culture that values ________.” All of these are statements about the organization’s brand.

When we hear things like, “We can provide that solution for you with our product/service,” we know we are hearing a marketing statement. It says “buy me.” It is more direct and pointed than a branding statement. HR professionals can assist with marketing when they support submission of responses to Requests for Proposals or Sales Proposals.

Applicant Tracking

With recruiting underway, it is a matter of good management that some form of applicant tracking be used in any organization hiring employees. In federal contractor organizations and employers with 100 or more workers, there are additional obligations that require maintaining records of job applicants. Table 5-6 provides basic information that an applicant tracking records system should track.

Table 5-6 Applicant Tracking Data

Resumes vs. Job Applications

So far, no state or federal law or regulation requires employers to use job applications or resume forms in their employment process. That means employers are left to their own devices about how to process job applicants. Evaluating differences among job applicants is the primary task. Carefully crafted job application forms can help HR professionals in that evaluation process.

What is required by state and federal law is that employers meet the requirements of equal employment opportunity laws and be able to demonstrate that they made their employment decisions without regard to any of the protected categories. Some organizations prefer to use resumes rather than job applications, and in some companies neither is a requirement.

If a job application is used, it can be designed by the employer to contain requests for information the employer deems to be necessary in making the employment decision. Obviously, information categories should not include things such as birth date, race, sex, marital status, or other reference to protected categories.

Race and gender/sex are required data points for employees. Employers must either capture that information through employee self-identification or by observation best guess. Affirmative action employers (federal goods and service contractors) must invite job applicants to self-identify their race and gender/sex when they submit their application. That information is supposed to be diverted from view of the hiring manager or recruiter. Normally, it is routed to the HR professional responsible for accumulating and analyzing the database it will be entered into.

There are countless ways to write a resume, and not all of them will contain the same data elements. Further, resumes almost never provide written authorization for employers to gather information from previous employers. Job application forms can be designed with those authorizations and liability release statements to facilitate background checking.

Online vs. Hard Copy

There are many folks today who prefer to dispense with paper copies of documents and there are legitimate environmental reasons for moving to electronic copies. There are advantages to each approach.

Hard-Copy Records Job applications and resumes can provide an insight into the candidate’s organization and language skills. Sloppiness and misspellings can be readily detected on paper records, particularly on resumes. Asking applicants to fill out a form can offer some insights into their reading skill, penmanship, written articulation, and inner work standards. When such records are converted to electronic format, the same types of information may not be as obvious.

Online Records The most obvious advantage of electronic records is that they can be shared by multiple people at the same time. In the case of group interviews, this can be particularly nice. Many years ago there were problems with the legality of electronic signatures on e-documents. The Uniform Electronic Transactions Act of 1999⁹ remedied that problem for the most part.

These days, it is more a function of employer policy and organizational preference as to which type of record format will be used.

Invitations to Self-Identify as Part of the Application Process

We know from the Fair Labor Standards Act (see Chapter 2) and the EEOC requirement for annual filing of the EEO-1 Report that many employers are required to establish and maintain records of employee demographics. This information should be treated as confidential just as all other HR data is considered confidential.

Race and Gender/Sex

All employers with 100 or more employees and all federal contractors with 50 or more employees and contracts of $50,000 or more (or a construction contract valued at $10,000 or more) must maintain sex and ethnic identification of each employee.

There are seven race/ethnic categories on the EEO-1 form. So an invitation to self-identify given to employees and job applicants should contain all seven categories. They are:

• White (Not Hispanic)

• Black or African American (Not Hispanic)

• Hispanic

• Asian (Not Hispanic)

• Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander (Not Hispanic)

• American Indian, Native American, Alaska Native (Not Hispanic)

• Two or More Races (Not Hispanic)

In the public sector, the EEO-4 Report has not expanded its list of five race/ethnic categories. They remain:

• White (Not Hispanic)

• Black or African American (Not Hispanic)

• Hispanic

• Asian (Not Hispanic) (Including Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander)

• American Indian, Native American, Alaska Native (Not Hispanic)

NOTE Any form requesting job applicants or employees to identify their race should conform the choices to the type of EEO report you will have to file.

When an employee fails to self-identify, the employer is responsible for making an observation and best guess as to the race category in which the employee should be reported. If the employee later decides to report their race/ethnicity, that information should be accepted and recorded by the employer.

The government has decided that for tracking and reporting purposes, the Hispanic ethnicity trumps all race categories. That is to say, someone who says they are Hispanic and some other race in addition should be recorded as Hispanic. Race categories are only used for Non-Hispanic individuals.

The invitation to self-identify should also ask for identification of gender/sex either Male or Female. Again, if the individual refuses to self-identify, the employer is obligated to make a selection based on observation.

Veteran and Disabled Status

Federal contractors with $25,000 or more in contract value must abide by regulations related to affirmative action requirements for disabled and veterans. As of 2014, all federal contractors are required to invite self-identification as disabled and veteran from both applicants and employees. When talking about veterans, we mean U.S. veterans. Someone who has served in the armed forces of a foreign country is not included in the government’s definition.

The EEOC has determined that it is acceptable to request identification of disability prior to an employment offer being extended as long as the invitation form is the one specified by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) and it is in an effort to comply with affirmative action obligations. Of course, any request for accommodation during the application process should be handled as required by the Americans with Disabilities Act.

NOTE There is a new requirement as of March 24, 2014 for federal contractors to invite job applicants to self-identify their disability and veteran status. Then the invitation will be repeated for any new hires.

Each of the four categories of veteran should be clearly identified on the self-ID request form. The applicant or employee should be able to choose from that list. And a brief explanation of each category should be given so the form user can understand what they mean.

The disability identification should be available as a selection, along with an opportunity to request any job accommodation or applicant accommodation that might be desired.

Analysis of Labor Market Data

Labor market data can be used in a couple of important ways within the recruitment process. First, it offers demographics on race and sex that can be used in affirmative action plan preparation. Occupational categories are available in the U.S. Census American Community Survey and each occupational category has a count of sex and race/ethnic representation. There are 488 occupational codes in the 2010 Census. These data are used to create affirmative action benchmarks in computing availability of qualified workers. A visit to the Census Bureau’s website can yield a wealth of information.¹⁰

The second type of labor market data application is in the function of compensation management. Market studies by geography can be very helpful in determining how much money people in designated job titles are earning. That can support both calculation of internal compensation ranges and new hire salary offers.

Diversity Management

Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) are no longer just topics of interest; they are essential components of any large organization’s strategic planning process. SHRM has been working with ANSI to develop standards of measurement for Diversity and Inclusion. Those are expected to be released sometime in 2014 or early 2015. They will provide guidance to HR professionals and executives alike. The standards will recognize there are differences among organizations of various size when it comes to resources that can be allocated to diversity and inclusion management. In organizations of any size, however, D&I need to be addressed.

If the foundation of employee management is equal employment opportunity (EEO), and a tool for ensuring organizations meet those EEO obligations is affirmative action, then diversity and inclusion are the next step in ensuring that human contributions come from all sectors of the employee population. D&I is based on the premise that all employees have contributions to offer based on their experiences and that different experience histories can make a collective group of employees more effective in addressing organizational problems, including production and revenue generation.

At the most basic level of D&I program measurement are the demographic comparisons between incumbents and computed availability. Ensuring diversity in employee recruiting programs is another first stage effort. Advanced D&I management will include executive-level diversity (including board of directors membership) and an active focus on D&I in advertising programs and customer appreciation programs. Focus groups, climate surveys, and employee opinion monitoring will all play a role in advanced diversity management. Management training will be essential for the success of serious D&I programs. Managing people from extremely different cultural backgrounds and with different generational representation will be a challenge into the future. In several states currently, there is no racial majority group. All racial groups are in the minority. That means, any employer organization will be required to hire, train, and tap into the various talents and cultural assets of a human pool with multiple levels of sophistication. While it may be human nature to feel most comfortable with people like ourselves, it is going to be more and more necessary to push that comfort boundary and include people unlike ourselves if we are to be successful as an organization.

Measurements and Metrics of Recruitment

Overall there are many measurements that can be applied to human resource management. In fact, many books have been written about the subject. One of particular value is How to Measure Human Resources Management by Jac Fitz-enz and Barbara Davison.¹¹

Measuring recruiting is valuable because it can tell you the cost of each step in the process as well as the overall cost of a new hire, and knowing costs associated with recruiting can help with budgeting for future staffing requirements. In February 2012, SHRM and ANSI published a formal standard on cost per hire.¹² In its most basic form, this standard is computed by adding the sum of costs for internal hires to the sum of costs for external hires and dividing the result by the number of hires. This can be done for the total organization or for subdivisions of the organization, such as a department. Cost per hire includes the cost of advertising a position, processing responses, interviewing, background checks, necessary medical exams, and processing a new employee onto the payroll and into benefit programs.

Some Ways to Measure Hiring

Other valuable recruitment measurements that can be undertaken include:

• Response time to obtain a new hire How long it takes from the authorization to hire until someone is actually on the payroll. This can be monitored separately for various candidate sources (newspapers, social media, employer website, or other source).

• Recruiting efficiency The amount of time it takes to collect a viable number of qualified candidates, process candidates through interviews, and get people on the payroll. Each can be measured individually and the total can be measured.

• Quality of hire Considerations include the job performance rating of new hires, the percentage of new hires promoted within a year, the percentage of new hires retained after a year, and any number of other possibilities.

• Employee retention Grasps the percentage of new hires that are retained for a year (or any other designated period of time). Retention can be computed in budget terms because the cost per hire can be computed and allow identification of retention costs.

• Turnover cost The opposite of retention, turnover measures the rate of employee loss. It can include unemployment insurance expense, workers’ compensation expense, the cost of training a replacement, the cost of recruiting and hiring a new employee, and other factors.

There are a host of possible measurements associated with compensation programs as well (payroll taxes, revenue per employee, employee cost including benefits, net income per employee, average pay per grade, percentage of employees paid over grade maximum, and so forth). There are also measurements for employee training, production tooling, engineering expense, percentage of project cost associated with permits, inspections, and reworking. Almost anything you can observe in a workplace can be measured. Chapter 9 offers an expansion on this topic.

American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Standards for Hiring Metrics

The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) has partnered with ANSI to develop and publish many types of measurements for HR management. One set of those standards relating to hiring has been published. It offers methods for measuring cost per hire and a Recruiting Cost Ratio.¹³

Cost Per Hire This measurement uses external costs and internal costs to determine overall cost per person hired during any given time period. This formula looks at the number of hires and the costs to obtain them. It enables us to derive expenses for each new hire stated as an average.

