“This was the best Virtual Summit I’ve even been to!”
“Such a great presentation! Thank you for this awesome experience.”
“The webinar sessions were so good that I wish there were more!”
This is just a sample of feedback from attendees at Paycor’s October HR & Compliance Virtual Summit!
On October 13-15, thousands of HR & business leaders attended the Summit to learn from industry experts. They walked away with actionable tips and timely advice around recruiting trends, compliance, maintaining a safe and healthy work environment and so much more!
Did you miss any of the live sessions? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. You can watch them on our On-Demand Webinars page.
In the meantime, check out our executive summary for a quick overview.
Maximizing Workplace Health & Safety During a Pandemic
Speaker: Kara Govro
As businesses reopen their offices and workplaces, employers must act to provide safe and healthy working environments. In this webinar, Kara Govro discussed safety strategies for offices, what to do if an employee has been diagnosed with COVID and what you should be thinking about with respect to sick leave policies.
Making the Workplace Safe
To prevent the spread of COVID at your office, Kara recommends focusing on personal hygiene and modifications to your workplace:
Masks
- Require employees and customers to wear masks
- If required for employees—whether by you, the city, the county or the state—you should provide the masks
- Have extras available for customers
- Make a written policy and enforce it
- Do not make employees enforce masking rules
Workplace Modifications for Customers
- Stagger customer flow
- Make areas “one-way”
- Mark the floor to assist with social distancing
- Remove furniture to reduce capacity
- Set up touchless pay systems and help customers figure out how to use them
- Provide hand sanitizer at the door
Workplace Modifications for Employees
- Allow people to work from home, whether part time or full time
- Stagger shifts if there is production work that allows for it
- Change seating arrangements—send people to empty desks and conference rooms, break rooms, unused offices, lobbies, courtyards, etc.
- If you can’t spread people out well enough, install barriers in open work areas with plexiglass and make sure employees are not facing each other
Four Key Steps to Take if an Employee is Diagnosed with COVID-19
1. Inform Employees of Possible Exposure
Employees should be notified of potential exposure in the workplace but should not be told who’s sick. Employees may not like that they can’t gauge their own risk, but the ADA requires this information to remain confidential.
2. Determine if Exposed Employees Need to Quarantine
These aren’t precisely defined terms, but the general rule is if an employee was less than 6 feet apart from a person with COVID for 15 minutes or more, they should quarantine.
Here are two examples:
Standing together on a production line – Quarantine
Sitting two cubicles apart – Probably not necessary
3. CDC Guidance for Disinfecting Areas Used by an Employee Diagnosed with COVID-19
- Close off areas used by the person who is sick for 24 hours, if possible
- Open outside doors and windows to increase air circulation in the area
- Wait as long as possible before you clean or disinfect
- Clean and disinfect all areas and items used by the person who is sick
4. COVID Leave Law Compliance: Check State and Local Law
- If you’re in a state or city with paid sick leave or family medical leave, there’s a good chance those have been expanded to cover COVID-19 (if they didn’t already)
- State and local leaves provide job protection and have anti-retaliation provisions, so that must not factor into future decision-making, such as whom to lay off
- These leaves will generally be in addition to what is provided by Emergency Paid Sick Leave under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act
To learn more, watch the on-demand webinar here.
Preparing for Change: How the 2020 Election Could Impact HR Leaders
Speaker: Amy Letke
HR is a heavily regulated industry and election years always bring a degree of uncertainty as those regulations tend to shift pending election results. In this webinar, Amy Letke discussed possible changes, examined the differences between the two administrations and provided tips for how HR and business leaders can prepare for life after November 3rd.
All information provided is non-partisan and based on facts. Content was collected from non-biased resources like The Wall Street Journal, Newswire and the candidates’ websites.
COVID-19
Trump
- Seeking “massive economic relief bill”
- Another round of $1,200 stimulus checks
- Support $1.5 trillion in investments
Biden
- Emergency paid leave – $1,400/week cap
- Interest free small biz loan
Job Creation
Trump
- Promising to create 10 million new jobs in 10 months and one million new small businesses
- “Keep jobs in America”
Biden
- Need for further government spending to address additional unemployment
- $$ to prevent layoffs at state level
- “Do what it takes, spend what it takes”
- Tax credits for new jobs, incentives to keep jobs in the US; penalties for offshore business
Wage & Hour
Trump
- Minimum wage up to the states, talked about a $10 minimum floor
Biden
- Increase federal minimum wage to $15/hour by 2026
- End tipped minimum wage
Healthcare
Trump
- Snuff out ACA
- Has a proposal to soon be released
- Protect preexisting conditions
Biden
- Pledged to strengthen and protect ACA
- Released plans for a public, government run option similar to Medicare
- Hasn’t supported “Medicare for All”
To learn more, watch the full on-demand webinar here.
Winning at Work: How to Help Employees Thrive in the Midst of Pandemic & Change
Speaker: Joey Price
In the midst of so much change in 2020, one thing remains constant: employees depend on HR leaders for support and help. But what happens when you throw virtual workplaces, shutdowns and uncertainty into the mix? For starters you may see a loss in employee motivation and productivity. According to Joey, in order to help employees win at work, HR leaders must create a winning environment and empower everyone to play their part.
