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VERITAS Information Tidbits
Posting the OSHA 300A Form |
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by Becky Kratt |
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Beginning February 1st of each year, designated employers must post the OSHA-required Form 300A, which summarizes an employer's reportable injuries and illnesses for the prior year. The Form 300A posting period is February 1st - April 30th. An employer subject to this requirement must post the OSHA Form 300A even if the employer had no reportable injuries/illnesses in the prior year. In addition to the posting requirement, employees with no fixed worksite or no access to posted sites must be provided with a copy of the report. |
What are EAPs All About? |
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by Crista Short |
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Are you having trouble communicating with your teenager, or dealing with a parent with a serious illness; or how about feeling a lot of anxiety due to moving from one home to another? These everyday problems bring a lot of stress to our lives when they occur. Maybe, you just get that feeling that something just isn’t right, and you can’t deal with it by yourself. When this occurs, did you ever think about calling your Employee Assistance Program (EAP) counselor? Sometimes just talking and having someone listen, is just what you need. Don’t handle it on your own, free counseling is available. If you find out that it is more serious, then more counseling sessions are always available. EAPs, as we know them, are so critical in today’s workplace. Not only for more severe problems, like alcoholism, eating disorders, or Domestic violence, but for emotional issues like grief and loss, family conflict, and career issues. Because of the instability of today’s work-life balance, most employers have an EAProgram. Many employees don’t realize it, but the program is strictly confidential. Employers only know the amount of calls that are made, not the names, departments, nor the issue of the services rendered. This is required by law to help protect those that seek help.
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Striving to Go Paperless |
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by Crista Short
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Have you made an effort to “GO Paperless?” It is not as easy as it may sound. There is actually a large industry out there that helps companies reduce their paper piles. Not only reduce the endless piles on your desk, but to actually increase efficiency. How many companies place boxes and boxes of files in storage? A lot. Why not take the money of that storage unit rental and put it toward a secure electronic document storage warehouse? This allows for multi scanning, storage and recall of any document you have. This is especially important for confidential records like contracts, personnel records and financial history.
Electronic storage is 10 times more secure than a file in someone’s desk, a box in a storage room, or in a hold box of an executive. Another advantage to purchasing a document storage software is several now have the capability of creating forms and moving them electronically throughout your company for approvals. Imagine...your president receiving an email asking him/her to approve a pay raise, by a click of a button, minutes before payroll has to be processed. A form that is accessed electronically, with custom fields and dropdowns, taking only a minute or two to fill out. In this process, you not only save storage space and the earth, but how about labor time? The time to fill out a form, walk the form down the hall (or even on the other side of town), approving the form, processing the form, storing the form, then having to look for the form when revisiting it. We are talking hours compared to minutes. Today, efficiency is key, as we see reduced staff numbers.
Here at Veritas Employer Services, when we bring on a new client we introduce them to our document storage and form flow software called Visual Vault. We customize their storage folders, their electronic forms and workflows for approval systems, automating their processes immediately and seamlessly. Access to the forms and documents are completely regulated by the client. These permissions are set up from the beginning, and can be changed at any time. For instance, a form for processing a new employee is accessed on the client's secured website, is then routed to a department manager for electronic signature, who then in turn routes it to the general manager, and or controller. All review, approve (or reject) the form, then it is sent directly to Veritas for payroll processing and storage into the employee's electronic file. All done in an hour or even minutes!
Veritas will also share files on Visual Vault with our clients, allowing them to view not only up-to-date payroll accounts and financials, but personnel files as well. Need to design a new form? Visual Vault and Veritas has that capability too. Just talk with a Veritas design expert by describing your needs and it is as easy as 1-2-3, at no extra cost.
So is it time for you to go paperless? Call Veritas today, to see how you can either start or improve your processes.
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by Amanda Tugman |
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How is your college internship program? Answering that question may be difficult, because asking an intern directly may not get you the candid response you are hoping for. The college intern is stereotypically eager and, “just glad to be here.” The fact is, the internship is usually a one week to 6 month period of time that is graded for credit; therefore needs to be organized and professionally documented, just like any other position in your company. As a modeled example, Disney has its own website allocated to internships, encompassing 18 different role paths. Organizing your intern’s tenure may take some time, but once you have it writing, it can be used over and over again with little tweaking. Here are some pointers to help you begin, or alter the program you have.
First, create a job description. We want the intern to know what we expect of them. As with your other employees, a description with their duties or expectations spelled out, is very advantageous. An intern is with you to find out everything they can about your organization; ranging from the big picture to some of the small details. They are making a life decision on what profession they are going into, therefore give them a taste of all aspects of your business. Set up a schedule to have them work in all your organization’s primary operations. Don’t give them mindless administrative duties. They are not a temp. Allow your intern to interact with all staff. Don’t just introduce them, but put them on a “shadowing” schedule. An intern’s schedule should be formal with dates, similar to a “manager trainee” program. Each department manager, or functional area specialist, should be aware of when they are responsible for mentoring and shadowing your intern. It could be as easy as splitting the interns tenure into the amount of areas that they need to learn about and work in.
Next, assign your intern a support supervisor. This person helps orient the intern into the company and is there for them throughout their tenure with any questions they may have. This supervisor, who will take on a mentor/coach role, should also be someone who gives the intern feedback. Feedback is vital during the course of the internship. This feedback should be formal and informal. Usually the college will require some kind of report or a performance evaluation at the end of the internship. The support supervisor should ask for this form early to allow for note taking along the way. Remember interns have asked to come to your company to learn about your industry. They should come away with learning a variety of skills, not tucked away in an office given repetitive tasks no one else wants to do. Broaden their horizons, and have them come away with a positive and educational experience. ·
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Why Train? |
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by Crista Short,
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When you think of PEO services, most likely the first thing that comes to mind is benefits and payroll. But there is another crucial area that your company should take advantage of, it is the training support. Developing your employees is, we know, an important part of our business, but unfortunately many times it is the first to lay at the bottom of our priority list. Why? Well, three main reasons: training is too much trouble to set up; it costs too much, and it takes up
time away from the job. If you look at these reasons in a cost-benefit analysis, you can easily justify why all types of training is not only important, but essential to your business. Let’s look at a couple of scenarios: When the company did an accident investigation, it revealed that Bob didn’t follow policy by having a second person hold the ladder and put it on an even surface. Both were against company policy. The case was thrown out, because Bob signed the training roster and the company policy on ladders which he didn’t follow. ··· Sue was a supervisor in a club restaurant. She did a lot of new hirer interviewing for her food and beverage director. An applicant who was interviewing for a server position, wanted to sue the company for discrimination for $80K. He claimed that Sue personally discriminated against him because he was a single parent and that is why he didn’t get the job . Now Sue, who went through training, knew the right procedures on interviewing, took copious notes and asked specific questions. One note she took, was that she stopped the applicant when he went off on a tangent about his kids and his divorce. Sue stopped him and said, “I am sorry, that is not pertinent to the position”, and went on to another question. Sue’s notes and questions were presented at the mediation and the applicant didn’t win the case, because of the policies and the training the company put in place. ··· As we see with these scenarios, training, when focused and applied, can save the company thousands of dollars in litigation. Especially when it is properly recorded. Veritas can help you in so many ways; from improving on your safety program, to hiring a professional speaker for a customized subject. All training can be recorded on an online database, and easily pulled up via the internet by supervisors.
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