External costs are those expenses such as external agency fees, advertising costs, job fair costs, travel costs, and other similar expenses for the time period being analyzed.

Internal costs are expenses that can include fully loaded salary and benefits of the recruiting team and fixed costs such as physical infrastructure.

Recruiting Cost Ratio This measurement looks at the cost per hire based on compensation rather than headcount.

The RCR tells us how much we spent recruiting for every dollar of first-year compensation paid to the new hires.

Obviously, the lower the percentage, the better (more efficient).

Recruitment Yield Ratio Another measure of recruiting efficiency and effectiveness is the Recruitment Yield Ratio. It can be calculated at each step of the recruiting and hiring process to determine how successful you are at each stage of the process.

• How many people were minimally qualified compared to total responses?

• How many people were sent to the hiring manager compared to minimally qualified?

• How many people were interviewed compared to those sent to the hiring manager?

• How many people were hired compared to those interviewed?

• At each stage, you can compute a ratio or percentage. The greater the percentage, the better.

Achieving a higher ratio (percentage) means your yield is greater for whatever comparative group you are using.

Here is an example:

We have hired 25 new computer programmers. It took an average of four interviews for each new hire. So our Recruitment Yield Ratio is 25 / 4 = 6.25. If we only required an average of three interviews per new hire the RYR would be 25 / 3 = 8.33. The higher our RYR the better. It allows us to recognize that many interviews in the hiring process add to the cost of hiring. Lowering the average number of interviews per new hire will raise our ratio.

The Impact of Compensation and Benefits on Recruitment and Retention

Compensation and benefits are, among other things, tools for recruiting and retaining quality employees. An employer can’t hope to recruit top talent unless it is willing to pay a wage or salary that is competitive in the marketplace. Benefits take on a similar role and help with recruiting and retention.

Recall that there are no legal requirements that demand employers provide paid vacation time to employees. Vacation is an invention that comes through either union agreements/contracts or from the need to be competitive in the employment market. Imagine a company trying to hire people today if it did not offer some competitive number of paid vacation days. Not many people would like to work at that place if vacation weren’t a part of the employment package. So, by policy, employers offer paid time off to their workers. Other benefit programs that add to the employment enticement package include retirement programs, savings plans, medical benefits, employee cafeterias, employee spas, rest and recovery centers, and pizza Fridays.

All of the benefits can be quantified and their contribution to employment and retention efforts can be computed. There is no doubt that both compensation and benefits are major factors in every employer’s efforts to attract and retain talent on its payroll. We discuss compensation and benefits in detail in Chapter 9.

Flexible Staffing

Traditionally, full-time employment was thought of as one of the three 8-hour periods in a workday: 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, 4:00 PM to 1:00 AM, or 12:00 AM to 9:00 AM. (Each is nine hours long because of a planned meal period of one hour.) These days, we don’t have quite the lock-step approach to staffing that used to exist and there are many alternatives to full-time employees.

Temporary Employees

One change to full-time employment is the use of temporary employees. It is not necessary to hire people by putting them on the payroll. Employers can expand their workforce quickly and easily by contracting with temporary talent agencies to satisfy their need for additional people. Temporary workers can be used on production lines, in accounting departments, or any other portion of an organization experiencing a workload that cannot be handled by the permanent staff. Agencies pay their employees, take care of payroll withholding and tax reporting, add a profit margin, and then pass the final rate to the employer contracting for that help.

Job Sharing

Job sharing is an employment technique that you hear about more and more these days. It offers two or more workers the opportunity to collectively constitute one full-time equivalent employee. One person works the job in the morning, and another works the same job in the afternoon. Considerations involve briefing the “job sharing partner” on the current issues to be dealt with during the next portion of work time. There are some financial considerations, too. Each employee will require the employer’s full contribution toward Social Security and Medicare. That may cost the employee more than if one person were to occupy the position.

NOTE Job sharing can increase morale and provide staffing in situations that otherwise might be difficult.

Part-Time vs. Full-Time

In addition to contributions toward Social Security and Medicare, there are many financial considerations related to full-time versus part-time workers. Where local employment taxes are based on headcount, part-time workers can cost more than a full-time staff.

Under the Affordable Care Act, employers can escape paying for benefit coverage of some workers if they maintain a part-time status. By policy, other benefit programs may or may not be available to part-time workers. It is not uncommon to have access to IRA or other retirement programs based on the number of hours worked each week. The amount of supervision available can also impact the ratio of full-time to part-time workers.

Project Hires/Contract Labor

Using project hires and contract labor is another alternative to full-time employment. Project hires are people who are recruited and placed on the payroll with the understanding that their employment will be terminated once the project is completed. It is common in organizations that seek out projects from client organizations. A staff is hired for the project and then let go when the project comes to an end.

“Contract labor” refers to people who are hired for a specific period of time. An organization may believe that the workload will last until this time next year. So it contracts with people to handle that workload for the year. At the end of the contract, those folks will come off the payroll, whether or not the project has concluded. They could be “extended” (payroll status maintained) for a designated period of time if the workload has not diminished.

Phased Retirement

As opposed to instant full-time retirement, phased retirement is another alternative to full-time employment, which allows an individual to take partial retirement while continuing to work a reduced schedule. It can take the form of job sharing, part-time, seasonal, temporary, or project work.

NOTE A major advantage of phased retirement is that it allows employees to get used to working less and having more time to themselves. It prevents the sudden shock of not having a work routine that comes with traditional retirement.

Retiree Annuitants

Retiree annuitants are folks who have retired from the organization but are called back to work because of emergencies, unexpected workload, or other unforeseen need. They are defined by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS)¹⁴ as people who are entitled to be drawing benefits from their retirement program while earning compensation from their employer for continuing employment whether or not they are continuing to pay into the retirement program.

Payrolling

When a job needs to be done and the organization does not wish to hire someone onto its own payroll to do that job, an alternative is to contract with a vendor who will hire someone to do the job at the client organization. Contractor payrolling is used when you need to adjust to seasonal fluctuations, fill a vacancy while searching for a permanent replacement, bridge the gap in personnel when there is unexpected growth, or use interns for a set period of time. It has many applications and the greatest benefit is in protecting against charges that the person hired is not an independent contractor but an employee, a problem that cost the company Microsoft just under a hundred million dollars in payroll taxes, penalties, fines, and legal fees. This is usually a process used for less than an entire workforce. When single employees or small groups of employees are needed, payrolling services can solve the need.

Employee Leasing and Professional Employer Organizations (PEOs)

Similar to payrolling, employee leasing is a process of moving employees to another company’s payroll as a service for a client organization. Typically, Professional Employer Organizations (PEOs) will take over the entire workforce in a client company. PEOs provide payroll services, tax tracking and depositing, retirement program management, healthcare benefit program management, and even employee counseling and support services. In essence, employee leasing is the outsourcing of the Human Resources department and the payroll function together. Employees usually become employees of both organizations, the client where they perform their work, and the vendor (PEO) that handles the payroll and HR functions for the client. It means both employers are liable for legal compliance.

Outsourcing and Managed Service Providers (MSPs)

Another alternative is outsourcing. Outsourcing is shifting a workload out of the organization through a contract with another employer organization, either here in this country or somewhere else in the world. Managed Service Providers (MSPs) offer to manage functions as part of a strategic decision to move operations or support functions out of an employment organization to a vendor which can perform them less expensively. Such a decision is designed to allow the client company to focus on key activities within its core business while a vendor handles support activities for the client.

Temp-to-Lease Programs

When a need exists for employees on a seasonal basis or for jobs that will last longer than a few days or weeks, it is possible for employers to lease their workers from a vendor organization. The vendor provides the underlying employment relationship with the worker. When temporary needs stretch into longer-term needs, it still may not be wise to increase payroll in the client organization. That’s when contracting for temporary agency workers can be converted into long-term employee leases. These workers often have no benefits provided to them. The client organization pays an employment agency a fee in addition to the pay received by the worker assigned to the client. All payroll operations are maintained by the temporary service agency.

Rehires and Transfers

When workloads rise unexpectedly it is sometimes difficult to bring in new hires quickly enough to respond to that increased demand. Rehiring laid-off workers and bringing in transfers from other portions of the organization can sometimes be good solutions. Rehired workers are already trained and can be productive immediately. Transfers from other portions of the organization have the advantage of already knowing the culture, and if coming from similar or identical types of work, can also be productive rather quickly.

Relocation

Moving workers from one location to another outside the normal commute radius requires finding them new living quarters. This can be done on a temporary or permanent basis. If relocation is used to respond to union strikes or increased workload, it will likely be a temporary condition. Employers sometimes rent blocks of rooms in long-term hotel facilities so workers can have cooking and laundry facilities along with living quarters.

Permanent relocation can involve workers selling and buying homes, and packing household belongings and shipping them long distances, sometimes across the country or internationally. There are many variables in such action on the part of the employer. Enticing employees to accept relocation can be a high hurdle to overcome. Forcing the change for a spouse’s employment, moving children from one school to another, and accepting a higher cost of living at the new location can require employers to provide financial incentives. Those incentives can include such things as:

• Home purchase/lease escape fees Guaranteed purchase of the employee’s old home following an appraisal of value. The employee can accept or reject the company’s offer if it might be possible to achieve a higher selling price some other way. When there is a fee involved for canceling property leases, employers can pay that fee for employees.

• Real estate processing fees Escrow fees for selling and buying real property can amount to many dollars. Paying these expenses for a relocating employee can lift that burden and remove another objection to relocating.

• Mortgage subsidy In an inflationary economy, mortgage rates rise. It can sometimes be necessary for employers to pay a portion or all of the increased mortgage rate to get an employee to accept relocation.

• Packing/shipping/unpacking Paying the bill for a moving company to pack, ship, and unpack at the destination is another way to relieve employees of financial burden.

• Funds for taxes on increased taxable income When there are income tax consequences for employees as a result of a relocation, employers sometimes compute a “tax obligation roll-up” and pay that to the employee in a lump sum as withholdings.

Selection

“Pick me. Pick me!” Employment selection is a competition of talent identification. It is rare for someone to walk into a business and ask for a job and then to be hired on the spot. Although it might still happen in small employer organizations, more typically, selection is a multiple-step process. It can involve, as we discussed earlier in this chapter, an initial application and/or resume, telephone interview, written testing, in-person interview (perhaps several), a team interview (panel interview), background check, job offer, and post-offer physical exam. Then, there is usually a probationary period that is now more often called a training period or initial job experience.