But first, HR leaders need to understand the four truths about employee expectations at work:
- Employee motivation is not just internal (they want leadership, direction, barriers removed from climbing the ladder of success)
- Employees want to learn new things
- Employees work better when there’s less “friction” (think workarounds)
- Employees want to work at organizations they enjoy
To build a culture where employees are excited to go to work on Monday, not Friday, HR leaders need to help employees answer these internal questions:
- Do I enjoy working for this organization?
- Does my work matter?
- Am I growing personally and professionally?
- Do I get to challenge the status quo?
- Am I able to provide honest feedback without retaliation?
To learn more, watch the on-demand webinar here.
Predicting Post-Pandemic Recruiting Trends
Speaker: John Throckmorton
With the unemployment rate at 7.9%, the recruiting market now leans in favor of employers. More qualified candidates results in more applicants, and more applicants create more opportunities.
In this session, John Throckmorton covers the top recruiting trends in 2021:
1. Job Ad Videos
To reach a larger pool of applicants, recruiters are embedding videos into Facebook ads to promote job openings. With more than 5 billion videos watched each day, video is the #1 way to reach job candidates.
Here are some best practices for creating job ad videos:
- Keep the videos short (under a minute)
- Content should cover job responsibilities and qualifications
- Discuss the positives of the position
- Provide a link for them to apply
2. Pre-recorded Video Interviews
These are interviews conducted where the interviewer isn’t present to ask the candidate questions. They’re also known as one-way interviews.
How they work: recruiters pre-set the questions concerning a specific job and send candidates a link through which they can record their answers within a deadline. Once a candidate submits their video, the recruiter can the review and evaluate in order to assess if the candidate would be a good cultural fit and decide whether to invite them to a face-to-face—or video chat—interview.
3. Chatbots
While chatbots have grown in popularity as a customer service tool, HR leaders are now leveraging them for recruiting purposes.
Here’s how they can help:
- Answer questions about a job
- Direct applicants to career pages
- Build a candidate pipeline
4. Intelligent Screening of Resumes
More recruiters are using filters to prioritize resumes than ever before.
Here’s what filters can flag:
- Home location
- Job tenure
- Gaps in work history
- Matching key words
For more information on recruiting trends for 2021, watch the full on demand session here.
Creating a More Diverse and Inclusive Workplace
Speaker: Alissa Carpenter
In this session, Alissa Carpenter explains that building a diverse workplace is just the beginning. Inclusion and building a sense of belonging is where your organization should be headed.
Three Types of Diversity:
1. Demographic
- Race
- Religion
- Gender
- Age
2. Experiential
- Languages
- Where you grew up
- Places of travel
- Hobbies
3. Cognitive
- Diversity of thought
- Autism
- ADHD
Why Do Organizations Struggle to Build Inclusive Cultures?
- Leaders don’t want to lose their place in the hierarchy
- Businesses are afraid of offending someone—so it’s easier to do nothing at all
- There’s an unclear payoff to what inclusiveness can bring to an organization—not an immediate return on investment
How HR Leaders Can Help Employees Feel Accepted and Drive a Sense of Belonging:
1. Listen with Intention and No Agenda
- Make eye contact (In a virtual role, try putting a post-it note near your camera as a reminder to make eye contact.)
- Don’t look at your phone or get distracted by technology
- At the end of conversations, repeat important details back to your audience so they know you were paying attention
2. Team Building Events
- Virtual cooking lessons
- Virtual escape rooms
- Trivia nights
- Volunteering together
3. Be Vulnerable
- Share situation where things didn’t go as planned
- Share moments when you disagreed with an organization’s decision
- Share experiences that helped you learn important lessons
For more tips for building a diverse and inclusive culture, watch the full on-demand webinar here.
Managing the New Reality: How to Support Employees with Kids During a Pandemic
Speakers: Katherine Weber
The new reality of work has been a challenge for everyone, and that’s especially true for parents. During this session, Katherine Weber identified the many leave and accommodation laws that apply when an employee needs to take time off work due to unavailability of in-person school and child care due to COVID.
The ABCs of COVID Laws:
FFCRA
Effective until December 31, 2020, the FFCRA applies to private employers with fewer than 500 employees and most public employers.
This law includes two provisions:
- Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act (EPSL) – 80 hours
- Emergency Family & Medical Leave Expansion Act (EFMLA) – 12 weeks (10 weeks paid)
Both EPSL and EFMLA cover leave due to COVID related closures of school and care providers.
State and Local Paid Sick Leave
Many state and local Paid Sick and Safe Leave laws provide time off work to care for a child who is ill or whose school has closed due to a public health emergency. Check with your state or legal team to ensure compliance.
FMLA
The Family and Medical Leave Act applies to employers with 50+ employees. It provides 12 weeks of leave for an employee to care for a family member with a serious health condition.
Employees must meet these requirements to receive FMLA:
- Employee must have been employed for 12 months
- Employee must have worked 1250 hours in last 12 months
- Employee must work at location with 50+ employees in 75-mile radius
If you have employees who are parents, here are some creative solutions to support their work-life balance:
- Create or expand permanent remote work roles
- Create temporary “transitional” remote work opportunities
- Enhance flexible scheduling
- Expand onsite childcare and tutoring benefits
- Create temporary unpaid leave programs
For more compliance tips watch the full on-demand webinar.
Upcoming Webinars
Explore Paycor’s collection of upcoming webinar series. In addition to these featured sessions, we host weekly webinars on a variety of HR and compliance topics.
Legal disclaimer: The information presented during the Virtual Summit and this executive summary is not intended as legal advice. Please consult your attorney or advisors for questions.