KPA Blog

Tip of the Month

May Tip of the Month: Accommodating Employees with Mental Health Issues

Wednesday, May 15th, 2013

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. Accommodating mental health can be a delicate matter. Note the following tips to avoid a workplace conflict over mental health:

If the illness hasn’t been disclosed, document any odd or poor behavior that may violate the company’s workplace violence policy, or if the behavior is affecting performance or operation. Always support your employee’s needs, asking open-ended questions in an effort to address any of your concerns.

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.

Tags: tips
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April Tip of the Month: Do a Surprise Inspection

Wednesday, April 10th, 2013

Compliance-Tip of the Month

What is the best way to avoid fines from an inspection? Be Prepared! Professional athletes practice to ensure on game-day they will be prepared. Having a surprise, simulated inspection by an Environment & Safety professional will give your dealership employees the practice they need to be prepared when an inspector comes to your facility.

Learn more here: http://www.kpaonline.com/thefifthvisit

Tags: Inspections, OSHA inspection
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March Tip of the Month: Use the Revised I-9 Form

Tuesday, March 12th, 2013

On Friday March 8th, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) published a new Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification. The form is available for immediate use by employers. Employers who need to make necessary updates to their business processes to allow for use of the new Form I-9 may continue to use other previously accepted revisions (Rev.02/02/09)N and (Rev. 08/07/09)Y until May 7, 2013 date. After May 7, 2013, all employers must use the revised Form I-9 for each new employee hired in the United States.

The revised Form I-9 has several new features, including new fields and a new format to reduce errors. The instructions to the form also more clearly describe the information employees and employers must provide in each section.

English and Spanish versions of the new form are available online at www.uscis.gov and I-9 Central.

KPA HR Management clients have access to the new Form I-9 directly in HotlinkHR. To learn more about how your dealership can stay up to date with state and federal forms automatically, visit the KPA HR Website.

Tags: I-9
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February Tip of the Month: Make sure your FMLA Posting is Current

Tuesday, February 12th, 2013

The Department of Labor has issued a revised Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) posting that includes important changes regarding the expansion of coverage of job-protected FMLA leave for families of eligible veterans and airline personnel and flight crews. Employers with more than 50 employees should make sure that they have the latest posting displayed in a conspicuous place where employees and applicants for employment can see it. In addition to displaying the revised posting, covered employers who have any employees eligible for FMLA leave must provide employees with the same information that is in the poster through an employee handbook or other written materials about leave and benefits.

KPA HR Management clients have access to the DOL model forms (valid through 2015) and the new posting the “Toolkit” section of HotlinkHR or may purchase complete sets of 2013 state and federal labor posters at http://kpa.theoshastore.com/shop-all-departments/labor-law-poster.html

Tags: FMLA. Family Medical Leave Act, hr regulations
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December Tip of the Month: Don’t Let Them Rig Your Lifts

Monday, December 3rd, 2012

Overriding lift safety controls can be crushing. Never allow technicians to disable lift safety controls by using bungees or other devices to block them open. An OSHA local emphasis program for automotive lifts explains why:

Automotive service and repair work in the automotive industry exposes employees to crushing hazards with the use of automotive lifts. These hazards can be effectively controlled through proper maintenance of the automotive lifts and effective training for the employees on inspection and use of the automotive lifts. According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, a total of 15,000 people were treated in hospitals for automotive lift, jack, or jack stand injuries during 2003.

While focusing on lift safety, watch for these five common hazards:

Unapproved hoist accessories
Missing or damaged contact pads
Vertical catch on above-ground hoists
Lack of training documentation
Lost owner’s manuals

Read the full article, Automatic Lift Review: Five Common Hazards that Bring Big OSHA Fines in KPA’s newsletter.

Tags: automotive lifts, general duty clause, lift rigging
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November Tip of the Month: Update Your Labor Law Poster

Thursday, November 1st, 2012

How often are you required to update Labor Law posters in the break room?

a) Every 5 years

b) Every Year

c) Every time State or Federal agencies change a regulation on the poster

The answer is C
State and Federal agencies are busy. On average, they amend around 200 labor laws annually. They can change labor law regulations at any time throughout the year- and often do without notifying businesses. These changes often require employers to update their labor law posters, which notably happened earlier this year when the NLRB required employers to prominently display employee rights.

Check your labor law poster and make sure it is compliant with current regulations. If you have any questions, call one of our labor law poster experts at 1 (888) 369-9013.

