By: Kandi Mensing

We talked with a local business this morning that is being sued for 'wrongful termination' after they fired a new-hire that was still in their probationary period. The former employee is claiming that they were fired because of their sexual orientation. The ex-employee has a good case because of the absence of good documentation and processes in the Company. We try to help businesses BEFORE this happens, and avoid this for our clients. Sometimes, though, it takes the business being exposed to the harsh reality that is workplace compliance before they realize they need us. The average defense costs for wrongful termination are $85,000 and the jury verdict averages $500,000.

We are working on a workplace employee survey for a client. It is awesome when employers value their employees' needs.

Employee surveys are best done by a third-party administrator (like us!) because employees will feel the most comfortable and be the most honest in our confidential setting. Employers are given summarized feedback on what their employees are saying, but all information is kept confidential as far as what each employee said. We provide the employers with a summary, reports & statistics, and suggested action plan. When employee morale is bad, or when retention is poor an employee survey can uncover what action needs taken to make improvements. Happy employees are the most productive and loyal. Turnover is expense.

By Kandi Mensing:

Are you on COBRA and it is too expensive? Were you offered COBRA and had to decline coverage because you couldn't afford the premiums? Have you ever lost access to your employer's health plan? It could have been because of a layoff, a termination, or reduction in hours. If you have ever seen the cost of COBRA coverage, you know that it is expensive!! Most individuals and families cannot afford to pay for COBRA.

Just to briefly explain for those that don't what COBRA is, COBRA stands for Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act. It is a Federal law that was enacted in 1986 mandating that employer's allow employees (or ex-employees) that were formerly eligible to join the employer's group health plan access to the group's health plan, even though they're no longer 'eligible,' where coverage would have otherwise been cancelled. The legislation allows that the employer charge the (ex)employee full premium cost plus a 2% administrative fee. This can be very costly.

If you lose group coverage, what are your options?

1. Pay the expensive premiums for group healthcare 
2. Go without healthcare coverage, letting your policy lapse
3. Elect coverage on your new employer's health plan
   (If they offer healthcare, and if you're lucky enough to find another position immediately)
4. OR, purchase your own affordable individual health plan

At Mensing Consulting Solutions, we help people get off of COBRA (or avoid having to elect COBRA) by helping them shop for affordable individual health plans. We find them coverage they can afford without the markups of group healthcare. The last time my family was eligible for COBRA, our family plan through the group coverage was $1,100 per month. Add on a 2% administrative charge and we were looking at about $1,122 per month. Instead, we were able to purchase our family plan under an individually written plan (not group) for less than $400 per month! So, as you can see, there is  a sizable difference between what is paid for coverage under an individually written plan versus a group plan. We saved over $700 each month by purchasing our individual plan instead of electing COBRA coverage.

Group health plans are simply more expensive than plans written on an individual level (i.e. not group). Why is COBRA so expensive, you ask? Well, when you purchase COBRA, you're likely paying a 2% surcharge on the employer's group health plan (the only COBRA fee allowed by the government). Group health plans are accessible by the employer's eligible employees. Group health plans are guaranteed issue, meaning that eligible employees cannot be declined for coverage under the group health plan regardless of pre-existing conditions, lapse of healthcare coverage, or any other reason.  Group health plans do not afford employees the ability to customize their coverage. Some employers may offer several plans for employees to choose from, but not all employers.

When you purchase your own individual plan, you can choose the plan design that fits for you and/or your family at the price that you can afford! 

We work with many large carriers and are very competitive in the market. When you work with us, we don't just write your plan. We're there for you even through your claims process, for any support or assistance that you might need. We are a family business supporting families and other family owned businesses.

A recent episode of Big Bang Theory (watch the episode here) showcased workplace sexual harassment. It was a clear depiction of what sometimes happens in the workplace (exaggerated of course since it is television). The episode proved how it does not necessarily matter what the person meant to say, or what their intentions were. What matters is the perception of what was said. How did they perceive the comments or actions? Any time a harassment complain is filed, the employer is legally obligated to investigate and reconcile the issue. Some situations severe enough in nature require that they employees no longer work in close proximity, and sometimes results in termination.  There are many factors to consider when handling a sexual harassment complaint. It is far too complicated to entirely summarize in one blog post. Our online compliance portal guides employer’s compliance offering summarized legislation, forms, checklists, guidelines and more to help small businesses ensure their legal compliance in the human resources arena.

In 2011, a Belleville, IL employer settled one of the largest sexual harassment cases in history. An employee of Aaron’s Rent-To-Own in Belleville, IL was awarded $95,000,000 in damages.The settlement was so large mostly because the employer did not handle the complaint correctly.  If you don’t have millions to spare on a lawsuit, ensure you handle all harassment complaints appropriately. If you’re not sure what to do, give us a call. We help guide employer’s compliance. That’s what we do.

By: Kandi Mensing

Small businesses owners are a unique and talented breed of people. Think of farmers; they understand agriculture, financing, operations, management, and mechanics.  They oftentimes do their own accounting, ordering, hiring, and general management of the business, not to mention the day-to-day labor involved in their operations. They are even their own mechanic, fixing the machinery. It is the same in most small business environments; ownership is involved in so many tasks that it is hard to be a master at all of them. The marketing aspect can be tricky for owners of small businesses because if the business is not marketed appropriately, they are not positioning themselves to gain market share and succeed as a profitable, healthy operation. Not being a master in accounting can result in unaccounted for money as well as noncompliance with IRS regulations. The same goes with operations in the personnel arena. If an employer is not in compliance with human resource regulations, the resulting fines can be tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Additionally, not having the knowledge on how to effectively motivate and manage the personnel can cause the customer or client experience to be adversely affected. This could also prove to be detrimental to production quality and efficiency in any environment. Not all small business owners exercise the same strengths and weaknesses.  Every small business owner should take the time to determine their own strengths and weaknesses. They should then focus on maximizing their strengths while at the same time figuring out ways to improve upon their weaknesses.  Perhaps recruiting talent that appropriately compliments their own strengths and weaknesses is the most viable and beneficial option.

