| Newsletter #76 November 19, 2019 |
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| 2019 is Coming to A Close-
Here's An End of Year HR Checklist
As the end of the year approaches, HR has a variety of tasks that need to be completed. However, tackling your HR checklist near the end of the fourth quarter doesn’t have to be a stressful experience. With a plan in place, you can finish off the year strong and with your sanity intact.
To help guide your efforts, we’ve put together this checklist of year-end tasks for HR.
1. Verify Employee Compensation
Payroll is a main concern during the last months of the year. Verify compensation information for every employee in your organization. If certain individuals received raises or promotions, make sure these changes are reflected in their current pay stubs as well as in tax documents and company records. Annual, quarterly or holiday bonuses should also be accounted for.
2. Report Benefits Enrollment Information
Some health and life insurance plans and retirement plans require companies to report enrollment figures and balances at the end of the year. Check with your brokers and carriers to determine whether your company needs to report this information in a different manner than last year.
3. Support Compliance With Regulatory Updates
Ensure that your company will be in compliance with changes to labor laws, employee compensation requirements and any other relevant regulations in the new year. This involves checking that your HR technology will continue to support compliance documentation and reporting under these changes. You may need to upload or make revisions to HR documents on the employee intranet as well as the employee handbook.
Also, verify that your company is set up to report any required information to the IRS by the end of this year and ensure you have access to the correct tax forms for the upcoming year. Pay careful attention to overtime laws and tax filings for freelancers, contract workers and remote employees located outside the state in which your company is located.
4. Make Any Necessary Updates to FSAs
The 2020 HSA contribution limits will increase to $3,550 for single (an increase of $50) and $7,100 for family (an increase of $100). Communicate this increase to employees through online and printed materials, even if you have to update previously issued open enrollment information. You should also ensure that you understand any changes to the allowance of employer contributions to FSAs in 2020.
In addition to informing employees about the cap increase, be sure to urge them to consider spending any remaining balances in their 2019 FSAs, as they will lose any funds they do not use come Jan. 1.
Does your current data reflect all the changes your employees experienced in 2019? The lives of some of your employees changed in 2019. Did your data change with them?
5. Update Employee Contact Info
HR should have accurate and updated information on all employees. Bear in mind that employees may have married, moved or changed banks, which could affect direct deposit. Remind employees to verify their contact and personal information with HR before the end of the year. This is where an online HR solution with employee self-service comes in handy!
6. Determine the 2020 Holiday Schedule
Figure out which holidays your company will observe in 2020. If you can, also determine early release days, summer Fridays, dates for annual company meetings, retreats and any holiday parties. Disseminate this information to employees, and update calendars and resources on the company intranet or via your HR system.
7. Share Timetables For Performance Reviews
Coordinate with managers to establish a timeline for any end-of-year performance reviews. Supply managers with documents or forms they need for recording review scores and feedback to help organize and streamline the process. [Again, a HR system that has online performance management can streamline this effort.] Create a calendar for next year’s quarterly or monthly reviews, if necessary.
8. Identify Recruitment Needs
Evaluate your current workforce and identify whether there are skill or knowledge gaps that need to be filled in 2020. Also, look forward to any upcoming projects or promotions that may require the hiring of additional talent or contingent workers.
9. Confirm Annual Budget
Review the company annual budget and submit any final amendments to the HR budget. Ensure that the budget includes recruitment goals for 2020 as well as allowances for any technology upgrades to HR systems. Budgets are most helpful when they are built off of data-backed insights, so collect any reports or analytics from your HR technology that may help get buy-in for HR or related line items in the budget.
10. Set Goals for the Year Ahead
Thinking about goals for next year may seem like a lot when you’re still trying to finish out the current one successfully, but when you spend time considering HR and company-wide aspirations now, you ensure that strategic planning doesn’t get lost in the hustle and bustle of January.
