The U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) yesterday announced it is suspending planned reporting changes – on summary employee pay data – in the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) standard EE0-1 form.
As it stands now, according to OMB, employers with 100 or more employees must still complete, by March 31, 2018, the standard EEO-1 form, which collects employee data on the number of employees by job category and by sex and race or ethnicity.
The revised EEO-1 form, now under suspension, would have required employers, including federal contractors and subcontractors, also to report what employees make within pre-set pay bands (and not report individual pay or salary levels). The revised form would also require collection and reporting of aggregate hours worked by all employees in each pay band.
Read the EEOC Statement on the rule suspension
Read about current EEO-1 reporting requirements
Kelly Mitchell on “The Growing Importance of the Employee Handbook”
As we head into the fall and in preparation for 2018, impactHR’s Kelly Mitchell writes that it’s a good idea to begin looking at reviewing and updating your current set of HR policies and procedures. To start this process, pore through your current employee handbook’s content. Or if your organization doesn’t have a handbook yet, it’s an even better time to begin the process of building a manual for your employees. 
To be sure, providing a polished, organized employee handbook can help build and maintain good relationships with your employees. In addition, your employee handbook should be updated annually to ensure policies and procedures are current. It also needs to reflect applicable changes in law that occurred during the year.
Lastly, it’s important to look at and refine, where necessary, your handbook’s language and tone. This helps remove imprecise or confusing language in the handbook, promoting clarity and understanding among your employees.
Read Kelly’s five tips on building an effective employee handbook
impactQ&A: How Do You Calculate Whether Your Organization is Covered Under FMLA?
For employers to be covered under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) – the law that allows employees to take an unpaid, job-protected leave of absence for certain family and medical reasons – they must employ 50 or more workers for at least 20 calendar workweeks in the current or preceding calendar year. (The 20 calendar workweeks do not need to be consecutive.)
When counting your employees, include any employee whose name appears on your payroll any working day of calendar week, regardless of whether they received compensation for the week.
Once your organization meets the 50 employees-for-20 workweeks threshold, it remains covered until it reaches a point at which it no longer employed 50 employees for 20 (non-consecutive) workweeks in the current and preceding calendar year.
For employees, as a reminder, eligibility for FMLA leave is based on meeting these three criteria: they’re employed by a covered employer for 12 months; they worked for 1,250 hours during the 12-month period before their requested leave begins; and they work at a location where their employer employs 50 or more employees within a 75-mile radius of that location.
impactHR Sponsors Startup Showcase Pitch Event in Howard County, MD
Startup Showcase at La Palapa in Ellicott City, MD
impactHR last month was one of the main sponsors for Startup Grind-Columbia chapter’s inaugural “Startup Showcase,” which took place at La Palapa Grill in Old Ellicott City.
Teams representing four Baltimore-area startups were selected to make brief product/service pitches, all of which were met with live audience questioning, feedback and voting to rank the best pitches.
Startup Grind-Columbia’s founder, Chris Haug, who also is CEO of 360 Strategy Solutions Group, issued prizes to each presenting company: Dataurant (the event’s top winner), OpenChair, RFID READY and Testify Software Solutions.
The Overqualified Applicant – To Hire or Not To Hire?
Hiring managers and recruiters are tasked every day with selecting the most qualified people (and the best fits culturally) to bring into their organizations as employees. Yet even in our current post-downturn economy, employers are seeing a significant increase in overqualified candidates applying for open positions.
A typical case is when an employer comes across an overqualified applicant – one who has the knowledge, skills and expertise to do the job, but whose overall skill set appears to exceed what is required for the position. With this example, the key point is that hiring managers may want to not dismiss these applicants out of hand.
Recent research shows overqualified applicants, in general, are less likely to leave their positions early; they often outperform their less qualified co-workers; and they expect to be promoted, showing a desire to stay with the organization. All of these are substantive reasons to not overlook overqualified applicants.
impactAction: In these situations, it’s important to have honest discussions with job applicants regarding their reasons for applying if you believe they’re overqualified. Hiring managers and recruiters should give these applicants an opportunity to explain clearly why they’re interested in the position and the organization.
Overqualified applicants may, in fact, be looking beyond what the specific position can offer and may be looking at the perks, benefits and company values. As the hirer, focus on what drew them to the position and the company – and what you may find is the overqualified applicant can turn into a good hire.
If you have any questions or would like help in your hiring and recruiting program, please contact an impactHR team member at info@impacthrllc.com or phone 443-741-3900.
MD, VA Among Best States for Data Innovation and Building Expert Workforce
Maryland and Virginia both rank among the top ten states that are “doing the most to encourage and enable data-driven innovation,” according to a new report from the Washington, DC-based Center for Data Innovation (CDI). The CDI’s report uses a number of indicators across three categories to compile its rankings. These categories are:
Data (the availability of key datasets, including data about the government, education, health care and energy)
Technology (key digital infrastructure, such as broadband, smart meters and electronic health records)
People and companies (the human and business resources, such as the number of open-data companies in the state, and the size of the data professional community)
For overall ranking, Maryland is number three (behind Massachusetts and Washington) while Virginia is 7th overall (the District of Columbia is not ranked). For the “Developing Human and Business Capital” category, Maryland is 6th overall and Virginia is 5th.
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