Maryland: First State to Bar Employers From Demanding Social Media InfoOn Wednesday, May 2, Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley signed S.B. 433, the nation’s first law barring employers from demanding employees or job applicants to disclose their user name or password for accessing social media accounts. The law is effective October 1, 2012.

y: Kandi Mensing

In my career as a recruiter and talent manager, I have fired a great deal of people. As someone who has never been fired from a job, I certainly do not understand why it is so hard for employees to remain willfully employed.  The even more amazing thing is that almost every single person I have fired did not see it coming. Forget about the verbal and written warnings, the suspension(s), and the countless coaching sessions and chances the employee was given. Even when the employee is explicitly and repeatedly told that further such infractions can and will lead up to further disciplinary action including and up to termination, they still appear to be surprised in the termination meeting.

What interests me even more is when an employee will start fighting to keep their job after being told that their employment status is terminated with the company. What employees being terminated really need to understand is that firing someone is not a decision that companies take lightly. Terminations can get ugly with retaliation and litigation. Terminations can be very costly to an organization, not to mention the time and effort spent to source and train their replacement. Employers do not want to fire employees. Firing employees also temporarily leaves seats vacant in the company and work potentially undone. Plus, a reputable company does not want to hurt any of their employees or leave them stranded, which is why the employee is given warnings and opportunities to turn it around. Employees are usually deserving of their termination because they have not responded to the employer’s suggestions of improvement. Really, it is that easy; if an employer tells you a way to improve work on improving it. Most of the terminations I have conducted have been straight-forward and the employees deserving yet no one ever thinks it’s coming.

It really is simple to avoid termination – do your job! When your company gives your feedback on your performance, take it to heart. If employees would listen to what they are being told and learn to take constructive criticism rather than getting defensive, they would have a much better shot at success within an organization. Too many people get defensive when their organization tells them that they could improve. There is nothing wrong with being told where and how you can or need to improve. What’s wrong with personal or professional improvement? There is something wrong with not responding to the feedback and requests and making the necessary changes or improvements. On the other hand, I do think organizations could do a better job of giving purely constructive criticism, training their first line supervisors to better coach, develop and retain their employees, and also providing the positive feedback on a consistent and fair basis.

Share your termination story!

Objectives on your resume can be detrimental to your job search. This objective can eliminate you from consideration immediately because the position may not be challenging and the company may not be growing.

By: Kandi Mensing

{FORMATTING} A resume is a glimpse at your work history, an indicator of your grammar and punctuation skill set, and a look at your attention to detail. Resumes are intended to get applicants to the interviewing phase of the recruiting process. Many people compose 'paragraphical' resumes. If you learn one thing from this blog, please take this away: do not format your resume in paragraphs. {BULLET POINTS} Bullets are always the answer. In this economy, it is said that you have 15 seconds to catch a recruiter's attention. Look at your resume. Does it communicate the most important parts of your resume in that time? {BOLDING} Is the name of your company and years of experience in bold? If your answer to that question is 'yes', listen up! While your prior places of employment are relevant,  they are not near as important as the actual position you held with that organization. You should always bold your position/title, not the company or dates of service. Now, while we're talking about formatting, let's talk about those bullet points. First of all, each bullet point does not need to be a full sentence. Just make sure that within your bullet points for each position you include keywords that describe your work experience accurately. {KEYWORDS} Keep in mind that many application interfaces are able to identify applicants by keyword. Include keywords in your resume that you would use to search for candidates for employment such as yourself.{OBJECTIVE} I would argue that objectives actually hurt an applicants chances more than they help. Objectives are the first thing listed on a resume, the hardest part of a resume to author, and truly do not tell the recruiter much of anything because applicants purposefully compose them to be vague. All too often, I see the objective "To obtain a challenging position with a growing company." Well, the job may not be challenging and the company may not be growing.  With this objective and in this scenario, you have automatically eliminated yourself from being considered for employment on this basis alone.

{ATTENTION-GETTER} So, how do you catch a potential employer's attention with your resume? First of all, your name needs to be LARGE. This is YOUR resume we're talking about. You want your name to stand out and be remembered. {PERSONALIZE} Resumes are almost always black and white, text and paper. It is refreshing to see a little color, or a designed/personalized letterhead. Add some color to your resume. Don't be afraid to be yourself!  I repeat, it's YOUR resume; a representation of YOU. Make sure your resume reflects who you are and what the potential employer is getting if they hire you (within reason of course!). If a job doesn't want you for you, then you probably don't want that job. You want to be happy right?

{SO, HOW DO YOU GET TO THE INTERVIEW?}

1. Proper Grammar
2. Correct Punctuation
3. Consistency in formatting
4. Keywords
5. A concise resume that quickly outlines your experience and has the ability to catch the recruiters attention quickly
6. Professional and proper correspondence (more information to come in our future blog)

Resumes are complicated, yet integral pieces in your job search. We offer resume and image consulting for interview and job search preparation. Contact us for more details.

URBANA – A federal judge in Urbana has ordered the owner and manager of a restaurant business in Central Illinois to pay a total of $1,149,702.50 in back wages and damages to 64 workers employed as servers and kitchen staff. The judgment resolves a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Labor following an investigation by its Wage and Hour Division that disclosed willful violations of the minimum wage, overtime pay and record-keeping provision of the FLSA at three locations.

Source: http://www.dol.gov