The next costly HR headache: Workers’ comp to double

The next costly HR headache: Workers’ comp to double

employee bonuses

It never ends. You’re already trying to comply with Obamacare. Then, you’ll have to deal with the DOL’s new overtime exemption rule changes. What’s next? 

A wave of workers’ compensation claims, according to one insider.

Our good friends over at SafetyNewsAlert.com recently attended the annual conference for the Association of Occupational Health Professionals in Healthcare and came back with some concerning info for HR pros.

‘It’ll double’

While presenting at the conference, Phil Walker, the founder of the Phil Walker Work Comp Savings Company and a national trial counsel for employers in California workers’ comp cases, said workers’ compensation claims will double over the next 10 years.

According to Fred Hosier, SafetyNewsAlert’s editor-in-chief, Walker said there are three reasons for this:

  1. Technology will eliminate low-paying jobs. We’re already seeing this at places like Amazon, which is using robots to eliminate warehouse jobs, and Wendy’s, which is starting to use order kiosks in place of warm-blooded order-takers, Walker said. And what happens when low-paying jobs are eliminated? People who occupied those positions file workers’ comp claims.
  2. Municipal bankruptcies. It’s no secret cities are having financial problems. As a result, retiree benefits are getting cut, which is already leading to a spike in workers’ comp claims. Walker said when United Airlines filed for bankruptcy, 100% of the people who “retired” filed a workers’ comp claim. And when United tried to enter negotiations to settle these claims, not one person did.
  3. Doctors are money-hungry. As a result, Walker said doctors are looking for excuses to perform surgery, are referring more patients to specialists and pain management providers, and billing above cost knowing they’ll settle with insurance companies for far less. Walker said docs are doing this because they’re finding it hard to survive on what Obamacare and Medicare plans are paying them.

What can employers do?

Is there a way to avoid the coming workers’ comp avalanche? Walker says there may be.

He said companies will start requiring their retiring or terminated employees to submit to pre-termination physicals. This will allow employers to screen for any employment-related health problems and, if none are found, provide employers with the ammo needed to refute bogus workers’ comp claims.

This may be an avenue worth exploring if you start to notice a spike in fishy workers’ comp claims.



For more HR News, please visit: The next costly HR headache: Workers’ comp to double

Source: News from HR Morning

Going from team member to team leader: Sage advice on clearing hurdles

You’ve seen it happen: A standout line worker gets promoted to supervise his/her former peers. And the struggles begin.  

Liane Davey, a VP at Knightsbridge Human Capital, writing on the Harvard Business Review website, says she “can almost guarantee there will be awkward moments as [the newly minted supervisor] transition[s] from team member to team leader.”

But the hurdles aren’t insurmountable. A quick rundown of her advice for new supervisors:

First, meet one-on-one with each member of the team. The first benefit of this one-on-one, obviously, is that the new manager can take the opportunity to show they haven’t turned into some kind of maniacal manager overnight. Davey suggests the supervisor ask specific questions about where he/she can help the employee succeed, and what the worker’s hoping to achieve over the long term.

Davey acknowledges that the new boss needs “to balance the friendly and inclusive approach with some signs of strength. … You don’t need to provide much detail, but do share your early vision for the team and any priorities that you will tackle first.”

Finally, the manager should ask for the team member for support in a statement similar to this: â€œJuan, you’ve always been the software expert. I need your help to get up to speed and to make sure I’m keeping the software issues top of mind.”

Try to make the first team meeting a special event. Davey suggests a conference center outside of town or a room in your office with couches instead of tables. “If you can spend an afternoon and then go out socially after, it works even better,” she says.

The manager can start by discussing the purpose of teams – he/she’s been a member of this group, so it won’t be hard to discuss specifics about workplace dynamics. Then it’s time for the new boss “to to evolve the mandate in accordance with changing times,” Davey says.

The objective is to engage in a discussion about where the team needs to continue on the same path and where it should change the trajectory.

