Strategic HR

Know when to call for HR Help.

When Should You Call an HR Expert or Lawyer? 

How to HR, Strategic HR, Why HR /

No matter how good you are at managing your small business, there comes a time when an employee says or does something that sets off legal alarm bells and you need expert advice.  Maybe they have accused another employee of harassment, maybe they have claimed you’re breaking the law and are threatening to report you to the state or the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), or maybe you want to be generous to them during a very difficult time and are worried that doing so may get you sued later by somebody else who wants the same treatment.    Googling the question usually gives you a very limited answer that doesn’t really apply to your situation, at best, or, at worst, is wrong all together.    When should you call an expert consultant like The Grange, and when should you call an attorney?  Below is some guidance when you should call who.    Call a Consultant: An experienced HR consultant, like The Grange, can answer most questions regarding employment law.  If an HR professional has been trained and worked five or more years, they’ve experienced 80% of the situations you’ll experience as a small business owner.  Most can explain the law and the best practices associated with handling the situation.    Claims of Harassment: HR experts can help you determine if the claim really does amount to harassment or just somebody feeling uncomfortable.  HR professionals train for this by studying the law and relevant court cases.  They can help you understand what you may or may not be liable for and what the possible damages may be.  They’ll help you avoid common mistakes that plague many small businesses.    Claims of Discrimination: Discrimination is defined as anything that is an unfair disadvantage in employment, pay, work conditions, and is based on a “protected class” under the law.    Protected classes include race, color, religion, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, and pregnancy-related conditions), gender identity, sexual orientation, age, disability,  genetic information,  service in the military, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local laws and ordinances.  Some states have a longer lists of protected classes and a few have shorter lists.  “Googling the question usually gives you a very limited answer that doesn’t really apply to your situation, at best, or, at worst, is wrong all together.”  Employees who complain about discrimination and claim that it is based on one of these protected classes may have a legitimate claim.  (Hint: Just because an employee can’t connect the conduct they are experiencing with a protected class, it doesn’t mean it isn’t discrimination.) Even if it isn’t actually discrimination (the law doesn’t protect you against bad managers), complaints of bad behavior or poor management are often indicators of a serious cultural issue.   Pay Issues: Experienced HR professionals have a good understanding of basic payroll law and can usually answer most questions.  Call when you can’t easily identify a solution or need to understand the law surrounding payment of wages when an employee is terminated.   Call a payroll expert or CPA if the situation revolves around taxes or government mandated deductions.   ADA and FMLA Claims: When an employee is missing time due to illness or takes a lot of time off to care for an ill family member, an HR consultant can help you take care of your employee without putting you in legal danger.  They can explain, not only the consequences of a legal misstep, but also help turn the situation into one that benefits the company by improving employee trust and commitment to the company.  Don’t believe any consultant or legal advisor that tells you this situation is a zero sum game or employee vs employer. The number one type of claim reported to the EEOC is one that involves missteps associated with these situations.   Employee Conflict: Employee politics, arguments, mistreatment, and, often, threats, are signs of cultural issues that go far beyond who is right or wrong in a given situation.  A good HR consultant will be able to identify the cultural issues present and help you resolve them.   Call an Attorney: You need to call an attorney when there is action to that needs to be taken that requires an in-depth knowledge of the law or legally requires a specific license.   Termination Agreements: While The Grange can draft legal documents and is backed by the legal team at the law firm Person Butler, most consultants can’t do this for you.  Call an attorney to help you formulate a legally binding agreement that protects you when you terminate an employee and offer them an incentive to release any legal claims they may have against you.   Agency Investigations: If you receive a notice from a state or federal agency notifying you that there has been a complaint made that the agency is going to investigate call an attorney.  Lawyers can often help you understand time requirements, draft responses, and predict your odds of prevailing in the matter.  While The Grange can support you in such matters, most consultants are unable to do so.   Written Demand Letters: When you receive a demand letter from an attorney representing a former employee, call an attorney.  Use a lawyer or firm that specializes in employment law or employment litigation.  The firm Pearson Butler, in Utah assists The Grange in such matters.   Notice of Litigation: Call an attorney that specializes in actively litigating cases and has an employment law expertise.   A few final notes of Advice: Just because your company operates in a “at will” state, doesn’t mean you can terminate an employee for any reason at any time without legal risk. While many laws include language that limit their applicability to companies that employ 15 people or more, every employer should act as if all such laws apply to them. Many newer laws, such as the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA), don’t have minimum employee counts but can be very onerous

