VANNOY:
2023, don’t get Caught unprepared. 12 new HR laws that every employer needs to know about. Okay, so this is a, this is a huge topic. There’s, there’s no way we’re gonna get through 12 of these in one hour. So we’re gonna break this show up into two different segments. We’re gonna tackle the first six HR legislative changes in trends today. And we’re gonna do a follow up with the remaining six. But I, I’d say all employers need, need to watch this, this, this is really, really important information. And if you’re a regular watcher of the show you know, know my guest, Mary Simmons the, the perfect person to help unpack this information. If you don’t Mary is the vice President of HR Consulting here, at Asure. She’s a SHRM certified professional. Also, for the past eight years, Mary has been an adjunct professor, professor at the New York Institute of Technology. Prior to Asure Mary was the director of HR consulting for a 55 year old HR consulting firm in New York. Welcome back, Mary.
SIMMONS:
Thanks, Mike.
VANNOY:
Okay. So lots of topics, we’re gonna just jump right into it. So the first big change that employers, and this is like super black and white, they gotta know about it. There’s changes to the I nine, right? And no one’s exempt from this. Yes. Tell, tell everybody, maybe set <laugh> for people who don’t think that, might not think that they have to do I nine s Real brief. What is an I nine? Why must they comply? But then specifically, what are the changes?
SIMMONS:
Sure. So, absolutely. And we did a full webinar on this, and we started with, Hey, this might seem boring, but every employer has to fill out an I nine for any employee who was employed after 1986 when the I nine form was created. And that I nine form is proving eligibility to work in the us not citizenship, which a lot of employers believe. And besides filling this out, Mike, on our other webinar, of course, we went over how to do it correctly. It’s, it’s not super difficult, but if you’re audited and it’s filled out incorrectly, the fines are relatively high. So what’s happening in 2023 is that if you look at your I nine form, it expired in October, 2022. So you need to continue to use that form. And you might wanna make a note someplace to yourself that when you go back to audit five years from now, your, your I nines, that if it looks like you were using an expired form, you were, but the government didn’t provide you with a new one.
So that’s, that’s a big deal that you need to keep using an expired form because that’s all you have to use. And they are saying ICE, who governs the I Nines is saying that they will be creating a new form and more importantly, a new process because they’re listening to the employers because we have so many remote employees. Yeah. Number one, they expend extended some of the flexibility for verifying your I nine until July 31st of this year. But they are proposing that there may be some of those flexibilities as a permanent rule going forward when they bring out this new form, which, if, if, if those of you who remember the I nine form was one page, then it went to two pages, one of the changes they’re saying is it, it hopefully will be back to one page yet to be seen. No, Mike,
VANNOY:
Beyond just you know, cosmetics going from two pages to one possibly. And conceptually including having providing for remote virtual workers, do you have any, any insight into what the specific changes is gonna be? Like? Is it how, how I can now electronically provide verification versus I gotta come in with my driver’s license or my, my, my verification documentation. But do what what insight? I mean,
SIMMONS:
Those are, at this point, those are all guesses. The only thing that, that they’re really saying, and they, they open it up for a comment period. Right. For employers to add comments. And shrm, of course, the Society of Human Resource Management. Yeah. tends to be pretty loud on that, and I’m pretty involved with them. Yeah. So definitely the things that I’ve already stated are things that you probably will see, but at this point, we’re just guessing more flexibility. One page easier to complete. Cuz right now, any empty category, you’re supposed to put NA for not applicable. If you’re not putting something in there like middle name, if you don’t put a middle name, you’re really right now on the current form, supposed to put na and they’re thinking of changing that. So right now, those are some of the things that they’re talking about. But of course, you know, everything that we say right now is a guess. Got it. Until that form comes out. So what
VANNOY:
We do know is Homeland Security is the, is the governing body here, right? For nine?
SIMMONS:
Yes. Yes.
