California HR Professionals - 2019 To Dos

As the new year begins it’s an excellent time to look ahead and prepare yourself for the year ahead. Below is a list of to-dos to get you ready for the new year:

• Devise a plan to ensure that all supervisors receive 2 hours and all non-supervisors receive 1 hour of anti-harassment training
• Review all settlement and confidentiality agreements to ensure compliant with new legislation limiting prohibitions of disclosing information
• Ensure that policies address all types of harassment claims against non-employees
• Review all independent contractors to ensure compliant with the ABC test
• Add policy to Handbook prohibiting off the clock work
• Add policy to Handbook prohibit recording conversations, phone calls, images, or Company meetings with any recording device, or capturing videos or images using cellular telephones, cameras, and other similar devices without prior approval
• Review compensation to ensure new California minimum wage is being paid (note: this is CA, other local ordinances may apply)

Category	Over 25 Employees	Under 25 Employees
Hourly/non-exempt	$12	$11
Salary/exempt	$49,920	$45,760

• Update new hire packets to ensure using the newly issued unemployment insurance and Paid Family Leave pamphlets
• Update employment postings including minimum wage and Workplace Discrimination and Harassment
• Begin compiling information for the Cal/OSHA Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses log. The 300A summary must be posted from February 1 to April 30 in a visible area at each job location
• Remember ACA deadlines:

ACA Requirement	Deadline
1095 forms delivered to employees	March 4 (extended from Jan 31)
1094 Paper filing with IRS	Feb. 28
1094 Electronic filing with IRS	April 1

• Review record retention guidelines and purge/destroy sensitive records
• Move terminated employee records to storage
• Separate I9s for terminated employees to separate binder/folder
• Review job descriptions for accuracy and update
• Ask employees to verify address, beneficiary, W-4 and emergency contact information
• If you provide front loaded paid sick leave on January 1, be sure new balance shows on the first paystub of the year

Lauren Sims is the article’s author and the Director of Human Resources.Whenever you require professional Human Resources or Payroll guidance to navigate the ever-changing landscape of California and Federal Employment Laws & Regulations, contact us for a no-obligation consultation.

eqHR Solutions provides professional, tactical and strategic human resources support; ADP payroll product implementation/training and payroll processing services for businesses throughout Southern California.

2019 CA New Laws in Response to #MeToo Movement

Impact of the #MeToo movement

The impact of the #MeToo movement can be seen in a wave of new legislation, an increase in EEOC enforcement and an increase in civil cases. The #MeToo movement has also increased Fair Pay Act filings and more scrutiny in enforcement. 

The following are new legislation driven by the #MeToo Movement: 

• SB 224 expands the types of professional and business relationships that can be the basis of a sexual harassment claim. It also expands the investigative scope of the Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) when enforcing the law. The bill specifically includes investors, elected officials, lobbyists, directors and producers as listed persons who may be liable for sexual harassment. SB 224 also eliminates the requirement that the accuser proves there is an inability by the plaintiff to easily terminate the relationship. 

Individuals who have a professional or businesses relationship with an individual and are not in a direct employment relationship or are a third party much understand that they may face harassment liability. 

• SB 820 prohibits requirements in settlement agreements, entered into after January 1, 2019, that prevent the disclosure of truthful information relating to claims of sexual assault, harassment, or discrimination based on sex, that are filed in a civil or administrative action. 

Employers should review confidentially provisions in settlement agreements to ensure compliance. 

• SB 1300 stipulates that an employer can now be held responsible for the acts of nonemployees in respect to all types of prohibited harassment of employees, applicants, unpaid interns, volunteers and contractors. The legislation also authorizes, though doesn’t require, an employer to provide bystander intervention training to their employees for how to recognize potentially problematic behavior and act when they observe problematic behaviors. SB 1300 also: 

Prohibits an employer from requiring an employee to sign a release of claim or right under FEHA in exchange for a raise, bonus or as a condition of employment. 

Prohibits employers to require employees to sign a nondisparagement agreement or other document that denies the employees’ right to disclose information about unlawful acts in the workplace. 

Stipulates that a single incident of harassment is enough to qualify as severe and pervasive. 

Reinforces prior case law reinforcing the “Stray Remarks Doctrine” that the existence of a hostile work environment depends upon the totality of the circumstances and a discriminatory remark, even if it is not made directly in the context of an employment decision or uttered by a non-decisionmaker. 

Specifies that harassment cases are rarely appropriate for disposition on summary judgment. 

• SB 1343 expands sexual harassment training requirements. Under this legislation, all employers with at least five employees must provide at least two hours of sexual harassment training and education to all supervisory employees and at least one hour of sexual harassment training to all non-supervisory employees by January 2020 and once every two years thereafter. 

