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Free Meals
HR Insight: Free Meals as an Employee Benefit? 940 788 LaDonna Kearney

HR Insight: Free Meals as an Employee Benefit?

Free Food in the Office as a Benefit

Want to attract and retain workers? Who doesn’t? Consider free meals. Company-paid lunches are a major perk that’s hard to pass up, especially if you’re a millennial. USA Today reported that providing free food to your employees can result in a 67% job satisfaction rate.

Let’s look at this a bit more deeply. Workers become less focused as lunchtime approaches, and they are starting to think about where to get their next meal and with whom. This creates a bit of a drag on productivity. But by providing a free meal at the office, you remove the distraction.

And how much will this cost? Providing a daily $10 meal to a full-time employee costs $2,600 a year, but you make up the price by having staffers get back to work sooner; a mere 15 minutes of their on-the-clock productivity before and after lunch every day and the meal pays for itself.

If getting employees back in the office in the first place is your problem, try offering free meals. Free breakfasts and lunches are one of the top ways that companies are luring workers back to the office. It may be true that the way to employees’ hearts is through their stomachs.

And let’s not dismiss the notion that eating together creates strong social bonds. You’re bringing together a diverse group and giving them opportunities to make connections outside their teams and departments. On top of that, offering healthy meals to workers who might skip lunch or instead go for junk food translates into workers with more energy and focus in the afternoon.

You may be nixing the idea of daily free meals, but even an occasional company-provided lunch yields results. Most workers see a once-a-week catered meal as a great perk, boosting overall job satisfaction. You may opt for free coffee and bagels in the morning, which works well too.

There are more meal options than ever — food delivery services and on-site pop-up restaurants — for providing meals to employees. A prepaid meal card offers access to a monthly meal allowance that can be used in local restaurants, on food-delivery apps and in grocery stores, offering your team flexibility and control while you monitor your program. You’ll look like a hero to your workers to boot.

Eating together is a way to build engagement among teams so people can get to know each other better. It encourages discussions and a sense of belonging. Productivity rises as workers save time because they know there’s food provided at the office.

It can work almost anywhere

Once only the purview of companies like Google and Apple, free food is something small startups have added to their list of employee benefits. Value? With employees spending less time away from their desks, you can estimate cost savings per employee at anywhere from $2.50 to $4.50 per day. How? Your employees can work for an extra half an hour every day.

Especially for knowledge workers, sharing meals and communicating more frequently help build a collaborative environment. Take those who write code, for example. It can take 32% longer without effective communication. Employees are more comfortable where there are trust and strong social bonds in the workplace. Breaking bread together encourages breaking down barriers and getting people to act more naturally.

Physical space is also a key to relationship formation — friendships develop during brief and passive contacts made going to and from home or walking about the neighborhood. An office cafe is a great place not only to facilitate that physical contact among co-workers but also to entice new people to come to work for your company — people really want to work at a place that cares about their health and wellness. Happy, loyal employees are likely to speak highly of your business to customers and to their professional connections, friends and family. Eating meals together helps nourish team members, literally and figuratively, and creates an environment of support for their efforts.

Of course, you may want to work with an experienced human resources consultant to help you customize a plan for your company. And remember that even if you provide this benefit, you still must abide by other regulations, such as rules for nonexempt employees.

©2023

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Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
HR Insight: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion 1024 858 LaDonna Kearney

HR Insight: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Exactly What Is Diversity, Equity and Inclusion?

In the workplace, diversity, equity and inclusion, also known as DEI, refer to the qualities and experiences that make each person unique and how employers can use those attributes to support business goals.

To truly understand diversity, equity and inclusion, you’ll need to break down each term.

Diversity

Diversity refers to the similarities and differences among individuals. It takes all facets of personality and individual identity into account.

Examples of diversity include:

  • Race.
  • Ethnicity.
  • Nationality.
  • Age.
  • Disability.
  • Sex.
  • Gender Identity.
  • Language.
  • Generation.
  • Neurodiversity.
  • Sexual orientation.
  • Religious beliefs.
  • Veteran status.
  • Physical characteristics.
  • Family background.
  • Socioeconomic status.
  • Life experiences.

Equity

In the workplace, equity is about ensuring fair treatment of all employees when it comes to access, opportunity and advancement within the company. To achieve equity, employers must identify and work to remove obstacles to fair treatment, especially for underrepresented and disadvantaged populations. This requires a keen understanding of the inequities in societal systems and those present within the organization.

Inclusion

Inclusion refers to how welcomed, supported, valued and respected each person feels as an employee.