VANNOY:
Yes. So home, so Homeland Homeland Security is, has come out and said there’s gonna be changes to I nine. They’ve signaled that these are the categories of the changes until we have it in our hands. We just don’t know the specifics. But our guidance to employers is, there’s, there’s very few things in your business from an HR perspective, more important than an I nine. That’s just a drop dead business requirement that you can get a lot of hot water for not doing it. Right. That, so be on the lookout. That’s right. These changes are coming in 2023. Right?
SIMMONS:
A hundred percent. And, you know, we, you and I will be doing a webinar in a very near future on e e-verify, right? Which has a lot to do, you know, is is how the government has set up a, a, a portal for you to verify your I nine s on E-verify. I, I encourage everybody to look for that webinar because I think E-Verify can help employers make those I nine s process just a little bit easier.
VANNOY:
Yeah. Okay. So
SIMMONS:
More to come on. Topic
VANNOY:
Number two. Anything else on I nines that our audience needs to understand, you think? For right now? No.
SIMMONS:
Okay. I don’t think so.
VANNOY:
So, topic number two, and we’ve, we’ve hit on this before, but I want to get, maybe go go a little deeper. Unions are on the rise, right? So what is it that employers need to understand about th this, I’d say there’s a, there’s a both, like maybe a mega trend, but there’s also that they need to be aware of. But this isn’t just conceptual. There’s legal stuff that’s actually happening around unions and employers need to understand this. What, what are these changes?
SIMMONS:
A hundred percent. So first, you know, just to give some statistics, election petitions are up, were up 58% in 2021. And in 2022, they didn’t have the stats yet, but it’s even higher than 58%. I’ve never seen those numbers that high in my 30 some odd years in human resources. So it’s really high. And you’re seeing some, I think, unusual businesses unionizing, right? Grocery workers retail workers. But beyond that, Mike, you know, you, you may be listening to this and saying, well, my workers will never unionize. And, and that might be, so first of all, you know, you wanna take some preemptive actions. We’re always talking about what can you do for your employees? How can you keep your employees right? Keeping your employees happy, staying on the cutting edge of what your competitors are offering for benefits. And trying to really look at your population and customizing the benefits and your offerings.
You know, should you be offering more days off or should you pay more towards their medical benefits, right? That’s gonna be different depending on the population that you currently have. But if your employees are happy and engaged and you are meeting, you know, those requirements and being competitive, you’re much less likely for your employees to wanna unionize. So be preemptive when it comes to, you know, preventing that union coming in. But the other thing that I wanna say is, there are a lot of laws around what you should and should not, or can and cannot do when a union is starting to form in your organization. And Amazon and Starbucks really got into some hot water, Mike, because Yeah, right. They were going about interfering, right? And look, that’s, that’s a really big word, right? Well, how did I interfere? Right? but you really have to be careful on how can you lawfully speak to your employees about whether they should unionize or not. It, it’s very, very strict. So even if you don’t, your employees don’t vote to unionize, you can still be fined for unlawfully interfering with them trying to unionize. Yeah. So be very careful and seek an expert’s advice.
VANNOY:
Yeah. I I, I, there’s
SIMMONS:
A lot here
VANNOY:
That there, there’s a, there’s a ton. And, and here’s my fear that I, I, I fear that too many people could hear this topic and think, oh, doesn’t apply to me. Right? the problem is, and this is not political, this is, I promise this, it’s, it’s not, it doesn’t matter, which, if you’re, if you’re Republican democrat, it is very, very clear. The continuum of the legal structure of our country is slowly over time protecting employee, employee e rights more. We are not taking a position, we’re pro or anti-union here. We’re not, we’re just observing and sharing, sharing the information. Right? but I think what you said is just so important. It’s, we understand why employers would want to have less friction between them and their employees to negotiate directly with employees and not want to have to deal with union. I get that.
