No matter how many job interviews you may have been to, sitting in front of a potential employer and answering the question “why should we hire you?” can still be pretty nerve-racking.

Being well-prepared is by far the best way to ease the pre-interview jitters and show the interviewer your best side.

Kandi Mensing shares her knowledge. Read more at: http://www.opencolleges.edu.au/careers/resumes/job-interview-tips

On July 21, Governor Pat Quinn signed into law the Job Opportunities for Qualified Applicants Act, which will prohibit most private-sector employers and employment agencies with 15 or more employees from asking applicants about their criminal histories and conducting criminal background checks until after applicants are deemed qualified for a job. The law will go into effect on January 1, 2015.

Illinois joins eleven other states that have enacted “ban-the-box” laws that prohibit employers from inquiring about applicants’ criminal history on employment applications and during the selection process. They include Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Minnesota, Nebraska, Colorado, New Mexico,  California, and Hawaii.

Under the law, employers may not inquire about, consider, or require disclosure of an applicant’s criminal record or criminal history until he has been deemed qualified for a position and has been notified that he has been selected for an interview. If there is no interview, the employer may not inquire into the applicant’s criminal record or criminal history until after making a conditional offer of employment.

The law contains some exceptions, including positions involving fidelity bonding, employers employing licensees under the Emergency Medical Systems Act, and employers that are required to exclude applicants with certain criminal convictions because of federal or state law.

In signing the legislation, Governor Quinn stated, “Everyone deserves a second chance when it comes to getting a job. This law will help ensure that people across Illinois get a fair shot to reach their full potential through their skills and qualifications, rather than past history.”

What does this mean for you? Illinois employers should plan now for the new law. By January 1, 2015, covered employers must ensure that application forms and hiring processes do not inquire into a candidate’s criminal history until he or she is selected for an interview. If there is no interview, you must wait until a conditional offer of employment is made to inquire into an applicant’s criminal history.

Many businesses grow faster than they can keep up with. As they add more employees, they feel like they're just treading water in the realm of HR procedures. The procedures they do have tend to evolve with the company, so they may not be the most efficient methods, and since business owners are busy running their business, they may not realize what laws and regulations apply to them or be able to step aside to realign responsibilities and improve processes. Many businesses cannot justify a full-time Human Resources professional, based on their size, so they divide the HR tasks between several departments or assign them to an Office Manager or similar role. If any of these circumstances apply to your business, the smartest course of action is to hire an outside human resources consultant to create HR Procedures to get your business operating efficiently and compliantly.

HR Procedure Implementation is one of the top four Outsourced HR Tasks. Elite HR Team specializes in procedure creation and implementation. Whether we’re auditing your personnel files, creating recruiting and termination procedures (along with forms and checklists), or providing an “HR Playbook” for supervisors to reference, we can work with you to establish a legally compliant HR function. If you prefer to learn the ins and outs of HR Procedures on your own time and at your own pace, our Elite HR Business School™ can walk you through the policies and procedures you need, from recruiting to termination and everything in between. If you have an Office Manager who handles most of the human resources duties, we have specifically created HR Training for Office Managers to teach them what they need to know.

You spend so much time and energy starting a business and running it—making a business model, hiring the best employees, working toward customer satisfaction—that you deserve to have the Human Resources side of your business run seamlessly and flawlessly. With all the government laws and regulations, you could be facing costly lawsuits and government fines if you don’t do things the right way, so getting things set up the right way is the smart move.

HR Procedure Implementation includes things like:

• New hire procedures with checklists and timelines for necessary paperwork
• Proper documentation—what, why, and how
• Record keeping—what to keep, where, and for how long
• The performance review process and how often to conduct them
• Necessary HR forms
• Effective and compliant recruiting processes
• Legal discipline and termination procedures
• And more!

Running your business with peace of mind comes from knowing the best way to handle common problems and situations, and HR Procedure Implementation will give you the tools to do just that.