• AB 2770 designates certain types of employer communications regarding sexual harassment as “privileged.” Employers should continue to limit information provided in reference checks of prior employees to avoid defamation claims. 

• AB 3109 voids a provision in a contract or settlement agreement entered into after January 1, 2019 if it waives a party’s right to testify in an administrative, legislative, or judicial proceeding concerning alleged criminal conduct or sexual harassment. 

Employers must recognize the trend in recent legislation that is in direct response to #MeToo. All settlement and confidentiality agreements should be reviewed as well as policies on reference checks. Most of all, employers should plan now to ensure that they meet the new sexual harassment training requirements that must be met by the end of 2019. 

Lauren Sims is the article’s author and the Director of Human Resources. Whenever you require professional Human Resources or Payroll guidance to navigate the ever-changing landscape of California and Federal Employment Laws & Regulations, contact us for a no-obligation consultation. 

eqHR Solutions provides professional, tactical and strategic human resources support; ADP payroll product implementation/training and payroll processing services for businesses throughout Southern California. 

Federal De Minimis Doctrine - Not in California

In July 2018, the California Supreme Court issued a decision in Troester v. Starbucks that held that Starbucks must pay its employees for minutes spent regularly performing off-the-clock tasks and finding that the federal de minimis doctrine did not apply in this case. 

The federal de minimis doctrine states that an employer does not have to pay an employee for working time that is trivially small. The California Supreme Court decision rules that an employer that requires its employees to work minutes off the clock on a regular basis or as a regular feature of the job are obligated to compensate the employee of that time. In other words, the de minimis doctrine does not apply. 

Examples of work that Troester performed off the clock that Starbucks hadn’t compensated for included: locking the store, setting the alarm system, and walking employees to their cars. Troester was seeking payment for 12 hours and 50 minutes of work over a 17-month periods which amounted to $102.67. The Court stated that this amount “is enough to pay a utility bill, buy a week of groceries or cover a month of bus fare,” which they reason is not de minimis. 

This case reinforces that employers must continue to take proactive steps to deter off the clock work. Written policies should be implemented that make clear the employer does not tolerate off the clock work. Employers should also provide a method for employees to record time worked, pre-shift, post-shift, at home, etc. no matter how trivially. Employers must recognize that trivial work must be compensated, especially if employees are required to perform the work on a regular basis, such as reviewing and certifying their time cards every other week.

Employers should also ensure that if they have a rounding policy on their time keeping system, that the policy is fair to employees and is primarily in their favor. 

Lauren Sims is the article’s author and the Director of Human Resources. Whenever you require professional Human Resources or Payroll guidance to navigate the ever-changing landscape of California and Federal Employment Laws & Regulations, contact us for a no-obligation consultation. 

eqHR Solutions provides professional, tactical and strategic human resources support; ADP payroll product implementation/training and payroll processing services for businesses throughout Southern California. 

Planning for New Hires Success

30/60/90 Day New Hire Plan

The purpose of crating a 30/60/90 Day Plan for your new employees is to increase employee engagement and retention.

The plan is a strategic outline of the job expectations for the new employee over the first 90 days. The plan clearly communicates training, culture, and planning for the future to the employee allowing them to easily transition from “the new person” to a full-on contributor to the team and company.

The below guidelines are designed to aid you in setting up your new hires for success and what you should consider when setting up goals for each month.

30 - Days

The goals at this stage are to ensure the employee is aware of their responsibilities and expectations and is building relationships.

• Schedule and conduct regularly occurring one-on-one meetings. 
• Continue to provide timely, ongoing, meaningful “everyday feedback.” 
• Elicit feedback from the employee and be available to answer questions. 
• Discuss performance and professional development goals. Give employee an additional assignment. 
• Provide an extended roadmap that sets clear goals for the first months, so they will know what to expect. Don’t neglect to sit down with them and discuss their progress frequently. 

60 - Days

The goals at this stage should focus more on collaboration and taking on more responsibilities.

• Have employee collaborate with other teams while starting to “contribute to the conversation” more often 
• Ask employee to identify issues or pain points with the roles-develop plans to address and fix the issues 
• Set up a regular meeting schedule with teams and manager going forward 
• Get feedback from other managers, co-workers and senior managers on employee’s progress 
• Continue having regularly occurring one-on-one meetings. 
• Meet for informal two-month performance check-in. 
• Continue giving employee assignments that are challenging yet doable. 
• Ask if needed training is completed. 

90 - Days

The goals at this stage are focused on independence. As the employee starts taking on more responsibilities and working on bigger projects, they need to be more accountable for their work.

