Job Posting: Candidates Must Be African American, Native American, Hispanic/Latino

by Evil HR Lady on March 8, 2018

The State of New York is hiring a new intern for its summer internship program. Unfortunately, for a particular internship, they posted the job saying “Internship candidates must be underrepresented minorities (African American, Native American, Hispanic/Latino American) college seniors graduating SPRING 2018 OR currently enrolled graduate students.”

Let’s unpack this, shall we? Can you see what is wrong with this job posting?

Right. You cannot recruit only people of certain races. It doesn’t matter what your goal is, race must be irrelevant.

Clearly, someone pointed this out to the recruiters who posted this job listing, because shortly after one of my readers sent me a screenshot, the job posting changed to remove the references to race, saying only that the candidates must be graduating seniors or grad students. However, the description still says:

To keep reading, click here: Job Posting: Candidates Must Be African American, Native American, Hispanic/Latino

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Oops! Utah State Bar Association Sends Topless Photo to Every Lawyer in the State

by Evil HR Lady on March 7, 2018

Before you send out a newsletter to your entire organization, you should probably double-check that your attachment isn’t pornographic.

The Utah State Bar Association is currently “investigating” an incident where they sent out a photo of a topless woman to the entire email list. Matt Page, communications director, said that they are horrified and are investigating how this possibly could have happened.

Could it be that someone hacked them? Could it be a disgruntled employee?

Sure, but any HR person who has been around the block at least once knows the answer: whoever attached the photo had naughty pictures on his (just guessing the gender here) computer and accidentally attached one.

Look, we HR types aren’t telling you to keep your porn off the company computer because we’re mean. On the contrary. We want to stop you from embarrassing yourself, and your organization. We also want to prevent sexual harassment lawsuits. And we want you to focus on your actual work not, ahem, other things.

To keep reading, click here: Oops! Utah State Bar Association Sends Topless Photo to Every Lawyer in the State

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These HR Duties Have the Biggest ROI for Small Business Owners

by Evil HR Lady on March 6, 2018

When you have a small business, every task counts.

There are no jobs that can be cut, or teammates that can take extended vacations without being missed. Therefore, business owners tend to focus on the roles and tasks that bring in immediate money—sales, engineering, marketing—and tolerate the necessary administration side with an accountant or finance person. Because hey, money matters, right?

Then, the big human resources question looms. HR tasks don’t bring in sales and they don’t create new products, but every small business needs to handle the people side of things. And if you don’t have an HR person, how do you know which tasks to prioritize?

If you’re the one calling the HR shots, here are the functions that will give you the best return on your investment.

to keep reading, click here: These HR Duties Have the Biggest ROI for Small Business Owners

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YouTube Shows How Not to Do Diversity

by Evil HR Lady on March 5, 2018

You want a diverse workforce, but discriminating against any single group is still illegal. A lawsuit filed by Arne Wilberg, who worked as a recruiter at YouTube for four years (and five years in other positions), claims that YouTube set quotas, and told recruiters to cancel interviews with candidates that didn’t mean the company’s diversity goals. This meant that white and Asian males were rejected on the basis of their race and gender alone.

Sometimes people think that only minorities and women are in a “protected” class, but the reality is that every human on the planet is in a “protected class” according to US law. The law prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex and race, period. It doesn’t just protect people of certain races.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Google (who owns YouTube) will “vigorously” defend it’s hiring practices. A Google spokeswoman said:

To keep reading, click here: YouTube Shows How Not to Do Diversity

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Help Janet Find a New Job

by Evil HR Lady on March 5, 2018

Janet contacted me and asked for some help. We had a bunch of back and forth and she asked me to post this to my blog so she can get the input of my brilliant readers. So, let’s help Janet get out of a job she hates and into something she loves:

Janet: I need some guidance and hope you may help. Basically, I hate my job, I hate Mondays thru Thursday beginning Sunday nights!! I have had a LinkedIn account for some time, but never really pursued any connection because I really do not know how. I have a Bachelor’s in Business, Master’s in Health Management specializing in Human Resources and graduated with honors in Nursing school in 2013. All these degrees, I worked very hard as a single mother. My downfall is that I have not been successful in passing the nursing board. My frustration has been to the max. I have no motivations to study afraid that it will lead again to failure.

Currently, I work for a corporation as a Credentialing Coordinator making less than $32k. I have degrees and 17 plus years of experience in the medical field, what am I doing wrong? I decided to try a different approach and began searching for a career coach. I spoke to two of them so far and their costs are in the thousands. I literally cannot afford. I would like for my experience in healthcare, my degrees (pending my boards) that I may combine them all in a job position that is fulfilling, helps people, self-worth and allows me to have my confidence back not to mention earning the bracket I should be in which is $80k. My prior experience in trying to apply to hospitals, for example, have been failures because if I do not have a friend that knows someone in that organization chances of being hired are very slim. I am asking you to please guide me: where do I begin? I know I need to redo my profile on LinkedIn (but how)? My resume looks to be boring, how do I attract an employer? I don’t even know what job position to look for. I feel lost and frustrated not to mention overwhelmed.

