Volume 5, Issue 3             
March 2005             

PREVENTIVE HEALTH CARE

It is no secret that employers have been faced with ever-growing health care expenditures over recent years. In large part these expenditures have been fueled by three factors:

 

  1. an increase in the cost of the delivery of services,
  2. misuse of benefits and
  3. the factors of stress, obesity, smoking and drug use.

Employers are faced with the challenge of either reducing benefits, streamlining their use, encouraging employees to pay a portion of the benefits, or instituting some form of program that reduces the need for the benefits.

Ask yourself this:

  1. Have we sufficiently educated our employees about the cost of health care benefits and their increasing impact to our organization?
  2. Have we informed them that in light of these burdensome increases we have the options outlined above?
  3. Have we requested employee input as to how they can help us meet these goals? For example, many employees, if surveyed, would rather keep the same level of benefits and chip in a percentage of their payment. Others may want to go to a high deductible plan and use a health savings account along with it, and many of them would be interested in educating themselves further about the benefits of proper nutrition, and the concerns associated with obesity, smoking and stress.

Management should not fall into the trap of thinking it has to come up with all the solutions in this area. Seek employee input and make them part of the solution.

A website we suggest you take a look at is http://www.welcoa.org.

 

TECHNOLOGY AND PRIVACY CONCERNS

There is a constant balancing act that employers have to face between their "right to know" what is being done by employees with their equipment in their environment and the employees' "right to privacy." Here are some suggestions that bear repeating:

  • Make it very clear to the employees that all computers, telephones, mail facilities, and other electronic and company equipment are property of the company and are used only with the company's permission.
  • Disclose to employees that you reserve the right to monitor or access employee use of the internet, email, voice mail, telephones, for any business related purposes. Encourage them to make as many personal phone calls and interactions as possible either during their breaks on their own cell phone or at home.
  • Make sure to maintain copies of any internet, email, and voicemail passwords and let them know that the existence of passwords should not be considered an assurance in the privacy or confidentiality of any communications. Very simply, if an employee wants to keep something private or confidential-have them do it using their own equipment on their own time.
  • Make sure they know that the transmission of any illegal, immoral, unethical, or otherwise inappropriate conduct through use of any company equipment is prohibited and can lead to discipline or termination.
  • If you have any form of video or other surveillance be very clear to let them know where it exists. Think twice before considering putting video cameras in restrooms, locker rooms or any other area where employees may change clothes.

By taking this approach, you can be very clear about the employees' expectation of privacy and maintain a legitimate check and balance on misuse of company equipment and time. HR That Works users are encouraged to use the Voice mail, Internet and ail usage policy found in the personnel form section of the HR That Works program.

 

MAINTAINING CHECKS AND BALANCES

Stories abound about the unscrupulous financial manager, sales person, accounts receivable clerk, and so on. Here are steps you can make sure you take to prevent your company from getting ripped off by greedy or disloyal employees:

  1. Conduct random audits of highly sensitive positions such as finances and technology.
  2. Make sure you have an SOP for everything that is done in highly sensitive areas.
  3. Separate functions that have inherent conflicts. For example, separate the accounts receivable from the account payables function where possible.
  4. Require specific passwords, double signatures, and other mechanisms to make sure the right people are accessing the right information.
  5. Don't tempt people-this means you lock up blank checks, put away company credit cards, and maintain the confidentiality of passwords.
  6. Make sure you receive reports on a periodic basis containing reconciled financial and technological information.
  7. And lastly, mandate vacations. Bankers are required to do so by law for the obvious reasons. The last thing you want is somebody who is unwilling to leave early or take a vacation for fear of being caught.

    8. Once again, HR That Works users are encouraged to read the White Paper ONE DOZEN POWERFUL STRATEGIES FOR AVOIDING THIEVES, SPIES, CON-ARTISTS AND . . .Employees Who Are Snoops, Whiners, Stoned, Schemers, Hackers, Psychotic, Violent, Litigious, Liars and Otherwise Disasters.

      

“The question is: are you more concerned with giving or getting?”

Patch Adams,
Founder, The Gesundheit! Institute

This issue discusses:

We’ve also provided hyperlinks to the Form of the Month.

DEPARTMENT OF LABOR STEPS UP EMPLOYER ASSISTANCE

The Department of Labor has gone a long way to improving its offerings for employers. They have recently unveiled fantastic employer assistance information on more than twenty-three different laws affecting the workplace. In fact, they have a program that will allow you to determine which laws affect your workplace including the Family Medical Leave Act, the ADA, the Fair Labor Standards Act, USERRA and others. We encourage you to go to www.dol.gov and wander around their incredible offerings. HR That Works users will be informed of the March teleclass with Barbara Bingham, a director at the DOL in charge of this compliance outreach. For more information please go to the teleclass section of the program.

 

STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURES

You do have standard operating procedures for everything that you do and how you do it...right? Companies without standard operating procedures (SOP's) have a very difficult time benchmarking performance, improving processes and protecting themselves against unscrupulous or disloyal employees. Standard operating procedures are particularly important when it comes to financial and technology concerns. Make sure the people in those departments have reduced to writing all the processes they followed to set up your systems and to manage them. Not just what they do but how they do it. This will protect you in case they get hit by the proverbial Mack truck or simply decide to take their employment elsewhere. You can always bring in an outside CPA or technology consultant to help perfect the standard operating procedure. You will know they have done their job when they can say that they can come in and run your business without missing a beat should such an even occur.

Once you have a standard operating procedure we encourage you to bring your employees together every month and have them bring at least one suggestion as to how they can improve that standard operating procedure. If you get a good aha you can put it into the SOP and it will benefit many employees for years to come.

   

FORM OF THE MONTH:

Ten Compliance Commandments

(PDF) (WORD)

These are the 'shall nots' of employee risk management. How well do you shape up?

Employment Law Trends for 2005:
Danger Zones Widen for Unwary Employers

Our partners, IRMI and Epstein Becker Green, have given us permission to share their recent 17 page report published in EPLiC: Employment Laws for 2005: Danger Zones Widen for Unwary Employers. Click here to see why this is a must read!

 

The information presented here is general in nature and does not constitute legal advice. Due to local and state laws and ordinances, an individual article might not apply in every jurisdiction.

For more information on the contents of this newsletter, please e-mail or give us a call.

© Employer Advisors Network, Inc. 2008