September 2015, Page 2 Archive

The is likely one of the worst harassment lawsuits you’ll hear about this year. And it’s going to cost the employer in question a lot of money. 

A federal jury just awarded $17.4 million in damages to five former female employees of Moreno Farms Inc., a produce growing and packing operation on Felda, FL.

It was the result of a more-serious-than-usual sexual harassment and retaliation lawsuit filed by the EEOC on behalf of the women.

The suit accused two sons of Moreno Farms’ owner, as well as another male supervisor, of some pretty horrific and graphic acts of sexual harassment including:

• regular groping
• propositioning
• threatening female employees with termination for refusing sexual advances
• attempting to rape, and
• raping multiple female employees.

As for the retaliation charge, the three men were also accused of firing all five women for opposing the men’s advances.

The EEOC filed the lawsuit after first trying to reach a pre-litigation settlement via its conciliation process.

After a trial, a federal jury returned a unanimous verdict in favor of the five women, awarding them $2,425,000 in compensatory damages and $15 million in punitive damages. However, it’s worth noting that it’s possible those damages will be reduced to statutory damage caps at a later date.

In a statement released by the EEOC about the case, Robert E. Weisberg, regional attorney for the EEOC’s Miami District Office, said:

“The jury’s verdict today should serve as a clear message to the agricultural industry that the law will not tolerate subjecting female farm workers to sexual harassment and that there are severe consequences when a sex-based hostile work environment is permitted to exist.”

The EEOC’s statement also reminded employers that preventing workplace harassment through systemic litigation and investigation is one of the six main areas of focus outlined by the agency’s Commission’s Strategic Enforcement Plan, as is eliminating practices that prohibit individuals from exercising their rights under employment discrimination statues.

If your company is looking to take on or retain employees in any of these positions, get ready to pay more than you expected to. 

The following 20 jobs are far outpacing the national average for salary increases, which currently sits at 2.2%.

This list was compiled by job site Glassdoor, which provides job seekers with salary figures sorted by position, company and location to help them in their job search.

Glassdoor looked at position-specific salaries in 2014 and compared them to this year’s salary figures to find these 20 jobs for which pay is increasing the most (sorry, HR isn’t one of them):

1. Business systems analyst. Average pay in 2015: $83,300 — a 10% jump.
2. Security officer. $24,000 — a 7% jump.
3. Sales consultant. $49,008 — a 7% jump.
4. Pharmacy technician. $26,000 — a 6% jump.
5. Barista. $23,600 — a 6% jump.
6. Customer service manager. $34,780 — a 5% jump.
7. Certified nursing assistant. $25,000 — a 5% jump.
8. Financial analyst. $71,550 — a 5% jump.
9. Systems analyst. $80,000 — a 4% jump.
10. Research scientist. $85,000 — a 4% jump.
11. Programmer analyst. $79,638 — a 4% jump.
12. Personal banker. $41,861 — a 4% jump.
13. Branch manager. $63,500 — a 4% jump.
14. Research associate. $51,948 — a 3% jump.
15. Project engineer. $75,000 — a 3% jump.
16. Cashier. $18,000 — a 3% jump.
17. Cook. $20,000 — a 3% jump.
18. Web developer. $68,407 — a 3% jump.
19. Network engineer. $87,903 — a 3% jump.
20. Software engineer. $105,000 — a 3% jump.

This is a pretty good indication of how in-demand people to fill these jobs are. It also serves as a benchmark for your salaries — to make sure they’re in the ballpark of what candidates are expecting.

Glassdoor recommends its users use its salary tool to make sure they’re getting fair compensation. But employers would also be wise to use this tool to see what job candidates and workers are being told they should be making. This can help you prepare communications explaining why you’re offering more or less than a candidate or existing employee thinks they should be paid, should the issue come up.

Flexible scheduling options that allow employees to start their workday later may bolster a lot more than just morale.  

According to sleep expert and Oxford University Professor Dr. Paul Kelley, a traditional nine-to-five workday is only benefiting a very small segment of employees because that start time is too early for most people.

You heard that right — nine in the morning is too early to start work. Unless you’re in the 55-and-older demographic, Kelley says you’re fighting your body’s natural biorhythms by starting the workday closer to 10 a.m.

Optimal wake-up times

As reported in The Guardian, Kelley originally started conducting research to find out when school-age children experienced “true body awakening” and whether the starting time at most schools was optimal for those children.

That research uncovered the following body wake-up times for children:

• Up to age 10 — 6:30 a.m.
• Ages 10 to 16 — 8 a.m., and
• Ages 16 to 18 — 9 a.m.

From there, Kelley took his findings and estimated body wake-up times for adults. What he found: Adults lose sleep during the night and, as a result, don’t fully awaken until much later than the start of the traditional work day.

Then, around their mid-50s, people start to return to their 10-year-old awakening patterns, Kelley said.

Finally, Kelley drew some conclusions about why the nine-to-five schedule is still the dominant schedule of most workplaces: because it’s ideal for older workers — the employees who generally set the schedule in the first place.

Kelley identified the starting times that are most likely to translate to maximum efficiency for workers. These included:

• 8 a.m. (ideal start time for 50-somethings)
• 10 a.m. (workers in their 30s), and
• 11 a.m. (Millennials).

Flexible-scheduling bias

Of course, simply allowing workers to start work according to their optimal body wake-up times isn’t a feasible option for many companies.

Among other things, research has shown managers have a bias against employees who start their work day later than their peers. As HR Benefits Alert covered previously, a report by the University of Washington’s Foster School on flexible scheduling found that flex-time workers’ who work early hours are considered better overall employees by their managers than those employees who choose to work later hours.