Please help me.

Sincerely, Janet

Suzanne: So, what’s your goal? Did you want to work as an RN or did you want to work in more of an office type job?

Janet: For now office type, because I have not passed my boards.

Suzanne: Is that your goal? Are you working towards that?

Janet: Eventually, I would like a management position and once I pass my boards it may be used towards management as well.

In reality, I do not even know where to begin. Where I live it is hard to get hired in a hospital unless you know of someone. I currently work for a corporation and I was hired by someone that I knew.

Suzanne: Okay, the fact that it’s been 5 years since you got your RN and haven’t passed your boards is really going to hold you back no matter what position you apply for. Companies are rightly skeptical that there’s a problem with either your follow-through or your academic skills.

I’d emphasize that you got the nursing degree because you love medicine, but it turns out that you prefer healthcare management to hands-on patient care, which is why you haven’t pursued the licensing.

Janet: Attached is my resume in case you cannot see it on my profile.

I enjoy both hands on and administration, but the fact is I have no motivation to study especially coming home having the responsibilities and stress from work.

Do you suggest I remove the nursing from my resume?

What type position do you recommend or what area should I look into?

Suzanne: I can’t get it to open, but let me ask a couple questions:

Do you focus on things you’ve accomplished or tasks that you do? So, “Drafted guideline for….” instead of “Worked on guideline creation”

Do you use numbers when possible? “Supported 3 managers”

I think removing the nursing information depends on your ultimate goal. Even in healthcare management having hands-on experience is helpful.

Are you willing to relocate?

Janet: I believe I focus on tasks that I have accomplished.

I relocated from one county to another a couple of months ago. [Note: She is currently in the US and is a US citizen.]

Suzanne: Was that for your current job? Did they pay relocation costs?

Janet: I relocated because we bought a house and better community for kids. Also, many great hospitals and corporation are close by too.

When I lived in the prior county I was working at my current job for a year.

Suzanne: Same job, right?

Janet: Problem is that my department promised me that there would be growth, but it will not happen.

Correct same job.

Suzanne: And they didn’t pay for relocation, right? You don’t have any obligations for that?

Janet: No they did not. No obligations.

Suzanne: Excellent.

I’d do two things.

1. Focus on networking like heck. Any conference, any meeting, anything with other humans in your field that you can possibly go to, go to that.

2. Either decide to study like crazy for the nursing license and pass the test, or say, “well, that was great to learn but now I’m going to focus on this side of things.” Having it hanging over your head is adding stress that you don’t need.

Janet: I really appreciate your help! I have contacted a couple of people and not even one replied except you.

I have even contacted two career coaches and one was over $7500!!

Suzanne: You’re welcome! I hope you can find something better. I don’t know what a health solutions partner is, but I’d also focus on insurance companies. They tend to have more money.

Uhhh, $7500? For what? Gold plated advice? Does she guarantee a job that comes with its own butler?

Clearly, I’m in the wrong profession. I’m going to switch to high dollar career coaching!

I will also say fill out your LinkedIn profile to look more like your resume. That way if a recruiter sees it, she can see instantly what your qualifications are.

Janet: Will do. Thank you so much and if you want to add my case to your post my okay with that. I would like to hear from other’s have to say.

Suzanne: Sure! I’ll put this up on my blog and see what other people have to say. Probably go live Monday, if that’s okay.

So, what can Janet do? I did eventually get her resume to open and it’s way too long, so she needs to edit it down, but it’s not a bad resume. Somehow there’s a disconnect between skill and getting in front of a hiring manager.

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The Top 15 Companies in Compensation and Benefits

by Evil HR Lady on March 2, 2018

A good job isn’t just about a good paycheck: benefits also matter. (And, of course, being a pleasant place to work is important.) Indeed took a look at their data and crunched the numbers and came up with the 15 top rated companies according to pay and benefits.

They are:

  1. Costco Wholesale
  2. Kaiser Permanente
  3. Verizon
  4. FedEx Express
  5. Apple
  6. Capital One
  7. HEB
  8. ALDI
  9. Starbucks
  10. General Motors
  11. Publix
  12. Intel
  13. Boeing
  14. Microsoft
  15. AT&T

I find this list fascinating because it’s based on what people reported when they didn’t know it would be used to evaluate a company for compensation and benefits. The companies couldn’t target their programs to win points with the evaluators of a survey. It’s just raw data.

To keep reading, click here: The Top 15 Companies in Compensation and Benefits

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Survey: Most Companies Lack a Telecommuting Policy. Here’s How to Get Yours Started.

by Evil HR Lady on March 1, 2018

A new report from Upwork, a freelancing website, found that while nearly two-thirds of companies have remote workers, less than half have a telecommuting policy.

This actually makes sense, because a lot of the time telecommuting start informally. Someone asks if they can work from home for a period of time, a manager says yes, and nothing is ever formalized. Then everybody sees the first person working from home and other people start asking and getting approvals.