• Assign projects employee can work on independently 
• Continue to be upfront about expectation and hold employees more accountable for their work 
• Provide feedback about goals/metrics/KPIs going forward 
• Celebrate successes and recognition of employee’s contributions. 
• Have a conversation with employee about his/her experience at the company to date: 
• Extent to which the employee’s expectations of the role align with reality. 
• Extent employee’s skills and knowledge are being utilized and ways to better utilize them; what’s working, what they need more of, etc. 
• Begin discussing the year ahead. 
• Discuss employee’s professional development goals and identify relevant learning opportunities. 

Lauren Sims is the article’s author and the Director of Human Resources.

Whenever you require professional Human Resources or Payroll guidance to navigate the ever-changing landscape of California and Federal Employment Laws & Regulations, contact us for a no-obligation consultation.

eqHR Solutions provides professional, tactical and strategic human resources support; ADP payroll product implementation/training and payroll processing services for businesses throughout Southern California.

Lessons - Google Fired 48 Employees for Sexual Harassment

Companies need to adopt more comprehensive approaches to preventing sexual harassment. A tone needs to be set from the top down. 

Google recently disclosed that they had fired 48 employees for sexual harassment during the past two years and without providing severance packages. The news came after a report that it had protected some male executives facing sexual misconduct allegations and offered them large financial sums to leave the company. 

The announcement seems to be in response to a New York Times report that the company had dismissed the executive in charge of its Android software for sexual misconduct in 2014 and paid him a large severance package to leave. 

The executive in questions claims that he left on his own accord and has never been informed of any accusations of sexual misconduct. He did, however, acknowledge having consensual sexual relationships with Google employees that didn't report to him, but that it was all within the boundaries drawn by Google policy at that time. 

Google adopted tougher policies in 2015 including requiring all of Google's vice presidents and senior vice presidents to disclose any relationship with an employee, even if they don't work in the same department or have any other potential conflict. 

13 of the 48 workers that Google had fired for violating the company's sexual harassment policies were either senior managers or executives. The Google news provides another example of a Silicon Valley culture that for decades has allowed and encouraged bad behavior from a primarily male workforce. 

Google’s headquarters are in California, meaning that they fall under the requirements of having to provide sexual harassment training for its managers. This news, however calls into question how effective sexual harassment training actually is. Sexual harassment training isn’t necessarily successful in changing attitudes or reducing sexual harassment. 

 Suggested Actions that Companies Should Adopt 

Effective training should be interactive, with multiple training methods, including lectures, videos and role-playing. Follow-up after the initial training should include knowledge assessment tests and annual refresher training courses. 

Workplace culture plays a large role in preventing sexual harassment. Some common risk factors for sexual harassment include workplaces where men outnumber women and most supervisors are male. This dynamic can be seen in the Google situation as well as other recent problems at Uber and other Silicon Valley companies. Hiring more women in leadership positions and creating a civil, respectful culture for all employees can help. 

Companies need to be careful not to dismiss complaints as a "he said, she said" situation. Companies need to have clear policies that sexual harassment won't be tolerated and that perpetrators will be punished, but the process needs to be fair to all parties. 

Bystander intervention training can also help create a culture of awareness in the company. Training employees to be responsible for maintaining a safe office environment, even if it means getting involved in certain situations helps enforce the commitment to harassment prevention. 

However, it may be the shift in cultural attitudes toward sexual harassment that may be the most valuable tool in combating sexual harassment by creating a shared sense of public responsibility and accountability. The #MeToo social media messages revealed how many women have experienced sexual harassment. 

Greater public awareness of sexual harassment and more proactive involvement by companies will hopefully reduce the prevalence of the problem of sexual harassment and we won’t see more stories like Google’s. 

Lauren Sims is the article’s author and the Director of Human Resources. 

Whenever you require professional Human Resources or Payroll guidance to navigate the ever-changing landscape of California and Federal Employment Laws & Regulations, contact us for a no-obligation consultation. 

eqHR Solutions provides professional, tactical and strategic human resources support; ADP payroll product implementation/training and payroll processing services for businesses throughout Southern California. 

Best Practices - Employee Interviewing

The job interview is a critical aspect of the hiring and recruiting process. Here are some best practice interviewer tips that you can use to help find the best candidate for your open position.

A key element in conducting an interview is preparation. Most of the time the candidate comes to the interview prepared. They usually arrive with a list of questions and several statements regarding their past achievements. The interviewer should match the candidate’s efforts by spending time preparing for the meeting. A list of questions should be formulated in advance that key into an exploration of the following traits: attitude, motivation, initiative, reliability, planning, insight, as well as their ability to do the job.

• If the interviewer plans to interview more than one candidate, then a rating system should be devised (ranked 1-2-3) that will allow for objectivity. 
• Remember, also, that your job in the interview is not only to assess the candidate’s skillsets, but to sell them on both the opportunity and the agency. 

