Month: September 2016

The first time I encountered a workplace bully, I was brand new to the business world. 24 years old, an excited college graduate, I was ready to start my career in HR. But I would quickly come to find that it’s not always rainbows and butterflies.

In the first few months of my job, I had to conduct an investigation on another employee based on a complaint I received. The investigated employee was less than happy with the situation, and actually began to bully me.

I completed my investigation and suggested to my boss that the employee under investigation receive anger management training and coaching. If you encounter a similar situation at work, read on and you’ll receive the best tips to know how to handle this kind of situation. After all, most of us spend a good portion of our day at the office. So we should work in a place that is both comfortable and as stress-free as possible.

According to a 2015 study by the Workplace Bullying Institute, 27% of employees in the U.S. have experienced workplace bullying before, most often from supervisors. There are many possible reasons for bullying behavior by bosses. These include the boss’s personality, home life, feelings about how fairly they are being treated by the organization, and the performance and behavior of their employees.

But let’s dive back into my story. The bullying I endured started off very subtly. My coworker began leaving me angry notes and emails, and finally culminated in his words bringing me to tears. It escalated one day when he blocked the path to my office door so I could not leave the room.

Not all workplace bullying and abuse is verbal in nature. It can be physical or psychological. The reason behind a bully’s abusive behavior is as unique as the bully themselves.

Dr. Ronald Riggio, author and expert in organizational psychology, says, “Many bullies cover up their own feelings of inadequacies and low self-esteem by putting down others. Some bullies are egocentric and narcissistic, and uncaring of the impact of their behavior on others. Some bullies were themselves targets of bullies, or may be bullied at work and bring it home.”

Workplace abuse should not be tolerated. Sometimes the situation isn’t as clear cut as we want. However, employees who believe they are experiencing abusive behavior can (and should) take measures to protect themselves:

• Document the behavior. Using a notebook, make notes of the date, time, location and situation that transpired that you witnessed or were a part of. You will need this information when you make a statement to HR as part of their workplace investigation.

• Talk to your boss or HR. As mentioned, we all deserve to work in an environment free from discrimination, violence, hostility or negativity. Depending on your comfort level, have a frank discussion with an HR team member or a member of management about the abusive behavior you have been experiencing. Be prepared with notes and written statements that provide a timeline and describe the severity of the bullying behavior you are experiencing.

• Talk to a professional. Talk to your primary care doctor and ask for a referral to a psychologist regularly. Talking to a professional helped me work through and understand behavioral patterns of myself and others. At minimum, talk to a friend or family member about the abuse. The support of family and friends is invaluable in any and every type of abuse situation, workplace or otherwise.

• Understand you are protected. You are entitled to a hostility-free work environment and once you talk to your boss or HR, retaliation for the investigation will not be tolerated. If you feel unsafe, contact the police and file a report.

While scary and yes, quite uncomfortable, the experience taught me a great deal about myself. I learned the importance of getting a handle on my emotions, documenting conversations, talking candidly with my boss, and standing up for myself. Above all, remember this: you don’t have to endure any form of bullying. It’s never warranted or deserved.

You know that saying, no one likes change. The thing is – in the world of benefits and insurance, changes are to be expected. Most recently, OSHA (the Occupational Safety and Health Administration) has issued a new rule when it comes to reporting workplace injuries.

Sooo what is the new OSHA rule?

OSHA has stipulated that business owners should submit relevant workplace injuries or illnesses electronically. Separately, the new rule states that companies cannot discourage employees from reporting workplace injuries or illnesses. Also known as anti-retaliation provisions. (Say that five times fast.) Luckily, OSHA is giving companies until November 1, 2016 to get in the know. (Luckily, this article is available in September). ?

A bit more detail…

The electronic reporting provisions will begin in 2017. This provision stipulates any 2016 injuries or illnesses listed on the Form 300A should be electronically submitted by July 1, 2017. 2017 injuries should be submitted by July 1, 2018. And, if you thought a pattern was beginning here, it’s not.