Also understand why employees won’t have protection and a voice. Right? We get that too. The, I think the mo the best advice we could probably give here is a, be aware of the legal changes. If these things start happening in your organization, you cannot interfere. And there is a legal process that you must go through. And then number two, the best way to be proactive is if your employees feel heard and they feel like they’re part of the decision making process. They’ll take tough news. If they feel like there’s transparency and honesty, and they’re part of, part of the solution it’s when they feel excluded and feel like decisions are made that benefits say the business and not them in the perceived dope, dark, smokey room, that’s when you start getting in trouble. So the very best thing you could possibly do as an employer is to just establish high trust, highly communicative relationships with your employees. And
SIMMONS:
A hundred percent. A hundred percent. Yeah. Yeah. We, we try to encourage our employers to do employee surveys as often as possible. You gotta take the temperature of the happiness of your employees. And that’s, I’m, I’m oversimplifying that for sure. Yeah. But everybody can recognize that a happy, engaged workforce is a more productive workforce. You know, that, that, you know, mood, that culture is infused towards your clients, right? So if your employees aren’t happy, they’re not being happy towards your clients, and that’s, you know, never gonna be good for you. So, you know, in, in every aspect, and we talk about it all the time, you know, look at your employee population, ask them, are they happy? What would they like? You might not be able to do everything they want. You know, you’re not giving them a 20% increase, but it’s worthwhile asking them. And then you need to honestly get back to them. Here’s the feedback we got. Here are the things we can make changes on these things we can’t right now. But going forward, we still wanna hear from you. Communication transparency is always going to be more beneficial for the employer and the employees.
VANNOY:
Yeah. Very good. Anything else on unions before we move to number three?
SIMMONS:
No, I, and I think number three is sort of tied to that employee happiness, <laugh>.
VANNOY:
Yeah. So an un economy increases Yeah. Turnover in an unstable economy. So this one isn’t, quote unquote a legal change in the HR world but clearly, I mean, you look at the, the tech Silicon Valley layoffs that are happening right now. You watch YouTube <laugh>, and, and you might, you might reasonably think the economy’s about to go into free fall. What I would say is whether we’re gonna have recession, not recession, layoffs, not layoffs, there, there is just this sea of change and sea of uncertainty in the economy and HR laws supply demand curves of, of the workforce in, in this, it’s the instability that impacts turnover. So what is your guidance here, Mary?
SIMMONS:
Yeah, so of course you know, inflation, you know, today there was a big announcement that inflation is down which is good, but it’s still trending higher than the average raises. So, yeah. Some of the studies you know, asking employers what do they think they’re gonna be giving for raises next year, the average is about 4%, which is still less than inflation. So last year inflation was around 7%. Again, it’s dropping. I think the statistics this morning were around 5.6, so inflation is still trending higher. So part of this education that we’re trying to help employers with is what should you be strategically and tactically planning for 2023 within your HR function? And raises are always a huge part, Mike. Yeah. So if you know that your raises are gonna be less than inflation, right? Which, which you know, isn’t gonna make employees happy, what are you going to do?
Right? So, some suggestions may be that you do want to do those employee surveys, you know, what are they looking for? You know, money isn’t always what makes employees happy, right? So, you know, first of all, they wanna work for a good manager. So are you doing management training? Are you doing employee training to give them the tools to be successful? Are you reinvesting in your employees? Cause they see that, they feel that and they want that. The younger generations, hands down will say, I want training and time off. Yes, I wanna make a good salary, but I want training and time off equal to or above their salary. Those are things that are really strong HR function can help you with and not break your bank.
VANNOY:
I, I, I can’t help, but, and I probably overuse sports metaphors here. So some that are gonna love this, some are gonna hate this probably. But if you, if you think about sports pool,
SIMMONS:
<Laugh>, I, I love
VANNOY:
It. And, and business is a performance, right? You’re, you’re, you’re trying to grow, get better, beat the competition in a healthy, ethical way within the rules, right? There’s the, the metaphor is pretty sound, right? Agreed. Agree. Your greatest athletes frequently will take a pay cut to go be on a team that they think has a chance at winning the title because they wanna be part of something, right? That’s, and then that’s right. Free
SIMMONS:
Agents,
VANNOY:
The best athletes on bad teams, they go to the marketplace to the highest bidder, right? And so both of those things coexist that I think we, I think we would guide people. You have to be smart about compensation. You can’t just, you can’t not, you can’t cons consistently pay people under market value for a long period of time. But the things you just said, am I, am I getting education? Why? Because I’m developing so that I see myself, you know, here I am today, but this is where I’m gonna be tomorrow with that education, right? Am I part of something? Is there a mission? Do I have purpose in what I’m doing? Those things, they do matter more than comp in and of itself, but it’s all part, everybody part of comp that’s part of the equation.