Define your interview objectives before you start

• The hiring manager as well as the position peers should agree upon: 
• The position's duties and the technical knowledge and skills required to do the job. 
• Success factors: How did previous top performers in this job behave? 
• Performance expectations: What do you expect this person to accomplish? 
• Select your questions in advance 

Pre-select questions that evaluate whether a candidate has those skills and behaviors you've identified as essential for the job. Don't rely on a job description and a candidate's resume to structure the interview. Pre-selecting questions also ensures that interview questions are consistent and fair across all candidates.

You might include some or all of these types of interview questions:

1. Icebreakers: Help to build rapport and set candidates at ease before beginning the formal interview. 
2. Traditional Questions: To confirm that the applicant’s technical skills meet minimum standards. 
3. Situational Questions: Ask candidates what they would do in a specific situation relevant to the job at hand. These questions can help you understand a candidate's thought process. 
4. Behavior-Based Questions: These require candidates to share a specific example from their past experience. Each complete answer from a candidate should be in the form of a SAR response—the complete Situation, Action, and Result. If a candidate skips any of these three elements, prompt them to fill in the blanks. It’s important to really dig into examples and ask questions until you feel you have a good grasp of whether or not the candidate has mastered the skill in question. 
5. Culture-Fit Questions: These will help you select candidates who are motivated and suited to perform well in the unique environment of your organization. 

How to Interview Candidates: The Interview Process & Beyond

Before the Interview

• Put candidates at ease -- do your best to help candidates relax. Make sure each candidate is greeted and escorted, if necessary, to the interview location. Start with an icebreaker.

• Don't judge on first impressions- withhold judgment until you've had the chance to thoroughly evaluate a candidate's capabilities and potential. 

During the Interview

• Tell the candidate a little about the job- start with a brief summary of the position, including the prime responsibilities, reporting structure, key challenges, and performance criteria. 
• Don't be afraid to improvise- plan your questions, but don't feel you must ask only those you've chosen in advance. 
• Listen- a general guideline is to spend 80 percent of your time listening and only 20 percent talking. 
• Take notes- write down important points, key accomplishments, good examples, and other information that will help you remember and fairly evaluate each candidate. 
• Invite candidates to ask questions - Why do they want to be here- is it the challenge of the job, advances in the industry, or something specific about your company? Or is the candidate fixated on salary, benefits, and time off? If the candidate has no questions this should be a red flag, especially for senior-level employees. 

After the Interview and the Debrief

• Let candidates know what they can expect. Be clear about what the next steps will be. 
• Compare notes and reach consensus. The post-interview evaluation is the time to compare notes and advance the hiring decision. Each interviewer should be prepared to back up remarks and recommendations with specific examples and notes from the interview. 
• Deepen the questions as you narrow the field: Subsequent interviews with finalists are valuable opportunities to learn more about them. Consider adding "show me" exercises such as a strategic planning exercise or a "walk me through what you'd do" activity involving a real business challenge the individual would be facing. 

Interviewig Dos and Don’ts

Interview questions that imply preferences to race, color, religion, age, sex, marital status, national origin, sexual orientation, and disabled status, are violations of federal and state laws. Questions to avoid include the following subject:

• Age 
• Arrest Record 
• Birthplace 
• Citizenship 
• Disability 
• Family 
• Marital Status 
• Memberships that would reveal race, religion, sex, marital status, national origin, or disability status 
• National Origin 
• Photographs 
• Pregnancy 
• Race or Color 
• Relatives 
• Religion or Creed 
• Sex 
• Sexual Orientation 
• Workers’ Compensation- any inquiry regarding past claims, injuries, etc. 
• Carefully planned questions and a structured interview process that is the same for all candidates will ensure equal treatment of all who apply. Keep the focus on what the job requires and how each candidate has performed in the past. Perhaps most importantly, make fair hiring part of your company's mission and value statement, championed from the top down and an integral part of the selection process 

Lauren Sims is the article’s author and the Director of Human Resources.

Whenever you require professional Human Resources or Payroll guidance to navigate the ever-changing landscape of California and Federal Employment Laws & Regulations, contact us for a no-obligation consultation.

eqHR Solutions provides professional, tactical and strategic human resources support; ADP payroll product implementation/training and payroll processing services for businesses throughout Southern California.

Jennifer Cadena - Newest Team Member

Jennifer Cadena

We are excited to announce the on-boarding of Jennifer Cadena, the newest memember of our team

Jennifer has over 10 years of human resources experience working at various financial institutions and a local university. At the height of her career, she served as the Director of Human Resources for a bank and has worked in specialty areas including benefits, retirement plans, worker’s compensation, recruitment, and employee relations. She also has over 5 years of experience working in an administrative capacity supporting both internal and external customers.

Jennifer actively tutors college students in writing. She earned her MBA with a concentration in Human Resources Management from California State University, Long Beach.