Wright Sources Consulting

More Regulations

karla — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 18:12:13 +0000

The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) is initiating requiring MORE data. This agency is the one that oversees affirmative action plans of federal contractors. The agency would seek information on employer leave policies including religious leaves. Compensation information would be reported by each individual rather than groups; and expanded to include contract and day laborers. The Society for Human Resource Management leveled opposition citing violation of the Paperwork Reduction Act. SHRM along with CUPA-HR (College and University Personnel Administrators) urge that only legitimate information be collected and in the least burdensome way possible. Time will tell. This is just yet another example of the constant layering on of governmental, bureaucratic paper work — without any direct and verifiable value added for employees, employers, our nation and society. Although these requirements “make work” for us HR professionals — it adds nothing to the productivity of America — and in fact, adds costs and makes each employer a little less able to compete in a tight world market.

Executive Pay

karla — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 13:09:54 +0000

I’m listening to the protesters complain about CEO pay and wondering — where’s the outrage over outrageous professional athlete and movie star salaries. I wonder if the protestors know that as of last year, owners of corporations (stockholders) have the right via the so-called “say on pay” provision of the Dodd-Frank bill to have their voices heard regarding CEO pay of public held corporations. Shareholders of publicly traded companies get to vote on executive pay. Currently, there is additional legislation in the pipe line to have more control over and limit the amount of CEO pay. Next in line will be professional athletes and movie stars salaries and maybe even writers of fiction books. Really? why should the person who makes up a story about Harry Potter make 1,000 times more money than me? I can make up stories and tell lies too. It’s only fair that she share her money with me. Tongue in cheek. Get my point? We have provisions to direct and manage CEO pay through corporation Board of Directors. The market place will expose atrocities and mistakes and eventually will self-correct. I don’t think we want another Federal Board of Bureaucrats to determine CEO pay. When Senator, Barack Obama, proposed a bill to cap and control CEO pay. The Frank Dodd bill did not go that far. But the protesters want it, the Democrats want it and there is pending legislation in the wings waiting for the right (or should I say left) legislative mix to pass it. Having voiced my opposition to government regulation, I absolutely do agree that some CEO salaries are obscene and not necessary. Board of Directors: do your job — or government will do it for you.

Get A Job!

karla — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 15:49:48 +0000

The health care industry has added four million jobs over the past decade. Specifically consider the field of MEDICAL CODING. In 2013 there will be a transition to an upgraded coding system and a recent Forbes article predicted that those in demand medical coder jobs may earn up to $80,000. (Sounds high to me, but that’s what the article said.) Most community colleges offer training. DMACC offers online or late afternoon and evening courses and their website states “Medical Insurance and Coding is one of the fastest growing medical office specialties.” Coders take physician supplied medical diagnoses and transfer to codes for purpose of reimbursement and recordkeeping. The upgraded ICD-10 codes have been seen with trepidation. However, 3M Health Information Systems claims the expanded choices will help physicians with diagnosis identification and coders will not be burdened with learning thousands of new codes. Nevertheless, the U.S. Department of Labor is projecting a shortage of coders in the near future due to retirements and also the impending coding transfer. Comparisons have been made to the Y2K computer programmer hiring phenomenon. So if you’re looking for job, a career move, or continuing education after you work your day job – check out Medical Coding! By the way, some coders work out of their homes. Want a job? Get trained! You’ll have a job! Sources: 3M Health Information Systems; DMACC; Dept of Labor; Forbes

Teacher Pay Matters

karla — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 14:41:04 +0000

Reforming teacher pay is a hot topic. Many belileve that performance pay will motivate teachers. The belief that money motivates is a widely held misconception. The underlying assumption is that if you dangle a carrot in front of an employee, the employee will perform better, work harder and change their behavior. It is simply not the case. It is insulting because the very premise is that the worker (the teacher) is holding something back and not giving their all UNLESS they are paid more. Workers, including teachers, dive into their daily work for reasons that are intrinsically motivating. Feelings of appreciation and respect, believing you make a difference, providing value to people and society, and the pure satisfaction of learning, accomplishing, discovering and sharing are the TRUE motivators. As we develop improved teacher pay strategies for the future, we should develop compensation plans that recognize our intrinsic motivators. If we spend too much on ”this for that” type of pay plans, they will fail to have any affect on teacher performance and student and school results. There are ways, however, to connect pay to desired behaviors, outcomes and results. Connecting pay to real measurable and valued outcomes is a great strategy to send meaningful messages about what is important for success. One useful strategy used extensively in private business for the past decade is multi-rater feedback. A list of desired behaviors and outcomes is developed by teachers, administrators, boards and parents. Teachers receive feedback from multiple sources, including students, kept confidential, and a monitor or mentor works with the teacher on areas to improve. When the results show exemplary outcomes the rewards can be administered. This isn’t an easy or short process. Its success depends on buy in from all stakehodlers. It is one of many potentially innovative ways to improve and tie a reward to performance. To reiterate, if we assume that money is the motivator, the strategy will fail. The desire for respect, being appreciate, reaching goals, receiving recognition and impacting society are motivators. There are many ways to create the environment for these motivators to work for the good of our public education system.