SIMMONS:
And, and that’s a, that’s across generations, right? So we had an employer that had a high turnover rate and they were like, oh, I guess I just have to pay more money. And I said, now, wait a minute, <laugh>, let’s approach this strategically. Number one, let’s start doing exit interviews. You’re Asureming they’re leaving for money, cuz you know, you pay less than market. Cuz we did salary benchmarking and that showed that information, right? But let’s not make Asuremptions. That is never a smart thing to do, right? So we started doing exit interviews. Lo and behold, there was one manager, it wasn’t a big organization, Mike, they had like 30 employees, but there was one manager on the manufacturing floor who, you know, when it came to, you know, working with me, he sounded pretty good when he working with the owner, he sounded pretty good, but he wasn’t talking to the employees respectfully, professionally, right?
And so my question to the employer is, when’s the last time you did management training? When’s the last time you did executive coaching with somebody that you hear there’s a problem with? And they’re like and the answer’s never, right? So easy, relatively easy fix, right? So those things take time, right? And we can’t expect our managers to treat our employees properly if we don’t train them and give them expectations, right? We can’t, you know, ma wave a magic wand and go, Mike, you’re a manager now. You did really good, you know, on the, you know, on the assembly line. So now I’m gonna poof, you’re a manager. No, we have to give the tools, the support, the skills, the training for them to be good. And, and, you know, you know, I get up on my soapbox a little bit about this, but these webinars are meant to show you the employers you need to do some planning on with your HR function going forward. And, and this is a big deal.
VANNOY:
Yeah. All right. The next one
SIMMONS:
Some things that you
VANNOY:
Can do previously controversial, maybe still controversial marijuana legalization, right? I remember being a young manager 20 some years ago. I, I didn’t follow hrs process that I, I, I delivered a job offer. I had the guy start on site and I didn’t sequence the drug testing in time. He failed his drug test for marijuana. This is over 20 years ago. And I had to, had to let him go. The world has changed dramatically here. Some places it’s actually illegal to do that. The legalization of marijuana at state versus federal, I think this is a lots of opinions, but this is le legally a complex issue for employers. So again, we’re not taking any pro or con opinions here. What are the facts that employers need to understand around marijuana in drug testing, employment, et cetera. Yeah.
SIMMONS:
And when I start this topic with the employers that we support they, they get very confused, right? Because it is confusing. It’s different in a lot of different states. It’s still illegal federally, right? So it, it is confusing. But I just wanna start off by saying, your employees cannot come to work drunk. We all know that. And drinking is legal, so they cannot come to work after marijuana use stoned, whatever term you wanna use as well, they cannot come to work impaired in any way. And that would include if they took a ton of cough medicine or another medication, right? Right, right, right. Because we want them to be safe and everybody around them to be safe. And, and, you know, that includes office jobs, right? So I just wanna start with that because, you know, the employers that I work with, that’s what they’re like, wow, this guy’s coming to work stone. But, but marijuana’s legal. And I’m like, don’t get confused. Can’t come to work. Impaired. So right now, there’s about 22. Perfect
VANNOY:
Metaphor, Mari Mary. That’s, I love, I love that setup. It’s like, of alcohol is legal, but would you, you would never tolerate an employee showing up drunk, right? So that I I love, I love that approach. Yeah.
