Yes, you can tell nonexempt employees that they shouldn’t read or respond to messages when they’re not scheduled to be working. When communicating your expectations, it may be beneficial to investigate why these employees are checking email and messages outside their scheduled hours. How you handle the issue may depend on what’s driving it. Employees […]
Category: HR Q&A
Q&A: Can We Provide a Monetary Gift to Candidates for Interviewing?
Yes. You can give a candidate a thank you gift, monetary or otherwise, when they interview with you. We would recommend establishing a process for providing thank you gifts to ensure consistency and equity in determining who receives them. You could provide a gift when candidates reach a certain point in the process (e.g., the […]
Q&A: Can we limit which states our remote employees work in?
Yes. In general, you can determine work locations for your remote employees and choose not to hire or employ anyone in specific states. Business and operational costs as well as state or local employment laws may factor into this decision. If you do decide to limit which states your employees can work in, we recommend […]
Q&A: How Long Can Someone Be a Temporary Employee?
No. There are no federal laws defining how long an employee can be considered “temporary.” The time frame can vary based on an organization’s budget considerations and business needs. For example, an organization may only need to hire employees for an increase in sales over the holiday season or to cover the position of an […]
Q&A: How Should I Handle Harassment Outside of Work?
Absolutely. It is important to remember that not all interactions between employees take place at work, and these non-work interactions can ultimately affect the workplace, potentially contributing to a hostile work environment. For example, if an employee made threatening comments about a certain racial group at a social event and these comments were heard by […]
Q&A: What is Intermittent Leave?
Under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), intermittent leave is leave taken in multiple blocks of time, each less than the employee’s full FMLA entitlement, for the same ongoing reason. Examples of intermittent leave include an employee taking a day each week for ongoing cancer treatments or a pregnant employee taking leave as needed […]
Q&A: What do I need to know about religious accommodations?
Employers with 15 or more employees are required by federal law to provide reasonable accommodations for an employee’s sincerely held religious beliefs, practices, and observances, unless doing so would create an undue hardship on the employer. The need for a religious accommodation generally arises when an employee’s religious beliefs or practices conflict with a specific […]
Q&A: Can We Give Exempt Employees an Unpaid Day Off?
The Fair Labor Standards Act generally requires that exempt employees – employees who are exempt from the law’s overtime requirement – be paid their regular salary regardless of the number of hours they work in a workweek. If your exempt employees are otherwise working the week of the holiday, you can’t designate it as an […]
Q&A: What is PCORI filing?
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) created the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) to study clinical effectiveness and health outcomes. To finance the institute’s work, a small annual fee – commonly called the PCORI fee – is charged on group health plans. PCORI filing is generally not required for standalone, self-funded dental or vision plans if […]
Q&A: What is COBRA?
COBRA is short for the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985. It’s a federal law that allows certain employees and covered dependents to elect to continue their same group health coverage, at their own cost, when it would otherwise be discontinued because of a qualifying event. These qualifying events include termination or reduction in […]