SHRMingham

Smile for the camera!

BSHRM is happy to welcome Stacy Higgins to our April and June meetings.

Stacy is a Professional Photographer with more than 12 years of experience in her field. She specializes in corporate photography and portraiture.  She has a studio conveniently located in Birmingham, Alabama and is also available on location. She has traveled extensively, and sells her art by private appointment. To view her portfolio and art, please visit www.sbphotographyonline.com.

Stacy will selling headshots for any BSHRM member attending the monthly luncheon. Anyone who purchases a headshot will receive their images on a disc shortly after the meeting. Be sure to sign up for the luncheons at www.bshrm.org. If you have questions about the headshots, please contact Stacey at [email protected].

HR and Social Media - March Meeting

The Topic: Potential Dangers of Social Media

Social Media has become a huge topic of discussion in the last few years.  Facebook has over 500 million users and they report that people spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook.  Let’s not forget the other social media sites people are using in addition to Facebook such as twitter and LinkedIn.  With the constant increase in social media users comes the challenge to manage social networking activity in the workplace.  This program will provide critical information such as why your company needs a social networking policy, ways you can enforce your policy, and the potential dangers and liability associated with social media and the workforce.  Additionally, recent legal social media cases will be reviewed.

Learning Objectives:   Learn why your company needs a social networking policy and what it should look like Learn how you can enforce the policy and monitor employees. Learn the potential dangers of social media and the potential liability.  (This will include liability from a recruiting perspective and employee use perspective) Learn about some of the recent social media cases and the outcome.

The Presenter: Gordon Blair, J.D., Ogletree Deakins

Gordon L. Blair began his professional career practicing general civil litigation, with a focus on commercial and employment litigation.  He also served as the associate general counsel of a publicly traded manufacturing company.  Gordon joined Ogletree Deakins in 2002. At Ogletree Deakins, Gordon still practices general litigation.  However, he devotes most of his practice to representation of employers in workplace-related matters, ranging from administrative proceedings to federal litigation. He routinely counsels employers on day-to-day employment decisions, conducts training seminars, and works to develop effective workplace policies and procedures. Gordon lectures to human resources personnel and related groups on topics such as the Family and Medical Leave Act and the Alabama Workmen’s Compensation Act.   Gordon’s principal interest outside of work is his family.  He and his wife have one son.  They live in Birmingham and are active in their church.  Gordon is also involved in historic preservation organizations, wetland and marine conservation organizations, and scholastic foundations.

The Sponsor: Wells Fargo

 Click Here to Register 

$20 Members & Guests  $25 Late Reservations  
The reservation deadline is Noon on Friday, March 4

(Please note:  All reservations must be cancelled prior to the deadline to

receive a refund or to avoid being invoiced.)

Sponsored By Location The Wynfrey Hotel Wednesday, March 9, 2011 Registration/Networking: 11:00 am Program/Lunch: 11:30 am 1:00 pm

$20 Members & Guests  $25 Late Reservations   The reservation deadline is Noon on Friday, March 4

April Meeting Recap

A special thanks to our speakers, Susan Bullock and Joseph Calvin.  Susan and Joseph are lawyers from Jackson Lewis and presented on “Preventive Strategies to Reduce Risk of FLSA Misclassification Liability”.

Top Takeaways:

• If you are concerned about FLSA compliance- the DOL wants to help… well, help your employee’s, that is! Effective April 1^st, the DOL launched it’s “We Can Help” campaign where focuses on every worker having the right to be paid fairly whether documented or not.  Check out www.dol.gov/wecanhelp for more information.

 

• A lot more attention is being paid to DOL issues and 250 more wage and hour investigators have been added to investigate, enforce the law and prosecute.

 

• Some wage and hour issues are that are being targeted include:  employees working off the clock, misclassification as independent contractors, and misclassification as salaried/exempt employees.

 

• The ten largest wage and hour settlements in 2009 totaled more than $363 million.

 

• Be sure to classify your employee’s exemption correctly under FLSA:  Professional, Executive, Administrative or Outside Sales to avoid big collective action settlements.

 

3 step approach to risk reduction on wage and hour:

 

#1. Make FLSA compliance important

            -Incorporate FLSA overall risk management plan

            -Train everyone

 

#2. Audit Pay Policies and Practices

            -Make sure your policies and practices are married to each other

 

#3.  Fix it!!

            -Call you lawyers and other HR people to help, if needed

           

 Moral of April’s meeting- it’s best to address any wage and hour issues before the DOL does!!

Editors Note: A special thanks to Kristen Knowles of Mailsouth for doing our monthly recap.

March Meeting

March’s meeting is extra special. We’ve partnered with Express Employment Professionals to host a morning session and lunch meeting featuring Jack Smalley. The details are below… 

The morning session will be “Lessons Learned From The Top 10 Leadership Mistakes.” The afternoon session will be “Top 10 Reasons Employers Get Sued, And How To Avoid Them”. 

About the Event:

Great leadership can move men, women and mountains but the Top 10 Leadership Mistakes can cause irreparable damage to our followers, our mission and - most importantly - our credibility. This detail and interactive session covers the following leadership mistakes with real life stories and examples such as:

- Mistaking Dictatorship Decision Making as Servant Leadership 
- The Failure to Surround Yourself With Diverse Thinkers and Mavericks 
- Too Much Talking and Not Enough Walking 
- Assuming Your Best Employees Require Little Recognition 
- Failing to Learn From Our Mistakes Thus Repeating Them Over and Over and Over 
- Accepting Mediocre Performance 
- Failing to Manage Conflict and Eliminating the Internal Damage It Creates 
- Getting Lost in Management Land Thus Losing Touch With Our Greatest Asset 
- Failing at Communication 
- The Greatest Sin of Leaders, “Failing to Mentor” 

About the Presenter:

For the last three decades, Jack Smalley has devoted his careerto the field of human resources. His experience includes executive-level management in a number of different industries such as oil, chemical, and packaging. Jack serves as a senior human resources consultant for Express Services, Inc. He provides human resource training and consulting for more than 600 Express offices and clients in the U.S. and Canada. Jack holds the designation of Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) with the National Society of Human Resource Management. In 2009, Jack had over 100 speaking engagements with 7,500 attendees and was also a featured speaker at the 2008 & 2009 National Society of Human Resource Management Conferences.

