Category Archives: Office / HR / Employment

By Rose Miller
Each year, my team and I have a planning meeting to discuss the New Year’s challenges and HR trends. The focus this year is new technology and tools. My dad, an old world Italian carpenter, always said a person is only as good as his tools.
More employers are seeing the value of having an HR strategic business partner in their toolbox. In 2020, HR trends include:
Learning and training as a top priority
Hiring managers know a key retention tool is a comprehensive training program. Well-designed programs reduce turnover. Employee training programs generally cost about $1,250 per employee per year. Although this cost adds up, it is minuscule in comparison to the costs of recruiting, hiring and training replacements.

By JAMES MARCO
When we first meet a potential client, and find out that they are having “HR concerns,” we find that those concerns fall into one of three major categories along a continuum.
The first is the small company who has had someone, often in the accounting department, trying to do HR and payroll in addition to their regular job. This person finds out a few tidbits about all the laws and compliance in the HR world, and feels more than a little overwhelmed.
This is really the first step in the development of an HR function: ensuring compliance. Small companies often cannot justify the cost of full time HR expertise, and often rely on HR firms for this guidance. Help with compliance—handbooks, job descriptions, and policy development—are usually the primary needs of small, growing companies.

By Christine Graf

The state’s paid family leave program (PFL) is having a significant impact on some businesses, say those in the Human Resources field.

New York’s PFL has been in effect since 2018, but won’t be completely phased in until 2021. It provides paid time off for individuals to bond with a newly born, adopted or fostered child, care for a family member with a serious illness, or assist a loved one when a family member is deployed abroad on active military service. 

As of Jan. 1, New Yorkers may be eligible to take up to 10 weeks of family leave and receive 55 percent of their salary. By 2021, 12 weeks of leave will be offered at 67 percent pay. Weekly pay caps are calculated based on state averages. 

Gail Hamel, the owner of Lake George-based Hamel Resources, said the law impacts some businesses more than others. She is a human resources consultant who works with both large and small businesses. 

Thomas Kernan, vice president of strategic planning and general counsel with Stat Staff Professionals in Saratoga Springs was recently appointed chairman of the American Staffing Association health care section council. 

ASA is the professional trade association of the $161-billion U.S. staffing, recruiting, and workforce solutions industry.

In this role, Kernan will work with ASA and its board of directors to spearhead programs and services that meet the health care sector’s needs within the association. ASA section councils are composed of member volunteers who advise the association’s board of directors on sector-specific issues and design programs to meet the unique business challenges faced by those sectors of the staffing industry.

A seasoned business attorney and healthcare staffing professional, Kernan oversees the company’s legal affairs and collaborates with the company’s CEO on strategic planning initiatives including establishing company policies, priorities, and business development objectives.  

So much of today’s business literature focuses on culture, ping pong tables, juice bars, and other office perks. These are the types of things that are supposed to attract and retain talent.

The fact is, every company has a “culture.”  What is interesting, in many, cases is that management will often see the culture differently from line staff.  

Culture is not your mission or vision statement, it’s not found in those motivational wall posters and slogans seen in many office environments. Culture is not found in some grand proclamation from the CEO. And culture certainly isn’t found at a juice bar, cappuccino machine, ping pong table, or bean bag chair.

Culture is found in the daily interactions between staff, the interactions between management and staff, and the interactions of company employees with customers and those with whom you do business. Culture can be a competitive advantage for an organization.  

By Rose Miller

Who didn’t love Sinatra? Even if you didn’t grow up in his era of popularity, you probably still tap a toe or know a verse of “New York, New York” (not the Alicia Keyes/Jay Z version either).

But I can remember the last few years he was still performing on stage. It wasn’t the wisest choice. The voice was gone and the visual presentation not good. It can be painful to watch a person who is beyond their prime try to keep going well beyond the time to say goodbye.

I’m seeing the same thing in the business world. Both employers and employees who don’t want to admit it is their time to say goodbye. The problem has the same attributes to breaking up with an old lover. You keep at it, keep trying to make it work. You feel badly most of the time. Frowns replace smiles. A sense of emptiness replaces fulfillment.