SIMMONS:
Yeah. So there’s about 22 states that have legal legalized recreational marijuana. Okay? So when I’m talking about all this, and I’m gonna give you some state specifics, I want you to the employers to understand a couple of things. You need to look at your drug testing policy. Number one, you need to look at your Dr if you do drug testing, which isn’t mandated except for d o t position some d o t positions department of transportation positions. And I want you to think about what policy you want in your handbook. So I always think one of the value adds that we give employers is I’m always gonna push compliance. You know, you, you know that, that’s, you know, my middle name. But the other thing is best practices. What are the best practices, right? Right. If you find, like one of my employers that some of the workers at lunchtime were going out in the, in the parking lot and smoking pot that might be a policy that we might wanna add to the handbook.
And because if they were standing out there just to give the analogy and doing shots of tequila, we all know that that wouldn’t be a good practice as well, right? Right. So one of the things that some of the states are adding is lawful off duty conduct. So let me explain what that means. I’m gonna go back to my alcohol comparison cuz you know, it’s, I think it’s easy to understand. So New York State, as an example, has a lawful off-duty conduct for alcohol consumption. Alcohol is legal. An employer should not be using an employee’s lawful off-duty conduct of drinking. And I’ll give you an example in a minute to interfere with hiring or any employment action. So here’s my example. Had an employer who had a couple instances of people drinking on the job, happens all the time. I’ve been doing this for 30 years, happens all the time.
So he goes to hire a new person, you know, his big organization, right? They had about 500 employees, big manufacturing, bunch of different sites. They go to hire a new person and he tells his manager, Hey, look them up on Facebook, see if you see anything out of the ordinary. And the person’s Facebook page was drinking here, red solo cup here, you know, beer funnel here, right? Yeah. And the employer’s like not hiring him based on, on, on that reason, right? The manager in his infa wisdom, right? Brand new employer to me, because part of my interviewing training would shut this down right away. The manager’s like, yeah, I really liked you for the job, but the owner saw you drinking on Facebook, so he’s not hiring you. What do you think happened? Right? That triggered litigation, right? Yeah. That’s a one. You know something that the employer, you know, didn’t wanna learn the hard way, right?
Yeah. So now some of the states where marijuana is legal, is are saying the same thing. So, you know, you might say, well, Mary, we don’t look at social media when we’re hiring an an employee, right? But the person may offer that information, you know you know, I, again, in interviewing training, I’m going to steer you away from questions like, well, what do you like to do on the weekends? Because it has nothing to do with <laugh>. Yeah. How well their skills are aligned to the position you have. But some managers may ask that, and the employee might say, really like to get stoned and play video games because it’s legal, you know, in, in that particular state. Yeah. So the, there’s many states that are coming up with that, those types of laws. And there, you know, is also some legislation with President Biden to review the classification of marijuana as a schedule one drug, which, you know, right. Not here to go into details on that, but there probably will be changes coming forward.
VANNOY:
Yeah. on a
SIMMONS:
Federal, on a federal level.
VANNOY:
Yeah. Again, this, this is not a political topic because whether you’re for or against, or which administration, which color party doesn’t matter. The, the con the, the sea change is clear, right? States are moving this direction. So society’s moving this direction. So the thing I always kind of back into is, whenever you have, whether it’s, whether it’s a, if an employer is afraid of a union, they’re afraid of what do I do around mari marijuana? The more you can ground yourself in great job descriptions where you identify the competencies required to fulfill jobs, hundred percent. That way you’re hiring based on these competencies, it remove, helps to remove so much this gray speculative area, right? And that way your whole performance management absolutely. Process your compensation process. Absolutely. It’s all tied to these competencies that are backed into job descriptions. And it just helps to kind of remove some of the mystery here.