Finally, the team leader can describe the way she wants the group to operate day-to-day. Davey’s example: “If you know that the team tends to be somewhat passive-aggressive, be explicit about your expectation that concerns be addressed directly: ‘I want to be very clear that all issues need to be shared openly so they can be resolved. Please don’t come to me with an issue you haven’t addressed directly with one another first.’”

And now, the hard part

Davey also warns that there are likely some bumps in the road ahead. Her take on some common new-manager problems, and ways to deal with them:

A decision is made without your knowledge. If you learn that a decision has been made that you should have been privy to, talk with the person and make your displeasure clear. “I just learned that you authorized a reduced price for Acme. That’s a decision I should have been involved in. Let’s go over the types of decisions you can make autonomously and the ones I need to be part of.”

An issue that has been closed is reopened. Resistant team members will often attempt to reopen a decision as a way to test your authority. You can discourage that behavior with this approach: â€œWe made a decision on that issue last week. What is leading you to raise it again now? Let me reinforce that we need to move efficiently and my expectation is that once a decision is made, everyone is on board and executing it. Dissent is welcome, but only before the decision is made.”

A team member resists your leadership passive-aggressively. Often, resistant team members show irreverence with subtle and not-so-subtle body language such as turning away from you in meetings, rolling eyes, or disengaging from the conversation. When that happens, start with a subtle response such as sitting directly beside or across from the person in the next meeting or walking around behind the person while you’re talking. If resistance persists, provide direct feedback in a one-on-one. “In the last couple of meetings, you have been sitting at the back of the room and only providing one word answers to my questions. I’m concerned that you’re not making the transition to me being the leader of the team. What are you willing to do differently to show you’re on board?”

A group of people gang up on you. It’s distressing enough to deal with one passive-aggressive team member, but that stress is amplified if multiple people are questioning your leadership or badmouthing you to one another. If you face this challenge, repeat the process of meeting with everyone individually and then addressing the issues in a team meeting. Be direct in your feedback and don’t be afraid to make people a little uncomfortable: “I am concerned that you are challenging my decisions and that your pushback is encouraging others to do the same. What’s going on for you? How do we get things back on track?” Make it clear you expect people to address these types of issues with you directly in the future.

 

 



For more HR News, please visit: Going from team member to team leader: Sage advice on clearing hurdles

Source: News from HR Morning

Double whammy in EEOC settlement ends in $600k price tag

Wow. When this company does sexual harassment, it really does it up big.  

Bottom line first: VXI Global Solutions, a provider of call center services for major nationwide companies, will pay $600,000 and furnish other relief to settle a sexual harassment and retaliation lawsuit filed by the EEOC, the feds have announced.

Nothing too unique there, although that’s a big piece of change. But what’s really interesting about this case is that the company was held responsible for harassment of both male and female employees — the rare double delinquency.

EEOC filed suit against the company in September 2014, alleging that beginning in 2009 two classes of employees — female and male — endured a hostile work environment, created by at least 13 harassers, including male and female supervisors.

Female employees were subjected to unsolicited groping and touching, constant or continued sexual propositioning, and grotesque comments of a sexual nature by male supervisors.

The EEOC also contended that male employees were subjected to repeated sexual advances with foul descriptions of proposed sexual activity, unwanted lap dances and physical rubbing by female supervisors. Male employees who refused to participate were targets of unlawful gender stereotyping when they were accused of being gay because of their objection to the harasser’s behavior.

Complaints blocked

Supervisors also allegedly threatened and intimidated the staff to prevent complaints, according to the agency: Numerous attempts to report the harassment to human resources personnel were stymied by their lack of availability. After VXI Global Solutions’ supervisors and/or human resources personnel were eventually advised of the harassment, several of the alleged victims were subsequently disciplined and terminated.

According to the consent decree filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, the company will, in addition to providing the monetary relief:

  • retain an equal employment opportunity consultant to revise the company’s policies and procedures with respect to sexual harassment and retaliation
  • provide training in those areas to all employees nationwide along with additional training for management and human resources personnel on how to effectively deal with such complaints
  • maintain a centralized system to track internal sexual harassment and retaliation complaints; conduct surveys at company sites in Los Angeles, Texas and Ohio, and
  • post a notice on the matter at the Los Angeles site. EEOC will monitor compliance with the four-year consent decree.