Selection Systems

There is a host of possible selection systems. Pick every sixth person on the list, presuming all on the list meet the basic qualifications of the job. Pick the tenth person, without any further consideration or screening. Pick the first person to respond. These are all valid selection processes, and they are nondiscriminatory. They don’t, however, offer much in the way of screening or filtering for nuances of skills and abilities.

Quantitative Selection Systems

How often have you heard operations managers say, “I want to pick my own people.” Usually, what they are saying is, “I want to be sure the chemistry is right and that I can work with the person who is selected.”

Quantitative selection systems are those that use numerical performance levels and allow for specific numerical cut-offs as qualification thresholds. Written paper and pencil tests are the easiest example. Giving a test involving true-false or multiple choice answers permits scoring the test by the number of correct responses. The raw number of right answers can be used, or it can be converted into a rate or percentage. The percentage of 76 correct out of 134 questions is 57 percent. If the “pass” level was initially set at 66 percent, this person would not have passed the written test.

NOTE The PHR/SPHR exam is another example of a quantitative selection system. Only those with a passing score will be awarded the certification.

Subjective Selection Systems

How often have you heard someone say, “I’ll know it when I see it, but it can’t be measured…it’s too subjective.” Of course, that’s nonsense. Anything can be measured. Things such as behaviors and accomplishments can be measured in relation to other things, similar or not. Behaviors are what we say and do. Behaviors can be measured along a scale that is created just to measure those behaviors or their characteristics. Think of measuring the amount of leadership someone demonstrates. Or measuring the amount of communication skill they can display. Behaviors can be measured against a standard or norm and a person can be determined to have less or more of that behavior than the norm. Consider a measurement of inner work standards. A furniture painter with exceptionally high inner work standards compared to a typical furniture painter is a person who paints the top of the top shelf and the bottom of the bottom shelf, even if no one will ever see those surfaces.

Teachers and instructors are perfect examples of people who perform jobs that some folks think would be difficult to measure. It’s not so. Giving it a little thought, you will discover that the behaviors of good teachers can be thought of as the norm or standard you would like all teachers to “measure up to.” Then it is only necessary to identify the specific behaviors you would like to measure in teachers. Here are some examples:¹⁵

• Skills Verbal, interpersonal, leadership, reading, organizing and planning, platform skills, decision making, analytical, problem solving, feedback, questioning, writing, management of diverse groups

• Knowledge Subject matter, organization, adult learning needs, trainee group

• Qualifications Educational degree, license, certification, train-the-trainer course

• Experience Technical, training, supervisory, management, operations or staff

• Characteristics Energy, enthusiasm, commitment, integrity, self-objectivity

Pick any of those on the list and you will be able to create a measurement for it. For example, let’s choose “leadership.” First we must define what the term means related to the job at hand. So, we will say, “Leadership is the ability to get other people to willingly follow suggestions.” Now, we can create a scale on which we can measure the amount of “leadership” each instructor demonstrates. It might look like Figure 5-3.

Figure 5-3 The amount of leadership observed

“N” is the amount of leadership seen in the person being referenced as the norm. “X” is the amount of leadership being seen in the person being evaluated against the norm.

Measuring performance in HR functions can be done in the same way. Consider the “norm” for each behavior, characteristic, skill, or knowledge to be “What you would expect to see in someone performing the job successfully.” Not the best ever. Not what just gets by. But what you expect to see in a successful performer.

Criteria for Selection

Before beginning the actual selection process, criteria for selection should be determined. This criteria should measure the degree to which a candidate possesses the job qualifications listed in the job description. Lack of a college degree may be a problem, or it may be compensated for by demonstration of specific experience on identified duties and responsibilities. Criteria might specify the degree of physical involvement required by citing how heavy the materials are that must be lifted and carried a specified number of times during a work shift. Mental criteria could include certain mathematical abilities, literacy achievements, or speaking ability. Demonstrated leadership skills could also constitute a job selection criterion.

Whatever is listed as a basic requirement must be demonstrated by any person selected for the position. Selecting someone who does not have a required qualification invalidates the job requirements and could entirely invalidate the employer’s selection process. Care should be taken to be sure the basic qualifications are actually required and that no one is selected who does not have all of them.

Employment Testing

Proper testing is conducted by using validated selection tools. That was explained earlier in this chapter. Be sure to understand the various types of validation studies that can be used under the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures.

In addition to testing, interviewing is an important part of the selection process. A large portion of the workforce is hired only after one or more interviews with the prospective employer. There are several primary types of interviews employers can select from.

Structured

An interviewer asks every applicant the same questions along with follow-up probes that may be different depending on the initial response. Structured interviews make it possible to gather similar information from all candidates.

Patterned

In the patterned interview, sometimes called a targeted interview, an interviewer asks each applicant questions that are from the same knowledge, skill, or ability (KSA) area; however, the questions are not necessarily the same. They differ depending on the candidate’s background. For example, questions asked of a recent college graduate may differ from those asked of a candidate with years of related experience.

Stress

In this type of interview, an interviewer creates an aggressive posture—in other words, deliberately creating some type of stress to see how the candidate reacts to stressful situations. For example, using a room where the candidate has to face an open window with the sun in his or her eyes can put the candidate under stress. This type of interview is used more often in law enforcement, air traffic control, and similar high-stress occupations. The stress interview was more common in the ’70s and ’80s. Today, it is not recommended due to the likelihood that it will be interpreted as personal bias.

Directive

In this type of interview, an interviewer poses specific questions to the candidate, maintaining tight control; it is a highly structured interview. Every candidate is asked exactly the same questions.

Nondirective

In this type of interview, the interviewer asks open-ended questions and provides only general direction; the interviewer allows the candidate to guide the process. A response to one question dictates what the next question will be.

Behavioral

In a behavioral interview, an interviewer focuses on how the applicant previously handled actual situations (real, not hypothetical). The interviewer probes very specific situations looking for past behaviors and how the applicant handled those experiences. The questions probe the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other personal characteristics identified as essential to success on the job. The interviewer looks for three things; a description of an actual situation or task, the action taken, and the result or outcome. The principle behind behavioral interviewing is that past performance is the best predictor of future performance.

Situational

In a situational interview, the interviewer elicits stories and examples that illustrate the applicant’s skills and qualifications for the job. Situational interviewing is similar to behavioral interviewing; the only difference is that in a behavioral interview, the interviewer is probing for actual past experiences, whereas in a situational interview, the interviewer develops hypothetical situations and asks the applicant how he or she would handle them.

Group

Group interviews happen when multiple job candidates are interviewed by one or more interviewers at the same time. Group interviews are used in specific situations where a number of candidates are being considered for the same job in which the duties are limited and clearly defined, such as a merry-go-round operator. A fishbowl interview brings multiple candidates together to work with each other in an actual group activity or exercise. It is similar to an in-basket exercise except it involves a group of candidates. A team interview typically involves a group of interviewers with a perspective of the actual interactions associated with the job. This might include supervisors, subordinates, peers, customers, and so on. It is like a 360° exercise. Finally, in a panel interview, questions are distributed among a group of interviewers, typically, those most qualified in a particular area. At the conclusion of the panel interview, the panel caucuses with the purpose of coming to a group consensus regarding the result.

NOTE Panels can be structured or unstructured. In the public sector, consistency is often a key factor in selection decisions, so structured interviews are conducted by panels.

Panel members will sometimes ask the same question of each candidate, and sometimes the panel members will alternate their selection of questions to be asked. Panel size also varies from two to something more. It is common to see panels composed of three to four individuals. Because this is an expensive approach to interviewing (it requires multiple people to spend their time) it is usually reserved for professional and managerial job selections.

Job Accommodation Requests

An accommodation request can come to an employer from either a job applicant or an employee. An applicant may find it necessary for someone to read test questions to him or her to accommodate a vision limitation. An employee may find it helpful to have a standing desk because of sitting restrictions.

There is a specific protocol for handling a request for job or applicant accommodation. This protocol has been developed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and is available online at the EEOC website.¹⁶ It is labeled “Enforcement Guidance” and should be followed.

Request

A request for job accommodation can be either written or oral. It can come from either a job applicant or employee. A legitimate request for accommodation could also come from a family member, friend, or medical professional.

Documentation of Disability Requiring Accommodation

Employers are permitted to request medical documentation that explains the individual disability and how a job accommodation could make it possible for the individual to continue performing the job’s essential functions. That might include asking the employee or applicant to go to an appropriate medical professional, selected by the employer, so that an evaluation of the disability can be made.

Interactive Discussion About Request

The employer is required to enter into an interactive discussion with the applicant or employee about the specific request. This is the time for an employer to present any alternative accommodations it has determined would work as well but cost less or interfere with work performance less. When a job accommodation request would cause a violation of work rules under a union contract (Memorandum of Understanding), in most cases, the labor agreement will prevail and the requested accommodation will not work out—for example, an accommodation that requests day shift assignment only, when the union agreement specifies rotation of shift assignments based on seniority.

Decision About Accommodation and Implementation

It is sometimes difficult to explain a job accommodation to the rest of the workforce. Disability information is confidential under HIPAA and the ADA (see Chapter 2). Therefore, details of the disability and reasons for the accommodation should not be discussed with other workers. Managers and supervisors, with counsel from their HR staff, should let coworkers know that a job accommodation has been made in response to a request from the employee. That’s about as far as you can go without getting into trouble with the privacy requirements.

The process of job accommodation involves an interactive process of discussion between the employer and the employee making the accommodation request. The content of those discussions should be documented to act as evidence that the employer met its obligations to participate in the interactive process. Whatever decision is made should also be documented with reasons for that decision.

Documentation of Selection Decisions

Once you’ve gone through testing and interviewing, you have a decision to make. All employment decisions should be documented, none more so than those that involve hiring and termination. All notes made about the reasons for selecting one candidate over another are subject to the retention requirements for holding documentation up to two years beyond the decision.

Documentation about interviews and hiring decisions should:

• Be factual

• Contain job-related information only

• Not contain opinions or personal biases

Marginal notes on resumes should not contain comments about age, disability, race, or other protected category. As surprising as it seems, there are still interviewing supervisors who write things such as “This one is too fat!” “She’s way too old for the job,” “Customers will never accept an Asian.” It is OK for marginal comments to contain notes about how resume content relates to job requirements.