This is the first report of its kind on flexible scheduling bias.

After conducting three separate experiments on managerial bias toward flexible scheduling, researchers came to the same conclusion: Managers view employees who start work earlier as more conscientious and more productive than their peers.

According to one of the study’s co-authors, Kai Chi (Sam) Yam:

Compared to people who choose to work earlier in the day, people who choose to work later in the day are implicitly assumed to be less conscientious and less effective in their jobs.

Based on the findings in this study, employees who choose to set their schedules to work later hours could wind up having their performance judged by factors that actually have nothing to do with their performance. And this type of bias could unfairly impact these workers’ pay and advancement opportunities.

Finding the right HR software for your organization is essential to implementing and executing a transition from the old to the new. Many software companies have focused on developing integrated suites that allow HR departments to track an employee’s entire life cycle within an organization. But there are so many HR software systems available today, how do you find the one that’s right for your organization? Software Advice’s team of unbiased experts has reviewed 125 HR software systems and they’re ready to help you narrow down your choices so you can find the vendor that will give you the best pricing on systems that match your needs.

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Learning Management Systems (LMS) software helps educational institutions and businesses better manage online learning programs. Using a LMS, organizations can create curricula to educate students and/or employees, and allow them to demonstrate competencies or gain certification in areas relevant to their role. Analytics and reporting functionality also gives organizations more insight into training or learning program success. If you need help making an informed buying decision for your organization, let the unbiased experts at Software Advice help. They’ve reviewed nearly 40 learning management systems and can help you find the vendors that best match your needs.

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Talent management is a hot topic within the Human Resources (HR) software market. This software category refers to two primary functions: the acquisition of new hires and development of employees. There are more than 100 different software solutions available to improve your processes of interviewing, hiring, onboarding and retaining employees. Let the unbiased experts at Software Advice help. They’ve reviewed 46 talent management systems and can provide you with free demos and quotes to narrow your search and identify the vendors that best meet your needs.

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When you’re trying to increase your managers’ effectiveness, a little divine intervention can’t hurt.  

OK, maybe we’re not talking about direct intervention from above. But we’ve got the next best thing: management advice from Pope Francis.

Nick Pipitone, writing on ResourcefulManager.com, recently outlined the Pontiff’s rules for getting the best out of an organization. Here’s a taste:

Patience is a virtue.  Things rarely happen as fast as management hopes they will, and bosses need to build some patience into their expectations. Take one of your firm’s initiatives and compare it to making changes in the structure of an institution as old and rigid as the Catholic Church. Your project’s a piece of cake.

Foster an open dialogue. Open communication can be a messy process, but then so’s every other aspect of human behavior. Pope Francis’ first move was to create the “Vatican Eight,” Pipitone writes. It’s a council of eight cardinals from churches worldwide. Their goal: Give advice on how to open up the church’s hierarchy.
The cardinals describe council meetings as â€œfree, frank and friendly” — can your managers say the same about relations with their employees?

Give employees ‘your blessing.’ Yes, we know — few managers are qualified to confer blessings on their charges. But what this piece of guidance really means is that managers need to make their employees feel valued — and protected. Loyalty breeds loyalty.

Other pieces of the Pope’s wisdom:

• Don’t micromanage
• Put the big picture before your personal interests
• Know when to be assertive and when to step back, and
• Stay humble.

Timely ideas

How do the Pope’s suggestions fit with the real-world workplace?

A recent survey from the Society for Human Resource Management cited the following:

• the top contributor to job satisfaction was “respectful treatment of all employees at all levels,” rated as very important by 72% of employees
• the relationship with their immediate supervisor was seen as key by 58% of respondents, and
• 56% said they strongly valued their immediate supervisor’s respect for ideas.

If you’ve got any employees who are logging serious overtime week after week, you’ll want to take note of how the court handled this case.  

Judith Dietz v. Workers’ Compensation Appeal was a case that centered around a Pennsylvania municipal water department employee, Robert  Dietz, who had a deadly heart attack on the job. Dietz was a 48-year-old field maintenance worker who routinely logged more than 40 hours per week and was always on call. He was also a heavy smoker.

Dietz’s heart attack took place during a 14-hour shift.

Long hours or smoking habit?

After Dietz’s death, his widow, Judith Dietz, sued her husband’s former employer for death benefits. The company tried to get the case dismissed arguing that it was Dietz’s pack-a-day cigarette habit and not the long hours and constantly being on call that caused his death.

While Dietz’s widow did acknowledge the smoking habit, she relied on the testimony of a cardiac specialist, who said what killed Dietz was his long work day performing strenuous physical labor, to make her case.

On appeal, the court sided with the widow and said that the long work hours were to blame for Dietz’s death.

As Judge Mary Hannah Leavitt stated:

The overwhelming circumstantial evidence in this case shows that exertion from Decedent’s regular work activities over the course of a 14-hour workday caused his heart attack.

That means the employer is on the hook for up to 60% of Dietz’s wages as well as another $3,000 in burial costs, under the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act.

Employee reviews are arguably the best opportunity an organization has to energize and motivate its employees. For many organizations, though, the process of scheduling, executing and documenting reviews can be incredibly arduous. Performance management software can help modernize and automate the process, but there are so many software solutions on the market, how do you know which one is right for your organization? Let the unbiased experts at Software Advice help. They’ve reviewed nearly 60 systems and are ready to help you narrow your search so you can find the vendor that’s right for you.

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