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A question submitted to our Ask Me Anything sessions.

Key Takeaways: It is essential for small businesses to build a solid foundation for federal and local labor law compliance early on. Non-compliance means penalties, plus it often leads companies to miscalculate their true overhead, recurring labor costs and profitability.

Barak:
Let’s talk about the broader regulatory environment. This one comes from, presumably, a small business leader asking: "Do small companies really need to worry about compliance? What does that even mean? And what do I risk by skipping over this?"

Elena:
Yeah, don't skim over it.

Barak: 
First, what are we talking about when we talk about compliance? 

Elena:
Compliance covers all of an employer's employees and work location. So we're talking about laws and regulations covering your employees' pay, regulations, their safety while they're at work, privacy, data security…everything from A to Z that an employee touches, does, or says or hears, is covered by some sort of law or regulation. That sounds really big and scary, but it's not that big and scary. It's just a bit of a pain in the butt. 

You know, compliance is not the most exciting thing. When we're thinking of human resources and employees, we're thinking about getting the work done. But compliance is important for a couple of reasons. One, because the law says so and the government doesn't care too much about what we think, they're just applying these one-size-fits-all laws to everybody. Starting early really helps you build a solid foundation for your company. Two, it helps you establish the correct cost of doing business, especially with regards to how much your labor costs.

Barak:
It sounds like it'll catch up with you later, if not sooner.

Elena:
Yeah, being in HR, we like to be business partners and strategic, but sometimes we come with bad news. And in this case, the bad news would be, it's not a matter of if you will get caught, it's a matter of when. There are some really big topics out there that are pretty likely to get you on the government's radar. Categorization of your employees is a big one. Overtime is another big one. We're also getting a lot more claims that are tied to discrimination and discriminatory practices–sexual harassment or gender discrimination.

Marta:
Yeah. I also want to say that, I know the compliance topic is not fun, but, as an HR professional, I want to keep my employees and the company safe and avoid any liability. So that's also another way to look at it. 

Depending on your size, things are going to change. The leadership have a lot on their plate to have to worry about this. So it's good to have an HR person that can handle these things. Because this topic will be overwhelming for people, I like to explain that it is building blocks. The first thing is the federal law. The federal law is across the whole country. So those are laws that we all need to follow. Those are the first laws we need to take into place. What Elena was saying about building the foundation: It's good to start because more laws are going to apply to you as you grow in size. When you are up to 15 employees, you have to be worried about certain things. When you are at 50, you have other things. So this is why if you start even now, it's not as much because you are doing it little by little. 

Then in addition to the federal law, obviously, you have to consider the state laws. States like California, New York, Colorado are going to have a lot of state laws. You're going to have to get familiar with those or partner with somebody who can help you. And then even city laws like we were saying. Different cities are creating their own laws as well. So those are different things to keep in mind as you build your compliance. And I guess another thing, because I am an HR nerd, is even if you are little, create an employee handbook. It will be a great tool to guide you in knowing that you have the basic laws in place and, as you grow as a company, you can continue to add additional policies that apply to you. It will be a living, evolving document. If you have employees in different states, you can create addendums to cover those states. 

Barak:
You mentioned a second ago, Elena, that being non-compliant can actually mess with your cost structure. I mean, it can essentially lead you to charge the wrong prices for things. Can you say more about that? Because I think speaking to people's money always helps them pay attention.

Elena:
Yeah. There's quite a few, as you can imagine, but one example is overtime. So if you classify an employee as someone who is not eligible to earn overtime, you're using their salary as a cost of labor. But a couple of years down the line, you find out, or you acknowledge, that they should have been earning overtime this entire time. Now your costs are going to incrementally increase. If the person is working 10 hour days, 60 hour weeks, or what have you, you're going to have to pay for those hours over 40. That can become quite costly. If you're remedying that a couple of years down the line, now you've got to take into consideration the statute of limitations. So now you're going to the employee and saying, "I'm going to pay you overtime now," and they're going to ask "Why?" And you're going to say, "Because it's the law," and they're going to say, "What about the other two years?" And then, technically speaking, you owe them those two years, too, or whatever your state statute of limitations is. As you grow, and there are more employees, you only need two employees to create a class. And there you have it. You have a class action lawsuit of five people or hundreds, depending on your company. So it can be really expensive. The final caveat here is that employees' claims can be made directly to the government or directly to an attorney, and they don't have to be valid. So you can have an upset employee go make a complaint against your company and it exposes you. They'll see whatever else is going on in the company. So it can end up costing you a lot of money and really harm your reputation, too.