Starting in 2019, injury and illnesses reports from the previous year will be required by March 2. (Just to keep things interesting, of course.)

There are four main rules under the anti-retaliation provisions:

1. Employers must let employees know about their right to report any work-related illnesses or injuries.
2. Employers must create a procedure for employees to report work-related illnesses and injuries that does not discourage employees from reporting these incidents.
3. Employers must provide their employees access to workplace injury and illness records.
4. Employees cannot retaliate against any employee for reporting a workplace injury or illness.

Now much of this is subjective, but OSHA states that companies cannot implement any program that encourages or incentivizes keeping accident or injury rates low. Throw the gold stars and brownie points out – at least for this.

Just remember – the most important thing is to stay-up-to-date on requirements, know your options, the rules, and remain compliant. Check the Decisely blog often to keep up with the ever-changing world of benefits and insurance.

As your business continues to grow, freelancers and contractors are a great opportunity to gain additional resources. They can help you scale by assisting with various projects and needs, from accounting to marketing. Many contractors have specific sets of expertise and can help you prioritize your resources effectively. Outsourcing is best when you have projects that may not call for the hiring of an additional full-time employee. We’ve outlined some of the biggest benefits that freelancers can bring to your business:

Flexibility

When you first launch your company, you may not be able to hire a team of full-time employees. Freelancers can help you with any projects or services you need on a temporary basis. This flexibility can save you money in multiple ways, mainly in terms of fixed costs when it comes to your payroll. Contractors transform your payroll into one of variable costs. Additionally, hiring a contractor can come in handy as the demands of your business move up and down, especially if your business is seasonal.

Experience

Think about any time you may have searched for freelancers or contractors. Typically, you’ll search for very specific terms based on what you need. This is one of the biggest advantages to freelancers: they usually have a specialty. Whether that is digital marketing, writing, or graphic design – freelancers can help you meet very specific needs for your business.

Affordability

This goes hand in hand with the flexibility of freelancers. Freelancers can typically work from wherever, which means you won’t have to deal with any overhead costs. It goes beyond your payroll – this includes travel costs, training, configuring office space, etc. This way, you’ll get the right contributions to your company while still maintaining independence between your business and the contractor.

Results Driven

More often than not, freelancers stake their reputations on results. They value client feedback and most want to deliver the right results. They’ll understand what’s important to your business or what’s crucial to the project that’s been given to them. For freelancers and contractors, they are building a business of their own in terms of their passion and their expertise. Most will focus on doing the best they can for your business. And that helps move your business forward.

Apart from being a fun acronym to say, HIPAA has a ton to do with employee privacy and employee benefits. However, this federal regulation can be quite confusing. That’s why we’ve prepared this handy guide with the 4 most important factors for HIPAA compliance.

First let’s start with the basics, like what HIPAA actually stands for and why it is important to be compliant with HIPAA standards.

What Does HIPAA Stand For?

HIPAA is short for the Health Information Portability and Protection Act of 1996. The HIPAA Privacy Rule establishes just that: privacy when it comes to medical records and personal health information. This Rule applies to businesses with at least one of these three:

• Health plans

• Healthcare clearinghouses

• Healthcare providers that conduct certain health care transactions electronically

The rule requires appropriate safeguards to protect the privacy of personal health information. It sets limits and conditions on the use and disclosure of information. The rule gives patients the right to examine and obtain a copy of their health records and to request corrections. Because we want everything copacetic, don’t we?

Are Employers Required to Enforce HIPAA?

If you as an employer pay for a portion of an employee’s health plan, you fall under HIPAA privacy guidelines. Lucky you, this is because you help pay for a portion of the cost of medical care.

HIPAA protects the following types of personal medical information (i.e. this is information that should not be shared):

• Patient date of birth

• Patient full name

• Patient diagnosis

• Patient medical record number (MRN)

It’s likely that as an employer, you have access to this information as part of the benefit enrollment process like the one Decisely offers. With Decisely you have access to dedicated, licensed health insurance brokers to help you through difficult compliance questions like this on a daily basis.