According to the Society for Human Resource Management, “Inclusion is a two-way accountability; each person must grant and accept inclusion from others. In such an environment, every employee tends to feel more engaged and is more likely to contribute to the organization’s business results.”

“Diversity and inclusion” has its own acronym (D&I) because they go hand in hand.

Diversity offers the potential for more creativity and innovation in the workplace. In other words, when people with different characteristics put their heads together, great things can happen. But diversity needs a vehicle to realize its potential — and this is where inclusion comes in. Per the SHRM, “Inclusion is what enables organizations to realize the business benefits of this potential.”

In short, an inclusive workplace leverages the strengths of individuals from diverse backgrounds to effectuate positive outcomes. 

DEI: Not a new concept

From a workplace perspective, DEI is a relatively new term. However, the practice of DEI has been around for decades. A report by AcademyHealth says DEI can be traced back to the civil rights movement in the 1960s.

From the 1960s to the mid-1970s, DEI focused “on tolerance, meaning the acceptance of the integration of workplaces, schools, and communities.” Then, from the mid-1970s to the 1990s, the focus switched to multiculturalism and awareness of accomplishments by different racial and ethnic minorities.

In more recent years, the emphasis shifted to inclusion and equity to reflect demographic changes. As a result, DEI has expanded to include identities such as gender, religion, sexual orientation and national origin.

In the workplace, DEI initiatives should be adopted strategically, with a strong commitment toward all three components. Otherwise, employers risk “going through the motions” — a recipe for inauthenticity and failure.

©2023

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Cybersecurity - DOL Guidance
Cybersecurity – DOL Guidance 1024 577 LaDonna Kearney

Cybersecurity – DOL Guidance

Department of Labor Weighs in on Cybersecurity:

The U.S. DOL has cybersecurity guidance for plan sponsors, fiduciaries, recordkeepers and participants. The guidance aims to help safeguard an estimated $9.3 trillion in plan assets and pertains to employer-sponsored plans regulated by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).

Since ERISA covers retirement plans and health and welfare plans, you may be wondering whether the DOL’s guidance applies only to retirement plans or to all ERISA-covered plans.

According to Groom Law Group, “notably, while some of the guidance package is framed in the context of retirement plans, the guidance appears to apply to all ERISA plans, including health and welfare plans, as the underlying fiduciary responsibilities and obligations are equally applicable in both contexts.”

Ultimately, the guidance confirms that ERISA requires plan fiduciaries to mitigate cybersecurity risks and offers best practices in three areas:

  1. Service provider selection.
  2. Cybersecurity programs.
  3. Online security.

1. Service provider selection

This part of the guidance provides tips for choosing service providers with strong cybersecurity practices in place.

For example, before hiring a retirement plan service provider:

  • Ask them about their established information security policies, procedures and standards.
  • Request to see their audit results and determine whether those results are in line with industry standards.
  • Inquire about their levels of security and whether they have insurance to cover potential losses caused by a cyberattack.
  • Find out whether they have suffered security breaches in the past. If so, what happened, and how did they respond?

For more information, see the DOL’s Tips for Hiring a Service Provider With Strong Cybersecurity Practices.

2. Cybersecurity programs

As stated, service providers should have a strong cybersecurity system. The second part of the DOL’s guidance helps plan fiduciaries understand the components of a strong cybersecurity system. They include:

  • A formal, properly documented cybersecurity program.
  • Annual risk assessments.
  • Annual third-party audits.
  • Periodic cybersecurity awareness training.
  • Robust access control procedures.
  • A program addressing business continuity, incident response and disaster recovery.
  • A chief information security officer to oversee the cybersecurity program.

For more information, see the DOL’s Cybersecurity Program Best Practices.

3. Online security

This part of the guidance helps plan participants and beneficiaries who use the internet to check their retirement plans to lower the risk of fraud and loss.

The guidance offers online security tips for the following:

  • Registering, setting up and monitoring an online account
  • Utilizing strong and unique passwords.
  • Applying multifactor authentication.
  • Keeping personal contact information updated.
  • Closing or deleting unused accounts.
  • Being cautious of free Wi-Fi.
  • Being wary of phishing attacks.
  • Installing antivirus software and keeping it current.
  • Knowing how to report cybersecurity incidents, including identity theft.

For more information, see the DOL’s Online Security Tips. Also, help your plan participants protect themselves by informing them of the DOL’s online security tips. Finally, note that this is just a summary of the major provisions. Consult qualified professionals and the original DOL guidance for essential details.