Tags: labor law posters, update
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October Tip of the Month – Check the Tongue Guards on Your Grinders

Monday, October 1st, 2012

According to OSHA, unsafe grinders are one of their most cited offenses. There are several common safety issues with grinders. This month, we’d like to focus your attention on the tongue guard – a small protective shield located at the top of the grinding wheel.

Each tongue guard should be positioned 1/4 inch from the wheel and the adjustment should be checked frequently. During safety inspections, we frequently find that tongue guards are missing or not adjusted properly. (See photo at right.)

The purpose of the tongue guard is to make sure that, if an object gets sucked up into the grinder, it doesn’t come back out at the top and hurt the operator. Serious injuries can occur if the guard is absent, or poorly installed.

Bench grinder with missing tongue guard.

KPA Resources – How to make sure your grinders are safe:

*This poster is typical of materials provided to KPA clients. If you’re not a client, you can request more info here.

Tags: compliance tip of the month, parts grinder, tips
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September Tip of the Month: Don’t Forget – Equal Opportunity Reports (EEO-1) Are Due Sept. 30

Saturday, September 1st, 2012

Compliance Tip of the Month This month, we’d like to remind our colleagues in Human Resources about a very important deadline: Submit Form EEO -1 to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) by September 30, 2012.

What’s EEO-1? This report tracks your dealership’s workforce by gender, ethnicity and job groupings. You must submit it if you have 100 or more employees, including both full-time and part-time. Companies with fewer than 100 employees must also file if the company is owned by, or corporately affiliated with, another company and the entire enterprise employs a total of 100 or more employees

Why is this report important? It’s the law. Avoid the hassles and expense of dealing with “show cause letters” or a court order (and the perception that you have something to hide in terms of possible workforce discrimination). Federal contractors who do not file an EEO-1 report will face complete debarment from accepting future government contracts.

How do I gather the data? Pull the information from any pay period between July and September, 2012. KPA’s HR Management Software clients can easily collect the data and create the report using our system, then upload it to the EEOC website. KPA clients, call us at 866-539-4718 if you have any questions.

For more information on the EE0-1 Report, visit the EEOC website.

Tags: EEO-1, EEOC, forms
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August Tip of the Month: When It’s Really Hot, How Much Should You Drink?

Thursday, August 2nd, 2012

We all know that drinking enough fluids is an essential part of staying safe during the summer. But exactly how much water is enough, especially when it’s really hot? And does it really matter what you drink, or when?

For employees who are physically active in extreme heat, KPA’s safety team recommends the following:

Drink about 4 oz. of water every 15 minutes.
Make it a priority to take quick breaks to drink – consuming small, frequent amounts of water is particularly important in extreme heat.
Drink even when you don’t feel thirsty.
Avoid drinks with sugar, caffeine and alcohol, because they can dehydrate your body. (Sorry, folks, but iced coffee lovers are out of luck.)

Basically, keeping yourself and your staff hydrated in the heat takes effort and planning. If you’d like to learn more, read these blog posts: How to Keep Cool, Heat Illness Prevention Programs and How to Manage Heat Exhaustion at Work.

Tags: OSHA
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July Tip of the Month: Don’t let BYOD (bring your own device) become LFYO (liability for your organization)

Monday, July 2nd, 2012

“BYOD” stands for “bring your own device,” the practice of allowing employees and contractors to use personal devices, such as laptops, smartphones, home computers and tablets, to conduct the organization’s business. The May 2012 Juniper survey shows that nearly nine out of ten business users, often referred to as “prosumers”, say they use their personal mobile device to access critical work information. This trend demonstrates a blurring of personal and professional technologies and creates significant concerns for management because it raises the question of liability. Many employees circumvent their employers’ official mobile device policies in the practice of BYOD, and the practice also leads to more frequent security breaches due to lost or stolen personal devices.

For these reasons and others, a thoughtfully drafted BYOD policy should:

Address ownership and control of business data,
Privacy expectations for personal data
Security requirements
Procedures for lost and stolen devices
Exit procedures
Consequences for violations of the policy.

Is a “NO BYOD” policy the answer? Perhaps, but consider that according to the same survey, 41% of over 4,000 mobile device users admitted to using their personal device for business purposes without company support, so having a policy addressing this issue is critical for reducing your business’ liability.

Tags: BYOD, company policy
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