Human Resources

From the HR Support Center: Can a non-exempt employee manage another non-exempt employee?

Yes, it is completely permissible for non-exempt employees to manage other non-exempt employees. In fact, employers are under no obligation to classify employees as exempt, even if they meet the criteria under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Employers may have an entire workforce of non-exempt...

04 March, 2019

Workers Must Be Paid for Breaks of Less than 20 Minutes

A federal appellate court has upheld a lower court's ruling that a marketing call center wrongfully docked employees for breaks of 20 minutes or less during which they were logged off of their computers and didn't have to perform any work related duties [Secretary United...

27 February, 2019

From the HR Support Center: Do We Have to Honor an Employee’s Two-Week Notice Period?

Assuming there is no contract or agreement to the contrary, you’re not required to keep an employee on during their resignation notice period or compensate them for the duration of that period. However, we recommend considering a couple issues before asking an employee not to...

25 February, 2019

From the HR Support Center: Can We Discipline Employees Who Don’t Turn in Their Timesheets?

Yes you can, provided that the discipline doesn’t involve withholding, reducing, or delaying pay, as employers are required to pay for actual hours worked regardless of whether employees have fulfilled their timekeeping duties. In fact, we recommend using a progressive disciplinary process when an employee fails...

18 February, 2019

From the HR Support Center: If business is slow, can we send employees home early?

Yes, you can send employees home early due to a lack of work. Exempt employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act (not entitled to overtime) would need to be paid their entire salary for the day. Non-exempt employees (those eligible for overtime) would generally only...

11 February, 2019

From the HR Support Center: Not All Salaried Employees Are Exempt from Overtime

Most employers have at least a few employees that they classify as exempt from minimum wage and overtime, but many don’t realize that they need to do more than pay these people a salary in order to make the exemption legal. Most employees that are...

04 February, 2019

From the HR Support Center: Should We Screen Social Media Accounts During the Hiring Process?

What do you advise regarding screening social media accounts during the hiring process? We strongly recommend against reviewing a candidate’s social media accounts during the interview process. By doing so, you could be exposed to information about the protected classes to which your candidate belongs. For...

28 January, 2019

From the HR Support Center: What Is a Hostile Work Environment?

Several employees have complained that one of our managers is regularly abrasive and rude, yelling at employees and sometimes insulting them. Could she be creating a hostile work environment? Possibly, but not necessarily. It sounds like this manager’s abrasive and rude manner has made employees feel...

21 January, 2019

Inclement Weather and Your Payroll Obligations

Hurricanes, storms, tornadoes, blizzards, floods and other weather-related disasters can cause inclement weather closures. But even if one of these calamities causes your business to close, your employees must still be paid on their next regularly scheduled payday if they did any work during the...

16 January, 2019

From the HR Support Center: Can we discipline employees for complaining about the company on social media?

We’ve become aware of a social media post by one of our employees in which he complained about his working hours and pay. The post was “liked” by several of his coworkers, one of whom commented “Preach!” and another of whom posted an angry face...

14 January, 2019