The Selection Approval Process

Each organization has its own structure of approving authorities. That is usually controlled by the Accounting Department. Those structures tell what management level is authorized to approve expenditures of given amounts, approve the hiring of people at given job levels, and so forth. Policies are established based on those structures. Authority to hire is closely related to authority to spend money. Sometimes there are multiple steps in the authorization process. First, the budget must contain authorization for the Full Time Equivalent (FTE) position. Then, there must be authorization to fill the position. And, finally, there must be authorization to hire a specific individual to fill that job. Small organizations have fewer steps, larger organizations can have more steps in the process. Before making a job offer, be sure you have the approval of your “hiring authority” to do so.

Employment Policies, Practices, and Procedures

Employment policies, practices, and procedures all impact selection efforts. An employer with a policy requiring all hiring decisions to be approved by executives at a certain authority level in the organization wants definite budget control over the hiring process. A staffing practice that says a job opening may not be advertised outside the organization until internal postings have lasted for at least three days gives existing employees “first chance” at any new opportunities. A procedure requiring at least two in-person interviews will have an impact on budget because it involves two or more interviewers and it may cost money to bring a candidate in from out of town. All of these organizational preferences have consequences. Those consequences can be financial, production impacts, government compliance issues, or morale-related. It is up to the HR professionals to analyze them all and make senior management aware of those consequences so they may consider them before approving any changes.

Negotiation Skills and Techniques

When you are ready to make an offer, first identify the outcomes you want to achieve from the process. It might be as simple as “hiring the best candidate for an amount of money that doesn’t break the budget.” Before a written offer is made, then, the amount of compensation should be discussed and agreed on by both you and the candidate. You explain what amount is offered, and the candidate accepts or explains that more is wanted. If you have more to give without violating some equal pay circumstance, then make the enhanced offer. Other points of negotiation can include: hours of work, frequency of shift changes, work location assignment(s), travel requirements, bonus provisions, criteria for performance, and stock awards.

NOTE The best negotiators are those who make it seem like a common conversation rather than a championship boxing match.

Employment Offers

Once the candidate has accepted all the job conditions that you have explained, it is time to put the offer in writing. The offer letter will detail the compensation, start date, job title, organization, and immediate supervisor. You should have a signature block at the bottom of the letter for the candidate to sign as acceptance of the terms. One copy should be returned to you with the signature.

NOTE It is wise to attach a copy of the job description to the offer letter.

Employment Reference Checks, Background Checks, and Credit Reports

Job offers are often conditioned upon successful completion of background checks, reference checks, and sometimes even credit checks. In some instances, a job offer could be conditioned on passing a medical evaluation or a drug screen.

Before conducting background checks or credit checks, review the current legal limitations on their use. The EEOC has issued guidelines on consideration of conviction records because the population of convicted felons is so heavily skewed with Blacks and Hispanics. Considering conviction records has a disparate impact on those two racial groups.¹⁷ Thus, only if the conviction has a direct relationship to the job content will considering it in the hiring decision be permitted by the EEOC.¹⁸

New Employee Orientation

It is a common belief that the first 90 days of a worker’s experience on a new job will determine how the relationship goes for the balance of her/his employment. One way to get off on the right foot is to provide a quality orientation program (also referred to as onboarding) to every new employee.

A strong orientation program will include such things as:

• Welcome by the CEO/senior executive Providing evidence that senior management cares about employees can begin during orientation. Senior executives who believe it isn’t worth their time convey a strong message also.

• Discussion about culture An opportunity to discuss “the way we do things around here.” What does the employer value? What gets rewarded in the organization? What type of image does the employer want to project to the world? What are expectations of ethics?

• Enrollment in benefit programs An opportunity to complete payroll tax forms, benefit enrollment forms, and self-identification forms for race, sex, disability, and veteran status.

• Tour of employee common areas This can include the cafeteria or break room, the location for labor law compliance posters, and restrooms.

• Safety equipment and emergency exits This is often overlooked when it should be on the orientation agenda. If there are emergency breathing apparatus, eye wash stations, emergency shutdown switches, first aid stations, or other important safety points of interest, this is the time to show each new worker where they are. Safety training in how to use emergency equipment will come later.

• Introduction to coworkers and supervisors Guide the employees to their new work locations and introduce them to their new coworkers and supervisors, even if they may have met some of them during the interviewing process. Have someone designated to explain where to get office supplies, how to access computer terminals, and whom to ask when questions come up. These things are just common employment courtesy.

Retention

Once you’ve hired a new employee, you want to keep them. Retention is the collection of programs and techniques that result in good employees staying on the job. Retaining employees means the employer does not have to undertake the expenses involved with recruiting, hiring, and training new workers.

Management Training

Few things can irritate employees more quickly than poor supervision and management. Employers must allocate budget to management skills training so their supervisors and managers are competent and capable in their jobs. These skills include:

• Interpersonal skills Including social and situational perception, questioning techniques, and empathy skills

• Leadership skills The ability to get people to follow willingly and produce desired results

• Decision-making skills Both the willingness to make decisions and the quality of those decisions (will they work?)

• Communication skills Both oral and written communication skills

The higher a manager or supervisor scores on these skill scales, the stronger will be their performance effectiveness on the job. Management and supervisory training is a constant ongoing learning throughout a management person’s career. Measurement of skill effectiveness should include feedback instruments such as 360-degree evaluations that superiors, peers, and subordinates complete. They are designed to assist with identifying where skill development efforts should be focused.

Rewards

Human beings do things for rewards. Those rewards may be monetary, altruistic, or physiological. If we hunt for food and bring home a game animal or fish, bagging what we hunt is reward for the effort that went into hunting. If we hold the door open for someone and get a “Thank you” for our kindness, we have been rewarded. Absence of a “Thank you” can also be said to be a reward (negative), just not the kind we would prefer.

Monetary Rewards

Money is one way to reward people. In an employment context it is a common reward. A paycheck is reward for having spent hours working during the pay period. Bonus checks are rewards for extra contributions or participation in a winning team effort. According to studies done by industrial psychologists such as Herzberg and McGregor, money is a motivator for employees but it does not have a very long life as a motivator. As soon as we get used to our new earnings level, we begin the cycle again and want more.

Non-monetary Rewards

There are countless ways to reward employees that don’t involve cash. Some of them are:

• Gift certificates For shopping, a dinner out, or a movie and popcorn

• Recognition Employee of the Week (Month or Year), plaques, certificates, use of special parking spaces, or use of a private elevator

• Awards Jackets with the company logo, clocks, watches, or a week in Hawaii

• Time off An extra vacation day, floating holiday, or the first Friday of every month in the next calendar quarter

What is important with the intended recognition of non-monetary rewards is that they are selected with the recipient in mind in terms of what he or she would value.

Metrics and Measurements for Retention

There are many measurements used in monitoring human resources effectiveness. Production organizations measure units per hour and accidents per quarter. Human resources professionals measure things such as retention rates, recruiting costs, BIS (butts in seats), and termination rates. HR professionals are also interested in demographic targets in measuring affirmative action plan effectiveness and average recruiting days required for placement. Any activity can be measured and, once measured, targets set for achievement.

Organizational Exit

Everyone will eventually leave an employer. The question isn’t “If?” but “How?” Some departures are voluntary; some are involuntary. Some are performance related and some are for retirement. Sadly, people also become disabled and die. HR is involved with all of them in one way or another.

Involuntary Separations

People sometimes have their employment status terminated despite not wanting to lose their job. Individual separations can happen because of performance deficiencies. They can happen because of an employee’s inability to maintain a satisfactory attendance record.

When work goes away, however, both individuals and groups of people can be affected at once. If no work is available for which they are qualified, employees are usually laid off. The absence of work in the Engineering department can result in the loss of one Full Time Equivalent (FTE) position. At the same time, the loss of a customer contract can result in a need for many fewer delivery drivers. The term “reduction in force” (RIF) is used to describe both circumstances. It represents a cutback in employee headcount. See the following section, “Reductions in Force (RIF).”

Sometimes those layoffs happen with a “separation allowance” based on length of service or the boss’s largesse. Sometimes there is no financial benefit provided to laid-off employees.

Involuntary separations are governed by union contracts where they exist. Nearly always, when unions are involved, separations are determined based on inverse seniority for people in the affected work groups. Seniority lists are sometimes used even when there are no unions representing workers. Determinations can be made based on performance evaluation ratings, area of specialty or expertise, or the length of time employees have been in the workgroup.

Reductions in Force (RIF)

When workloads fall, sales take a tumble, or contracts are canceled, staffing needs suddenly shift. It is sometimes necessary to reduce force by large amounts which will involve layoffs.

A RIF can happen to one person or to a group of people. Outsourcing functions performed by our jobs can reduce the need for employees. When the job goes away and there is no more work to be done in that function, the individual is removed from the payroll as a reduction in force.

If the entire painting function is subcontracted out to a vendor who can do it cheaper, the group of painters who used to do that work in-house will be surplus employees and subject to a reduction in force.

HR professionals should be particularly careful to avoid removing individuals from the payroll claiming a RIF when the real reason for payroll separation is performance deficiency. That type of action can cause complaints of illegal discrimination. When the RIF is pretext for discrimination, nobody wins.

You already know that state and federal laws come into play when groups of people are going to be separated from the payroll at a single location. Chapter 2 has information about the WARN Act (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act), which governs layoffs for employers with 100 or more workers.

Needless to say, the determination of who gets a separation notice should not be based on any protected category membership. It is even advisable to forecast who will be separated and conduct some disparity analyses to determine if any protected group (people over 40 years old, women, disabled, and so on) will be experiencing higher than acceptable rates of separation.

COBRA qualifying events are the triggers for making COBRA benefits available to employees. The type of qualifying event will dictate the maximum number of months the employee may retain coverage of health insurance using COBRA. Table 5-7 provides an easy reference about COBRA availability periods; this information has a high probability of showing up on the PHR/SPHR exams.

Table 5-7 COBRA Coverage Provisions

COBRA coverage gives employees the right to continue health insurance coverage by paying 100 percent of the premiums required for the coverage. How much of the premium was paid by the employer prior to the qualifying event is irrelevant in computing the amount of COBRA cost to the employee. Unless the employer offers to voluntarily pay for a portion of COBRA premiums, the employee is obliged to assume all of the cost of continued health plan coverage. COBRA just means the coverage may not be taken away during the entitlement period if the employee wishes to pay for continuation.