For more HR News, please visit: Double whammy in EEOC settlement ends in 0k price tag

Source: News from HR Morning

Hate unions? Then you won’t like what the DOL just did

Whether you’re a fan of organized labor or not, you’re going to want to see what the DOL just posted to YouTube. 

On its own YouTube channel, the DOL posted a video called “Start the Conversation.”

It’s clearly pro-union, although it goes out of its way to not use the word “union.”

It’s meant to help draw attention to the White House Summit on Worker Voice (the video actually includes a link to the White House’s page for the summit).

Here’s a description of the summit, straight from WhiteHouse.gov:

“The White House Summit on Worker Voice will provide a historic opportunity to bring together a diverse group of leaders – including workers, employers, unions, organizers and other advocates and experts — to explore ways to ensure that middle class Americans are sharing in the benefits of the broad-based economic growth that they are helping to create. We want both seasoned and emerging leaders from across the country, who are taking action in their communities to lift up workers’ voices — to be active participants in this conversation.”

Whose side is the DOL on?

It’s been clear from the jump that the Obama Administration is pro-union, so it comes as no surprise that there would be a push from the White House get more employees interested in unions.

But what’s troubling here — at least for employer who’d like unions to stay out of their business — is the fact that the DOL itself is now trying to push workers into unions’ arms.

Not convinced? Let’s revisit a line from the DOL-posted video:

“They [employees] are finding that their voice at the lunch table can lead to a voice at the bargaining table, which can lead to a voice at the boardroom table.” (Emphasis is ours.)

Let’s watch:

We must give a tip of the hat to the Labor Relations Institute Inc., a consulting firm that provides aid and advice to employers when unions come knocking on their doors. Its website brought our attention to the video.

It also nicely summed up the reason anti-union employers should be concerned about the video:

“The DOL should protect the right of American people to organize should they so choose. However the majority of working Americans do not want to go through a third party to deal with workplace issues.”



For more HR News, please visit: Hate unions? Then you won’t like what the DOL just did

Source: News from HR Morning

Overtime crisis nearing: 6 steps to avoid pitfalls

Overtime crisis nearing: 6 steps to avoid pitfalls

DOL overtime rules

It would be hard for any regulatory change to be as impactful as the passage of the Affordable Care Act. But the DOL’s impending changes to the overtime exemption rules may be exactly that. 

As if that wasn’t stressful enough, you’ll have far less time to prepare for the fallout of the overtime rule changes than Obamacare gave you.

The new rules won’t be phased in over the course of a decade like the ACA’s mandates. All signs point to the overtime rules taking effect before the end of 2016.

They’ll affect 2016 budget, staff plans

That means the time to start prepping is now, since the overtime rules will affect your budget and staffing plans for the 2016 calendar year.

And even without the final rules in hand yet (the comment period for the proposed rules just ended), there are steps employers would be wise to take now to brace for them — no matter what form the rules ultimately take:

1. Audit employees’ work hours

As you know, the DOL’s poised to raise the minimum salary threshold to be exempt from overtime to $50,440. So the first step is calculating how many hours your employees who earn less than that are actually working.

Reason: You don’t want to assume they work 40 hours per week only to be blindsided by the fact that they actually work 50 hours per week after the rule changes have reclassified those employees as non-exempt.

Next, you’ll want to weigh the cost of giving raises to those under, but near, the threshold — and who are most likely to work more than 40 hours per week — to avoid overtime obligations.

Note: The DOL may allow you to count nondiscretionary bonuses, and possibly commissions, toward 10% of workers’ salary levels. That may help to drag a few of your fence-sitters over the threshold without you having to give them a raise. But we won’t know until the final rules are issued.

2. Assess the effect on benefits offerings

One question you’ll want to ask yourself: Will being reclassified as non-exempt make some employees no long eligible for certain benefits that they once had?