On the off-chance you don’t feel like making a call, how does HIPAA really affect a small business? How do you manage those doctors’ notes, leave of absence paperwork, or requests for Family Medical Leave?

Here’s the 4 ways HIPAA impacts employers and HR:

• Protect sensitive healthcare information. Employers collect personal health information of their employees as well as dependents of the employee. To meet compliance standards, this information needs to be stored in a secure location, like a steel vault buried 10 feet underground. Or more realistically, a separate facility like the Decisely secured, cloud-based platform. 😉
• Provide HIPAA training for employees with access to sensitive health information. Company representatives who are responsible or involved in collecting this protected information should receive annual HIPAA training.
• Protect FSA or wellness program information. Sensitive health information is shared by employees in a number of different ways. This includes things such as employee annual benefit programs and new hire benefit enrollment. Don’t forget to secure and protect information for flexible spending accounts and employee wellness programs, too!
• Protect Occupational Health Records. Also known as OHR or Employee Health Records, these records include the results of post-offer employee physicals, workers compensation claims, and other workplace injuries covered by OSHA. The bottom line is this: keep all of this information secure and safe.

What HIPAA Doesn’t Protect

While HIPAA requires employers to secure employee and dependent medical information, it does not protect certain limited medical information. For instance, if an employee requests sick leave for a day or something longer such as a leave of absence, they should share some basic medical info to support their request.

Most importantly with HIPAA, remember to seek out the latest compliance standards or work with your team to provide information and training for your business. This on-going training will help to handle employee medical information, formal or informal workplace accommodation, and maintain positive employee relations.

We all are familiar with Batman, right? You know, the vigilante with a black cape and black leather suit – most recently portrayed by Christian Bale and Ben Affleck in the movies. Basically, Batman is the community’s protector – at least in the world of comics.

Why the Batman interest? Well, ERISA is the U.S. Department of Labor’s “Batman” when it comes to Americans’ retirement assets. No seriously, it really is. Read on to learn how.

In more detail…

Passed in 1974, ERISA, short for the Employee Retirement Security Act, is a federal law pertaining to private industry pension and healthcare plans. Why do you need to know about it? It is super important. Businesses must remain compliant with the legal jargon under ERISA. Working with licensed brokers like Decisely can ensure your business is compliant.

To really let you in on what this act is all about, ERISA ensures that any funds placed into retirement plans during an employee’s working life will be safe and secure when that employee goes to retire. Hence the “security” part of the act.

For pension plans, ERISA stipulates when an employee can become a participant in the plan, how long an employee can take time away from their job before their pension plan is impacted, and if a spouse can participate in the pension plan in the event of the employee’s death.

Let’s be clear here: as an employer, you do not have to offer any form of pension plan. ERISA simply outlines the minimum requirements for you if you do decide to offer your employees this option.

Here are the requirements…

ERISA states that you must provide employees readily available information on the features and funding options for retirement and pension plans. Not only that, but it also sets the standard for participating, vesting, and accrual options. Essentially, how often an employee can contribute to their plan and how much they can contribute.

Let’s not forget about plan fiduciaries. Holy big words, Batman! To make it a bit clearer, a plan fiduciary is a person that has discretionary control in terms of managing the plan and the assets in it. A fiduciary also has the power to change the investments in the plan. On the flip side, ERISA also protects plan participants (mainly your employees) by giving them the right to sue for any breaches by their fiduciary.

Phew! You may be thinking all of that is a whole lot of big words and even more to remember, but like I said, working with the right broker ensures your compliance. So you can continue to go about your business with no sweat. And without capes no less.

What do Sherlock Holmes, Nancy Drew, and even Inspector Gadget have in common? They know anything and everything about investigating. And sometimes investigations are necessary in the workplace. A proper workplace investigation helps you manage EEO Charges, Department of Labor disputes, and other employment law situations.

The type of workplace investigations you will encounter working in HR will vary from compensation complaints, sexual harassment, abusive managers, to even simple incidents like reports of smoking on company property.

Develop and Communicate a Workplace Investigation Process

A workplace investigation process is more than a checklist. It creates a protocol that should be communicated to all employees.

