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American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
In an effort to provide our temporary employee's immediate results from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act; Reliance Staffing Services worked diligently to implement the employee taxation updates well before the April 1st deadline. We are pleased to report our updates were in effect the first week of March '09. Reliance Staffing has a long history of putting our workforce first and we worked hard to implement these updates as soon as possible.
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What Can I Ask During an Employment Interview?
In order to ensure a diverse workforce, not to mention comply with state and federal discrimination laws, certain interview questions must be avoided.
Questions about an applicant's age, birthplace, appearance, marital status, child care arrangements, religion, financial status, etc., almost never have a specific bearing on the individual's ability to perform a job. They should therefore be strictly avoided. Indirect questions are just as improper as direct ones.
For example, "How many years before you plan to retire?" is no different than asking the candidate's age. "What religious holidays do you observe?" is no better than directly asking a candidate to identify his or her religion. Both have the same legal repercussions.
Here are some examples of other inappropriate questions to avoid:
Do you hold citizenship in a country other than the United States?
Are you the primary wage earner for your family? Where does your spouse work? Do you have children?
Are you a member of any social clubs, fraternities, sororities, lodges teams or religious organizations?
Have you ever been arrested?
Where were you born? Where were your parents born?
What holidays do you observe?
In contrast, some questions that can be asked during an interview if carefully worded include:
Are you eligible to work in the United States?
Can you submit a birth certificate or other proof of age if you are hired?
Have you ever been convicted of a crime? (Interviewers should make sure to tell the applicant
that a criminal conviction does not bar employment, but can be considered in relation to job requirements.)
In order to gain information without asking specific questions, many employers use the "tell me about yourself" approach.
Unfortunately, the applicant may unknowingly raise "off-limits" subjects such as the religious group meetings he enjoys, or that she just found out she's pregnant and would like to know about the child care offered by the company. Under these circumstances, it is in the interviewer's best interest to interrupt and explain that the company does not base its hiring practices on that particular subject area.
On that note, when dealing with a pregnancy-related question, you can state that your company has a maternity leave policy and offers child care referral services; you cannot, however, ask about her due date.
Essentially, in the case that you mistakenly get off track into personal questions, you need to shift gears and get back to the position's requirements. Whatever information came up should stay with the interviewer and not be mentioned to others or entered anywhere on the application.
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As the year moves along we are working hard to provide you and your firm with relevant employment news. As always we welcome your feedback, feel free to let us know if you have a suggestion or a story of your own! Simply reply to this email and your comments will go directly to our Vice President! Thank you. |
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Win Two Box Seat Tickets: June 12, 8pm Rascal Flats
Read our Newsletter this month, answer the "Box Seat Question" at the bottom of this newsletter and email your answer to Lynn at Reliance for your chance to win 2 tickets to see Rascal Flats at the Verizon Wireless Virginia Beach Amphitheater. Good Luck! |
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Quirky Overtime Questions You Probably Should Be Asking
Wage and hour ought to be simple, but our customers keep coming up with new twists. How many of these questions cover situations you face in your organization?
Do I have to pay overtime on paid lunch breaks?
Our workweek is 35 hours, plus we pay lunch breaks of 1 hour each day, totaling 40 hours paid each week. If our employees work an hour of overtime, that is, work 36 hours (and get paid for 41 hours), do we have to pay overtime premium for that hour?
No. You can pay them straight time. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires that overtime be paid for each "hour worked" in excess of 40. Since the lunch breaks are not hours worked, they don't have to be counted toward overtime. Therefore, the employee's total hours worked in that week would be only 36. Once the hours worked exceed 40, you would have to start paying overtime.
What about paid break times?
Do we have to count 15-minute break times as time worked for overtime purposes?
Yes, if it is just 15 minutes. The only situation under which a break is not "time worked" under the FLSA is when it meets all of the following criteria:
-The break is more than 20 minutes if it is a rest break or more than 30 minutes if it is a meal break.
-The employee is completely relieved from duty; for example, not required to answer phones or to watch over a machine.
-The employee is free to leave his or her duty post.
OK, how about smoke breaks?
We are a wellness company. Do we have to pay our smokers for the time they spend on smoke breaks?
Smoke breaks are no different from regular breaks-if they are less than 20 minutes, they are "hours worked." Note: Federal law does not require employers to provide breaks and rest periods, although some state laws do have such requirements.
How do you calculate overtime for salaried nonexempt?
How do you calculate overtime to nonexempt employees who are paid on a salary basis but work more than 40 hours in a week?
In general, overtime for nonexempt employees who are paid on a salary basis rather than hourly is figured by converting the salary to an hourly rate, but the method varies depending on how the workweek is structured. For example:
- Salaried with a fixed 40-hour week. The overtime rate is one and one-half times the rate per hour (weekly salary divided by 40) for all hours over 40 worked per week.
- Salaried with a fixed week of fewer than 40 hours. The overtime rate is one and one-half times the rate per hour (weekly salary divided by the number of hours that the salary is intended to compensate) for all hours over 40 worked per week. For example, if an employee is paid a weekly salary of $350 for a 35-hour week, the rate per hour is $10. The employee must be paid $10 for hours 36 to 40 worked in a week and $15 for any hours in excess of 40 worked in a week.
The employer and employee could have an agreement that the salary paid represents compensation for all hours up to 40 per week. In that case, no additional compensation would be owed for hours 36 to 40, and the overtime rate would be the same as for an employee with a fixed 40-hour week.
- Salaried with an irregular workweek. Employees who are paid a salary and whose hours vary from week to week receive an overtime premium calculated as follows: For each hour worked over 40, add one-half the rate per hour for that week. The rate per hour is the weekly salary divided by the actual number of hours worked in the workweek. For example, a $400-per-week employee earns $8 per hour in a 50-hour week. Half this amount, $4, is the overtime premium per hour. With 10 hours of overtime, the employee receives $40 in overtime pay.
- Monthly and semimonthly salaries. For these employees, overtime is computed by converting their salary to a weekly rate.
Source: HR Daily Advisor
Published by BLR, the HR Daily Advisor is a free e-mail newsletter providing news and tips on the latest developments in Human Resource management. View more tips at HRDailyAdvisor.com. | |
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The goal of Reliance Staffing is to understand your personnel needs and provide you with the most qualified, experienced professionals possible.
Our screening, training and matching process begins with a thorough interview and evaluation of each applicant's experience and past performance. Next we use real-world, custom designed tests to measure the applicant's skills and professionalism in a live environment. Finally, we examine the requirements of our client's open position and select the ideal candidate for the assignment.
We take pride in knowing that we can provide our clients with the most skilled and knowledgeable employees available today.
Contact Reliance Staffing Services Today
873-6644 Newport News
490-1700 Virginia Beach
382-7222 Chesapeake
925-0400 Suffolk |
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Box Seat Question
What is a good question to ask during an interview?
Send you answer to lconnor@reliancestaffing.com to register for the box seat drawings, 2 Tickets to see Rascal Flats June 12, 09. Entries will close on April 1st and the winner will be announced in the April issue of Hampton Roads Employment News. | |
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