If you missed last week’s article on staff training, or any of the articles in the “Top 10 Outsourced HR Tasks” you can catch up on our blog.

It can be tempting to write your job requisition and then just wait for the resumes to come flooding in. It may seem redundant to have a job application as well, when all the job applicant's information is hopefully already on their resume, but here are some reasons why you need an application.

• An application allows you to compile all the information you need in one place.
• An application is the perfect place for a permission statement, which gives you the authority to call former employers and check references. You can also include at-will and false information statements, which inform candidates of your requirements.
• You can customize the application to gather the information you need, including education requirements or certifications, to make a preliminary decision what candidates to bring in.
• Although you can't make hiring decision based on protected classes, if your company is required to meet affirmative action benchmarks, the application is a good place to allow candidates to willingly self-identify.

Job applications are one more thing that a company can do to protect itself. If someone threatens legal action for discrimination because you didn't hire them, you can use the paperwork provided in the job application to prove that you hired based on fair practices. Applications are easy to create with our HR Form Templates. 

No matter what your political views or affiliations, the truth is that times are changing and businesses need to change with the times. Many states, including Elite HR Team's home state of Illinois, are passing same-sex marriage laws.

Illinois's legislation was passed last fall and took effect June 1. Nineteen states and the District of Columbia have legalized same-sex marriage, whether by court decision, state legislature, or popular vote. Eight other states that have bans on same-sex marriage have been or are involved in court battles, calling these bans unconstitutional, so more changes may be coming. Currently, the states where same-sex marriage is legal are:

California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington. These new laws will affect employers in various ways.

Employers will need to treat same-sex spouses the same way they treat opposite-sex spouses. This will have ramifications for employer-sponsored health plans with spousal coverage eligibility as well as retirement plan beneficiary requirements.

Also, employee leave policies will be affected. For example, the guarantees provided by the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) for the serious health condition of a spouse will be available to same-sex spouses. Similarly, other leave or benefit policies relating to spouses and families (e.g., bereavement leave) will need to be administered consistently for opposite-sex and same-sex married employees.

Employers also need to know what their state specific laws say. A provision in the Illinois Human Rights Act prohibits discrimination based on marital status. Thus, no adverse action should be taken against employees based on their status as married or single. Sex and familial status are both protected classes under the Civil Rights Act, which means you cannot base a decision to hire or fire on them.

In addition to knowing how the law will affect you, you should also consider Sexual Harassment & Diversity Awareness training, so that your staff understands how to avoid discrimination in the workplace and so you can prove that you don’t condone discrimination on this basis should you end up in litigation for such a claim. Courts are more lenient on employers that have required this training for all employees and repeated the training. This issue has cropped up in other local news as the St. Louis Rams signed openly gay Michael Sam in the draft. Don Jones, a safety for the Miami Dolphins, was suspended, fined, and required to take "sensitivity training" before returning to practice because of remarks he made on Twitter. If he had been through Elite HR Team's training session, he would have known better!  

The biggest frustration that many business owners bring to us is recruiting and retaining quality employees. They don't know where to find quality candidates, the type of people applying for open positions are less than overwhelming, and when they do bring someone in for an interview, the candidate acts like they'd be doing the business owner a favor to accept the job and show up to work!    

Elite HR Team™ has taken the guesswork out of recruiting for you. Here are five tips to get you started:

1. Implement HR Forecasting. Your strategy should be proactive, not reactive. Instead of waiting until you've lost an employee to think about your hiring process, analyze where you want to go and how you're going to get there so you can be prepared. 
 
2. Explore Hiring Methods. Some businesses still rely on newspaper want ads to find their new hires, but in the digital age, there are many different options. Which one you choose determines the audience you will be speaking to. Find the best people for your business. Elite HR Team uses HiringThing as our online portal.

3. Ensure Recruiting Compliance. If you've never sat down and audited your recruiting process, now is a great time! You should make hiring choices based on a candidate's education, work history, and ability to do the job -- and not on any protected classes they may exhibit.