Voluntary Separations

Under some circumstances, people willingly leave the payroll. This can happen if an employee receives a better job offer, the employee’s spouse gets a job out of town, the employee must relocate because of their child’s health, or the employee has finally made it to retirement. Sometimes voluntary resignations can be predicted. Sometimes they cannot. It is up to HR to react appropriately to the staffing need left by a resignation.

Another consideration is the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act (OWBPA), which is an amendment to the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA). Please refer to Chapter 2 for more detailed information about each of these laws.

During large workforce reductions it is common for “separation packages” to be offered to certain qualifying groups of employees as an enticement that can prevent involuntary reductions. These enticement packages can include cash incentives based on length of service, additional retirement benefits, continuing health benefits, and about anything else you can imagine. If enough employees accept the offered separation packages, then involuntary layoffs can be cut back. Ideally, the headcount reduction goal can be met by voluntary means and no layoffs will be required. Separation packages are normally accompanied by a waiver that asks employees to waive their rights to sue the company or file discrimination complaints in exchange for the separation payment.

The OWBPA requires that voluntary waivers of rights or claims under the ADEA are valid only when they are “knowingly and voluntarily” made. OWBPA requires:

• The waivers must be in writing and signed.

• The employee must receive severance payment(s) or something else of value they would not otherwise receive.

• The employee must be advised in writing to consult an attorney before signing the waiver.

• The employee must be given 21 days to consider the terms (45 days if more than one employee) and be able to revoke the agreement for up to 7 days after.

• Employees must be given (when more than one employee) certain disclosure information designed to allow the employee or his/her attorney to determine if the terminations will have an adverse impact on older workers.

Exit Interviews

An exit interviews is a tool used to seek feedback from employees who are leaving the payroll. There are times when employees resign unexpectedly and the employer would like to know why that happened. Exit interviews are the tool to help discover those things.

Often, exit interviews seek information and opinions from the departing employee about supervision or management. How did they feel they were treated? What would they like to have had their supervisor or manager do differently? How were the working conditions? What did they think about their coworkers? Did they feel appreciated on the job for their work? Almost anything is “fair game” for probing and discovery.

Unfortunately, not every departing employee will be willing to participate in an exit interview. It is up to HR to try to convince an employee that it will help the organization get better.

Employee Records Management

Records are critical for any organization with employees. With the advent of privacy legislation, and many mandatory records retention requirements, employers are today faced with an array of compliance requirements. It is important to know what records must be made, and equally important to understand when to destroy those records.

Employment Authorization (Form I-9)

The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (see Chapter 2) introduced the requirement for all employees in the United States to provide proof of identity and proof that they have the legal right to work in this country. That law brought us the Form I-9. Every person hired after November 30, 1986, must furnish information on a Form I-9, and the employer must complete the document citing the specific identification presented by the new worker. The employer must also cite the document used to prove the new employee has authorization to work in this country. This form changes from time to time, so employers should visit www.uscis.gov/files/form/i-9.pdf to be sure they are using the most current version of the form.

• Proof of identity Also required for employment is a photo identification of some variety, issued by a governmental agency that contains the individual’s name as well as a current or recent image. This can be a U.S. passport (Passport Book or Passport Card), or in most cases, a driver’s license issued by the state in which the person lives. All states will issue a non-driver identification card if requested to do so. A list of acceptable documents is included on the instructions for Form I-9.

• Proof of work authorization A Social Security Card number is the usual form of authorization offered by new employees. It does not provide proof of identity because it does not have a photo of the card owner, but it does offer proof that the owner is authorized to work in this country. Documents accepted for work authorization include visas of various types, and any other form specified on the instructions for Form I-9. Refer to Chapter 2 for a detailed outline of Visa types related to employment.

Employers have three workdays from the time of hire to complete the Form I-9 and have it ready for inspection by any authorized federal investigator. If, at the end of three days, the employee has not provided the required documentation, the employer is instructed to remove the worker from the payroll. Retaining someone who is not properly documented will represent a violation of the federal law. There are fines of up to $1,000 per error on Form I-9 and court-imposed fines for retaining illegal aliens on the payroll.

E-Verify System

E-Verify began life as a voluntary program offered by the government as a way for employers to get online verification of new employee’s Social Security numbers. It has evolved into a combination voluntary/involuntary program as federal and state governments mandate portions of the employer community to participate. The program was intended to reduce the number of false positives received when the Social Security Administration was checking new hire reports for invalid Social Security number matches.

The Department of Labor now requires federal contractors who are subject to the affirmative action regulations to participate in E-Verify. And, as time has passed, the accuracy of the Social Security number database has improved.

As of August 2013, nine states require all employers to participate in the E-Verify program. There is pending legislation in eleven additional states that would require some or all employers to participate in the program. In addition to that, there are many states that require state agencies to participate in the program, and some local jurisdictions that have their own requirements. The message here is that HR professionals should check their local and state requirements frequently so they remain in compliance.

Employee Files

There are three reasons why proper record keeping is a requirement for employers. First, it simply makes good business sense to have accurate information handy and organized when you want to use it. Second, most business owners and managers will eventually encounter the need to produce documentation about employee performance and work history. Having the proper records to retrieve is vital when the need presents itself. Third, some employee records are required by federal or state governments and must be kept somewhere. Organizing them by employee name makes access easy.

There are some important cautions to be given about the subject of identifiable employee information. Generally, state laws permit employees the right to examine their personal employment records. This simply allows individuals the opportunity to confirm information in the file and identify any specific information that is believed to be incorrect. Employees are not universally guaranteed the right to copies of all file contents, however. As the employer, you usually have the right to control the time and location of these examinations as long as you are reasonable in doing so. The objective, of course, is to ensure accuracy of information about each person. In most states, ownership of the personnel file and its contents rests with the employer who maintains it.

Access to information about employees should be strictly limited to those people in your business with a need to use the information in their jobs. Many states are aggressive protectors of employee privacy and random or unauthorized access to personnel files can bring on severe penalties. Make sure that you store personnel files in a secure location and that they are not left unattended even during the business day. When asked by people outside the company to provide “verification” of certain employment information about your employees, make it a practice to confirm only the information your employees have authorized you to release. Employment verifications are usually required to support such things as mortgage applications, credit applications, and the like. Employee authorization should be in writing and specify the information they wish you to reveal. Tell your employee the policy is designed for his/her protection.

Job applicants may not have decisions about their applications made based on protected categories such as race, color, sex, religion, national origin, and so on. Therefore, having any information on the application that identifies these categories is inappropriate and may be considered illegal. It is permissible, and for some employers required, to request demographic data from job applicants. This information is directed to a location separate from the hiring manager, however, to avoid even the suspicion of discrimination.

For employees (someone you have put on your payroll), it is necessary to have information in the personnel file that would be considered illegal to gather prior to the job offer being made. For example, you need a birth date to enroll your employee in health insurance and life insurance programs. As long as such information is used for legitimate purposes, employers will have no problem (see Chapter 2).

Personnel File

A “personnel file” is often a collection of record files maintained by various people in various locations. The central file is usually maintained by the HR department. However, additional employee records could be located in the training department, the labor relations department, and in the desk of the immediate supervisor. Each of these files contains different information, yet they all comprise personnel records. Taken together, they represent the “personnel file.”

The following should be in a personnel file when circumstances require them:

Employment

• Request for application

• Employee’s original employment application

• Prescreening application notes

• College recruiting interview report form

• Employment interview report form

• Education verification

• Employment verification

• Other background verification

• Rejection letter

• Employment offer letter

• Employment agency agreement if hired through an agency

• Employee Handbook acknowledgment form showing receipt of Handbook

• Checklist from new employee orientation showing subjects covered

• Veterans/Disabled self-identification form

• Transfer requests

• Relocation offer records

• Relocation report

• Security clearance status

Payroll

• W-4 form

• Weekly time sheets

• Individual attendance record

• Pay advance request record

• Garnishment orders and records

• Authorization for release of private information

• Authorization for all other payroll actions

Performance Appraisals

• New employee progress reports

• Performance appraisal forms

• Performance improvement program records

Training and Development

• Training history records

• Training program applications/requests

• Skills inventory questionnaire

• Training evaluation forms

• In-house training notification letters

• Training expense reimbursement records

Employee Separations

• Exit interview form

• Final employee performance appraisal

• Exit interviewer’s comment form

• Record of documents given with final paycheck

Benefits

• Emergency Contact form

• Medical/Dental/Vision coverage waiver/drop form

• Vacation accrual/taken form

• Request for non-medical leave of absence

• Retirement application

• Payroll deduction authorizations

• COBRA notification/election

• Hazardous substance notification and or reports

• Tuition reimbursement application and or payment records

• Employer concession and or discount authorization

• Annual benefits statement acknowledgment

• Safety training/meeting attendance/summary forms

Wage/Salary Administration

• Job description form

• Job analysis questionnaire

• Payroll authorization form

• Fair Labor Standards Act exemption test

• Compensation history record

• Compensation recommendations

• Notification of wage and/or salary increase/decrease

Employee Relations

• Report of coaching/counseling session

• Employee Assistance Program consent form

• Commendations

• Employee written warning notice

• Completed employee suggestion forms

• Suggestion status reports

The following should not be in a personnel file:

Medical Records

• Physician records of examination

• Diagnostic records

• Laboratory test records

• Drug screening records

• Any of the records listed previously in the discussion on HIPAA

• Any other medical records with personally identifiable information about individual employees

Investigation Records

• Discrimination complaint investigation information

• Legal case data

• Accusations of policy/legal violations

Security Clearance Investigation Records

• Background investigation information

• Personal credit history

• Personal criminal conviction history

• Arrest records

The following should never be in a personnel file:

Insupportable Opinions

• Marginal notes on any document indicating management bias or discrimination (for example: comments about an applicant’s race, sex, age, disability, national origin, or other protected class membership)

Medical File

The federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, (HIPAA) requires employers and health care providers to protect medical records as confidential, separate, and apart from other business records. That means you may no longer retain medical information in a personnel file. Here are some examples of information you should extract from your personnel files and place in separately protected files as medical information:

• Health insurance application form

• Life insurance application form

• Request for medical leave of absence regardless of reason

• Personal accident reports

• Workers’ compensation report of injury or illness

• OSHA injury and illness reports

• Any other form or document that contains private medical information for a specific employee

Questions about employee access to review their personnel file come up frequently. Each employer should have a policy addressing such questions that complies with state requirements. Federal law does not address the question. Government employees and private sector employers are usually controlled by state laws. So, multi-state employers must comply with requirements in all of the states in which they operate.