SIMMONS:
Couldn’t agree more job description, in my mind, employee handbook and right behind it, job description, two of the most important documents that an employer can have. So it goes a little bit more, i, I want employers to understand sort of all of the ramifications around marijuana legalization. So tho those, the states right now that have the off duty marijuana use is New Jersey, Nevada, Rhode Island Montana, and New York and California will have it in 2024. But additionally, there are some municipalities, actually some cities that prohibit pre-employment testing for marijuana, except where it’s safety sensitive positions or d o t drivers, right? And that’s New York City, no surprise there. And Philadelphia. And you know, as always, when I, you know, tell you about the states where it is right now, if you’re not in those states or don’t have employees in those states, I just want you to be aware of it, because even if that law hasn’t hit your city, your state, I guarantee you that if it, it exists in another law and you are challenged because you didn’t hire anybody doing pre-employment testing for marijuana, and you’re in a state where it’s legalized, you’ll probably have a difficult time with that holding up.
So in New York City and Philadelphia, it’s gotta come off the test strip for pre-employment testing. But the I just want the other states to be aware of it, to, to know that this is out there and that it might get expanded. So pay attention,
VANNOY:
<Laugh>. Yeah.
SIMMONS:
Yeah. To it. Absolutely. This is something we, we have to take seriously.
VANNOY:
Yeah. Okay. Go to our next one. And this is, this is kind of interesting. There’s, we, we don’t wanna talk a lot about this, that we’ve, we’ve mentioned in the past several months, but there are more states that are adopting state retirement savings programs, right? Yes. yes. What, so, so what is, so I think there are maybe informa there’s information you probably share what specific states, states are doing what, but maybe could, before we even go into the specifics, can you just kinda share what, what is this mega trend that you’re seeing in quote unquote HR around employee savings?
SIMMONS:
Yeah, so it’s actually a really positive trend for some of our smaller employers. And the reason for that is because right now, you know, New York and California are kind of leading this. And there’s a couple other states we’ll talk, we’ll talk about, but the state is offering a savings plan as well. Which is really cost effective. For the smaller employers who may have said, well, I don’t have a 401k, I only have 15 employees. But now if you’re in those states and we’ll talk about where it’s expanding, that is great. And if it was me, that’s, again, that’s a benefit. You know, going back to the employers who say to me, I’m too small for, for hr, you might not know about some of these great things that you can tell your employees about and get the credit for it, right?
Because the employees wouldn’t know if you didn’t tell them. And, you know, we’re always guiding the employers, let, let me help you through this process. Sometimes the states don’t make it, you know, super easy. So I really think that this is a positive for the smaller companies. Look, the bigger companies have been offering forks or other types of savings plans, you know, for the, for the nonprofits out there. But I think this is a, this is a really great thing, you know, there, you know, the states where it’s a little bit in flux New Jersey, New York, Virginia, Delaware, Hawaii which was a little surprising to me. And Maryland California has it in effect right now for five or more employees, and they’re changing it to one plus employees in 2000 and 25. So that’s a big deal. That means that pretty much any employer, right? Cuz you know, and be an employer, if you didn’t have one or more employees you, you have to either provide your own savings plan, i e a 401k, et cetera, or have your employees enroll in the California state plan. But again, Mary, can you talk to, I think that’s a really good news for small employers.
VANNOY:
Can you just talk about how that works? So, so we’re not talking about, so historically, you, you think about 401ks as private money, right? In you know, think about social security as mandated, right? So social security, it’s auto deduct, it’s a tax, it comes outta the payroll employer and employee to fund you know, retirement, right? Or a portion of a portion of retirement. 401K is, has always been the, the, the private sector. So there’s been this, you know, heated debate for, call it 50 years right, right between left and right on which, how, how much you should lean on one side versus the other. What specifically does like the, I know they’re all u a little bit unique. What specifically does, does this do? This is 401k, but it’s state sponsored ish, right?
SIMMONS:
Yeah. So, honestly, to go into detail about each of these plans would take us another five hours. Yeah. but, but you know, I think employers need to be preemptive here, right? That’s the whole point, is be preemptive. Look into this, seek advice. You know, cuz we are, you know, on this with all of our employers in these states, because of course we know whether they have a 401K or not. And if they don’t, you know, we are jointly looking at these plans and helping them with it, right? So some of the things for 2023, Connecticut had it in effect, but it was 26, I don’t know, it seems like a random number or more employees. And in 2023 in March of this year, they’re lowering that to five plus employees. So the, the states that have it, Illinois, same thing. They’re going from 16 or more employees to five or more employees.