4. Streamline Your Interview Process. Do you know what questions to avoid? Have you created job descriptions for all your positions so you know the qualifications? Have you trained your managers in proper interview techniques? By creating a list of questions that you use to interview every candidate, you can analyze their skills and better compare them. Using the same interview questions for every candidate protects you against discrimination claims, if one should arise.

5. Identify the Candidate. The easiest way to identify your candidate is by first identifying the essential traits and skills you want to see, which are typically taken from the job descriptions you've created. You can also create a skills matrix to objectively rate candidates based on core traits and skills.

We have created a new, free tool that expands on these ideas in a comprehensive workbook, which we're launching this week. Sign up for our NEW, FREE Small Business Recruiting Workbook on our website. There is also more valuable information about Hiring and Firing in our Elite HR Business School™. 

Human Resources encompasses more than just listening to employees complain or distributing information about benefits. It is actually the nerve center of the company, communicating vital information and performing integral processes that keep the business running.

 On the most basic level, HR is involved in recruiting, hiring, morale, employee assistance and counseling, benefits, compensation, training, discipline, firing—just about anything that involves employees and their working lives. There are some general areas that characterize most HR responsibilities, which include:

• Compliance—Keeping track of state and federal employment law and requirements, and keeping managers and supervisors informed of what they need to do
• Employee and labor relations—Equal employment opportunity compliance, dispute resolution, union efforts, negotiations and arbitration, employee communications
• Staffing—Forecasting, recruitment and selection, hiring, orientation, retention, performance management, discipline and termination
• Performance—Helping supervisors assess an employee's specific and overall performance, and documenting performance accurately
• Benefits—Health insurance, workers' compensation plans, pension, profit-sharing, and 401(k) plans, other retirement benefits, work and family programs, vacations, leaves of absence
• Compensation—Wage and salary programs, job classifications, performance appraisals, salary surveys, incentive and bonus programs
• Training and development—Management training, supervisory and nonsupervisory training, skills-based training, team-building, career development, organizational development
• Planning—Strategic planning, restructuring, mergers and acquisitions, succession planning
• Recordkeeping—Maintaining accurate records to help prove your compliance with government recordkeeping and reporting requirements, as well as to defend your decisions on such matters as hiring, discipline, and compensation

With all of these different hats to wear, owners of small business and office managers may find it difficult juggling compliant human resources function on top of their other demanding tasks. Not to mention that most of the people in smal businesses who are thrown into the HR role don't have an HR background and are unaware what regulations they're subject to. It is important to establish HR function for three critical reasons:

1. To avoid costly lawsuits and government fines. Your money is your money! You want to use profits to invest in your company and your employees, and to provide yourself with an income. But if you aren’t doing things the right way, the government can fine you—the I-9 form alone carries fines from $100 to $16,000 per violation. Disgruntled employees may look for reasons to sue. It only takes one lawsuit to negatively affect your bottom line. The average defense costs for wrongful termination are $85,000 with the average settlement $500,000. Read more about non-compliance here.
2. To establish best practices. We don’t just recommend implementing HR structure as an option that might help you or busy work for rainy days. We know through experience that establishing your HR function will make your company run smoothly. Your employees will be able to work more efficiently because they know what’s expected of them, and you’ll be able to measure your successes with certainty because you have processes in place.
3. To make your company great. We know you strive for excellence. You want to be successful, and you want your businesses to be a coveted workplace. Paying attention to human resources can help your business run more efficiently and be more profitable.