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Stop Asking for A Doctor’s Note: A Logical Conversation

Culture, Current Topics, Strategic HR /

Doctor’s notes are little culture killing pills that cost business a lot more than they are worth.    Most employees are conditioned to offer you a doctor’s note if they miss a day of work.  When we first join the workforce it is usually for a company that employs a lot of entry level workers. Entry level employees are less reliable, change jobs more often, and call in sick a lot.  Therefore, companies that rely on that level of talent begin to develop complex systems that force employees to be more reliable or have their employment terminated.    This is where the notion of getting a doctor’s note comes from.  If you call in sick, you need a doctor’s note so that the company knows you were actually ill.  But what if you weren’t ill?  What if you just wanted the time off?  Almost all of us have those days where we wake up and just don’t want to go to work.  We almost always go (because we’ve learned avoidance doesn’t fix the problem), but there are those days when we just call in sick.    “That’s exactly what that policy is supposed to catch!  It should catch lazy people that don’t want to come to work because they can’t motivate themselves to get to the office or shop.”  Catch them doing what, exactly?  Not being at work?  The employer already knows they aren’t there.    The truth is, it doesn’t matter if they are sick or not.  The employer has a problem because the productivity that the employee was supposed to provide was eliminated by their absence.  Does it really matter why they weren’t there?  The impact on the business is the same either way.    If an employee misses so much time that their position has become unprofitable (or even marginally less productive, or they are out of time off), just terminate the employee.  “But,” many HR people out there would point out, “what if they really are sick?  Are we going to fire them for being ill?”  The answer to that question is “probably not yet.”    People are fired, legally, for being too ill to perform a job all the time.  It’s a long and tedious process, but it can be done.  So why don’t you go through the process, assuming its warranted?  “Doctor’s notes only accomplish two things, 1. They allow managers to avoid difficult conversations with people who call out too much, and 2. They tell your employees how little you trust them.” Whatever the reason, unless you’re discussing utilization of FMLA or accommodations under the ADAAA, doctor’s notes are little more than receipts.  Anybody who has worked much with employees knows that many doctors will sign anything the employee asks them to short of something large enough for a government agency to care about.  Three days being sick with the common cold is easy to put on a note.  But to get this, the employee has to pay.  With the average bill for a visit to your primary care physician being about $120, the cost of the note that says anything you want it to, is $120.    So, why don’t you just tell your employees that if they want to take an unscheduled day off, they just have to pay the company $120?  “Because,” you answer, “some people would gladly pay the fee just to get a couple of days off they couldn’t get any other way.”  Yes.  That is my point.  The only difference is that somebody besides the company is getting paid.    Doctor’s notes only accomplish two things, 1. They allow managers to avoid difficult conversations with people who call out too much, and 2. They tell your employees how little you trust them.  Both reasons are poison to a successful culture.    Successful cultures require managers who are engaged with the employees they lead.  That means when an employee misses a few days claiming to be ill, the manager reaches out to them and shows concern for their health, offers to help, and cares about their financial well-being.  Additionally, they should contact HR and notify them of the situation because, if the illness is significant enough for them to miss more than a couple of days, it might be covered by FMLA or the ADA.    It’s a lot easier for a manager to not go the extra mile for an employee, not care how much time they miss, or have a difficult conversation with a team member missing too much time.  Instead, they resort to distrust and accusation.  And that’s where doctor’s notes come in.    You don’t think that employees can’t tell when you don’t trust them?  If you don’t trust them, do you think they’ll trust you?    What is the answer?  Treat your employees like adults, hold them accountable for the outcomes they produce, and be honest with them when you’re worried about their performance.  That includes missing too many days.    (The above, obviously doesn’t apply federally mandated processes related to FMLA requests and the “interactive process” required by the ADAAA. These processes require medical confirmation of employee claims and usually large amounts of time off.) 