Oregon is five or more and going to one in two or more in 2023. And Colorado is sort of starting, it started it last year and you have to be in full compliance this year. So it’s a big year for all of those states. Connecticut, Illinois, Oregon and Colorado. Big deal, right? Yes. Employers really need to get on this right away. And it’s, and it is a really good thing because if they don’t offer it, those states are offering a plan. You know, we, we, everybody always talks about is social security gonna be enough in the future? And I think the consensus here is no. And that’s why the trend is I believe again, this is just conjecture. That’s why the movement towards these, and I’ll even go one step further in that the Federal Secure 2.0 act was passed by Congress right at the end of last year around the holidays. And Biden’s supposed to sign it quickly, and that will have even bigger federal implications on retirement benefits. So much more to come on this. I think employers need to, you know, pay attention to what are they offering even if you’re outside of these states, because there will be something federally coming down the pike in 2023.
VANNOY:
Yeah, this is exciting. I, I I think cuz this satisfies me. Yeah. It’s, this satisfies the desires of both ends of the political spectrum, right? So not because it, it’s, it’s a way for traditional 401ks in the, in, in to, to, to. But if you’re a small business, let me back up. If you’re a big business, you offer re retirement plans, right? Whether, whether it’s a, an old school pension or 401k, right? If you don’t, you’re not gonna be competitive in the marketplace. Most that’s right. Small employers, they’re not thinking, oh, I don’t want to do a 401k. They’re just thinking it’s too complex. I don’t have time and I, and I can’t afford the expense of the third party administration that’s involved with it. I don’t even know where to start. Right? It’s not that we have a bunch of small employers that are saying, Hey, I’m anti 401k, so here are Right states saying they’re basically gonna take over the, the tpa, the third party administration and set up so your employees can voluntarily contribute and participate in a 401k. So to me, this is,
SIMMONS:
That’s right.
VANNOY:
I don’t know how you, how you criticize this is this, this is a, this is a win for employers. The ones that are take advantage of it earlier than their competitors will have a competitive advantage for recruiting talent. And this is obviously just a win for employees to being able to save for retirement and have a vehicle beyond social security. So,
SIMMONS:
Very good. I agree. Yeah, I agree.
VANNOY:
Okay. last one yeah, this is something we talk a lot about, but it’s so nuanced. There’s so many flavors but just changes in paid sick leave more and more states are adopting their own leave types. And, and the important word here is paid, right? So yes, that
SIMMONS:
Employers, yes. That if
VANNOY:
You’re not aware, if, if you live in a state that is mandating that you pay employees when they’re not working for, whether it’s maternity, bereavement or generic PT o it, it’s, the flavors are kind of all over the place here. But by gosh, you better know it. Yeah. Cause this is gonna have a real impact on your business. Could what? So what, what can you tell us about it, Mary?
SIMMONS:
It will. And, and I like that you said the difference is paid. So we all know that federally, we have the Family Medical Leave Act, F M L A and it’s for employers are 50 with 50 or more employees. And although it’s job protected as most of the leaves that we’re gonna talk about here are and that’s a big differentiator, right? So, so, so understand that most of these leaves are job protected. What does that mean? That means that if Mike goes out on the leaves that I’m gonna talk about in a minute, just like if Mike went out on F M L A, his job is protected. He comes back and there’s, you know, a a couple of nuances here that we won’t get into, but in most cases, Mike should come back to the same or a similar position. And so when we talk about these leaves, what some of the states have done is said, all right, you got F M L A out there, but what about smaller employers when somebody has a baby, adopts a child, et cetera.
