The 2013 NADA Dealership Workforce Study is coming! Participation will provide you with prized information concerning workforce information on compensation, benefits, and more. Participation is easy and open to NADA and ATD Members at no cost. If you are a KPA Hotlink client, your representative will review this pertinent information with you!
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With daydreams about laying by the beach on hot summer days looming in the near future, comes the burning staffing question: are we going to need student interns who are on their summer break and (quite possibly more important) do we have to pay them?
As defined by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), internships with “for-profit” private companies are most likely viewed as employment (i.e. “suffer or permit to work), thus being considered non-exempt from minimum wage and overtime compensation requirements. However, there are a few circumstances where internships in “for-profit” private companies may be unpaid. The Department of Labor applies the following six criteria when determining whether an unpaid internship is legal:
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Last week we discussed the first four steps for preparing your dealership for the health care reform. Continue on to learn more about the upcoming changes in health care:
As the deadline for implementation of the newest set of rules related to the Affordable Care Act quickly approaches, dealerships are preparing. Kristin Kahle, of Benefit Exchange Alliance, provides eight steps to begin preparing for the upcoming health care reform.
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What is mindfulness anyway? Mindfulness has become the antithesis to multitasking; instead of focusing on many things at once, which can cause poor decision making and lead to confusion, stress, and poor communication, mindfulness includes calming and focusing of the mind, often through meditation and breathing practices. A 2003 study, and 6 week implementation of a mindfulness program, showed that 70% of participants took fewer sick days due to depression and anxiety. In the following 3 years following the study, absences for all health conditions were halved.
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Mental health issues affect roughly 25% of adults in the U.S., so it’s likely that at some point you will have a dealership employee who suffers from mental illness. However, accommodating mental health can be a delicate matter, as there can be legal implications if you handle the matter out of turn. If you assume an employee has a mental health issue, before it has been disclosed, and treat the individual as disabled, you are breaching the law. So what do you do?
There are a variety of ways to handle mental illness. Firstly, if the illness hasn’t been disclosed, simply document any odd or poor behavior that is violating the company’s workplace violence policy, or if the behavior is affecting performance or operation. Always support your employee, and be certain to ask open-ended questions about how they are. If the employee does disclose mental illness, make sure to follow policy: keep the information as confidential as possible and follow the obligations under ADA policy to accommodate the employee. Most importantly, is the employee looking for accommodation or simply sharing the information? Simply support your employee and their needs- accommodate their schedule and, if they desire it, provide them with any information they may need on an employee assistance program. Communicate with them and encourage them to work with Human Resources as they need to.
With the holidays fast approaching, employees and bosses alike are debating whether it is a good or bad idea to exchange gifts at the office. To avoid any confusion, hurt feelings, and/or embarassment, Ladies’ Home Journal has come up with a few easy pointers to make sure you are following proper gift-giving etiquette: (more…)
With Black Friday and Cyber Monday behind us, you may think that the chances of your employees shopping online during work hours are behind you as well. Think again. According to the latest CareerBuilder survey, 49% of employees plan to shop at work this holiday season with most planning to begin sometime after December 7th. (more…)
This excellent clip from the John Stewart show highlights a key issue employers face in making good hires. It is especially relevant for those employers who are committed to hiring veterans, but it also hits home for any employer who simply wants to hire the best person for the job.
A big disconnect comes into play when hiring mangers rely on route, standardized education and certification requirements in the selection process. Here’s something important to note about these requirements: When these recruitment standards are set purposefully high to weed out the “unqualified,” they reject everyone in the process, including people who be a real asset to the company.
Having a baseline of education and experience is a good screening practice. However, not having the ability to look at a candidate’s background and make informed decisions on equivalency will results in missing out on some great employees.
Related links:
Facebook Recruiting: How to Locate Hard-To-Find Dealership Talent [Webinar]
How online job searches worsen the job crisis