©2023

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On-call employees
On-Call Pay: The Rules are Complex 1024 577 LaDonna Kearney

On-Call Pay: The Rules are Complex

Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, whether employees should receive on-call pay depends on whether the time spent on call qualifies as “hours worked.” If so, employees must receive at least the federal minimum wage for each hour spent on call, plus overtime for all work hours over 40 for the week. 

Whether on-call time qualifies as hours worked should be determined on a case-by-case basis. That said, there are some general guidelines on the topic — and it boils down to whether the employee is “engaged to wait” or “waiting to be engaged.”

Employees who are ‘engaged to wait’ must be paid for on-call time. 
The FLSA regulations at 29 C.F.R. §785.15 explains what it means to be “engaged to wait.” Basically, if employees are required to remain at the work site while on call, or if they do not have the freedom to engage in personal activities while on call, then they are “engaged to wait” — meaning on duty — and must be paid for the time spent on call. 

For example, an employee who is permitted to watch television, sleep or read a book while on call, but is not allowed to leave the work site, must receive on-call pay. Even if the employee is allowed to leave the work site but has to frequently take calls from the employer, on-call pay is likely due — since the calls do not allow the employee to effectively conduct personal activities.

Employees who are ‘waiting to be engaged’ do not have to be paid for on-call time. 
If the employee is “waiting to be engaged,” then he/she is off duty and does not need to be paid for on-call time. FLSA regulations at 29 C.F.R. §785.16 offers the following example:

“If the truck driver is sent from Washington, D.C., to New York City, leaving at 6:00 a.m. and arriving at 12 noon, and is completely and specifically relieved from all duty until 6 p.m. when he again goes on duty for the return trip the idle time is not working time. He is waiting to be engaged.”

Here, the employee has the freedom to use the idle time effectively for personal activities, and therefore does not need to receive on-call pay.

Note that under the FLSA, on-call pay applies to employees who are paid according to hours worked. This means you do not need to provide on-call pay to exempt employees who are paid on a salary basis, as these employees must receive a set salary that is not based on hours worked. 

This is just a general summary. The issue of on-call pay has many subtleties and gray areas and, depending on your location, may include state requirements. Seek legal advice to gain a full understanding of your on-call pay responsibilities.

©2023

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Happiness is a well-organized, outsourced HRIS team. 800 600 peepadmin

Happiness is a well-organized, outsourced HRIS team.

Will your employees be happier and more productive with a seamless, outsourced Human Resource Information Systems? Yes.

Ask any productivity expert, and they will tell you that employees who feel like they are being heard are the happiest.

It’s A Great Way To Save Money:

So what’s happiness worth to you? Probably a lot. Happy employees are productive employees. And productivity goes right to the bottom line. Especially with an outsourced HR team. You save all the overhead that comes with an in-house HR team.

Get The Right-Sized Outsourced Team For Your Company.

It hard to know up front what you need for Human Resource staff. You can easily under-staff or over-staff. Using an outsourced team will allow you to scale up, or down, according to your company needs.

Wouldn’t It Be Nice To Have One-Stop Outsource Help for HRIS. Payroll Processing, Software Cleanups and More?

That hard to find. Most HR consultants focus on the “soft” side of Human Resources. It’s good to find an outsourced HRIS team, who knows both side. Saves ramp-up time. Prevents accounting and payroll mistakes. Keeps everyone happy.

Call us at (310) 728-0389. You will be very happy that you did.

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How do you update your hris and everything else? 800 600 peepadmin

How do you update your hris and everything else?

Don’t Be Afraid Of Addressing All Those HR Issues.

Change is in the air. It’s the new order of the day. What you’ve been comfortable with for years in the past is no longer what will work. Coming up with ideas about changing your business is fairly easy. The tough part is implementing those changes so that they work with your company’s infrastructure. Consider HRIS management. It touches a lot of different areas in your company. Payroll. Accounting. Resource management. Financial planning. Addressing all of those touch points is a good project for an outsourced HRIS consultant.

Be AGILE. Make A Transformation Plan For Your Human Resources Information System.

At PeepTek, we are big proponents of using the AGILE method of help you deal with change. By applying the AGILE methodology to your planning, you can provide your change management team with a way to work together. Most people feel uncomfortable with a project that is radically new. A process plan using the AGILE methodology can give them a sense of control as they explore new ground.

Don’t Worry About Making Mistakes.

The biggest mistake is not making mistakes. Because if you don’t make mistakes. You don’t learn. And your company doesn’t progress. Be sure to account for mistakes, and how to learn from them, in the change planning.

Give us a call at (310) 728-0389. We are the outsourced HRIS specialists who know how to handle change.

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