If so, do you want to change your benefits plans to enable those workers to keep their benefits — or might you want to eliminate those benefits to make up for any costs resulting from having to now pay those workers overtime?

3. Expand time-tracking

No matter how you slice it, companies’ non-exempt employee populations are about to swell.

That will require expanding systems to track more workers’ hours to ensure proper overtime pay.

It couldn’t hurt to visit with your tech department now to start discussing ways to implement or expand time-tracking systems.

4. Revisiting remote work arrangements

It’s time to ask yourself what the rule changes could mean for remote work — checking work email, taking phone calls after hours, etc.

You can dissuade or even prohibit non-exempt employees from doing these things after hours all you want. But here’s the bottom line: Some are still going to do it — and when they do, you need a way to track that work time and compensate them for it.

Again, get together with your IT folks to determine the best ways to track employees’ after-hours/at-home work.

It’s worth noting that the DOL, in its Spring 2015 Regulatory Agenda, said it’s seeking information on “… [T]he use of technology, including portable electronic devices, by employees away from the workplace and outside of scheduled work hours …”

As a result, expect some rulemaking on this subject as well — like perhaps a definition of what qualifies as “de minimis” work.

Currently, the FLSA does say that “de minimis” work (typically five minutes or less) done beyond the 40-hour workweek by non-exempt employees is not compensable.

However, the common practice of workers reading and responding to emails off the clock on their smartphones has complicated the issue of “de minimis” work.

5. Create a communication plan

If you’re not going to raise some workers’ salaries — and they’re about to be reclassified as non-exempt — you need a plan in place for how you’ll break this likely upsetting news to them.

Some issues you’ll need to tackle:

  • Punching a clock. More workers are going to have to do it, and it may seem like a demotion. How will you explain why it’s now necessary?
  • Loss of flexibility. For your current salaried workers, being turned into hourly employees means taking time off to go to the doctor or attend a child’s event could result in less pay. Again, how will you break this news to them? And will you let them make up the time?

6. Prepare for changes to the duties test

It appears the DOL may eliminate the “concurrent duties” rule and require employees to spend more than 50% of their time exclusively on exempt duties for them to maintain an exempt classification.

Assume those changes will be adopted and you could avoid unpleasant surprises down the road.



For more HR News, please visit: Overtime crisis nearing: 6 steps to avoid pitfalls

Source: News from HR Morning

Don’t delegate that! 3 tasks managers should never pass off

Delegating work effectively is consistently listed as a skill managers say they’d like to improve. While passing off tasks to your team is a critical skill, there are certain things that managers should never, ever delegate.

Because the tasks that managers shouldn’t pass off tends to be less concrete than specific projects (“Can you draft a summary of what was covered at our wellness seminar and send it to everybody?”), managers often thinks it’s OK to let others take over. But as the Laura Stack, the president and CEO of consulting firm The Productivity Pro, Inc., points out that’s a huge mistake.

Here are three duties Stack says great managers should never delegate:

1. The recruiting process

If there’s a skilled, effective hiring team in place, it’s tempting to take a more hands off approach to recruiting and hiring new staffers. But managers are ultimately responsible for creating the most effective teams. So whether managers are in charge of the entire HR department or overseeing a specific group within that department (e.g., the Benefits staff), they should always be very involved in the recruiting and hiring process.

2. Recognition and rewards

Even if managers aren’t directly supervising the deserving staffers on their teams, they should still take the lead when it comes to recognizing stand-out performances.  Whenever possible, supervisors should also include incentives and reward with this recognition.

3. Discipline

On the other end of the spectrum, managers should always handle any discipline that’s needed. When managers hand off unwanted tasks such as setting up a corrective action plan, suspending problem workers or even terminations, it sends the wrong message to their teams and often creates distrust for the person in charge.

How to do it right

When it comes to work managers should be delegating, there are certain ways to make the process more efficient.

Here’s a four-step strategy that makes the process much easier:

Break down the tasks

Managers should start by writing down all of the tasks they’re assigned. From there, they can identify which of these are essential and which ones, when delegated, would free up the most time.