Barak:
Well, that last part is a good note. This is a pretty accessible lever for someone to essentially get you to pop the hood on your business. Even if this isn't the area where you're being non-compliant and everyone was classified correctly, if there's other malfeasance going on in the business where you're not totally buttoned up, all of a sudden they've got a clear look at how the business operates. So it's a pretty easy way to get caught, maybe for something else.

Elena:
Right. One more interesting thing to note is that if you are being audited by the state, whatever their results are, they share it with the federal government and vice versa. So if you get audited by one, they're going to share the information with the other. 

Barak:
Yeah. To your point about, essentially, how a business leader thinks about their cost of doing business. You want to start from a correct assessment of your true labor costs. You have these high profile lawsuits around worker classification at places like Uber and FedEx. These businesses have been figuring they can deploy a massive workforce for only so much money per entity, but if you’re fundamentally incorrect in your assessment of how that person ought to be classified, well, you've been charging essentially too little money for their services the whole time. 

Elena: 
Your prices are lower because your model is incorrect. 

Barak:
Right. There are ways to do that in other parts of the business, too. You can bring in the wrong experience level to do a job. And that leads you to think your cost of doing business is less than it is. So it just benefits business leaders to be proactive at thinking about this stuff early, so that they're not surprised to find out later that their margins aren't what they thought. It could be a difference in profitability by a couple of percentage points or could be the reverse, where you're actually unprofitable and didn't know it. 


Elena: 
Well, and another thing to think about, too, is in the event a company finds themself in a lawsuit and they end up owing money in the form of a settlement or they were found guilty of whatever the complaint was, the company insurance policies don't always cover it if it's considered negligent. Also, deductibles are really high. So, no matter which way you spin it, it costs a lot of money. And sometimes you're not covered. 

But let's do the right thing for employees. These things are here to do the right thing. Let's try and do the right thing as much as we can. It's not always hard. Start early.


Barak:
Yeah, that's right. The incentives are in the favor of people who are doing the right thing. 

Marta: I just want to say that Chambers of Commerce have good resources for free, just to have a basic understanding. The Small Business Administration, also, is another good tool for a small employer. So there are free resources out there just to get your basic plan. Luckily not all of these things need to end up in lawsuit or liability, if you do your homework. 

Barak:
Right. And I mean, this is a good plug for involving a human resource consultant such as yourselves, too. Sometimes the fact that you can do it yourself… there's a downside to that. Then you have to, you know, do it yourself. Sometimes it's actually more direct, and can save you time and mitigate risk by going straight to a professional.

Marta:
Yes. I didn't say that right. I always recommend going to a professional. What I meant to say is, if a business leader wants to get educated on some of these things, there are resources that can get there.

The content present in this recording and transcript is for informational purposes only, designed to improve your general understanding and does not constitute legal advice. Before taking any action based or relying on the content provided you should always seek legal advice from a qualified attorney authorized to practice law in your jurisdiction.

What does "compliance" mean for small business? What do I risk by skipping over this?

Key Takeaways: Before conducting a layoff, be sure to explore all other options as well as get to know the regulatory requirements for your state and company size. Plus, be careful your layoff doesn't disproportionately affect certain demographics. Be human-centered in your timing, communication and support of remaining employees.

Barak: 
The question is "How do I prepare for a workforce reduction?" This is coming from a midsize business leader. “Workforce reduction” translates to "How do I do a layoff?" Marta, do you want to kick us off here? 

Marta:
Yes, this is a very heavy, loaded topic. Unfortunately, sometimes it needs to happen. First of all, companies have to be thinking about if they have explored all their options to avoid having to go this route? 

Basic things to consider: Have you done salary freezes? It's not ideal, but sometimes that can help give you more time to figure it out, if you're waiting for new clients. Also, salary reductions. I know it's not ideal, but I have worked in some companies where leadership has been like that so we could continue to keep all our employees. 

Other measures, too, but sometimes there's nothing you can do. And the bottom line is not there and you have to think about a reduction in force. 

So the first thing, look at your workforce and just be sure that when you are laying off employees, that you don't have a huge [demographic] disparity–you’re not mostly laying off people of a certain race, age or gender.

The way you conduct the layoff speaks to the character and the culture of the company as well. I don't know which company it was, but there was a company that, the day before they were doing a layoff, they had a concert. That's not very appropriate, to be having a huge concert when you were going to be laying off people. These are things you definitely need to keep in mind. 

Also, talking about mental health and caring and offering extra support to employees during this time is huge. So both the ones that you're laying off–treat them with dignity–but also the ones that are staying. It is crucial this is done properly. 

Also, just be human-centered when you are having to have these conversations. Be clear and concise. I know people in some companies are like "Oh, am I being laid off?". And it's not even very clear if somebody is being laid off or not and that's horrible. Something like that could happen, and it has happened. Provide everything, when possible in writing. 