So many of the states have come out with their own paid family and medical leave. And like you said, Mike paid is the pivotal word, right? But most of these leaves in most of these states, so in 2023, besides the 11 states that have it right now, plus DC, Oregon, Colorado, and Maryland are going to be added to this list. So let’s just talk about this for a minute. You’ve got a couple different leaves, right? So you mentioned paid sick leave. There’s also 15 states with paid sick leave, right? So what do I want employers to prepare for? I need you to go to your handbook, give me a call and say, Mary, what do I have to change? What you can’t do is say, okay, my state has both that paid family leave and the paid sick leave. And altogether that equals, I’m just gonna use an arbitrary number 15 days off.
And when I look at my handbook, I give my employees 15 days off. I’m all good. No, you are not <laugh>. What you need to do is you need to put parameters around when they can take the leave in, in, you know, conjunction with what the law state why they can take it. In some instances, some of those paid leaves say you do not ask for a doctor’s note within the first couple of days because they may be a paid slash a sick slash you know other type of leave, right? And no, if they’re taking time off, let’s say for human being a victim of human trafficking or, or being abused, you’re not allowed. They don’t want the employer to know about that. Right? Right, right. So there is so much that employers need to prep for here. You, you know, we’re looking at the handbook with our employers every single year, but these laws don’t always just pop up in January. Right? And some of the laws, you know, that go into effect in 2023 are not going to change. But you need to educate your managers, your HR staff, your employees. You need to change the handbook and you need to probably change your postings, right? Because if this is new, there will be a posting requirement, most likely. Yeah. so that needs to be added to your postings.
VANNOY:
Yeah. You you beat me to the punch Mary. I I, cause I I, I feel like there’s, there, there’s two big things here. One is the leave type itself in whatever state you’re in. By gosh, you, you gotta know the law here cuz this is, this could really impact your bottom line if you now have to pay people for leave when they’re, when they’re not working. That’s, that’s, that could, could be a real cost to you. But then I think just as important, number two, and you, and you expanded much better than me, but it’s the having the employee handbooks that understand this and explain the sequencing and overlap or lack thereof of leave types. So you might think, oh, correct, this law just passed no big deal because I already give two weeks of PTO to all my employees because I’m such a great employer. That doesn’t apply to me because you’re thinking they are sequential or they, they the they could coincide together and that those maybe five days of state sponsored are five days of your pto. But when in fact the law might say it’s your two weeks plus those five, you just have three weeks of paid leave and you’re not, and you’re none the wiser. So you, you’ve gotta understand the nuance of not right. You, you go ahead,
SIMMONS:
You do, you do. And and don’t forget, some of these leaves are going to be partially paid by the employee and partially paid by you. Some are partially paid by you and the state. So it, it’s not always, you know, a hardship to the employer. So, you know, you need some explanation. And what I, what I always try to say to the employers that I, that I assist is, listen, you need to be aware of it. Don’t, don’t waste one brain cell on figuring out how this is done. Just call me cuz we’re doing it for hundreds of employers. Yeah, we got this, right? Yes. This is a big deal. It has to be dealt with with an expert. And I would say even the HR professionals that I work with, it, it’s worth seeing. Most of these laws will give you a little latitude, right? Are you counting their time off like F M L A? Are you doing it annually? Are you doing a rolling year? Are you doing a look back, a look forward? They give you options that that’s worth a discussion with a professional to help you figure out what’s best for you for your organization, your, your employees.
VANNOY:
Yeah. Very good. Very good. Mary. I think I’m gonna use that as a of stuff. We have six more topics. I think we’ll break this into a, a, a part two. Lots of changes clearly between the economy, the, the labor, the workforce, the labor participation rates within that workforce. How is technology disrupting productivity in the workforce in this, this massive change where states and municipalities are starting to adopt their own unique versions of what was previously federal laws. The, the landscape from an HR perspective is just changing so fast. These are the big ones that we gotta stay ahead of. So thank you for today and really looking forward to next week’s conversation where we unpack the other six major changes that we don’t want employers to get caught flat footed on. Thanks, Mike. All right. Until everyone, until next week, everybody.
Speaker 1:
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