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Employee Theft: It Happens
Hoping to catch an employee red-handed, in-the-act? Well, look harder. The workplace thief may not be who you think it is. In fact, worker theft commonly is committed by more senior, more trusted workers rather than recent hires (newbies)… in other words, those you might least suspect. “Generally, it takes someone with a high level of access to the various accounting systems and a high level of trust from management to be able to perpetrate the fraud,” according to one employment attorney. A frequent means of perpetrating the crime? Billing activity associated with fictitious or fraudulent-minded vendors. How to prevent employee theft? For starters, limit the amount of control any one person has over important accounting and bookkeeping functions. Read more here and here.
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A Sensible Overtime Policy – 10 Tips
1 Beware of the “excessive overtime cycle.”
2 Set an annual cap.
3 Account for the “time of day” effect.
4 Restrict overtime to days off on 12-hour schedules.
5 Avoid double shifts on eight-hour schedules.
6 Use caution when holding workers beyond eight hours.
7 Watch out for “overtime hogs.”
8 Establish a formal rotation to distribute the overtime.
9 Emphasize cross-training.
10 Match staffing levels to work demand.Read more here.
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Searchable OSHA Data
From OSHA’s “Quick Takes,” February 1, 2010 – Volum 9, Issue 3:
“OSHA data on employer specific injury and illness incidence rates is now publicly available on data.gov and its website. OSHA collects work-related injury and illness data from more than 80,000 employers within specific industries and of a certain employment size. The agency uses this data for its strategic management plan and as a targeting mechanism for its Site-Specific Targeting enforcement program. Data is now searchable from 1996 to 2007 and can be used by interested individuals or groups to look at establishment-specific injury and illness data. The information includes the establishment name, address, industry, and associated total case rate; days away, restricted and transfer case rate; and days away from work case rate. Suspect or unreliable data is not included in this database.”
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Flexible Work Arrangements; Here to Stay
In a recent survey by the Families and Work Institute (FWI), 81% of employers reported they would maintain their flexible work programs during the recession, with 12% actually increasing them – and only 7% cutting back. As Ellen Galinsky, president and co-founder of the FWI, noted: “… employers are increasingly seeing flexibility as something that can help the organization.”
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Employee Share of Health Care Costs
Active Employees
~ Employee Only, $1044
~ Employee Plus One, $2412
~ Family, $3480Retirees Under 65
~ Retiree Only, $3984
~ Retiree Plus One, $7668
~ Family, $10548Retirees 65 and Older
~ Retiree Only, $2004
~ Retiree Plus One, $4140Source: Survey of 550 employers (www.towerswatson.com)
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New Payroll Tax Breaks on the Horizon?
An interesting, bipartisan op-ed penned last week by Sens Orrin Hatch (R, Utah) and Chuck Schumer (D, New York), arguing the need for new, targeted payroll-related tax breaks aimed at small businesses. The op-ed is excerpted in part below:
“Here’s the idea: Starting immediately after enactment, any private-sector employer that hires a worker who had been unemployed for at least 60 days will not have to pay its 6.2 percent Social Security payroll tax on that employee for the duration of 2010. The Social Security trust fund will then be made whole with spending cuts elsewhere in the budget between now and 2015. That’s it. Simple to understand, and easy to explain.
The beauty of this proposal goes beyond its simplicity. Unlike a jobs tax credit of a specific dollar amount, this credit is “front-loaded” in that it provides an incentive for businesses to hire workers earlier in the year — because the tax benefit will be greater. A $60,000 worker hired on Feb. 1 will save a business about $3,400 in taxes, while that same worker hired on May 1 will save it about $2,500.
Unlike some versions of a payroll-tax holiday, which provide a much bigger benefit for higher-paid workers, this proposal is not biased toward either low-wage or high-wage workers. Yes, if you pay people more, you save more in taxes — but the savings as a percentage of pay remains constant. Under this plan, a business saves 6.2 percent on both a $40,000 worker and a $90,000 worker.”
Read the full opinion piece here.
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Watch What You Say (Workplace Vulgarity)
A recent decision by the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta (Ingrid Reeves v C.H. Robinson Worldwide Inc.) supports the contention that gender-specific, sexually explicit language (vulgarity, lewdness) – not directed at any one person per se – still may constitute a hostile workplace; and, as such, it may contribute to harassment claims being filed that can be pursued under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Read more here.
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The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right
A new book just out – “The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right,” authored by Harvard Medical School professor Atul Guwande – makes a compelling case for the use of simple but powerful checklists: a means to ensure that proper steps are implemented and adhered to so as to prevent costly downstream mistakes. As this article summarizes, failure, Guwande argues, results not so much from ignorance (not knowing enough about what works) as from ineptitude (not properly applying what we know works). While the book uses examples taken largely from the medical field, its lessons hold true more broadly… across industries, and applicable to business operations, often process-rich and highly prone to error.
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Sell? Sell! Sell?! When to Pull the Trigger
An interesting post on when to sell a business… (excerpted below); as with most things, timing is crucial:
“Most sellers contact my firm either when they want to sell or when they have to sell — as opposed to when the time is right to maximize value. There are two common points in the life of a business when owners most often consider selling:
The first usually takes place somewhere between two to five years after the start, when the owner reaches a certain level of success but is too burned out from the start-up effort to continue building the business. These companies often have a bright future and are entirely sellable. The owner, however, has to accept that this is not the time to achieve maximum value. Buyers typically won’t pay much, if anything, for potential.
The second situation occurs when a business is experiencing declining sales and the owner wants out. Sales may be trending lower for a number or reasons, but chances are that buyers aren’t going to care too much about excuses. As I once heard a colleague say, ‘If your numbers are bad, your story better be good.’”
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Motivating the Troops
According to Daniel Pink, author of Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, employee motivation often boils down to creating intrinsic rewards that play to the inherent satisfaction of the work activity itself … engaging and empowering employees in what they do, emphasizing inspiration more than just perspiration.
Instead of using a traditional carrot-and-stick motivational approach (rewarding good work with pay / benefits / promotions; penalizing bad performance) – which has “seven deadly flaws” (listed below) – Pink argues that the main motivators of productive employee behavior are a) the freedom to do what you want, b) the opportunity to take on a challenge and c) achieving a sense of fulfillment when the task is completed.
Merely Rewarding Good Work, Penalizing Bad Behavior … Why It Doesn’t Work
1) Extinguishes motivation
2) Diminishes performance
3) Crushes creativity
4) Crowds out good behavior
5) Encourages cheating, shortcuts and unethical behavior
6) Becomes addictive
7) Fosters short-term thinking
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