Investigation File

Any time a complaint is lodged or law enforcement agencies get involved with individual employees, it may be necessary to conduct an investigation of facts. Each time that happens, a written record should be created that documents what investigative steps were taken and what resulted from them. Complaints of illegal employment discrimination are a good example.

These files will have specific employee-identifiable information that may be of a very sensitive personal nature. Facts may involve criminal activity or behavior that could result in civil action. For the sake of privacy, each investigation file should be held under the same security provisions as are medical records. Only those people having a need to access the content of the files should be allowed access. Records should be secured at all times so passersby cannot pull open a file drawer and remove documents.

Documentation Techniques and Guidelines

There are many reasons for creating documentation. Often, conversations with employees are held to provide feedback on job performance, or about behavioral problems that have led to disciplinary decisions. Other types of documentation relate to projects, proposals, or other employment issues. Whatever the reason for creating documentation, it should contain answers to these questions:

• Who

• What

• When

• Where

• Why (if employee discussions provide this information)

Documentation should not include guesses, suppositions, assumptions, or other nonfactual information. Opinions only belong in documentation if they are labeled as opinions. They should never be unlabeled and presented as facts. Documentation should contain a date identifying when it was created, and a name to indicate who created it. If a document is created some time after the event it describes, it should be dated on the day it was created, not pre-dated to the time of the event.

Documentation of employee conversations does not ordinarily need to be signed by the employee. Exceptions to that include requirements of union agreements or employer policy to the contrary. Remember to follow the basic rule that any time an employee signs a document of any type, a copy of that signed document should be given to the employee. It is a requirement in some states that those copies be provided. Otherwise, depending again on your legal jurisdiction, documents about employee conversations can be considered the property of the employer.

Retention Requirements

As with many HR issues, retention requirements do change from time to time. Be sure you confirm the requirements for your situation before destroying any records. Because these requirements are fluid in nature, we suggest you confirm your specific needs through discussion with your management attorney or by checking on the Internet for guidance. Be careful about relying on the Internet without knowing your source, however. You still have the responsibility and the liability for proper records retention even if you get bad advice from an Internet source.

Some possible sources include:

• www.management-advantage.com/products/retainrecords.htm

• https://www.shrm.org/templatestools/samples/documents/federal%20record%20retention%20chart%20-%20revision%20by%20regan%208-12.doc

• www.shrm.org/LegalIssues/StateandLocalResources/StateandLocalStatutesandRegulations/Documents/Recordkeeping-access%20to%20files.pdf

• http://nctc.fws.gov/courses/references/job-aids/supervisors/suprefdocs/documents/FederalRecordRetentionGuidelines.pdf

• www.nationalscanning.com/document-retention-guidelines.html

Records Destruction

Once a record has reached its expiration date (been retained for the period required by law), it should be destroyed. Destruction is something that should be done by shredding so that records cannot be reconstructed by someone rifling through the trash bin.

There are commercial records storage and destruction companies almost everywhere in the United States. For a fee, they will come to your work site, collect the records you wish to have destroyed, and either shred them in their truck while at your location, or take them back to a central location where the documents will be shredded. Some specialize in certain industries such as medical record shredding services.

Employee Skill Sets Database

Another set of records that is important to employee management is a database of employee skill sets. Such a database will reflect the employee skills you can draw upon when searching for promotable workers and in planning your succession for executive positions. Consider making a survey of your workforce, asking each person to identify the skills they have that apply to your organization’s needs. This type of database will contain private information that must be protected from unauthorized access. It also contains information that will change over time so the database must be properly maintained.

Employers who are subject to affirmative action regulations related to disabled and veterans are required to maintain an inventory of employee skills.

Workforce Assessment Techniques

As part of the employee skill database, fields of data are often gathered through assessment of individual employees. At the same time, a different database of records can be maintained containing organizational assessment information. There are different reasons for performing an assessment of an organization and its employees. First, the organization may need to be assessed for effectiveness. Second, employees may need assessment as a way of determining developmental needs as well as current strengths.

Organizational Assessment

If you believe that you need more information about the health of your organization, these assessment tools can be of help.

• 360-degree evaluations Designed to assist individual managers and management teams in knowing where developmental effort should be focused

• Workforce involvement Identification of the degree of engagement felt by the people on your payroll

Individual Assessment

Once you are sure about the health of your organization, it may be helpful to add more information about individual employees. These techniques can do that.

• Job assessment Identifies the best fit for individual interests and skill sets

• Talent profile Identifies specific current skills

• Readiness for promotion Likelihood of success if promoted now

Many of these assessments are done by professional psychologists or through the use of tests developed by psychologists. Any HR professional considering such programs would be best served by consulting with someone qualified in the field to determine the best approach for the current need.

International Workforce Management

More organizations each day are finding that they have needs related to multinational employment. And, it’s not just the private sector that is experiencing these added workforce management issues. Many governmental organizations are finding that they have overlapping responsibilities that embrace international issues.

International Workforce Planning

Labor laws are significantly different in other countries. Not only is it necessary for international organizations to understand and abide by those rules, but it is essential that they understand the customs and expectations of people in any new remote location in which they wish to establish new operations.

Types of International Workers

It is necessary to understand the types of worker classifications that appear on the international stage. There are people who originate in the home country, people who originate in the remote country, and people who come from some other country altogether.

Parent-Country Nationals (PCNs)

These people are expatriates or parent-country nationals. They come from the country where the employer is based at the corporate level. Royal Dutch Shell is based in The Netherlands. Nestle is based in Switzerland. General Motors is based in the United States. Each of them is an international enterprise. Anyone sent from the country where headquarters is located to another country is known as a PCN.

Third-Country Nationals (TCNs)

It is common for an international organization to have PCNs assigned to remote countries. When the organization wishes to open operations in a new location in some other country, it can move TCN staff from the first remote location to the new remote location. These people become third-country nationals (TCNs). When Shell wants to build a refinery in Chile, it might move key management people from its refinery in the United States to work on establishing the new facility in Chile. They become TCNs. They do not originate from the country where headquarters is located (The Netherlands), and they do not originate from the host country (Chile). They have been moved from a third country (the United States).

Host-Country Nationals (HCNs)

Also called local nationals, host-country nationals (HCNs) originate in the country where the remote location is being established. When General Motors wishes to build a new manufacturing facility in Mexico, for example, it can hire Mexican nationals to run that facility. They are HCNs.

Expatriates

Sometimes these people are referred to as “expats,” probably because we love to shorten words by removing syllables. Expatriates are people who are working in a country other than the one of their origin. They are expatriates of the country in which they originated. International relocation expenses can be extremely high so it is usual to only see professionals and managerial people moved internationally. It is often less expensive to obtain lower skilled workers who are already in the host country.

Inpatriates

These are people who are working at corporate headquarters who originated in another country. Transferring management people to headquarters on a rotational assignment is commonly used for career development. Later, inpatriates can return to their home country or be assigned to another position elsewhere.

Repatriates

When employees return to their home country from a foreign assignment, they are repatriates. They are said to have been repatriated.

Organizational and Staffing Approaches to International Business

Not only are there different laws and customs to be considered, but there are definite differences in the possible approaches to staffing a remote international organization. Here are the primary strategies for international staffing strategies. Immigration policies of the countries involved in international staffing methods will have a profound impact on the level of success that can be achieved with any of the following policy types.

Ethnocentric

This policy provides for all key management positions to be filled by expatriates. If all management personnel are from the headquarters organization, they know what is expected by the corporate office. Communications can be expedited because there are no language or idiom barriers to overcome when every manager in the remote location is from the home office.

Polycentric

When corporate headquarters positions are staffed with inpatriates (people from other countries) and remote locations are staffed with expatriates (people from the headquarters country) they are engaging in a multiple-centered staffing practice known as polycentricism. This policy can reduce corporate and cultural myopia because it “mixes things up” and forces integration of cultures.

Regiocentric

Staffing and planning organizational issues around regionalization is what we find with regiocentric organizations. We think of examples such as “European,” “Asian,” or “South American.” They become extensive, multinational organizations that are adapted to the cultural, economic, and sometimes language commonalities of a given region.

Geocentric

This type of staffing policy seeks to place the best qualified individuals into job openings regardless of their country of origin.

Types of International Assignments

Many different types of assignments are possible when international staffing is involved. Table 5-8 outlines typical international assignments.

Table 5-8 Types of International Assignments

Chapter Review

Workforce Planning and Employment covers a wide swath of knowledge and responsibility. There are many laws that impact this area of expertise and a great deal of experience-based talent to be developed. It takes some time for HR professionals to acquire the skills needed to implement what they may know about this portion of the PHR and SPHR requirements.

From sexual harassment to job descriptions, from illegal employment discrimination to leaves of absence and hiring practices, HR professionals have extensive responsibilities and knowledge requirements.

Don’t forget that this functional area makes up from 17 to 24 percent of the exam depending on the test you will be taking. More emphasis is placed on this area in the PHR exam than in the SPHR exam.

Questions

1. Stewart was working late when his boss approached him and asked if he would like to go get a drink. His boss then put his hand on Stewart’s backside and gave it a little squeeze. What is going on here?

A. Nothing. It is simply his boss showing a little affection for Stewart. No problem.

B. Whether or not it is a problem depends on Stewart’s reaction. If it is unwelcome, there might be a problem.

C. If Stewart agrees, they can have a drink without anyone being the wiser.

D. It is only a problem if one of Stewart’s coworkers saw what happened.

2. Charlene is the HR Manager for her company. She opens her mail one day and finds a letter from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) saying one of the company’s employees has filed a charge of illegal discrimination. How seriously should Charlene take this letter?

A. This is a very serious issue. Charlene should investigate the charge without talking to the complaining employee. Then, she should write a response to the EEOC.

B. This is a very serious issue. Charlene has 90 days in which to get her response together.

C. This is not very serious. These things happen all the time. Charlene can talk it over with the complaining employee and try to get it resolved.

D. This is not very serious. There isn’t much the EEOC can do even if the complaint has some merit. Charlene can set it aside and deal with it later when she gets time.

3. Lebron serves his employer as the HR Director. It is a startup company and his bosses want him to hire people fast so they have given him some tests to use in the screening process. He was told to hire the applicants with the best scores. Are these tests something Lebron should use?