Once you’ve decided to audit your files, your processes, and your procedures, there are a few ways to go about it. You can try to learn about it yourself and find the best way through trial and error. You can hire a human resources specialist to run your HR function for you. You can outsource your HR responsibilities (much like many companies use a payroll service), or you can learn to do it yourself through our Elite HR Business School™. Obviously, if you have the growth and the capital to support a full-time HR representative, congratulations! You’re doing well! But with the average salary for an HR professional in the St. Louis area at over $100,000, before benefits, we’ve found that many small businesses prefer our retainer packages, all of which come with Elite HR Business School™. This program is self-paced, guiding you through establishing a legally compliant and excellent HR function, from hiring to firing. The seven modules are chock full of videos, Solution Slicks, forms, and checklists.

Compliance doesn't have to be a struggle or a headache. Learn from the experts and apply their knowledge to your business. The peace of mind you gain will be priceless!

by: Dan Cozzi



Elite HR Team's Core Value Monthly Spotlight: Leadership

This month we explore our value of Leadership. Elite HR Team values Leadership and we express its importance by using it in one of our vision statements, “Lead with passion and integrity,” and in our core values honeycomb matrix. We define leadership as, “Demonstrating the courage to be a leader and to better other leaders.”

We include courage in our expression of leadership because it critically supports a leaders effectiveness. Courage is not being fearless, but having the ability to recognize fear and act anyway.  We spent the last week thinking about our personal definitions of Leadership and this is what we came up with. 

“A person with leadership abilities has the incredible gift of shaping the future. A leader can guide their supporters to increase their knowledge and skills; making those supporters the new leaders of the future.”
- Kristy, HR Assistant

“Leadership requires leaders to risk action, based upon the leader's vision of what the future could be and by accepting some unknowns for the sake of the betterment of their followers and to accomplish their objectives.” -Dan, Excellence Manager

“Leadership is encouraging others to work together toward a common goal, making the sum greater than the parts. A true leader inspires you to want to do your best, to impress them, to live up to the potential they see in you.” - Jodi, Business Assistant

“You cannot lead without followers. Leaders must possess the unique ability to attract and retain followers, communicate the mission of the group, and to motivate the group into action. A good leader knows their limits and builds a team that compliments their weaknesses. Effective leaders develop their followers into leaders.” - Kandi, Owner & Founder

“A true leader's goals and dreams are to help others achieve their goals and dreams.”
- Michelle, HR Consultant

Leadership involves the ability to motivate others to do something extraordinary, something they would not normally do; thereby, learning something and becoming a better version of themselves.  Whether you lead by example, by motivating, by directing, or by influencing, it takes the courage to risk rejection and accept responsibility for not only your own failure, but quite possibly the failures of those you lead.

Finally, the negative formulation of risk-taking is “With great risk comes great loss.”  However, good leaders recognize and internalize the positive formulation, “With great risk comes great reward.” They have developed their ability to discount false fears and courageously accept real ones in order to act decisively for the betterment of something or someone.

How does your organization view leadership?  Are you leading in a productive way?  We want to learn from you. Let us know what your definition of leadership is by commenting below.

"Show me the money!" What do you do when your employees start asking for raises? 

The Department of Labor recently released their 2013 average salary list along with statistics compiled from the 2013 tax season. Employees have access to  median salary information for the U.S., the median salary in their industry, and even the median salary in a long list of standard job descriptions. So, how do you handle employee requests to discuss or bargain their pay?

1. Use That Number as a Starting Point. Median doesn't mean "average." Median is the number in the exact center of the list of data. That means half of the people in that position or industry in the US make less than that amount and half make more. This information can be important to have, and if you are way off, you may need to rethink how you compensate your workers. However, you can also do some homework and research salaries in your area for more relevant numbers.

2. Cost of Living Comparisons. Someone living in West Virginia is not going to make the same amount as a worker performing the same job in California and even adjacent states like Missouri and Illinois have very different minimum wages (MO is $7.35 and IL is $8.25). The trade-off for living in a cheaper state is making slightly lower wages.

3. Provide a Benefits Summary. One of our top recommendations is that businesses provide employees with a benefits summary annually. This statement shows the employee exactly how much is being spent to employ them. In addition to their salary, it would include things like health insurance, life insurance, worker's compensation, short and long term disability, and even the costs to provide coffee and sodas in the breakroom. Essentially it is an "adjusted" salary that shows not only what the business pays them in terms of salary, but the total of what the company pays to employ them.