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Startups: Six HR Steps You Can Do Now

Strategic HR, Why HR /

When do you need HR?  As soon as you hire an employee.  If your business, however, is like most businesses, you can’t afford to hire an HR person at the same time you hire your first employee.  If you could, you’d hire two employees to generate more revenue.  That doesn’t mean that you don’t need to begin to establish the HR function in your company.     Here are 6 things you can do until you can afford to hire The Grange 1.        Just a Little Study a.        Take an hour and read about the basic employment laws that pertain to companies with 15 or fewer employees.  Here’s what you need to find: The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), Minimum wage laws in your state, the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA), Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).  Just learn the basics so you know how to be compliant.  Some may not officially apply to you yet, but you want to be compliant anyway.    2.        Establish a clear Vision, Mission, Values.  a.        If you can’t verbalize or write why you’re in business you can’t share it with employees.  If you want employees to focus on your goals, they have to know what they are and how you want it done.  A vision, Mission, Values statement does just that.  3.        Focus on your vision. a.        Gear everything in your business towards your vision by achieving your mission.  Eliminate anything in your business that doesn’t fulfill your vision by achieving your current mission.  If it doesn’t fulfill your vision, you shouldn’t be doing it.  If you don’t have this focus, how do  you expect your employees to have that focus?  4.        Policies a.        Write down a series of rules your employees can rely on.  Things to include are what time to show up, when they get paid, what holidays they’ll get paid for, what happens when they work more than 40 hours a week, how much paid time off (if any) they receive and anything else that you feel are good sign posts that will guide them.  Don’t include performance metrics etc.  Details are a double edged sword.  Any policy you write down, you are legally obligated to follow.  5.        Compliance a.        Make sure you have a specific and reliable way of paying people, you know how to complete I9 forms, you issue the correct tax documents, and make sure you pay above minimum wage.  Be sure not to discriminate against anybody for any reason other than their performance.  Worry about benefits later.  If you can afford benefits, you can probably afford HR.  6.        Treat Everybody the Same a.        If you do something for one person, anybody else in that same situation needs to be treated the same.  Call The Grange when you need help.  That is doubly true when an employee makes a complaint to you about anything that you feel may relate to a legal issue (pay, discrimination, harassment, etc).    When you’re ready, we’re here for you.  Give us a call and we’ll get you the information in a way that is helpful and cost affective.  But do it right, do it now! 

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The Grange - Strategic HR Consulting

HR Doesn’t Have to Suck

Current Topics, Strategic HR /

Most HR People Suck.   Seven years ago, I stood before a crowd of 300 to 400 HR professionals and started my presentation with that phrase. Every day, when I met with potential clients, I got the same reaction: HR was necessary but seen as a cost center—not worth paying extra for and meant to do little more than keep the company out of court.   At that time, HR professionals were still reeling from Fast Company’s article, “Why We Hate HR,” even though it had been published more than seven years earlier. They clamored for a seat at the table but struggled to justify it. Most HR courses and seminars, even those billed for experienced professionals, focused on compliance—how to adhere to specific laws and properly complete I-9 forms.   We’ve come a long way since then, yet, in many ways, not far at all.   Recently, LinkedIn has been full of posts pontificating on variations of “Culture isn’t HR’s job; it’s the CEO’s.” The authors of these posts vent their growing frustration with corporate virtue signaling companies publicly claiming to value employees while internally fostering toxic cultures. They point fingers at leadership and demand accountability.   The problem is: HR does own the company’s culture.   HR owns culture in the same way a CFO owns the financial health of a company. If a CEO refuses to follow the advice of the company’s culture expert, they are making the same mistake as ignoring the CFO’s financial recommendations.   So, what should an HR professional do when company leadership refuses to take direct steps to improve workplace culture?   They should resign.. “HR owns culture in the same way a CFO owns the financial health of a company.”  However, many HR professionals refuse to resign or seek employment elsewhere, even when their best recommendations are ignored. If you work at a company riddled with red flags, and leadership dismisses your concerns without meaningful action, why are you still working there? They don’t value your input. Eventually, the company will pay the price, and your professional reputation will be tied to that failure.   Leaving a job is scary, but being another mediocre HR professional is just as bad. No wonder employees think we suck at our jobs—we espouse high ideals yet provide little more than a fig leaf for toxic work cultures.   There are many reasons HR falls short of success, but this is one of the biggest: we don’t demand competence from leadership. CEOs who don’t implement sound management practices don’t value sound management practices. CEOs who don’t require their managers to implement them don’t value them. CEOs who ignore good business advice regarding culture don’t value culture. Culture is king, and it is the responsibility of HR. We don’t need to complain about it on LinkedIn, point fingers, or abdicate our responsibilities.     In short, we don’t need to suck.