A. It is okay to use tests if they are job-specific in their measurement.

B. No way. He should not use any tests that he hasn’t bought from a legitimate test publisher.

C. Tests are just fine. He should be sure the passing scores are set so they can get the best people.

D. If the boss says to use the tests, he has little choice. He just has to be sure to score them properly.

4. Pat has just discovered that her organization has signed a contract with the federal government to provide computer products and installation services. The contract value is $600,000. The organization just hired its 61st employee. Does Pat’s organization now need to prepare an affirmative action plan?

A. No. When they get to 100 employees, they will need to develop an AAP.

B. Because the contract value is less than $1,000,000 they are exempt from the AAP requirement.

C. Yes. An AAP is needed for Minorities and Women, Disabled and Veterans.

D. Yes. Only an AAP for Minorities and Women is necessary.

5. Elton heads a company that contracts to build office buildings for the federal government. He isn’t sure if he has any affirmative action obligations because of his work. What would you tell him if you were his HR advisor?

A. Don’t worry. Construction firms are not classified as providers of goods and services. There is no affirmative action plan obligation for Elton’s company.

B. Elton may have to prepare a 16-point affirmative action plan that is required of all federal construction contractors if the contract value exceeds $10,000.

C. Elton has to meet the same requirements as all other federal contractors who sell anything to the government.

D. Elton should revisit the question once his contracts exceed $1,000,000.

6. Julia has been asked to identify her race and sex for her employer. She is uncomfortable doing that, thinking that she might be the target of some discrimination if she tells them. If you were Julia’s HR Manager, what would you tell her?

A. It’s okay. We can put down whatever we want to identify your race and sex.

B. Don’t be concerned, Julia. Discrimination is something we don’t tolerate and it is also illegal. We are required by the government to keep the race and sex data.

C. If you don’t tell us what you want recorded, we will just have to leave your information blank in the database.

D. Julia should be sent to the HR department so they can tell her she has no choice. She must identify her race and sex for the company records.

7. Irene has a limp that she says is the result of a war wound. She was in the Canadian Army during the Gulf War and got hit in the leg by shrapnel. She is a decorated veteran of that war. She asks what category of veteran she should select on her self-identification form. What will you tell her?

A. Irene can’t identify as a veteran because it applies only to veterans of the Vietnam War.

B. She has been out of the military for more than 6 months, so she would not qualify as a recently separated veteran.

C. When she was discharged, she should have been given a document that told her what category of veteran she should identify with.

D. Irene is not able to claim veteran status on her self-identification form because her service was not in the U.S. military. She can identify herself as disabled, however, if the wound interferes with one of her major life activities.

8. Solomon is from an island off the coast of India and has always been told he is classified as Asian. Now Andrew, his HR Manager, is telling him something else. How should Solomon be classified?

A. Always default to White when there is a question.

B. Solomon should identify himself as being two or more races.

C. Because he comes from an island off the coast of India, he really should be classified as a Pacific Islander.

D. People who originate in the Indian subcontinent should be classified as Asian.

9. Affirmative action plans have a great deal to do with altering the demographics of an employer’s organization. They do this by:

A. Creating “set asides” for job openings that are underrepresented in certain race categories.

B. Providing preferential selection for the underrepresented race category.

C. Creating placement rate goals and letting a nondiscriminatory selection process select the best qualified people.

D. Moving applicants with a certain race up to the top of the selection list.

10. Gerardo manages the HR function along with the accounting department. He is involved in an OFCCP audit of his affirmative action plans. The agency wants him to sign a conciliation agreement saying he will hire a certain number of women into one job title and give back pay to a group of Hispanics who weren’t hired. What would you advise Gerardo to do with the conciliation agreement?

A. Review it with his legal counsel and senior executives. Determine if the OFCCP claims are accurate and negotiate something else as a consequence if they are not.

B. Go ahead and sign the conciliation agreement. It’s just a promise and doesn’t really matter.

C. Whenever there is a document like this coming from the federal government, there should be a set of instructions that comes along with it telling the contractor what to do. Gerardo should look for that list.

D. Gerardo should read it and make sure there isn’t anything that talks about illegal discrimination. He should scratch out any references to discrimination and send it back to the OFCCP with his signature.

11. Guillermo supervises a group of six women in the accounting department. They are responsible for all payments and receipts. On Friday, Eleanor invites Guillermo to her apartment for a home-cooked dinner. He accepts. Under the various U.S. Supreme Court opinions on the subject, is this classified as sexual harassment?

A. Very likely. Anytime a supervisor has a relationship with a subordinate it is classified as sexual harassment.

B. Probably not. The subordinate initiated the relationship, if indeed there actually is one. It is hard for a subordinate to harass a supervisor because in the end the supervisor is the one with the organizational power.

C. It all depends on what happens after dinner. Guillermo is the one with the supervisory power. If he initiates anything, he can be in trouble.

D. If they are having an affair, there is likely sexual harassment involved.

12. Every month, Ali has to provide a report to the executives that details what employee complaints have been received. This month’s report shows complaints of harassment from two people. One was based on race and the other was based on religion. The executives are challenging those classifications, saying harassment can only be based on sexual conditions. What would you tell the executives if you were Ali?

A. It shouldn’t have been classified as harassment rather just plain discrimination. There really can’t be any harassment other than sexual harassment.

B. We should really get our attorney to set the classifications for us. We’re not sure if there can be harassment based on anything other than sex.

C. Of course there can be harassment based on race, religion, age, national origin, or a number of other categories.

D. Executives should be encouraged to avoid getting into such details. It isn’t really important. In the end, we just have two complaints of discrimination.

13. Times are still hard for the AB Trucking Company. They are going to have to close one of their work locations. That will take 146 full-time people off the payroll who will have to look for other work with other employers. What should the company consider in their layoff planning?

A. WARN kicks in and they must notify the local government as well as employees who will be affected at least 60 days before the layoff date.

B. WARN kicks in but they don’t have to notify anybody until a week before the layoff date.

C. Because they are in the transportation industry, the WARN Act doesn’t apply. They have carte blanche in how they handle the layoff.

D. WARN kicks in and they have to notify employees 60 days in advance, but notifying the local government is a voluntary decision.

14. Lawana has just been given the job of preparing an EEO-1 for her employer group. She finds some gaps in the employee race and gender data she will need to use in reporting. How should she handle that problem?

A. Ignore the missing data and just report what data she has. She should not guess about any of the race or gender identifications.

B. Talk with each employee and ask if they have been invited to self-identify. If they choose not to self-identify, speak with the supervisor and get a determination based on observation.

C. Take the best guess possible and fill in the blanks.

D. Where data is missing, it is usually a good idea to default to White as a race and Male as a gender. Statistically, those are the most common entries.

15. Harriet has just taken over for the HR Manager in her group and her boss is asking for an update on the succession plan. He wants to see the employee skill inventory as soon as possible. Harriet didn’t even know there was a succession plan. What should Harriet be looking for in her files?

A. A confidential record that lists each employee’s skills and abilities

B. A list of only the top-rated people in the group who have computer skills

C. A list of everyone in the group identifying each person’s skills and whether or not they are currently ready for promotion

D. A list of people showing what individuals are capable of doing now, without regard for any future assignment

16. Pearl will be writing a lot of job descriptions over the coming months. Her CEO has just given her the task because the organization doesn’t currently have job descriptions. What should Pearl be sure to include in the job descriptions?

A. She should be sure that all general duties are included and that “Other duties as assigned” is the last one.

B. She should include duties and responsibilities in every job description based on what she knows about the job content.

C. She should find a way to use generic descriptions from her job description library. It is important to be consistent with what has already been published in case she needs to defend those documents later on.

D. She should plan to interview incumbents and their supervisors to identify the job duties and responsibilities.

17. When Pearl gets around to actually writing the job descriptions, should she include the physical and mental requirements of the job?

A. Those are things that should be written into a separate document. They should not be in the job description because that would violate the Americans with Disabilities Act.

B. Yes, Pearl should include a list of physical and mental requirements for each job as part of the job description.

C. No, Pearl would be exposing her employer to unnecessary risks of lawsuits if she put those things into the job descriptions.

D. Perhaps. If there are some unusual physical or mental requirements in a certain job, she should put those things into the job descriptions. Otherwise, it isn’t necessary.

18. Lydia finds that her job descriptions are all written and current. Now, she wants to use them to be sure each job is properly assigned to a compensation level. She doesn’t want to get caught in an OFCCP audit with the government telling her she needs to make large adjustments all at once. How should Lydia’s organization be evaluating their jobs for compensation levels?

A. Lydia should call one of the job evaluation consulting firms to have them review all the jobs in her organization.

B. She can create her own point system and arbitrarily set compensation levels wherever she wants.

C. A point system is not necessary for determining what similarities exist between job content descriptions. She can assign compensation groups based on her assessment of those similarities and differences in the level of job responsibilities.

D. Lydia should avoid any type of job evaluation program if it hasn’t been statistically proven to be 100 percent accurate.

19. AB Trucking has had a policy that nobody will be hired unless they complete the company’s job application. Now, all of their job applications are being processed online, and some applicants want to submit their resumes instead of a job application form. What can AB Trucking do about the resume-versus-application controversy?

A. It is entirely up to the company how it wants to handle the policy. Application forms are not a legal requirement, but using them is generally considered a best practice in the employment arena. Job candidates can be forced to go through the company’s process of completing an application form, online or offline.

B. The government has set up regulations that say employers have to accept resumes if they are submitted in a job search. The company doesn’t really have any choice but to accept them.

C. Job applications are old school. Almost no employer uses them these days. The company should change its policy and use only resumes in the future.

D. Resumes don’t have all of the information that can be gathered on a job application and people lie on resumes anyway. That alone is reason for the company to continue using its job application forms.

20. An employee in Cortez’s organization came to him and suggested that she and her coworker could consolidate their duties into one job and each work part-time, sharing the 40 hours each week so the work got done as always. What would you say if you were Cortez?

A. Unfortunately, the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Unified Job Consolidation Act say that sharing jobs is not permitted because it would violate union agreements.

B. There is no reason that it couldn’t work if Cortez believes the two people are capable and want to make it work.

C. Having more than one person and one Social Security number on one job assignment won’t work. It makes tax reporting impossible.

D. It’s not a good idea because it doubles the liability for workers’ compensation and unemployment insurance.

21. The local county’s workforce has been decimated in recent months because the pension plan is changing and folks wanted to get their higher level calculation before the changes cut that formula. The result, however, has been that a great deal of organizational intelligence walked out the door. The senior staff are suggesting you hire back some of the key personnel as temporary workers until you are able to get replacements trained. Is that a good idea?