And then–this is more tactical but a very important thing–when you're laying off somebody, put together a good packet with all the information for this person. Let's say that you cannot use an outplacement service, but in your company you have somebody who is very good at giving you tips, interview training or writing resumes. All of those things would be a good thing to offer, plus information on job boards and other companies that are hiring. If your company provides benefits, providing them with COBRA notifications, how to apply for unemployment. If you put together a little package with all of this information for your employees, you really will help them. 

One other little thing is just timing. When you do that is crucial, you know? You don't want to be doing this on a Friday and then you are the HR person and they're like, "Oh, you've been laid off today, phone me if you have any questions,". And now it's Friday at 5:00, and I have all these questions that I don't know who to ask. So, don't choose a Friday afternoon. Don't choose a date that is close to a holiday where you're going to have a three day weekend. 

Also, after the layoff, just to be sure that there is a very good communication with your current employees and leadership–that's crucial. Like, “How are we going to be moving forward now?” Talking about morale and productivity, when you're seeing coworkers leaving that you have worked with for a long time. “How are we going to be moving forward and get energized again and continue to do our jobs?”

Barak: 
I really appreciate how thorough you were there. Is the layoff really the best strategy to accomplish these–essentially–financial goals that we have that's causing us to think about this in the first place?

I appreciate that you addressed the meta view on a layoff. If you're not careful, it can disproportionately affect a certain group of people, that then becomes part of the story of the layoff. You wouldn't know unless you make that analysis, right? 

I appreciate you talking about resources to share with employees as simple as resources that are outside of your company that you maybe can't sponsor. But, when you can, going the extra step to sponsor some of those career services resources.

And reinforcing your investment in your remaining workforce as the final piece of letting the folks that are still a part of the organization know how you plan to proceed, as opposed to pretending it's just business as normal, and of course it is anything but…

Anything you want to add to that, Elena?

Elena:
Yeah, one more thing about layoffs is that there are instances where you're required to offer the person you laid off their job back in the event that you need it again. So if you got rid of a position and then two months later, you're like, "Oh, no, we need that position back," there are times where you might be required to recall impacted employees. So that's something to bear in mind as well. And depending on the size of the group that's impacted, there are some regulatory requirements as well.

Barak: 
What are those size thresholds, just so that folks tuning in can understand kind of when they should start thinking about the applicability of that?

Elena:
They depend on your state, so some are 40, some are bigger or smaller. It depends on the size of your company as well. There are a lot of thresholds and levers and switches in there that are very nuanced.

Barak:
So check with an HR Professional near you.

Elena:
Give us a call.

Marta:
Yeah, and compliance applies here too. You assume you're in compliance and you're not going to have any liability but not if you don't follow the specific laws of your state or your city. So, we're never going to get away from compliance.

Elena:
I think one of the things that covers all of the topics that we just talked about is the way that we treat people. Our reputations can be affected by these things, but also the expectations of our society now is that we are more mindful of each other and ourselves. So I think that the repeating theme here is to just remember we're humans. Treat everybody respectfully coming into the company and leaving the company as well. Some of these people end up being your clients some day. Sometimes they end up being mutual friends down the line, or I've seen very many times they end up being your boss someday. So be good to people.

Barak:
That's a great note to end on. Marta, any closing remarks?


Marta: Just like Elena, I will say, everything relates. People are at the center of everything. You want to be sure that, from the time you are engaging somebody to work in your company, during the time that they work in your company and you're dealing with them, from the time they leave, always care for your employees: your employees, your managers, leaders–the whole company from the beginning to the end. 

Even if you are doing a layoff, one of the most difficult things that you have to do in the workplace, just being able to say "I did everything I could for that person" makes you feel good. 

Elena: 
Humans are complicated, but we're humans when we're at home and we're humans when we're at work. Employers have to deal with that.


Marta: 
Keep the human in human resources.

How do I prepare for a workforce reduction (“layoffs”)?

Key Takeaway: There are lots of really accessible things you can do to support mental health. Some of which you might already be doing!

Barak: 
Mental health is a nice big picture topic. It gets into aspects of law and policy but also culture and how we're thinking of our employees holistically. So the question here is, "I want to be considerate of my employees mental health. What are some things I should be thinking about?". Let's have Marta to kick us off.


Marta:
Yeah. Well, mental health is my favorite topic and I think it's a favorite topic of a lot of people these days. I think mental health is needed, whether a company is doing good or whether a company is not doing good. We all need good mental health. In the workplace, it helps with improved productivity, retention, attracting talent. Any topic is related to mental health, you know? 

Depending on the size of the company, obviously the strategy that you're going to implement is going to be different. 