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The Culture King Speaks

Culture is King

Strategic HR /

The importance of culture seems to be axiomatic lately.  I hear how important culture is everywhere from HR conferences to broadcasts of NFL games.  Everybody seems to understand the idea that culture is important.  Is it really? First, let’s define what is meant by culture.  Culture is the sum of all interactions within an organization.  OK… that’s easy to say, but what does that look like in practice?  If most communication with employees is managers giving dictates and not asking for input from front line employees, it means that part of the company culture is a top down command structure where employees don’t have input into decisions.  Think of it as the graphic showing your volume on your phone.  It’s not all on or all off, it’s usually somewhere in between.  How much influence that one particular aspect of your company culture has on the outcome of your business is relative to the other aspects of your culture.    Then let’s define “good company culture”.  This gets a little more difficult because not all organizations play in the same arena.  For example, a “good” culture working at Minky Couture is probably very different from a “good” culture at the Chicago Bears.  Therefore, a “good company culture” has to be defined as the culture that produces the best results for the organization over time.   It’s important to note however, as Jim Collins points out in his landmark book Good to Great, that cultures can sometimes produce incredible results over a period of time, but not be able to sustain them.  For the purpose of this article, we’ll note that a “good culture” is one that facilitates the successful achievement of the company’s objectives over a long period of time.    Of course, all of this points out the nuanced nature of culture and how difficult it is to quickly assess it until you’ve lived it.  It is possible, however, after some study, to find commonalities between successful cultures that seem generalized across industry and time.  If that is done, we begin to see how important culture can be.    Examples of this abound.  According to a research study published by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) in December of 2024, 57% of employees who rated their culture as poor said that “they are actively or soon will be looking for another job.”  While the study didn’t mention who those employees were, I think we can reasonably assume they are the employees who are most likely to get another job.  In other words, they are better performers over all.    SHRM also noted that more than a quarter of employees who found their company culture lacking, said they were “burned out.”      In the light of this, an argument could be made that Jim Collin’s work, more than anything, underlined this one fact: all success is downwind of culture.    Employees who are “engaged” are more productive, more efficient, and solve problems on their own instead of taking it to leadership for a solution.  They are, in short, focused on their jobs and giving it their full attention with the goal of improving it.  They look to build the organization and take personal satisfaction from doing so.  As Sunnie Giles notes in her book, The New Science of Radical Innovation, this is a fundamental component of companies that radically transform their industries.  It can’t be done without engaged human capital revolutionizing processes to produce a better result.    If all of this is true, the natural response from managers should be to make culture their highest priority.  Do nothing to damage it, do anything to enhance it, and then nurture its growth.    In short, culture is king.

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Why Do HR Correctly?

Strategic HR, Why HR /

Not sure if you need HR yet?  You do.  As a matter of fact, you’re probably late.    Do you have HR on your payroll but aren’t seeing anything from it but red tape and expenses?  Maybe you’re not sure what HR contributes to your bottom line other than a reduction of liability (compliance).    Human Resources is the art of management.  Your company’s future is only as bright as the people working for it.  Does the future of your company, then, only rest on how good you are at identifying good employees in the interview process or is there more to do?    If you buy a machine that is rated to make 100 widgets an hour, do you accept it when you only get 80 an hour?  Do you get rid of the machine and buy a new one?  Of course not, you have too much invested in the purchase of the machine to simply toss all of that aside and get a new one.  By my calculation the cost of hiring an employee is, at a minimum, half of the annual salary associated with the position you’re filling.     Then why is that the approach that so many businesses take when they hire people?  It’s because they don’t understand the power of engaged employees who actively solve problems, find new ways to accomplish company goals, and grow more efficient over time.     That is the role of Human Resources.  You can’t change the oil, reset the gears, or reprogram employees like you can machines, but you can develop their talents and increase their productivity over time.  Human Resource professionals in your organization are there to help managers do that.      All of the areas that HR manages such as benefits, perks, policies, and pay are only tools that HR uses to ensure your employees become more productive over time.  I’m famous for starting speeches with the phrase “most HR people suck”.  If your HR team isn’t actively improving the efficiency of your human capital, you need to reexamine HR’s role in your company.  …And that’s why The Grange is here.  

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