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Weed at Work - 5 Questions to Answer
By Katie Clary
Conflicting and changing laws leave HR departments with some ambiguity to navigate, a speaker told attendees at the American Bar Association's labor and employment law conference.
An employee walks into work and mumbles something about having the munchies. A forklift driver causes a collision and appears to be under the influence. An applicant nails every interview, only to fail the drug test. What's HR's next move when these situations arise?
The list of places in which marijuana is legal is growing longer: at least 33 states have legalized the medical use of marijuana, and 11 have legalized its recreational use. And yet, marijuana is classified as a Schedule I substance, meaning it's banned at the federal level. These conflicting and changing laws leave HR departments with some ambiguity to navigate.
Despite this, HR professionals can hold onto one fact: "None of the marijuana laws out there allow workers to come to work inebriated, use it on the job or have it in their possession," Dawn Foods Global's Vice President, Assistant General Counsel Erica Brown told attendees at the American Bar Association's 13th Annual Labor and Employment Law Conference. "You're still able to have rules that prevent this type of behavior." As employers attempt to enforce these rules when the aforementioned situations and their ilk occur, HR departments can pose themselves five questions to maintain a safe and compliant workplace.
1. Where is the business located?
That's the first question Brown said she'd ask. Even among states that have legalized recreational marijuana, the workplace implications differ. "I'd want to know how these states deal with the issue," Brown said. In Colorado and Michigan, for example, legislation legalizing recreational marijuana exists but provides no protection for workers. Laws in Nevada and Illinois, however, prohibit employers from discriminating against applicants and workers on the basis of marijuana use, Brown said.
2. What are the details of the person in question?
HR will need to know a few things about the employee mentioning the munchies, the forklift driver suspiciously woozy after a crash and the applicant failing the drug test. In what kind of position does the person in question work — or which position would the person be working, if hired? Is safety involved? "There are a number of provisions and positions regulated by federal law, particularly if you're in the transportation industry," she said. "Regardless of what state law says, you still have to follow federal law there."
Whether the person carries a medical marijuana card may influence HR's ability to take an adverse employment action in some situations, too. The employer's location matters here once more, Brown said. Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois and Minnesota prohibit employers from discriminating against applicants who are card-holding medical marijuana users, according to Brown.
3. What policies apply?
An employer's pre-existing policies will direct how these situations unfold. The employer may have a reasonable suspicion policy, for example. Such a policy may require two supervisors to witness suspicious behavior (such as an employee's munchies complaint) before the employer opens up an investigation. "Have a supervisor write down the observations," Brown said. "From a management perspective, you're just using that test to confirm the observations that were suspicious."
A collective bargaining agreement also may affect HR's next steps. Hopefully, Brown said, the agreement will provide for an employee's termination after it has been confirmed he or she was inebriated at work.
4. What does the test say?
HR may want to do some employee education around drug testing, Brown said. As cannabidiol (CBD) grows in popularity, employees will want to know that using CBD may not get them high, but it may cause them to test positive for marijuana use. Let them know that, "if the test is positive, they're going to be held to that test," Brown said.
If an employee shows up to work visibly inebriated — and those involved have taken the necessary actions spelled out in relevant policies — the employer should arrange for drug testing. HR will need to set up safe transportation and find an escort for the worker. If the employee tests positive, HR can terminate the worker, provided the collective bargaining agreement provides for that.
5. Overall, is the test necessary?
Sometimes, it makes sense for HR to enact a no-marijuana policy. But there are a few good reasons against such policies. "We have more and more of our workforce who are utilizing medical or recreational marijuana, so you're really limiting your pool of applicants when you apply that type of test, particularly if you're in an industry where you have high turnover and you're struggling to staff those locations," Brown said. Employers may want to consider eliminating the THC component from its cocktail of tests.
Instead, HR should consider testing alternatives for non-safety sensitive positions. As new methods of testing go on the market, Brown recommended HR look for one that doesn't monitor "what employees are doing on their own time at home."
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