A. Hardly ever. It gives the newly retired people a way to “double dip” and make more money than they would have if they had stayed on the job without retiring.

B. Sometimes. If the temporary period is truly used to train a replacement, it could get the organization across the institutional knowledge gap, passing along that information to someone new.

C. Always. There is no downside to bringing back retirees as temporary workers. So what if they make a bit more? The work gets done without interruption.

D. Maybe. If there is a limit of 6 months on the temporary assignment in compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act.

22. Abel has been having trouble selecting quality accounting people. Everyone claims to be able to use Excel spreadsheets but few actually can once they get on the job. In the end, he has had to terminate people because of poor performance. He is thinking he will use a test he saw at the local office supply warehouse. If you were the HR Manager in Abel’s organization, what advice would you give him about his plans for testing?

A. It sounds like a good idea. It certainly could control the cost of turnover. We should try it.

B. It sounds like a good idea. Will he be able to show that the test actually predicts success on the jobs he wishes to use it for? If not, he should find a different screening tool.

C. It doesn’t sound like a good idea. With everyone talking about the liability of written tests these days, we can’t take that risk for any job.

D. It doesn’t sound like a good idea. It is going to create more paperwork for HR and we can’t stand any workload increase.

23. Jo is trying to standardize the selection system for instructors in her training group. Having one procedure to screen candidates should yield both consistency and accuracy. What she hasn’t decided is whether she should use an objective or subjective system. What would you tell her?

A. Only objective systems are able to “slice and dice” candidates effectively. Jo should use numeric devices only.

B. It is so hard to pin down clear delineations of skill using a numeric system. Jo should rely on a subjective process that gives her greater flexibility in grading candidates.

C. There is no way to quantify everything about an instructor’s job. Therefore, it is impossible to use a quantitative system for that job set. Go with the subjective.

D. Both subjective and objective approaches can be used on instructor jobs as long as they both have been validated according to the Uniform Guidelines.

24. When Ophelia had her weekend automobile accident, everyone in the office rushed to show her support. Now that she is confined to a wheelchair, she is asking her employer to support her by giving her a job accommodation so she can still do her job as the scheduling clerk. What should her employer do?

A. They should listen politely and take her written request. There isn’t anything they really have to do about an accommodation because it doesn’t involve a workplace injury.

B. They should listen politely and take her written request. They should investigate other possible accommodations and give her some suggestions if those might be better than what she requested.

C. They should listen politely and take her written request. It is just a matter of time before they will have to approve the request because of the ADA requirements.

D. Because Ophelia is a member of the union that represents office workers, the contract will contain a specification explaining whether anyone in the workplace will be given a job accommodation and under what conditions.

25. When Gretta approached her supervisor and asked to review the contents of her personnel file, the supervisor told her she would check with HR about the request. As the HR Manager, what will you tell the supervisor?

A. Sure. No problem. Now we have to gather up the files from the supervisor, HR, and training so Gretta can see all of them because, under company policy and state laws, the personnel file comprises all of these files.

B. Sure. But only the official file maintained by HR should be provided for Gretta’s review even though we have no policy on the issue.

C. Sure. We’ll get around to it at some point in the next few months. There are a lot of other more important priorities at the moment.

D. Gretta is out of luck. We don’t allow that under any circumstance regardless of what anyone thinks.

Answers

1. B. If the behavior of his boss is unwelcome, this could be an incident of quid pro quo sexual harassment. We need more information to know for sure. If Stewart’s coworkers saw what happened, they might also object should Stewart go along with the boss’s sexual advance. Coworkers could be negatively affected because of favoritism or perceived favoritism toward Stewart on the part of his boss, and there could be other problems as well.

2. A. The EEOC is a law enforcement agency so it is a serious matter. Charlene has 30 days to get her written response to the Commission, and she is barred from discussing the complaint with the employee who filed it.

3. A. Remember that it is the user of a test that holds the liability, not the publisher of the test. If a test has been validated to properly predict success in specific jobs with specific knowledge and skill requirements, it can be used for those jobs. Using it for all jobs is not a good idea. If the boss insists, he needs to be told what the consequences can be.

4. C. The contract exceeds $50,000, and there are more than 50 employees, so an AAP is required for minorities and women. A plan for disabled and another for veterans are required as well because the contract is over $10,000 for disabled AAP requirements and $100,000 for veteran AAP requirements.

5. B. If his contract exceeds $10,000, Elton will need an affirmative action plan that satisfies regulatory requirements for construction contractors. The 16-point plan they must develop is not the same as the plans required of goods and services contractors.

6. B. Identifying race and sex is voluntary. The employer is required to keep records of every employee’s race and sex identification, however. When someone doesn’t volunteer the information, the employer must make a determination by observation and keep a record of the race and sex of the individual.

7. D. Only veterans of the United States military are able to claim veteran status. Veterans of military organizations in other countries are not to be counted. Veterans are people who served in an area for which a medal or award was made. Definitions are contained in the regulations.

8. D. According to the EEO-1 instructions, the category of Asian includes all people from the Indian subcontinent. The fact that he lived on an island off the coast is irrelevant.

9. C. Preferences and set-asides are illegal under case law. Outreach and recruiting so a candidate pool reflects a mix of race and sex can allow a nondiscriminatory selection system to pick the best qualified person. In some cases, that will be a woman or racial minority.

10. A. A conciliation agreement is a legal contract. When it comes from OFCCP, it means they will come back every six months or so to be sure you are doing what it promises you will do. If not, they can take you through the enforcement process to force you to comply. Always get your management attorney involved before signing such a contract.

11. B. It’s probably not quid pro quo harassment because the invitation came from a subordinate. It’s likely not hostile environment harassment because the person being harassed has to suffer unwanted advances of a sexual nature. She is actually the one initiating the invitation.

12. C. Harassment has been recognized by the courts when it is based on sex but also when it is based on race, ethnicity, religion, and other protected categories. Executives need to understand that these are all liabilities for the organization.

13. A. WARN applies because the layoff will involve more than 100 full-time people at a single location. It requires 60 days advance notification to both the employees and the local government officials.

14. B. Employees should always be invited to self-identify. If they refuse, and since employers are obligated to maintain the data, the next best way to get it is to ask the supervisor to make a personal observation and record it in the data fields.

15. C. The list should show what skills each person has now and whether or not they are ready for promotion now or need further experience or training before being ready for promotion.

16. D. The only way to determine what a job actually does is to interview the incumbent(s) and the supervisor. Job descriptions should be specific to each job.

17. B. Every job description should have in it a list of the physical and mental requirements for that job. That helps in selecting employees and in working on job accommodations for workers’ compensation and disabilities.

18. C. It isn’t necessary to use a point system to evaluate job content for compensation purposes. Making comparisons of responsibility levels can be done and compensation levels determined based on those comparisons. Lydia should attempt to be consistent in how she makes those comparisons so the compensation decisions will be consistent.

19. A. The company is not constrained by the government on how it designs its job application process. If it wishes to have a certain form completed, it can establish that policy. A decision should be made about what documents it will accept from job applicants. Consistency in how the process is applied is critical in avoiding complaints of bias.

20. B. Sometimes, using part-time workers to accomplish one job is a good solution. A great deal depends on the reliability of incumbents.

21. B. One reason these arrangements sometimes fail is that they go on and on and on. There is no real replacement training going on. The retired employee is doing the same work as before they retired, and nobody is being transferred, promoted, or hired into that job as a replacement.

22. B. The test should measure Excel skills because those are the predictors of success for Abel’s accounting positions.

23. D. There is no reason that both objective and subjective selection systems cannot be used together in sorting candidates for instructor jobs.

24. B. The interactive process requires employers to determine if there might be other ways to accommodate the needs of their employee. Discussing those other possibilities will come next in the process.

25. A. State law will determine requirements. Policy can go beyond state law if desired by the employer. Presuming both state law and policy require providing an opportunity for employee review of the file, it should be scheduled as soon as reasonably possible.

Endnotes

1. Civil Rights Act of 1991 (see Chapter 2).

2. EEOC Charge Statistics, EEOC website, http://eeoc.gov/eeoc/statistics/enforcement/charges.cfm (as of 7/30/2013).

3. 41 CFR 60-3.5B.

4. Truesdell, William H. SPHR, Secrets of Affirmative Action Compliance, The Management Advantage, Inc., Walnut Creek, CA 2014.

5. U.S. Department of Labor, WARN Act Employer Guide, www.doleta.gov/layoff/pdf/EmployerWARN09_2003.pdf (as of 8/5/2013).

6. U.S. Department of Labor, WARN Act Employer Guide, www.doleta.gov/layoff/pdf/EmployerWARN09_2003.pdf (as of 8/5/2013).

7. Washington State HR website, retrieved on 5/18/2014, www.hr.wa.gov/WorkforceDataAndPlanning/WorkforcePlanning/Competencies/Pages/default.aspx.

8. “State Employment Sites,” retrieved on 2/8/2014, www.statelocalgov.net/50states-jobs.cfm.

9. “The Uniform Electronic Transaction Act,” retrieved from the Uniform Law Commission on 2/8/2014 from www.uniformlaws.org/ActSummary.aspx?title=Electronic%20Transactions%20Act.

10. U.S. Bureau of the Census, www.census.gov (as of 8/6/2013).

11. Fitz-enz, Jac, and Barbara Davison, How to Measure Human Resources Management, 3rd edition, McGraw-Hill, 2002.

12. SHRM-ANSI Standard on Cost Per Hire, free copy available from SHRM by sending email to [email protected].

13. Cost per hire standard developed by SHRM, referenced on 5/20/2014, www.shrm.org/hrstandards/publishedstandards/documents/cost-per-hire%20american%20national%20standard.pdf.

14. Internal Revenue Service, “Retiree Annuitants,” retrieved on 2/8/2014 from www.irs.gov/Government-Entities/Federal,-State-&-Local-Governments/Rehired-Annuitants.

15. Powers, Bob, and William J. Rothwell, Instructor Excellence: Mastering the Delivery of Training, 2nd edition, Pfeiffer (John Wiley and Sons), San Francisco, CA 2007.

16. EEOC Guidelines on Job Accommodation Requests, www.eeoc.gov/policy/docs/accommodation.html (as of 8/11/2013).

17. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, “Consideration of Arrest and Conviction Records in Employment Decisions under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,” www.eeoc.gov/laws/guidance/arrest_conviction.cfm, published4/25/12

18. U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, “Prisoners in 2012—Advance Counts,” www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/p12ac.pdf, published July 2013.