This is all fine and good until a problem happens and you don’t have a policy in place. Sure, the best thing is if you have only responsible employees who are completely trustworthy, but that doesn’t always happen. You’ll end up with someone who says, “You didn’t say I couldn’t homeschool my children during the workday!”

So, you need a policy. There isn’t a perfect policy for every business, of course. You have different needs and different clients, but here are five things you need to consider.

To keep reading, click here: Survey: Most Companies Lack a Telecommuting Policy. Here’s How to Get Yours Started.

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Insurance for Newborns and Growing Families

by Evil HR Lady on February 28, 2018

Having a baby changes everything. No, really it does. Even how employees use health insurance.

Your organization can take steps to help new parents navigate insurance for newborns. Here are some considerations to keep in mind as employees recalibrate their health care plan.

Maternity Care

Newborns are certainly demanding, but health care plans also need to look out for mom. Private health care plans must cover pregnancy. However, that doesn’t mean that your employees’ preferred doctor or midwife is covered. Encourage employees to double check eligibility before they need maternity services.

To keep reading, click here: Insurance for Newborns and Growing Families

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How a $608 Mistake Cost This Business Over $40,000

by Evil HR Lady on February 26, 2018

If you underpaid an employee by $608, how much should you have to pay to rectify the mistake? $608? $1216 to punish you for making the error? Both those things seem somewhat reasonable and, indeed, Precision Demolition paid the defendant twice his actual lost wages. But, they also had to fork over $41,333.70 in attorneys fees.

This was actually not what the attorneys asked for–they asked for $141,236.50 in attorney’s fees, $1,272.30 in nontaxable expenses, and $10,568.82 in taxable costs, and the court cut it down by doing some calculations based on what an attorney should be paid in the local area.

Is this fair?

Some of you may say yes, evil horrible businesses try to steal wages from unsuspecting and naive employees. Wage theft is the the idea that businesses purposely underpay employees, often by labeling them as exempt from overtime when the law says the employee qualifies for overtime pay.

To keep reading, click here: How a $608 Mistake Cost This Business Over $40,000

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Swiss Saturday: Moving

by Evil HR Lady on February 24, 2018

So, the Evil Family is moving. We’re just moving to a different suburb of Basel, but it means a change in town.

In the US, you pack up and you move. You change your driver’s license address and your car registration and all that jazz, but there’s no official reporting in and out.

In Switzerland, that is different.

Yesterday, I went to our current township office to deregister. I presented our residency cards and the woman disappeared for about 30 seconds and came back with a file folder for our family.

Yes, our town had a file folder on us. In this was all the immigration paperwork we filled out nine years ago. It had copies of our passports, the children’s birth certificates, our marriage license, and who knows what else. She clicked a few buttons and printed out a sheet of paper for me to review that contained all our pertinent information on it. Turns out or marriage date was off by one day in their system, but since she had the marriage license right there, I pointed it out and she corrected it.

I signed it. She signed it, stamped it, and gave me a copy and told me I had 14 days to register in the new town.

I then went over to the new town hall to register. There was a very nice lady there as well, along with a teenage intern who was clearly new to the job. He was adorable and I love the internship system here.

Anyway, I messed up because I didn’t have enough documents to register completely. While I had my husband’s residency permit, I didn’t have his passport or his insurance card or his work contract. She made new copies of all our permits and the passports and insurance cards for me and the children and gave me her email address to have my husband email her copies of his information. I also had to provide her a copy of our rental agreement for our new house.

The only thing this doesn’t do is change our drivers’ licenses, which we can do online, she told me.

She said that anyone who wants to can come in and get a print out of all the information on anyone in the town. If we’d like to have our information private, we have to tell her. I said yes, please, keep that private.

This isn’t just because we’re foreigners, by the way. The Swiss have to register when they move as well. Although, I doubt they have to present work contracts when they do so. (Switzerland doesn’t have at-will employment like they do in the US. Everyone has a contract.)

With this system, the Swiss know where everyone is, all the time. For foreigners like us, it makes it much more difficult to overstay your visa because you’re super easy to find. (The new town was able to pull our electronic records from the old town. This may be because we didn’t change cantons, so it might be a cantonal thing. I don’t know.)

I was fortunate to have a Swiss friend, whose first name is Lukas, which causes all sorts of hilarity, come with me. He does professional relocation assistance for his job, so he knows the ins and outs of most everything.

The whole process was quite smooth, but I don’t know how I feel about it. I know Americans would never stand for it, but it didn’t feel invasive. It was weird, though, that there was a paper file on us. Of course, the Swiss LOVE paper. They love it. Teachers rarely use email to communicate and still rely on 9 years olds to get notes to parents rather than leaving them smashed in the bottoms of their bookbags.

As for me, right now, I should be packing, but I thought this was infinitely more fun. The movers come on Tuesday and I’ve already packed 3/4 of the kitchen. My teen said, excitedly, “does this mean we get to eat junk from now until we move?” I said no, but the real answer is probably yes. Thank goodness for pizza delivery.

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