In many cases, managers will keep certain tasks simply because they enjoy doing them. So it’s critical for supervisors to be brutally honest about how necessary each and every task is during this phase.

Select the right staffer

Once the list of tasks has been created, it’s time to identify who will be best-suited to take the reins. A few questions that can help:

  • does he or she have an interest?
  • can it be handled with the employee’s current workload?

Determine the amount

After selecting the tasks that are going to be passed along, it’s time to decide the amount of work that’s going to be done by that worker.

Remember: The entire task doesn’t have to be delegated; employees can do certain elements now and learn other parts later on. Or, a single task can be divided among a number of workers.

Step aside

When the task has officially been handed off, it’s critical for managers to step back and let the employee (or employees) do the work in the way he or she sees fit.

Finally, if you’re wondering just how effective you are at delegating work to your staffers, take this 12-question quiz to find out.

 



For more HR News, please visit: Don’t delegate that! 3 tasks managers should never pass off

Source: News from HR Morning

Bias alert: Obese people are regarded as less competent than their peers

There’s new confirmation of something we may not like to admit about ourselves: Many of us are biased against obese people in the workplace.  

We’ve all read reports of studies that show obese employees are routinely passed over for promotions, turned down for jobs they’re qualified for, and paid less when they finally get hired.

But a recent study out of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania illustrates a slightly different wrinkle: Obese people are often assumed to be less competent then their thinner counterparts.

Here’s a rundown of the research, from the UPenn website:

Using five experiments, [the researchers] document[ed] a clear-cut relationship between obesity and perceptions of low competence.

In the first experiment, they used photos and outcomes from the “Jeopardy!” game show to explore the association between obesity and perceptions of competence.

Ninety-eight women and 104 men were recruited to view photographs of contestants, rate the competence of each, and guess the winner.

The researchers found a systematic bias. Even though the weight of contestants had no relation to whether or not they won, study participants expected overweight contestants to be less likely to win.

The second experiment tasked 100 women and 68 men with rating digital resumes, which included a photograph of an obese and non-obese person. The researchers manipulated obesity by digitally altering the photos to make non-obese individuals appear obese.

Each study participant was asked to assess the candidate’s competence. After they handed in their responses, Schweitzer and Levine recorded each participants’ own height and weight.

The researchers discovered that obese job candidates were perceived to be significantly less competent than non-obese candidates, and also found that overweight participants in the study were just as likely to show a prejudice toward obese candidates as thinner participants.

Experiment No. 3 explored the unique role that cognitive perceptions of competence and affective mechanisms play in linking obesity with behavioral responses. Ninety-five women and 105 men read a two-page resume that a fictitious job candidate had submitted online, and rated the candidate on warmth and competence. The resume included candidates’ height and weight, but no photos.

All of the fictitious candidates were white and 25 years old. Females were listed as 5’4” tall and 132 pounds, and males were listed as 5’9” and 168 pounds, the 50th percentile height and weight for each gender. When the researchers manipulated the weight of the candidates to obese—220 pounds for 5’4” women and 243 pounds for 5’9” men, they found that participants rated obese candidates as significantly less competent.

Two other experiments dealt with how obese people can change people’s opinion of them by displaying a warm, engaging attitude toward colleagues.

An attitude that hurts everyone

Wharton professor Maurice Schweitzer and Ph.D. student Emma Levine authored a paper on their findings, The Affective and Interpersonal Consequences of Obesity, which was published in the journal Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.

“If somebody [mistreated or insulted an employee based on} race, people would be calling for them to be fired,” Schweitzer said on the Penn website. “Yet because many people perceive obesity to be a choice, discrimination against obese people is far more accepted.”

Schweitzer said all of society is harmed by the obesity bias. Companies who succumb to this bias – consciously or unconsciously — could be missing out on opportunities to hire good workers and promote exceptional employees.

“I think it’s harmful not just to the people who are obese, but to the rest of us,” he says. “We’re not giving them the chance. We’re being unfair.”