We Must Coordinate Education Systems With Employer Needs

karla — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 00:08:08 +0000

“There is a mismatch between the types of skills employers are looking for in job candidates and the kinds of employees that educational systems are producing. It must be corrected, because it is one of the reasons for the high U.S. unemployment rate even as employers claim that they are struggling to find workers. . . . We do need to do a better job at providing curriculum that’s more adaptable to what is happening on the floor of the assembly line or manufacturing unit or the lab. . . . Our nation’s educational and workforce systems largely operate in isolation from one another.” National Journal policy summit, July 12, 2011, SHRM. Siemen’s Senior Director of Talent Acquisition, Mike Brown, spoke of the need to transfer knowledge in preparation for when older workers retire. His organization established a future retiree network aimed at encouraging young employees to mentor older employees and older employees to mentor younger ones. Brown noted many people who respond to his organization’s job postings do not have the right skill set. Education reform is critical if the U.S. is going to regain its position of exceptionalism in the world market. Not all students need to be prepped for college. Our education system should provide pathways for all levels and types of learners to meet the myriad of skills needed to produce products and services for world competition. My next post will publish the research data showing the correlation between teacher pay and student performance. You’ll be surprised what the research tells us.

Elections Have Consequences

karla — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 16:49:28 +0000

The now biased NLRB (with the appointment of SEIU attorney Becker by Obama) has issued a complaint against Boeing for their decision to start a new production line in South Carolina. The accusation is that the decision is “discriminatory” and based on recent strike activities by the Washington Boeing employees. Two years ago Senator Clyburn from SC was thrilled about the new jobs going to SC, but now he is receiving presure from the Democrats to change his position. This is the kind of meddling and high stakes pressure games that the Obama administration and their union growth arm of the NLRB are playing which hurts our nation. It will be interesting to see and hear the communications from Boeing CEO McNerney. The Governor of SC is speaking out forcefully against this assault. The Republicans have talked about reducing the NLRB budget by one third; and now some are thinking a total structural change is in order. By making the NLRB more like the bankruptcy courts it could avoid the ideology swings. NLRB Acting GC and Becker are both past AFL-CIO and SEIU attorneys. They vowed to not be involved with any issues that involved their past employers. Well that worked out nicely. Anyway . . . . elections have consequences . . . . .

Jobs? Where? Who?

karla — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 13:49:30 +0000

Local, state and federal budget deficits will seriously impede summer employment for students according to a study published by SHRM. Young job seekers will compete with recent college graduates and older workers supplementing their retirement incomes. Job prospects in the private sector are a little better.

However, there has been a flurry of increased hiring of people with disabilities in the federal government due to an Executive Order that requires such agencies to hire 100,000 workers with disabilities.

Employers can receive assistance with recruiting and hiring students with disabilities by accessing the Workforce Recruitment Program (WRP) and Career Opportunities for Students with Disabilities (COSD).

The GOP continues to seek regulatory reform while keeping Americans safe and providing jobs and exporting goods. Increased regulations are plentiful and so are the complaints from businesses. Small businesses are opposing the April 2010 Obama Executive Order 13502 which encourages and authorizes use of union-only employees on federal construction projects. The Frank-Dodd Act and the new Bureau it created has unprecedented authority to regulate financial entities for years to come. (SHRM Weekly Update March 28, 2011)

Take Time to Really Listen

karla — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 22:01:57 +0000

Is it more important to hear or to be heard? Think it through. If you really want to be heard which means also understood and accepted – then you better also know your audience. Know their dreams and their delusions. That requires listening. Listening here means more than taking in noise. To have a harmonious workplace, we must “listen for the purpose of understanding”. We will be able to target and craft our messages when we know our listeners. Just blurting out orders and demands and edicts and opinions to others will land of “deaf ears”. We must first listen — which involves questionning, reading, studying, probing and digging into others’ ideas, motives, life experiences, needs, etc. This is what I mean by listening. Not just the physics of pitch and tone and air waves – but also the physics of transformed neurons in the brain – understanding. Again, listen for the purpose of understanding. If we do that, wow, will our workplaces be more harmonious. Take the time to listen.

Handling the New Health Care Law

karla — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 11:42:52 +0000

“HR professionals say they are swamped by the details and explanations of the new health care law and are focusing their attention on the provisions that take effect this year and next. A key challenge is how to comply with the law’s mandates without shifting costs in such a way that the plan could lose its grandfathered status. Consumer-directed health plans (CDHPs) in the U.S. continued to grow in 2010, albeit at a slower rate than in 2009. One reason: Employers are uncertain whether health care reform would restrict consumer-directed plans. IRS issued rules to reflect the prohibition on the use of flexible spending accounts to pay for over-the-counter medicines and drugs beginning in 2011, as required under the health care reform overhaul. U.S. employees on average paid nearly $4,000 toward the cost of family health coverage — an increase of 14 percent, or $482, above what they paid in 2009. Employers have passed on many medical cost increases to their workers.” SHRM Sept 2010

Oil Spill, HR and Ethical Workplaces

karla — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 18:47:50 +0000

As BP is criticized by the media and politicians, we should realize that what went wrong goes deeper than blaming a corporation. It took more than one company, one person, and one accident to create the huge mess. Perhaps more regulations could have helped, but the regulators themselves also have a role to play regardless of the strictness of the written codes. There is no simple answer, but the ultimate answer and future remedies lie in the culture of the organizations. There needs to be a culture that allows open discussion and disagreement without retaliation. The culture should put safety first, above profits, always. The culture should expect behaviors to not only follow laws and regulations but go beyond the bare minimum standards and codes. An ethical culture must be established and nurtured. HR must have a seat at the ethics table. HR can help to create or transform organizations into ethical entities that allow all employees, at all levels, to voice openly their concerns and ideas. HR can help to write policies that prohibit favortism and conflict of interest when working with regulating authorities. HR can help build a strong programs with safeguards and expertise to build, test and verify processes and procedures that result in a safe, healthy and environmentally secure organization. (above ideas gleaned from SHRM white paper June 2010) We all have a role to play. Remember the old saying, when we point a finger at someone, four fingers are pointing backwards.