How HR Staff Has to Think About Issues Every Day

How HR Staff Has to Think About Issues Every DayHow HR Staff Has to Think About Issues Every DayThe employee question seems simple, straight-forward, and should be easy to answer. Right? Not if your job is in Human Resources. Even the simplest employee question raises countless red flags for an employers HR team. Once again, you walk that five-pronged path. How do you satisfy all five stakeholders while treating the current employee fairly? Whats best for the employer? Whats best for the employee? Whats legal or required by a government agency? What sets theprecedent for future decisions about and fair treatment of employees? What decision will get you sued with all of the concurrent costs and aggravation? You cant make a decision unless the decision satisfies all five stakeholders to some degree. Is it really any wonder that sometimes its the employee stakeholder who suffers? Heres how Human Resources people have to think and make decisions to answer an employee question. Lets use the modification of this company trade show travel policy as an example. How HR Thinks, Makes Decisions, and Answers Questions The question supplied by a reader seemed simple enough. An employee, who travels on company geschftsleben to trade shows and other client darbietungs, wanted to extend his time in the event city by using vacation time. No problem. No problem, that is, until HR informed him of how the days would be charged against his paid vacation time. With sympathy to both HR and the employee, heres how an HR person has to think and make decisions. The employee traveled on Sunday to a trade show. (No problem with this travel time the company, by policy, that all employees understand, does bedrngnis pay weekend travel time for exempt employees.) The employee worked Monday through Wednesday at the trade show and wanted to begin vacation day use following the event. Okay, said the HR manager, Thursday and Friday are vacation days. No, responded the employee, on Thursday, I would normally travel back to the company since that day would be paid as part of my normal work week, it is not fair to make me take a vacation day to cover Thursday. Are you with me? HR Thinking and Decision-Making Starts to Roll Okay, says the HR manager, whose first inclination is to charge Thursday as a vacation day since the employee is not, in fact, using the day to travel back to the company. The HR person, rightly, does not want to have to make employee time-off decisions on a case-by-case basis, for employees attending company sponsored events. Checking with a couple of CEOs and another HR person, both decisions had supporters. If the employee welches expected to return from the conference on Wednesday and work on Thursday, then Thursday should be a vacation day. If Thursday would normally be a travel day, it would count as a work day, not as a vacation day. Under normal circumstances, he would travel back anyway and the company shouldnt penalize him because he exten ded his stay with a vacation. But, he has chosen not to travel back but instead to go on vacation, said the dissenters. That is not the companys problem and we only pay for travel time if the employee uses the weekday to travel back. Since we do not pay for any travel time on weekends and there is no such thing as a travel day, employees should only be paid if they are working. Plus, normally an employee, unless he was assigned to booth teardown, would be expected to travel back on Wednesday and report to work on Thursday. He could arrange to arrive late with his manager if his flight was red-eye. In that case, no question, Thursday should be charged as a vacation day. But, what has been past practice in the company? Are employees expected to travel back on Wednesday, if possible, or is Thursday the normal day of travel to return. Most employees want to return to home and work as soon as possible. So, they travel home on Wednesday if any flight is possible, rather than spending a ni ght hanging out by themselves in a strange city with nothing to do. This is also a private versus public employee sector question. If you are a public sector employee, often working under the negotiated conditions of a union contract, you expect such considerations as payment for every minute that you work. If not in direct compensation, a public sector employee expects comp time for hours worked and would expect to be paid for traveling on the weekend, too. This thinking is anathema to a private sector employer who expects exempt employees to get the job done and meet the goals. In fact, thinking like an hourly employee will impede your career and make you less valued as an employee. Here are some earlier thoughts about compensating employees for travel time. If the employee is an hourly or nonexempt employee, employers have to take into account paid travel time, plus hours worked at the trade show. When an employee is eligible for over-time, these regulations apply even on the roa d. (This is one of the theories about why nonexempt employees are so rarely asked to travel for customer events and training. The government regulations make their attendance cost prohibitiveor at leasta pain in the behind to account for and pay by employers. And, as much as these rules may inhibit the utilization of and career growth of hourly employees, HR sympathies are with the employers.) Considerations for the HR Decision about Trade Show Policy The next problem that HR needs to consider, in this case, is that many employees travel frequently for trade show and other company events. A decision made, in this case, has far-reaching ramifications for the employer and decisions about other employee requests in the future. Does HR really want to make these decisions on a case-by-case basis? At what point