Effingham Chamber of Commerce & Industry

Greater Effingham Chamber of Commerce & Industry

WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT
NEWS & INFORMATION

Volume 10, Issue 2
MAY 2010
GREATER EFFINGHAM CHAMBER OF COMMERCE & INDUSTRY

9th ANNUAL EFFINGHAM COUNTY COMPENSATION & BENEFITS SURVEY PLANNED
Attracting and retaining quality employees is one of the greatest challenges in business today. In a competitive labor market, employees are increasingly aware of the benefits they receive and how those benefits compare with what other companies are offering.

The Chamber and Bushue Human Resources are cooperating with the City of Effingham and Effingham County Board to produce the 9th Annual Effingham County Compensation and Benefit Survey.

As a participant in the survey, your business will have access to the most up-to-date and comprehensive local wage and benefit data available. Annually, more than 55 companies, municipalities, school districts and organizations representing nearly 5,000 employees in the county have an opportunity to evaluate their compensation and benefit programs, along with establishing pay ranges and annual pay increases.

Cost to participate in the Compensation & Benefits Survey is $150 for Chamber members. Members of the Safety & HR Network can participate at the discounted rate of $100.

Businesses can sign up to take part in the survey by completing the reservation form.

Top of Page

RECEIVE DISCOUNTS ON CHAMBER HR MANUALS
The Greater Chamber of Commerce & Industry is partnering with the Illinois Chamber of Commerce Center for Business

Management to offer our Chamber members another great benefit.

These manuals are a valuable tool for all Human Resource Managers to have and to make their job more efficient.

   Illinois Employment Forms book has more than 169 forms for Illinois employers to use in managing their human resources-everything from interviewing prospective employees to terminating departing employees. For only $139, this book is a valuable tool for small business owners, general managers, human resource professionals, supervisors and benefits
Personnel containing forms available for download.

   Illinois Workers Compensation Manual provides assistance to employers complying with the law and the 2005 changes; provides overview of elements of the law; and significant changes made by PA 94-0277.

   Illinois Employment Law Handbook-Second Edition provides a user friendly guide on state and federal employment law. This handbook includes expert legal advice on employment law topics and sample forms & policies for only $189.

   Model Employee Policies for Illinois Employers is a great tool to assist employers in their compliance with the myriad of obstacles presented by Illinois employment law statutes and regulations. The cost is $125.
   A CD-ROM is included with each publication and contains easy to download & use forms.

   Compliance poster sets are available for $45. Updated annually, they provide key changes such as minimum wage increases or new compliance requirements.

Receive a 10% discount by purchasing any of these books and mentioning that you are a member of the Effingham Chamber.

To receive more information or the order forms, please call the Chamber office at 217.342.4147.

Top of Page

ATTEND THE HR CHECKLIST SEMINAR
The Greater Effingham Chamber of Commerce & Industry & Illinois Chamber Center for Business Management are offering an HR Checklist Seminar on Tuesday, May 18 from 8:30 - 11:30 a.m. at the Effingham Knights of Columbus. Topics covered will include:
   • Employer’s Rights in a Social Media Environment: E-mail to
      Facebook to Twitter and Beyond.
   • Protecting Business Assets from Former Employees:
      Non-Compete and other Restrictive Agreements.
   • Beyond Healthcare….Now What? Employee Free Choice
      Act and other emerging issues affecting employers.

Seminar presenters are Thomas Berry Jr. & Phil Lading, Partners of Sandberg Phoenix & von Gontard P.C.

Safety & HR Network Members can attend for $30 and Effingham Chamber Members for $50. Receive a $5 discount per registration for additional company representatives.

Make your reservations, call the Chamber office at 217.342.4147. Deadline is Friday, May 14, 2010.

Top of Page

“PERFORMANCE EVALUATIONS “101” -
How to Conduct a Performance Evaluation that Motivates the Employee and Protects the Employer.”
Giving criticism, even when it is constructive, is uncomfortable. As a consequence, managers tend to “forget” to perform annual evaluations or engage in “little white lies” when they actually do evaluate the employees performance. An unwarranted positive or even neutral performance evaluation is detrimental to an employer for both internal morale and an external defense to litigation. When an employer glosses over problem areas the employee has no motivation to correct the improper behavior and is shocked when they are later selected for termination. This shock then turns to anger which frequently results in the employee grasping for a reason for the termination, that could not possibly be their own performance, and this reason then often results in the employer defending costly litigation that could have as easily been prevented with regular accurate performance evaluations.

