Ask each participant to introduce themselves and summarize their business idea into 2 sentences.


people feel good about doing business with companies that treat their people well. And employees that are treated well do good work.

a recent study from the University of Warwick found that worker happiness led to a 12% spike in productivity, while unhappy workers proved 10% less productive.

While we are here to talk about HR, I believe that the external reputation of your organization is inexorably tied to the hope and passion people have for your company on the inside.

So the discussion about who to hire and how to retain them begins with culture -- the beliefs and behaviors that govern how people act in an organization.

We know through research that having just a few disengaged or incompetent employees can sow the seeds of negative culture and potentially ruin the performance of a whole organization.

Your business' culture is going to happen whether you direct it or not and changing culture is very timely and costly -- even more reason to start off thinking about these issues -- think of it as an asset and an investment.

Organizational culture keeps employees engaged. And when they’re engaged, profitability isn’t far behind:
1. Companies with engaged employees outperform those without by up to 202%
2. Peers and camaraderie are the #1 reason employees go the extra mile, not money
3. Highly engaged employees are 87% less likely to leave the company they work for

In today's world, culture can have a bigger impact on your employee engagement and retention than wages and benefits. Let's talk through some steps that you can take to build an authentic, engaging culture.

https://www.itagroup.com/insights/why-organizational-culture-matters-and-su...

The first step is to identify your mission and core values and walk the talk.

Be the person of example. Don't ask your employees to do anything you aren't willing to do first.

That requires you to determine what your culture is and is not. Knowing the is not is just as important as stating what it is.

Come up with behavioral descriptors for each value you define & articulate how those would translate into actionable behaviors at all levels.

Once you have clarity and alignment, then you have to ask assess if your vision, mission, and values line up with your HR processes?

The second step is building accountability.

You need to create performance objectives that hold not only you accountable for how you impact culture, but also your employees.

We have two sayings in HR: People do what you pay them to do & You can't change what you don't measure.

So if you say one of your values is to deliver outstanding customer service, then you better have accountability for that which starts with how you "serve" your employees.

Along the way, it may seem too scary/risky/costly but asking your employees about how they perceive and feel about the culture is the only way to assess your authenticity.

Remember, you can't change what you don't measure so you have to ask and respond.

Build an Engaging Brand
Marketing expert Seth Godin defines a brand as “the set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another.”

On the surface, that definition may summarize the decision for us to choose one brand over another, but the purpose of branding your organizational culture goes a bit deeper: it gets your people to choose you and your message over your competition’s.

A separate, parallel brand should be created to unify your organizational culture and to give your people a theme or concept to rally behind for every touchpoint, big and small, along the way.

What am I talking about? The difference between employer brand and talent brand. An employer brand is all about storytelling. It encompasses how you want your organization to be perceived and the specific messaging you use when sharing information about your company. Your talent brand is “the honest story of life as an employee inside your organization, as told by the employees in parallel with the company.”

While your employer brand can be shaped and honed by you, talent brand comes directly from employee experiences and feedback.

In other words, your talent brand is not what one website or channel says it is. Current, past and even prospective employees shape your talent brand through social media posts, review site comments, direct network conversations, face-to-face interactions and referrals.

This feedback from real employees provides a valuable touchpoint and reality check for you to make sure your employer brand accurately reflects employee experiences.

Bringing these two types of branding together helps you visualize the overlap between the way you view your brand and how employees see your company. This area of overlap can shed new light on where the heart of your brand actually lives.

Then you can use social media to show how your employees are living out your brand, give them recognition, champion them, build the relationship with them and, in turn, they build it with your customers.

Continual Communication & Consistency is your 4th step in building an authentic culture.

Your goal should be to build your brand into each and every person.

If you don’t spread out your communications across multiple channels, you’re missing a notable opportunity to fully engage with all generations. 

A mixed print and digital approach is the only way to go.

And, whatever culture-building activities and communications you choose, make sure to weave your organizational culture’s brand throughout.

Engage Tech
Social media and instant messaging now rival break room chatter in the workplace. Why not meet your people where they are already—on their smartphones?

With a central communication hub for your culture (think Facebook, but specifically for your people) you can share the latest events and news, all wrapped up in your message and brand.

But don’t stop there. Tie in elements of recognition to reinforce your culture. When managers and employees can reward and congratulate each other online for achieving set goals that align with your culture, including leadership, teamwork and more, you reinforce positive behaviors.

Following these steps can result in Company Culture Ambassadors

“(Your) first customer isn’t external, they are internal. So it's imperative to help them become a brand themselves, or a ‘brand inside a brand’…so they can have more impact for the company and for themselves.”

In other words, your culture needs to be embodied by people who love, live, breathe and champion it. Introducing culture ambassadors can help build that momentum.