For more HR News, please visit: Bias alert: Obese people are regarded as less competent than their peers

Source: News from HR Morning

Good news: IRS gives a little more breathing room on ACA reporting

If there’s no way your firm will be able to get everything in order in time to comply with the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) reporting deadlines, don’t panic. You may not have to.  

During a recent conference call, an IRS spokesperson reminded employers that there’s a 30-day reprieve from the ACA reporting requirements available.

That ACA extension applies to both the returns firms must file with the IRS as well as the form they must distribute to employees and applies to:

  • Form 1094-B
  • Form 1094-C
  • Form 1095-B, and
  • Form 1095-C.

In order to take advantage of the extension, employers must use Form 8809 (Application for Extension of Time to File Information Returns) and submit it by the reporting deadline. If that form seems familiar, that’s because it’s the same form used to request an extension for filing W-2s and 1099s.

But that’s not all.

The 30-day extension can be extended even further in certain situations. According to the instructions on Form 8809, an additional 30-day extension may be provided if the request for an additional extension is filed before the expiration of the original extension.

Employers shouldn’t bank on getting the additional extension, however. The IRS makes it clear that “requests for additional time are granted only where it is shown that extenuating circumstances prevented filing by the date granted by the first request.”

Key deadlines

As employers know, the ACA reporting requirements can be broken down into two categories:

  • the forms you need provide employees by Feb. 1, 2016 (Form 1095-C for insured plans), and
  • the forms you need to get to the IRS by Feb. 29, 2016(Form 1094-C for insured plans).

And if your company will be filing more than 250 or more returns for 2016, the IRS requires you to do it electronically.

But you do get an extra month to get those forms to the feds – that deadline is March 31, 2016.



For more HR News, please visit: Good news: IRS gives a little more breathing room on ACA reporting

Source: News from HR Morning

Bad things happen when you go easy in performance reviews

Bad things happen when you go easy in performance reviews

Performance review

“Oh, goodie! It’s performance review time,” said no manager … ever. And as a result of this lack of enthusiasm, managers can screw them up — royally. Thankfully, we just found something very handy to help them avoid screw-ups. 

Our good friends over at ResourcefulManager (we’ve told you about them before) recently put together an interesting presentation worth showing to your managers. It outlines the very bad — and often expensive — things that can happen when managers sugarcoat employee performance reviews.

Specifically, the presentation names ways — besides getting sued — in which easygoing reviews can cost you dearly (they start around slide 35 below).

The presentation below outlines what a sugarcoated review looks like, why it’s harmful, as well as the benefits of telling employees the honest truth (again, it goes beyond simply avoiding the courtroom).

Don’t let the slide count fool you, the presentation moves quickly. Managers will only need to dedicate about three minutes to it for them to understand the ramifications of going easy on under-performing employees.

How to have a difficult conversation

Of course, the problem stems from managers dreading uncomfortable conversations with employees.

Naturally, no employee wants to hear he stinks, and no manager wants to tell him he stinks. But it must be done.

By sticking to some do’s and don’ts managers can eliminate some of the awkwardness, take control of the conversation and achieve their objective — a substantial change in an employee’s performance or behavior.

Here’s a checklist we prepared that’s worth passing along to you managers:

Do’s

  • Do be specific about what you want. The mistake some managers make when shooting for a goal is using general terms.
    Example: A manager says, “You’re too laid-back. I want you to be more aggressive and proactive.” Nice, safe terms, but the employee ends up thinking, “What’s that mean?”
    Instead, the manager could say, “I want you to call five ex-customers a week, find out why they left us and report back to me on what they said.” That establishes clear goals.
  • Do let the employee rant — a little. Some people feel the need to blow off steam or maybe mount a defense, even a flimsy one, for their behavior. That’s OK. You don’t want them to feel like they’re on the witness stand and can’t ramble a little. If they think the point of the conversation is just so you can cross-examine them, that’ll just give them an excuse to throw up their defenses and refuse to cooperate. So let them go on for a while, and then steer the conversation back to the point.
  • Do use “we.” Try to get the idea across that the issue is a problem for everyone involved. That often requires saying something as simple as, “We have a problem” or “We need to change.”
    Then the person on the other side of the desk realizes the behavior is important and affects everyone – but without finger-pointing. In other words, focus on the problem, not the person.
    Bad example: “You’re too argumentative.”
    Better: “The continual arguments are hurting our productivity.”