Let's just say you are a small company. You're like, "What is this whole thing? The buzzword of mental health? What do I do?". I just say to these people: Don't be afraid to start small. You can just start by having one-on-one interviews. Within one-on-one interviews, just asking "What are the things you need?”. Do an analysis of your workforce to understand the needs of the company. Every company is a little different, not only in size but also the population. Do you have a young population in the workplace, more millennial? All of those things you're going to have to keep in mind. So that's the first thing. 

Look at your resources. Sometimes you might even already do some things related to mental health that you don't even know that you're already doing. For example, if you are a small company, you're not yet offering benefits. Even if you're just providing an employee some PTO, that's kind of related to mental health. You might already be doing that. You maybe don't call it a mental health day but you're giving them additional time off. So that could be a good thing. When we talk about resources, it could include an employee assistance program. We can go on and on, on this topic.

Then, start to have a conversation about the stigma of mental health because everything starts with that–open communication and conversation. Once you assess where your company is at, then you can start to decide and implement a few things. You can take baby steps. Maybe you want to implement one thing a year, and then from there you can measure those things and report and see what you're finding. 


Barak: 
Let me just make sure I got all that. So we're talking about considering who is in your employee group: What are their demographics, what are their needs? Some of that's just making sure you're contextualizing some of these solutions to the actual people in front of you as opposed to treating this like some template from some professional services organization and applying it indiscriminately. 

I think the good news I heard in what you said is that there's actually lots of really accessible things you can do to support mental health, some of which you might already be doing. That was a helpful reframe, just now, to be thinking about this not just as a buzzword with a list of things attached to it but to think, "How can I truly serve my employees' mental health?" almost regardless of tool or program. "What might I already be doing?" So that was the good news. 

The third thing I heard you say was, involve your employees in the solution. As a leader, start communicating your own intention to serve this part of your workforce. You can start that conversation and help your employees identify what's already in place to support that and open communication for them to make suggestions or tell you how it's going.

Marta:
Absolutely.



Barak: 
Elena, you want to add anything to that?

Elena:
Yeah, Marta actually talked about stigma and I think that that's probably the biggest barrier to creating a positive and healthy mental environment for your employees. I think a lot of times we look at people who come forward as not great performers but, in all reality, 92% of employees have experienced mental health challenges that have impacted their work. Another study by the American Psychological Association said 80% of workers are looking at that with regards to their job opportunities. So they're using that as one of the criteria for saying yes or no to jobs. So it's here. It's a fact. The good news is, creating a psychologically safe environment doesn't necessarily cost a ton of money. It's that authenticity. And, like Barak said, the intent behind it. 

Marta:
Yes, I totally agree with you.

Barak:
Well, that reminds me of something you said at the top, Marta. If you think about the life cycle of an employee and the efforts that exist to support each of those phases, you're going from staffing planning to talent acquisition to employee engagement and retention, mental health awareness really speaks to all parts of those process. Not just, "Hey, you're getting paid this salary. We get happy hours on Thursdays. Oh, and by the way, we subscribe to a mental health app". It would be easy to think that that's just what we're talking about, that we're thinking about this as a benefit that has to do with total rewards and compensation. But you're saying that this actually informs how you're facilitating your entire employee experience and life cycle. Do I have that right?

Marta:
Yes, exactly. To offer the incentive and some of the benefits–everybody likes that. But I think mental health is bigger than that, you know? The number one reason people have to take time off these days is related to stress and anxiety. So all of those things are things are not going away. Also because of the way we work these days. Since the pandemic and COVID, there was a huge spike of mental health issues. We were totally out of our comfort zone and then we were working from home and then we all had to pack our things and work remotely. So it changed a lot, the way we work. I think this is why this is a bigger topic because people now want to feel comfortable in a company where they can have this conversation and it's not a taboo like it was before. Like if you are sick and you go to the doctor, everybody is like, "Oh, I hope you're doing well…". But if you need a referral to see a specialist for something related to mental health, we're not as comfortable and open to discuss those things. But that is something in the workplace and we have to support our employees. 

Elena:
Yeah. So you add it into your policy, and you hold leaders accountable for supporting their teams. You have to keep it alive. So it's not, like you said, they're offering an app during onboarding and saying, "Hey, here's this app. You can log in and do mindfulness or meditate". It's about incorporating these points into all aspects of your work, whether that's your processes, your hierarchy, your benefit plans. It's to keep it alive and blended into everything that you do.
 

Marta:
Yeah, its in the whole employee cycle. You need to keep this in the whole employee cycle. Even in the recruiting stage, when people are applying for jobs, they are going to say, "What is your stance as a company on this topic?" And they're going to ask you those questions. So it's a good thing to be prepared for that.