When your employees have face-to-face interactions with peers who support the brand, they’ll experience the community in a more personal way.

So I hope I have convinced you that HR begins with you taking time to think about and develop an authentic culture for your business. If you are willing to do that, then you will have a head start on overcoming the 10 most common HR challenges that could impact your success.

Christine Pescatore, Mar 17 2017
https://www.modernrestaurantmanagement.com/ten-hr-challenges-that-may-be-ho...

The 10 most common HR challenges are these. What I'm going to try to accomplish from here on out in this presentation is to give you information that will help you with these challenges. Currently, the turnover rate as reported by the BLS is 76.7% (2018) for the leisure and hospitality industry which is the umbrella industry for food and beverage. Keeping employees, especially really good ones, is super hard and I don't want you making it even harder on yourself just because you don't have a good handle on your HR policies and processes.

While the industry is plagued with very high turnover, let's also consider predictions for employment growth. The BLS reported the 10 year (2008-2018) % change in Employment growth for Food & Beverage Serving Workers was 10%. This chart shows what the BLS is predicting through 2026. So between now and 2026, (read from chart)...

So, there is positive news for all areas except drinking places,

Where can you find employees that fit your culture

1. Employee Referrals
Set up a referral bonus system such as $100 for the referral that results in a job offer, $100 for referral that results in 60 days employment, $100 for referral after 6 months of employment

2. Social/Industry Network
3. Texas Workforce Commission
4. Online Recruiting (indeed.com; simplyhired.com; saccuca.org)

When you are engaging in the hiring process, think about everything as an educational experience. Today's workers want to be engaged and learning through their work. Go into the interview/recruiting process wanting to be a best-in class learning institution. One way you can do this is by presenting a list of everything the interviewee would learn in the interview – everything from how we sweep the floor to how we treat purveyors when they walk in the door. Make sure they understand that they can work anywhere, but with you they will get an education.

This is important to maintaining employees. WIIFM. When an employee leaves your business, it will cost you anywhere from 6-10 times their salary in rehiring costs. Keeping them begins with how you hire them.

Interview -- #1 selection tool
standardized list of questions will give you most accurate info for technical skills but unstructured interview will provide best information for soft skills

Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA)

Instead of:
How old are you?
When did you graduate?
When do you intend to retire?

Ask:
Are you at least 18 years old?
Are you old enough to do this type of work?
Can you supply transcripts of your education?
What are your long-term career goals?

Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA)
Citizenship
Nation of Origin
Instead of:
Are you a citizen of the US?
What country are you from?
Where is your accent from?
What nationality is your last name?
When does your visa expire?

Ask:
If you are hired, are you able to provide documentation to prove that you are eligible to work in the US?
Are you authorized to work in the US?

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
Instead of:
Do you have a disability?
Have you ever filed a workers compensation claim?
Do you have a history of drug or alcohol abuse?

Ask:
After reviewing the job description, “Can you do the duties listed in the job description, with or without accommodation?”
If a worker has an obvious disability or reveals a hidden disability, you may ask the person to describe or demonstrate how the applicant would perform job duties.

Must do:
Employers must provide reasonable accommodation to candidates who have disabilities.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 Color, Nation of Origin,

Race

A candidate’s race will usually be at least somewhat evident, but race related discussions or questions may imply a preoccupation with that factor.

Religion
Instead of:
What outside activities do you participate in?

Ask:
What professional associations are you a member of?

Sex/Marital Status
Instead of:
Are you married?
When do you plan to start a family?
Do you have children?

Ask:
Are you available to travel frequently?
Can you work overtime with no notice?
Can you work evenings and weekends?
When we check references/do a background check, are there other names we should look under?

Hire is contingent on:
1. Fair Credit Reporting Act
include disclaimer on application
provide a copy of rights
have job related reason for revoking offer

2. Drug Testing protocol
5 panel vs 10 panel
DOT vs non-DOT

Once contingencies are passed:
New Hire Reporting:
1. I-9 within 3 business days
2. New Hire report to State Attorney General Office
3. Veterans Report (VETS100)
4. Equal Employment Report (EEO1)
5. Affirmative Action Plan (AAP)
6. W-4
7. Texas New Hire Report
8. DOL Notice of Healthcare Insurance Marketplance
9. Notice of Worker's Comp (whether or not you have it)

Minimum wage = $7.25 per hour as of July 2009 or state specified living wage whichever is higher

City of San Antonio = $13.75 for civilian workers & USAA = $16/hour

Careerbuilder.com median food & beverage server hourly wage = $9.35/hr (nat avg =$10.00/hr)

Glassdoor avg food server base pay = $18,236/yr. (4% below nat avg); bartender = $20,446/yr (@ nat avg)

BLS.gov – Food & Beverage Serving & Related Workers May 2017 Median Pay = 9.81/hr

Food and beverage serving and related workers perform a variety of customer service, food preparation, and cleaning duties in restaurants, cafeterias, and other eating and drinking establishments.