4. Create and Distribute a Career Map. Millennials are leaving school feeling entitled to a career. They want to start out with five weeks of vacation and fully paid benefits. If you can show them their career path within your organization and possible tracks they can follow for growth and advancement, they may be more likely to stay. It can also be a helpful tool to use with more experienced workers who may not want to start from scratch in their new position.

5. Added Value with Free and Low-Cost Benefits. We are always encouraging business owners to do more for their employees, without affecting their bottom line. There are tons of strategies you can use. Find other businesses you can partner with to offer discounts. Provide the opportunity for employees to enroll in additional supplemental benefits--they assume all the cost. Offer low-cost perks like gift cards, car washes, exercise classes--anything that will help them to fit their busy life into their work schedule. Some businesses even offer concierge services to help workers get their to-do list done!

Studies have shown that compensation is not the most important thing when it comes to retaining employees. They would rather feel valued, respected, and integral to your business. Showing them their worth will help them appreciate what you do for them.

Just the other day, Kandi met a gentleman in his eighties (at least!) and he expounded to her his ideas on “this younger generation.” Apparently, we don’t take as much pride in ourselves or our work because we’re allowed to wear jeans. Gone are the days when men put on a three-piece suit—or even own one! Gone too are the days when women wore pantyhose and high heels every day.

There are two schools of thoughts on dress codes: 1) Employees are more productive when they’re comfortable so they should be allowed to dress casual, and 2) Requiring a more formal dress creates a professional environment, which keeps employees more productive and communicates the right message to customers and clients.

First, you should have an outlined policy on your dress code that is communicated to your employees. Even if it’s just to address safety concerns, such as banning flip-flops and open-toed shoes in the plant, or spelling out that short skirts, ripped jeans, and T-shirts with profanity on them are unacceptable, your dress code spells out how you want your employees to look as they represent your business. Some industries are able to spell out their requirements in black and white, since employees are required to wear a branded shirt and black pants (ex., restaurants), while others still encourage suits and ties (banks, lawyers, CEOS). You need to ask yourself how much interaction your employees have with the public, and what image you want the office/work environment to present to visitors. A major restaurant chain recently changed its dress code to allow visible tattoos, as long as they aren’t offensive or on the neck/face, showing how far public perception has come.

My husband always requires khakis and polo shirts as a minimum for his employees, because to him, "business casual” is casual! To him, there’s no difference in comfort between khakis and jeans, but to many employees, jeans represent a sort of freedom.

Even if you decide to allow employees to go casual on days they won’t be meeting with anyone, you can’t leave “casual” up to the imagination unless you want to see Crocs and sweatpants with words written on the rear. Jeans can look nicer paired with a button-up shirt or blouse than wrinkled khakis and a stretched-out sweater. Here are some tips to maximize your dress code:

1. Differentiate when more casual dress will be allowed. Whether it’s dress-down Fridays, on days when a local sports team has a home game, or when employees are not meeting with clients, allowing them some freedom in their clothing (within bounds) can improve employee morale.
2. Spell out the things that are definitely not allowed and have a procedure to follow if someone violates the dress code (being sent home without pay to change, for example).
3. Be consistent in your enforcement. If you let one department slide, or one person in the department slide, other employees could become resentful of the “favoritism” treatment. What we wear is a very personal thing, and seeing someone flaunt a violation of the dress code can make other workers very emotional.
4. Encourage professionalism, even when employees are dressed down. Address violations and employees who use dress-down days as an excuse to socialize without pointing fingers or getting emotional. Simply point out the policy, which should spell out what is appropriate and that casual dress is a privilege extended because employees are able to remain professional and get their word done.
5. Come up with a plan that works for your business. You know your work environment and your employees best. Make the dress code work for you.