Looking for more resources on employee engagement? You might be interested in: 
Hire Once: 3 Strategies to Reduce Employee Turnover Anyone Can Use

Citations:
*   Workable    
** American Psychological Association

Disclaimer:

I want to be considerate of my employees mental health. What are some things I should be thinking about?

A running summary of questions submitted to our Ask Me Anything sessions.

I want to be considerate of my employees mental health. What are some things I should be thinking about?



What do pay transparency laws mean for me?



Do small companies really need to worry about “compliance”? What does that even mean? And what do I risk by skimming over this?



How do I prepare for a workforce reduction (“layoffs”)?


Note: This is a new type of resource offering. We'll update this page with more answers following future AMA sessions. 
For alerts about new content, sign up for our emails or follow us on LinkedIn.

Most recently an HR business partner across multiple divisions of Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG) including PMK and Universal McCann, Elena’s industry experience spans Professional Services, Construction, Commercial Real Estate, Technology, Entertainment and Marketing. Learn more about Elena here.

Most recently an HR business partner with Omnicom-owned agency, Integer Group, Marta’s industry experience spans Manufacturing, Non-profit, Technology, Marketing and Advertising. Learn more about Marta here.

Your HR & People Ops Questions. Answered.

Key Takeaway: As competition for talent remains strong, it might be necessary for some companies to broaden their definition of a "great candidate."

Barak: 
We just talked about [mental health] being on the radar of candidates and informing the companies they go to work for. That certainly speaks to talent acquisition. So let's address this question, I think phrased a little ambiguously so it gives us a lot to chew on: How do I get good people? 

Elena:
Well, you post a job ad and you just wait for everyone to show up. We think that everybody wants to come work for us, right? Because we're great. Our company is great. But the truth is, the competition for good employees is actually pretty stiff. 

One of the things we're trying to encourage hiring managers to do is broaden their vision of what a great candidate looks like. So be creative in the way you view a candidate's resume. Read between the lines. A resume is just a piece of paper. They can't possibly put every great thing they've done on the paper. So looking at their resume and saying, "Okay, this one's got potential” dive a little deeper.

But also I encourage hiring managers to kind of ease up on the non-impactful requirements. So, the kind of school you went to, or the area of town that you live in, which is illegal. But there are a lot of subjective qualifiers that, if you strip those away and focus on the path, the skills and the behaviors that the people demonstrate, you can find more people to talk to and potentially find a diamond in the rough. 

Barak:
I think sometimes the hiring manager starts with a conception of an ideal candidate that includes things like where they went to school and where they live and all this stuff. Like you said, some of which is either illegal or non-impactful. It can be difficult to find the kind of the DNA of that candidate in a skills sense. And so, what's your recommendation for getting to that core definition of what's truly essential for that position? 

Elena:
Well, preparing beforehand, looking at a job description and understanding which responsibilities in that description are must-haves, are the things that have to get done, have to get done well, it's the reason why we're hiring you. Then there are things that are deal breakers. “If they don't have this skill or if they demonstrate a way of handling a problem, we can't have that.” So you have your deal breakers and your must-haves. Then there are the things in between. So you've got a list of 20 things they're responsible for. You've got 5-7 must-haves. What are the rest of them? You could look at those tasks and weigh them. When you're talking to the candidate, you match whatever skills they have against those. If they're areas for development and it's weighted as a task that's not critical to their success, then that might be okay to compromise on. But when you're looking at the various tasks, which ones are absolutely critical? How do their skills match against that versus the other skills? Those could potentially be areas where you grow the person or there's a longer learning curve and more time for them to acclimate.

Marta:
Yes, I agree with all of that. I also think that once you have a job opening and you have identified the skills required for the job…we have the difference between a job posting and a job description. I know sometimes we all use those terms one way or another, but they have different goals. The job posting also is critical. You have to have a good job posting. Obviously, like Elena said, you have to do all the homework on the skills you need and everything else. But you should be a little more creative and fun with the job postings too. Once you do the interviews and you have a group of candidates that you like, I think you can elaborate more by sharing with them the job description, give them more details and stuff like that. 

Elena:
Yeah. That's a good point. People confuse it all the time. The job posting is the attraction is, is like, "Come work for me and this is why," whereas the job description is like, you know, very linear and detailed and rote.

Barak: 
I like it. I hear you talking a lot about job postings. Either of you want to comment on job postings versus other forms of talent acquisition? Do you want to defend job postings as a reliable way of acquiring people?

Marta:
Well, I want to say one thing about job postings, besides what I just said. I think in this day and age, it's a matter of being creative. So a job posting could also feature a video. You create a video with the hiring manager talking for like, 30 seconds: "Must be able to do this, must be able to do that." "Hi, I'm the hiring manager for this project manager position and this is what I'm looking in this person". That alone is going to get you some traction, I think.