Waiters & Waitresses May 2017 Median Pay = $10.01/hr
Waiters and waitresses take orders and serve food and beverages to customers in dining establishments.

Bartenders May 2017 Median pay = $10.43/hr
Bartenders mix drinks and serve them directly to customers or through wait staff.

Exceptions to minimum wage requirements:

Disabled workers (must be certified by area DOL),

Youths (under 20 years old) in their first 90 days of employment may be paid $4.25 per hour,

Tipped employees -

A tipped employee engages in an occupation in which he or she customarily and regularly receives more than $30 per month in tips.

TX = $20/month

An employer of a tipped employee is only required to pay $2.13 per hour in direct wages if that amount combined with the tips received at least equals the federal minimum wage. If the employee’s tips combined with the employer’s direct wages of at least $2.13 per hour do not equal the federal minimum hourly wage, the employer must make up the difference.

Overtime = 1 ½ times regular rate after 40 hours within workweek; comp time is not allowed in lieu of OT

FLSA requires employers to keep records for non-exempt workers on:
Employee’s personal information
Hour and day when workweek begins
Total hours worked per day and workweek
Regular hourly rate for any week overtime is paid
Total overtime paid per workweek,
Deductions from or additions to wages
Total wages paid each pay period
Date of payment and pay period covered

There is no standard form required for keeping these records, nor is there a particular time-keeping method.
Employers may use time clocks, written time sheets, or any other method they choose.

Payroll records must be kept for three years and the following supplementary records have to be retained for two years:
Basic employment and earning records
Wage rate tables
Work-time schedules

Payroll Taxes:
Social Security – 6.2% for ER and EE
Medicare – 1.45% for ER and EE
Fed Unemployment – 6.0% for ER only
State Unemployment – 2.7% for ER only

File tax reports
941 Quarterly Tax to IRS
940 Quarterly FUTA to IRS
TWC Quarterly wage report

Making offers in an At Will state
“conditional” offer of employment
offer BEFORE background check, physical, or drug test
No promise of continued employment

The employment relationship can be severed at any time, by either party, with or without notice, with or without cause.

The reason can be a bad reason, a good reason or no reason at all. With some important exceptions!

However, a progressive or positive discipline policy is recommended.

Discharging an employee needs to be documented

Don’t be vague when warning employees

Whatever policy you utilize, make sure You communicate it precisely and You follow it uniformly and not selectively

Make sure you constantly monitor your TWC online account in case a discharged employee files a claim

Top 10 Mistakes to Avoid with Handbooks
1. Taking a boilerplate approach
2. Not including all policies in the Handbook
3. Omitting Disclaimers
4. Crafting overly restrictive confidentiality Social Media policies
5. Not having an effective Anti-Harassment policy
6. Having an overly restrictive disciplinary policy
7. Not making it user-friendly
8. Failing to train
9. Applying policies inconsistently
10. Keeping Legal out of the loop

Some Issues to Consider:

Retaliation -- have explicit no tolerance statement

Harassment -- policy can be broad enough to cover social, non-work situations, business trips, and social media

LGBTQ Rights -- must provide same-sex married couples same health & retirement benefits as to other legally married individuals

Smoking -- have explicit statement including e-cigs

Marijuana -- even with changing state laws, can have a zero tolerance policy while at work; check with state laws when writing policy; no laws protect employees using while on the clock or coming to work under the influence; usually people with medical marijuana card have a disability covered under the ADA; dialogue with employee to discover the disability and then make accommodation for the disability not the marijuana use

Recording -- Employers cannot impose broad no-recording policies (NLRB, Dec 2015); possible exceptions include recording of trade secrets, patient medical info, customer info, financial intelligence, and some states require permission prior to recording for activity to be legal; if so, then managers could

In TX - only one party has to consent to be recorded for private conversations & no consent required for public conversations

Social Media Usage - no privacy while accessing using company-paid devices

Smart Accommodation Steps:
1. Create a written policy -- Include a disability accommodation policy separate from discrimination and harassment policies
2. Train yourself & employees -- Identify interactive dialogue and process including documenting info about the disability and options for reasonable accommodation
3. Make individual assessments -- Requests come in all forms & aren't always easy to identify such as when an employee says that he/she is having a hard time getting to work because his/her PT session. Courts would consider that a request.
4. Keep talking
5. Document conversations -- No conversation is too brief to be written down.

Medical Leave -- working while on medical leave can get the employer into trouble with the Family & Medical Leave Act; solution would be to cut off access to work systems