Jack will also be the featured speaker at the BSHRM luncheon at 11:30 AM. He will present the “Top 10 Reasons Employers Get Sued, And How To Avoid Them”. 

REGISTER SEPARATELY AT:  www.bshrm.org

Date: Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Time: 7:45 AM – continental breakfast; 8:30 – 11:00 AM - Session

Cost: FREE for first attendee from any company (yes… way!). $20 for additional attendees. Mail checks payable to: Express Employment Professionals, 470 Cahaba Park Circle, Birmingham, AL 35242 or pay at the door

Location: Wynfrey Hotel, 1000 Riverchase Galleria, Birmingham, AL 35235

CEU’s: Continuing education “strategic” credits are available to PHR & SPHR members.

RSVP: Call 205-981-11414 or email Bruce.Gouin@ExpressPros.com by noon, March 8.

 

February Meeting - Optimize your company

Hello BSHRM, for those of you that missed the monthly meeting in February here’s a run down of what you missed out on.

• Our platinum sponsor gave away gold, mattey, $100 worth of shiny gold coins. Don’t you wish you’d come now?
• You missed Melva soliciting for Valentines Day presents.  Happy Valentines Day Melva!
• Helen Rand, our VP of Education, has her little baby girl early.  Both mom and baby are doing wonderful.

Our speaker for the day was Dr. Amy Vanderbilt of Trend POV.  Dr. Vanderbilt topic for the meeting was Trends Affecting Your Talent and Workforce in 2010 and Beyond.  Dr. Vanderbilt spoke about Organization Optimization. She says to optimize your organization you need to perform an assessment on your staff.  Her assessment ensures the right people, with the right skills, are in the right position.  She says her assessment can also help find mismatches, you know the people that should be doing X but are doing Y and are miserable.

Dr. Vanderbilt also discussed the talent pipeline and how to grow yours.  She says you have two options to increase your pipeline after the Boomers are gone; grow your own or poach from your competitors. Her solution to grow your own is working with the schools, get them while their young so to speak.  Dr. Vanderbilt suggests visiting them in elementary school and showing them how fun the work is. Visit again in middle school and show them a practical application.  And finally visit them in high school and “show them the money”.  Following them throughout their growing years and caring about their well being will keep you fresh on their minds for when they start working.

Vanderbilt also spoke about the growing popularity of what she called “Short Certificates” as a means of furthering your education.  The BSHRM Leadership Academy is a great example as are short conferences and even the SPHR and PHR.

Our meeting wrapped up with the 50/50 SHRM Foundation drawing and a big thank you to all our February  sponsors.

Next month we’ll be back at the Winfrey for the monthly meeting.

Crisis in the workplace - Dealing with the media

Editors note: This post was originally posted on www.pseudohr.com on Thursday January 14, 2010

“If the worst were to happen at your workplace, would you be ready?” Wednesday’s BSHRM meeting was about just that, crisis in the workplace and how to handle those pesky media people.  Our presenter was Malena Cunningham, a familiar face to many in Birmingham as she is a former NBC affiliate anchor.

Malena suggested many ways for HR pros to prepare their companies in the event of a crisis. She referenced the local Healthsouth scandal as an example.  Many of the employees and nearby construction workers turned reporters during the days and weeks following the initial government raid on the Healthsouth corporate office.  Malena recalled many employees tipping off reports about mass layoffs and government officials being onsite.

Malena suggested, in preparing your Crisis Management Plan, to designate a handful of key individuals within your organization to speak with the media.  Train your staff to tell reporters “You’ll need to speak with Mr. Smith about that” and walk away.

Those key individuals need to be prepared as well.  One of the things they can expect, if the company is caught with its proverbial pants down, is the ambush interview.  You know the one, when the reporter appears out of thin air with an explosive question.  Train your key people to remain calm.  Malena suggests a calm response of “That’s a good question. Can I get back with you with a firm response?” or “Here’s my card, please feel free to call me later and we’ll discuss”.  Calm responses don’t make good teasers for the evening news.

Malena also suggests, contrary to some belief, making friends with reporters is not always the best tactic either.  Remember your friends typically know where you live. Malena admitted to telling her friends that if a corporate scandal breaks at their company, she’d camp out in their front yard until she got the interview.

Lastly Malena offered the advice of getting to know how the media works.  Understand their tactics, understand their motivation (getting the scoop), and train your key employees how to respond appropriately.

In response to a question about employee’s first amendment rights, Malena says that you can’t control an employee’s actions after they leave the company property.  While I agree with that statement in the basic sense, I’m not sure I buy the concept.  Train your employees on how to react to a crisis and train your key employees on what to say.

Have you updated your crisis plan to include dealing with the media?  How do you feel about employees contacting the media and spilling the company’s secrets either on the clock or off?

Editors note, again: April Dowling, SPHR is an HR Generalist in  Birmingham, AL.  She writes her own blog over at www.pseudohr.com where she likes to talk about leadership, HR, recruiting and anything else that comes to mind.  In her spare time, whatever that is,  April likes to read, write, and did we mention read?