does work end and vacation begin? When the trade show ends at 4 p.m. on Wednesday? When does the brde plane leave for the employees home city on Wednesday evening? What if ther e is no plane on Wednesday? How much documentation and research will HR have to require in the future from other employees to ensure that company time off accounting decisions are consistent and fair? At some point, HR has to determine that a decision in favor of allowing this employee to use Thursday as a vacation day has too many ramifications for similar requests in the future. The employee will feel understandably unhappy. But, no one in HR, whom I know, wants to spend their work time as the HR time charge cop. The employee is choosing not to travel back on paid time he can travel back if he wantshis pay, and then go on vacation. Any other decision opens up way too big of a can of worms. One final thought for the HR person involves how employees have been treated in the past. Do employees generally travel on Wednesday night or Thursday? If Thursday, are they expected to show up in the office? If Wednesday night, how much of Thursday have they been expected to work? If in the nor mal course of business, hed come back Wednesday night, then Thursday should count as vacation. If in the normal course of business, hed travel on Thursday but be expected to also show up in the workplace on Thursday, then Thursday should be charged as a vacation day. Ah, its the first time youve ever encountered this question? Great. You have the chance to set the precedent and establish your companys travel policy and practices. You probably even get to add your decision to the employee handbook, so all employees know the lay of the land to guide their decision making in the future. HR Reaches a Solution How about this for a solution to the current question? How has the company handled employee travel to trade shows and customer events in the past? Do employees fly back that night and work the next day or does the company give them leeway and let them fly back the day after the event and report to work the following day? Determine what has governed the management of these pract ices in the past, according to several of your managers who are responsible for the employees who attend customer-facing events. Past practice will determine the use of a vacation dayor notfor the absence on Thursday. What if you discoveras is likelythat practices have been inconsistent across the board and no clear prior practice exists? Draw the line in the sand. Tell the currently asking employee, who had no rules to guide him, that he can use a vacation day for Thursday. Then Develop your policy,Add the policy to the employee handbook,Train employees who travel about the revised policy,Let managers know that management discretion will no longer guide employee travel decisions because the decisions have not been consistent and fair, andUse the new policy to make consistent, fair decisions in the future. Travel Policy Language for Future In a company where employees travel frequently for business, and especially if the employee group is large, itd be a nightmare for the compan y to make decisions on a case-by-case basis and the company could never be fair across the board. Documentation requirements for employees add an unnecessary burden. Nitpicking with good, contributing employees over minute time tracking is insulting and demeaningfor the manager, HR, and the employee. And, it defeats your purpose of trusting employees, treating employees like adults, and expecting employees to make responsible decisions within stated guidelines. So, depending on your company needs heres the policy recommended as part of your overall travel policy. (You have a whole lot of additional decisions for a comprehensive policy.) And, oh, by the way, if you only have a couple of employees who travel? Ignore all of this HR thinking and decision making. Duh Managers can make time accounting decisions on a case-by-case basis. Travel to and From Company Sponsored Events In (company name), employees frequently travel for business. Employees attend training or professional associat ion meetings, visit vendors and competitors, meet with customers, and attend trade shows and other customer interaction events, to name just a few examples. Because these events are often held at desirable locations, employees frequently ask to use their PTO or vacation time to extend their stay at the event location. In these cases, the company is responsible for the cost of employee travel including planes, cabs, airport buses, and necessary conveyances from the day the employee travels to the event until the employee completes company business at the event. The employee must account for each additional weekday taken off from work following the event as paid vacation time, PTO time, or unpaid leave with management permission. All costs incurred by the employee, or travel companions, for travel, food, lodging, transportation, and so forth, while taking time off, must be paid by the employee. The portion of the plane ticket, purchased by the company for the return of the employee af ter attendance at the event, or accounted for mileage, normally paid for the employees return by the company, may be used for the employees return home. The company will pay no additional expenses. The employee must account for each day taken off following the company sponsored event. Yes, this a long answer to the employees question about using vacation time to extend his company event travel. But, its a good example of all of the factors that HR must consider in HR thinking and decision making. Its not fun for HR, but its necessary HR thinking and decision making to satisfy the needs of the five company stakeholders. Dont you just hate HR jargon? Begin with the word incentivize.