Don’t’s

  • Don’t continually use “you.” Putting all the responsibility on the employee is a conversational black hole that’s almost impossible to escape from. The use of “you” — as in “You didn’t finish the job on time” — is an invitation to a fight. Contrast that with: “We need to talk about why the job wasn’t finished on time.”
    No accusations, no blame. Just a conversation starter that works.
    Let’s admit here that at some point you are going to have to use “you”; after all, we are talking about a specific person causing a specific problem. Just be aware that there are alternatives to continually using “you” in a negative way that kills the conversation.
  • Don’t use “however” or “but.” Some managers think if they lead with a compliment, it’s then easier to wade slowly into the problem. A symptom of that thinking comes out in conversations that go something like: “You’ve done a pretty good job, but …” and then the manager lowers the boom on the employee.
    People aren’t fooled by that approach, and in fact, it often gets them angry and thinking, “She can never just say something positive.”
    Consider substituting “and” for “but” and “however.” You’ll see how much smoother and positive the conversation can be.
    Example: “You’ve done a pretty good job, and we need to talk about how to get back up to that level.”
  • Don’t feel as if you have to fill every silence. In an especially tense situation, you’ll be tempted to fill in every silent pause. Stay silent when there’s a lull in the conversation, and obligate the other person to fill in the silence. You’ll be surprised by the amount of information you get without even asking a question.



For more HR News, please visit: Bad things happen when you go easy in performance reviews

Source: News from HR Morning

There’s no end to the strange stuff people put on their resumes

Admit it. You can’t get enough of those weird and warped statements applicants sometimes include in their resumes. Guess what? We’ve got another batch.  

This offering comes courtesy of Job Mob, which curated these astonishing entries from several different websites, including:

Job Mob’s collection contains about a gazillion listings, Here are our 25 favorites (in their unedited form):

  1. “Skills: Strong Work Ethic, Attention to Detail, Team Player, Self Motivated, Attention to Detail”
  2. “I’m intrested to here more about that. I’m working today in a furniture factory as a drawer”
  3. Hobbies: “getting drunk everynight down by the water, playing my guitar and smoking pot”
  4. Experience: “Stalking, shipping & receiving”
  5. “I am great with the pubic”
  6. “Consistently tanked as top sales producer for new accounts”
  7. “Planned new corporate facility at $3 million over budget”
  8. “I am a wedge with a sponge taped to it. My purpose is to wedge myself into someone’s door to absorb as much as possible”
  9. “Finished eighth in my class of ten”
  10. “Am a perfectionist and rarely if if ever forget details”
  11. “Reason for leaving last job: maturity leave”
  12. Job Duties: “Answer phones, file papers, respond to customer e-mails, take odors”
  13. Skills: “I can type without looking at thekeyboard”
  14. Experience: “Chapter president, 1887-1992”
  15. Languages: “Speak English and Spinach”
  16. Qualifications: “Twin sister has accounting degree”
  17. Accomplishments: “Brought in a balloon artist to entertain the team”
  18. Application: How large was the department you worked in with your last company? “A: 3 stories”
  19. Cover letter: “Experienced in all faucets of accounting”
  20. “Marital status: often. Children: various”
  21. “I am loyal to my employer at all costs. Please feel free to respond to my resume on my office voice mail”
  22. “I have an excellent track record, although I am not a horse”
  23. “Failed bar exam with relatively high grades”
  24. Candidate’s hobbies included sitting on the levee at night watching alligators
  25. “It’s best for employers that I not work with people”

Can you top these? Send ’em along.

 



For more HR News, please visit: There’s no end to the strange stuff people put on their resumes

Source: News from HR Morning