It is no secret that inflation is a problem in evaluations — many supervisors tend to give employees higher ratings than they deserve. Under recent United States Supreme Court Cases, doing so virtually guarantees that a discrimination case will go to a jury. However there is hope. Employers can do at least two things to help eliminate or minimize the problem of inflated performance appraisals:
   1) Conduct annual or semi-annual performance evaluations for
      each and every employee; and
   2) Train managers on how to conduct evaluations that
      accurately appraise the work performed, motivate and guide
      the employee to succeed and of course protect the employer
      from litigation.

A succinct and accurate performance evaluation, hopefully coupled with documented counseling and/or write up can be the silver bullet in your defense against litigation. This is truly one of those areas where an ounce of prevention can save thousands of dollars and headaches. A “best practice” is the development of a consistent culture of accurate performance evaluations and corresponding performance plans.

Top of Page

COBRA SUBSIDY ELIGIBILITY PERIOD EXTENDED TO MAY 31.
The IRS has announced that workers who lose their jobs during April and May may qualify for a 65% subsidy on their COBRA health insurance premiums. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act established this subsidy to help workers who lost their jobs as a result of the recession to maintain their employer-sponsored health insurance.

The Continuing Extension Act of 2010, enacted April 15, reinstated the COBRA subsidy, which expired on March 31. As a result, workers who are involuntarily terminated from employment between September 1, 2008 and May 31, 2010, may be eligible for a 65% subsidy of their COBRA premiums for a period of up to 15 months. In some cases, workers who had their hours reduced and later lost their jobs may also be eligible for the subsidy.

Employers must provide COBRA coverage to eligible individuals who pay 35% of the COBRA premium. Employers are reimbursed for the other 65% by claiming a credit for the subsidy on their payroll tax returns: Form 941, Employers Quarterly Federal Tax Return; Form 944, Employer’s Annual Federal Tax Return or Form 943, Employer’s Annual Federal Tax Return for Agricultural Employees. Employers must maintain supporting documentation for the claimed credit.

Find out more information about the COBRA subsidy, including questions and answers for employers, and for employees or former employees by going to the IRS website, www.irs.gov. Also, some people who are eligible for the COBRA subsidy also quality for the health coverage tax credit (HCTC) and may want to choose the more generous HCTC benefit instead. The HCTC pays 80% of health insurance premiums for those who qualify.

Top of Page

“ILLINOIS COMPANIES DON’T WANT THEIR EMPLOYEES ‘LINKED IN’”
A survey conducted by AAIM Employers’ Association of 188 Illinois companies indicated that approximately 80% of respondents either disallowed employee access to social networking websites during working hours or allowed, but with restrictions. 30% of companies surveyed responded that access to such sites as Facebook, MySpace and Linkedin is completely blocked from company computers.

The survey also showed that 54% of companies indicated that they use a monitoring system to keep an eye on the websites
accessed by employees during working hours. 90% of companies surveyed take some form of disciplinary action against those employees found to be in violation of the company’s social networking website use policy.

For further information on the survey, contact Mary Pille, President & CEO, at 800.948.5700 or email her.

Top of Page

ILLINOIS CHAMBER PROVIDES LOW COST WEBINAR
OVERVIEW OF THE ILLINOIS WORKERS’ COMPENSATION ACT - May 11, 11 a.m. - 12:45 p.m., $29

The webinar will provide insight into the Workers’ Compensation Act, tools available to formulate the right approach for managing litigation and how to use these tools to develop a simple, effective, hands-on approach for handling workers’ compensation claims.

More information about the topics and registration information is available at the Illinois Chamber’s website.

Top of Page

Chamber Hours:
Monday - Friday
8:00 am - 5:00 pm

Members-Only Area Login

If you are currently a Chamber Member and you need a username and password,
Click Here

Click image for a great selection of quality merchandise.

View map of Effingham County