Barak: 
Are there any legal sort of pitfalls to be thinking about with job descriptions and job posting? If someone is new to this topic, what are the things that could get them into trouble? Either of you.

Elena:
Well, a job description can be subpoenaed in a court of law, it's a legal document. There's not a regulation but a very strongly recommended business practice to post all your jobs for diversity purposes, to make sure that you are giving the opportunity to a broad population of people, including your internal employees, who may not have otherwise known about the opportunity. With regard to postings, you do have to be careful in what you say in them. It's very easy to misrepresent a job which is not necessarily illegal, but it's not nice. So definitely important documents, both of them.

 Barak: 
Is there anything you want to add to that, Marta? 

Marta:
No, I totally align with that. We're going to talk more about this a little later but, in certain states, we will have to also put the salary requirements for the job in the posting.



Looking for more resources on talent acquisition? You might be interested in: 
No Recruiters, Please. 5 Strategies to Reduce Talent Acquisition Costs Anyone Can Use.

5 Strategies to Reduce Talent Acquisition Costs Anyone Can Use.

Mention “recruiters” in a roomful of business folks having a nice time and just see what happens. 

Thanks to inconsistent results and soaring commissions, let's just say recruiters and business leaders are...frenemies.

Under these circumstances, the simple motivation behind our “no recruiters” manifesto is not to dismiss recruiters completely. We're here to recommend five strategies to help companies consistently attract high quality talent apart from recruiting. This "zero recruiting" system tends to be a more sustainable and cost-effective alternative for growing organizations.

Each of the five building blocks for a “zero recruiting” organization pull their own weight to reduce talent acquisition costs. Together, they can help realize $100,000s in long-term savings. Achieving “zero recruiting” status requires coordination and long-term investment. But every little bit helps, and any organization can start right away.

Job descriptions are a snooze to write and aren't exactly a thrill to read either. But a job description’s ability to go deep and set clear, granular expectations for a winning candidate is its super power. A good job description can help both candidates and hiring managers ensure the right individuals land the right roles the first time (and happily stay there). A job description should be able to clearly answer several key questions:

What does this role require? How will we tell if someone's experience is relevant? 

What does success look like for this role? How will we know if someone is doing a good job? 

How will responsibilities in this role grow? What will this role equip someone to do next?

Where does this job end and someone else’s begin? 

Note: A job description is different from a job posting. A job description lays out the nuts and bolts of a role, and a job posting is a marketing vehicle for that role. Think of it this way: a job description is like the assembly instructions for a chair. It's technical and rote. Meanwhile, a job posting is like a styled picture of the final, shining article. The description tells readers how to build the chair; the posting sells the chair. Of course, we’ve all seen great ads for things that don’t live up to the hype. “Selling” an opportunity on the team that hasn’t been carefully developed via a job description is like offering someone a seat on a two-legged stool. Good luck duping candidates with that trick twice.   

Learn more (or ask us) about the components of strategy #1:

There’s a common misconception that job postings deliver inferior candidates compared to candidates “sourced” by a recruiter. Yet in a side-by-side analysis, candidates who apply to jobs themselves get the job about as often as candidates sourced by recruiters. If this is a competition, we’d have to call it a tie.

In a zero recruiting environment, it’s essential to master the advantages of job boards. The truth is, they do turn up excellent candidates and tend to do so more quickly than prospecting candidates one at a time.

Learn more (or ask us) about the components of strategy #2:

We all work to get paid. Lowballing talent is the fastest way to ensure nobody applies for your job. And zero applications are a serious threat to a “zero recruiting” organization. Before advertising a role, it’s important to benchmark the salary you’re offering against the current labor market and average cost of living. 

However, if you're struggling to match or beat current market salaries, take heart. The so-called “war for talent” is not always won by the company offering the highest salary. Leaders who can offer salaries and raises in the ballpark of their competitors have other ways to make up the difference and let their talent know, “I see you, and I appreciate you." Even when there isn’t more capital available, there’s a lot you can do to maximize your employee’s sense of wellbeing and reward their contributions to your organization. 

Learn more (or ask us) about the components of strategy #3:

The so-called “war for talent” is not always won by the company offering the highest salary.

It’s no secret that when you’re seeking talent, you’re competing with other prospective employers. In the past, competitive pressure has led business leaders to provide superficial, headline-grabbing perks. These can be fun and helpful (like paid lunches, free snacks, in-office massages and happy hours) but they don’t materially impact an employee's sense of financial or mental wellbeing. In fact, some perks can have the opposite effect, keeping employees at the office working harder and longer.

Nowadays, surveys indicate that the most alluring packages to a prospective employee offer protections for physical and mental health. Perks like flexible work hours/location and benefits that genuinely support individual wellness and balance can help you win scores of talent away from competitors. 