The leadership team should understand all facets of the process. It’s important to be trained on receiving and communicating employee complaints, and on the mechanisms that exist for employees to air their grievances. These might include, but are not limited to: talking to a manager, a member of human resources, or reporting a concern anonymously.

Plan and Anticipate Investigation Challenges

Conducting workplace investigations is a challenging, but important, responsibility for HR professionals. When it comes to employee investigations the best defense is an aggressive offense. As a leader in your organization, develop communication channels to ensure that managers know how to handle countless situations that may arise.

4 Tips on Conducting a Proper Workplace Investigation

• Document, Document, Document. From employee statements to your investigation notes, the more information you have, the better you can provide a proper recommendation.

• Establish Expectations. When conducting interviews and taking statements with employees, it’s important to establish expectations with all parties involved. Be upfront and discuss the importance of maintaining confidentiality, refraining from retaliation, and the consequences involved if the former two are not followed.

• Gather Evidence. Apart from interviews and statements, check employee files and other workplace incidents or documentation. In my retail HR career, it was common to request and review video footage from common areas like the sales floor, cash registers, and parking lots to determine a timeline of events. Don’t forget to look at past investigations and outcomes to determine if there is an established precedent.

• Be Objective. As the investigator, be objective. Avoid passing judgement on anyone involved in the investigation. Be prepared to conduct interviews and investigations that involve employees from all parts of the investigation. One of my first workplace investigations was an abuse complaint made by an employee against a manager. This manager was also my peer. Yet I knew I had to remain professional, objective, and uphold confidentiality at all times.

Communicating Your Investigation Results and Recommendations

At the close of your investigation, it’s important to sit down with your management team and openly discuss the results and your recommendations. These conversations are not always easy to have, especially if they involve disciplinary action or a move to terminate an employee. Be direct, provide solid reasoning to support your recommendations, and be open to relevant feedback. And in no time, you’ll be saying, it’s elementary, my dear Watson!

Let’s think about it: you have all kinds of insurance. Health insurance, life insurance, the list goes on and on. The same goes for your business. With a Business Owner’s Policy (BOP), you guarantee the protection of your business from any and all property and liability risks. At Decisely, we work with A-rated insurance companies to provide guidance on risk analysis and business consultation. Not to mention, keeping your business and assets safe.

First off, why do you need a BOP?

You need to obtain business insurance and a Business Owner’s Policy if your business has a physical location and if you have assets that could potentially be damaged or stolen. These include things like furniture, cash, equipment, etc. But it’s also a lot more than that.

So what’s in a Business Owner’s Policy (BOP)?

1. Liability Protection

Essentially, this is your protection from any possible harm that could come from your business. Now, we aren’t talking anything illegal here, but sometimes accidents happen such as on-the-job injuries or faulty installations of equipment.

2. Property Insurance

The insurance for your office building and any other assets or real estate owned by your company.

3. Business Income Insurance

This is your protection from an event(s) or disaster(s) that may disrupt your business from actually doing business. Typically, business income insurance refers to earthquakes, fires, floods, and other natural disasters.

And, if you’re needing something a little more, BOPs also have add-ons. The first of which is Data Breach Coverage. This is ideal if your business stores private patient or customer information and if it may be at a risk for a data breach.

The second add-on is Professional Liability Coverage. This kind of coverage deals with the not so pretty aspect of business. Also known as the potential to be sued. In this case, Professional Liability Coverage helps to protect your business from someone claiming that your business committed a negligent act or omitted information in the services you provide.

Okay, besides the protection, any other advantages of a BOP?

In one word: yes.

Here’s the thing: you’re going to need protection for your business no matter what. Unless you really like to live on the edge. And even then. So not only is a BOP a smart choice, it’s a convenient one. It also simplifies a lot of elements in terms of both business and property liabilities. Rather than purchase multiple policies, a BOP keeps everything under one roof, so to speak. And again, these are customizable based on your business needs. So, as you embark on building out your new business, be sure to invest in a BOP: it’ll be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.