Learn more (or ask us) about the components of strategy #4:

Professional Development & Mentorship Programs

Every hiring process leaves more candidates out than it welcomes in. It’s common during every hiring process to discover someone “interesting... but not a fit for this role." Don’t lose those folks. Keep their information. Save their resume. They can be a game-changer next time. At the very least, starting with the best candidates you saw from a previous hiring process can save time and talent acquisition budget.

Learn more (or ask us) about the components of strategy #5:

Want help implementing these 5 strategies? Or ready to go deeper? 

Contact us to start reducing your talent acquisition costs.

Key Takeaways: Within the next couple of years, it's likely similar pay transparency laws will exist across all States. Be prepared to defend why you're paying one person something versus another. Compliance will not be hard with a little preparation. 

Barak:
Essentially the question boils down to, "What do pay transparency laws mean for me?" And I think the "me" could be your average hiring manager in America right now, potentially in any city or state. What are some of the dimensions of these new laws that they should be aware of? Marta? 


Marta:
Yeah. So pay transparency is blowing up everywhere. You will find different things but, for sure, at least 17 states have some type of pay transparency laws in one way or another, currently in place. And together with certain states, there are also specific cities that have some laws related to pay transparency. If you are a small employer, even in a state that currently doesn't require any pay transparency laws, it's time to get prepared for this because it's going to come your way. The sooner you get prepared and be proactive, the better it's going to be for you as an employer and less headache. 

I'm a resident of Colorado. Colorado was the first state–very, proud of my state–that implemented a pay transparency law. In the old days, it used to be that all these new laws, the more progressive laws, were either California or New York. So that was new. Also pay transparency law is not just a US thing. This is also a global trend. Maybe somebody is interested in doing business abroad, why not? The European community is also looking into legislation to have that, because there are a lot of reasons why people are doing these pay transparency laws. 

And one of the main things it's to avoid disparity and have equality between gender and race and a variety of things. 

I feel like it's a good tool to attract new hires, too. If I'm going to apply for a job, I want to know a little bit about the salary. My husband is in the public sector. He's a teacher. All of the public institutions by law need to publish the ranges. 

I know it's a big deal because you have to be set up and do an analysis of your workforce to be sure that you aren’t actually paying, potentially, males more than females, for example. 

In the public sector, they've been displaying salary ranges forever. If you're a teacher, it's like if you have a bachelors, this. A masters degree, this. A language, this. To me, it makes sense that we're disclaiming this. 

If you're going to apply for a job, you want to get an idea of what the range is so you don't waste either party's time, right? If you have a target of making $100-140,000 and this just pays $50,000? Thank you, but no thank you! 


Barak: 
Just to make sure we're totally clear on what we're talking about, when we're talking about salary transparency, we're saying publishing the pay in the job…and what else? What else are we talking about? 


Elena: 
In some areas, if an employee inquires about the salary range of a certain position, then you have to tell them. There are variations of how pay transparency manifests itself. But like Marta said it's coming for all of the states now and I imagine that in the next couple of years, all of them are probably going to be very similar to one another.


Barak: 
So there are external and internal dimensions of salary transparency. Just want to make sure that's clear. 


Marta: 
I cannot speak for all the states, but in Colorado you also have to post the jobs when promotions are happening and display the salary ranges for promotions. So not only for new hires, but also, to avoid discrimination like Elena was saying before, somebody might be interested in a job and they are not being considered. So, if you're going to promote a senior director to a creative director, you also have to post it. Somebody internally might be interested in applying for that. You have to go through the process of interviewing them, in Colorado. 


Barak: 
Yeah. Elena you want to add anything to that? 


Elena: 
It's a scary topic to talk to business leaders about. Basically, people have to prepare to defend why they're paying one person something versus another. Start looking at your job descriptions and the roles a little bit more critically to decide whether or not certain requirements are really needed. Do I need a masters degree to be the receptionist? Pay transparency plays into that. It's really important to prepare ahead of time so that by the time you hire five people in the same role, you're not course correcting, and people are mad and quitting. So it's definitely time to prepare. And not that hard if you prepare now. 


Marta: 
Yeah. Like you were saying, Elena, it's a good time even now, even if might not have openings right now. Just do an inventory of your current workforce and see where everybody is in salary ranges. Do a deep analysis and if you're a small company, you don't even need any fancy software. You can even have a simple spreadsheet. Have the different fields by age, gender and race. Are you discriminating because of age,  gender, or race? Obviously if those people are doing a good job and you have those disparities already, you can start to prepare for that and say, "Okay, when the next cycle comes, I'm going to take care of this employee. Instead of giving this person a 3 or 4% raise, I'm going to give this person a 6% raise so I can catch them up". Even with no openings, it's good to start to prepare now so that you can be ahead of the game, if you will.


Barak:
I appreciate that note. When we were talking, I was thinking about the process a business leader would have to take to consult with a compensation analyst and then start to benchmark new roles against current marketplaces and things like this. But to your point, Marta, you can actually make a relative internal salary band comparison where you're saying, "Here are the highs and lows of my current workforce. Here's some demographic data that overlays on that and helps me see where I'm maybe treating some people unfairly–for the same job or relative to where they are in their career." It sounds like a lot of these laws are the heavy-handed way of enforcing equitable treatment and compensation inside of an organization. But you can accomplish that without the law telling you to do it.


Marta: 
This is another thing–why the salary ranges in the job postings also help. Before, recruiters would have more leeway to negotiate salaries with new hires. Some new employees would be better negotiators than others. So it's not even a discrimination thing. It ended up being an unfair situation because somebody was a better negotiator than another. Let's say your CFO gave you a little leeway on salaries–you had a range of $40-50,000 and then you ended up paying a new person $55,000 because you're having a hard time filling the role. But your other people are at $40,000 and $45,000. You have created this gap just by doing this. So by having this in place you don't have these disparities as well.

Yeah, that's a good point, Marta. It does take away some of the negotiating leverage that candidates have and makes the negotiation process a lot easier on our end because you have these guardrails in there. I imagine that we're going to be breaking that mold every once in a while but that should be the exception more than the rule. And again, it should be justifiable. There are some little silver linings in there on how pay transparency is good for you. You won't be held hostage as much as you were before by employees demanding huge pay increases.

What do pay transparency laws mean for me?

3 Strategies to Reduce Employee Turnover Anyone Can Use

“Employee turnover” is shorthand for “people don’t want to work here.”
 

Employers resent turnover for good reason: it’s expensive. Departures interrupt business operations and ding efficiency and profitability. Departures also scrap any initial investment in onboarding and training. All in, an employee leaving costs their employer between 10% and 30% of their salary. That's on top of wages already spent plus the cost to source their replacement (Source: American Progress). 

At some level, turnover is a natural part of life and business. People move. Family situations change. Work aspirations evolve. We can't control these natural dynamics. A "Hire Once" company does its best to control for all the other reasons employees leave a workplace: lagging compensation, toxic culture, and few options for professional growth. To mitigate these turnover risks, “Hire Once” companies have three basic goals. 

Each element can help drive retention on its own. But taken together, they form a powerful and comprehensive retention strategy. And while a “Hire Once” mindset takes some practice and time to implement, it’s the antidote to the financial misery induced by high turnover–$100,000s in savings.

Want help implementing these 3 strategies? Or ready to go deeper?

Contact us to reduce your employee turnover.

Apply for a Custom Report or Free Preview

The Marketing Team Design Study Behind The Scenes

The Cape Agency is led by three executive advisors and supported by a dozen advisors across the United States. 


The team offers more than 50 years of combined experience leading HR and People Operations across startup, small, midsize and enterprise companies, in various stages of recalibration and growth.

Only pay for the exact expertise you need on a flat fee basis.

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Accessibility

M&A Due Diligence & Post-Merger Consolidation

Performance Management & Continuous Feedback  

All practice areas compliant with latest national and regional labor laws.

Elena is a strategic HR business partner and executive coach with over 20 years of experience leading people operations across a range of industries including: Professional Services, Construction, Commercial Real Estate, Technology, Entertainment and Marketing. She has most recently led the HR function for several subsidiaries of Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG), and has steered these companies through varying stages of growth, including mergers & acquisitions. Elena is a USMC veteran and member of the Dean’s Advisory Council at Arizona State University’s College of Integrative Sciences and Arts. 

She leads The Cape Agency’s Los Angeles office.   

She specializes in: 

Performance Management & Continuous Feedback

Marta is a strategic HR business partner with over 20 years of experience across a range of industries including Manufacturing, Non-profit, Technology, Marketing and Advertising. She was most recently a Director of Human Resources for the Omnicom-owned agency, Integer Group. Her additional client experience includes HR leadership roles for SKF, Oracle, Catholic Charities, and MillerCoors.

She specializes in: 

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Accessibility 

Barak is a workforce planning and talent acquisition leader with over 10 years of experience designing teams and sourcing talent across a range industries, including: Manufacturing, Technology, Financial Services, Education, Marketing and Advertising. His client experience includes: Acura, Nissan, Prophet Brand Consulting, and Finance of America.

In addition to supporting Cape Agency clients, Barak directs original research projects and leads the Nashville office. 

He specializes in: 

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(1) Resume Writer Chatbot - Introduction

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