Author Archives: CorpStrat News

Why You Should Be Labor Law Complaint

To ensure smooth business operations, all businesses must comply with federal, state, and local laws and regulations. This includes human resources, sexual harassment training, and ERISA. And labor law is no exception.

Proper labor law poster compliance is required by law. If your business has at least one paid employee, you are required to post city, county, state and federal labor law notices. Failure to post up-to-date labor law notices can result in lawsuits or hefty fines of up to $33,486.

You may be asking, why is labor law compliance so important for your business? The answer is three-fold.

Labor law posters are critical for an employer.

As an employer, making sure labor law posters are properly displayed in a common area and up to date are easy preventative measures. Proper posting can strengthen your legal defense, especially in the event of a lawsuit or employee dispute. In addition, labor law compliance can come to your aid when there is an accident in the workplace, an unannounced Occupational Safety and Health Administration audit, or a Labor Board/ Equal Employment Opportunity Commission inquiry.

Lawsuits and employee disputes are on the rise.

Since the #MeToo movement, lawsuits and disputes, especially surrounding workplace harassment, are on the rise. Discrimination, gender equity, wages, and working conditions are other popular topics in these proceedings. Again, communicating current employee laws and rights can strengthen your legal defense in the long run.

Federal budget for the enforcement of employment laws has been increased to $13.2 Billion.

An increase in budget is a sign of higher regulations, which come in the form of higher OSHA fines and more surprise workplace visits, citations, and labor law poster audits. To avoid fines and cruise through all visits and audits, ensure best practice and properly display your up to date labor law posters in a visible spot where all employees can access it.

Keep your business compliant with the help of HRIS platforms, such as CorpStrat. CorpStrat provides a fully comprehensive, year-round labor law posting solution that includes:

Laminated, up-to-date, attorney-approved All-In-One State and Federal Labor Law Posters.
QR codes and posting legends for simple compliance tracking.
Access to any city and county labor law notices that are required for your business location.
Automatic updates every time changes occur in city, county, state, or federal posting requirements.
A $25,000 Fine Guarantee.

Let’s talk about your poster compliance needs. Contact CorpStrat to learn more about our labor law poster solutions.

Sexual Harassment Training Compliance may be delayed, but it’s NOT what you think

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As we know, California has enacted a series of laws that strengthen the state’s protections against workplace harassment. The deadline for sexual harassment training compliance has been updated to January 1, 2021, a year later than the initial date of January 1, 2020.

Even though companies have an extra year to fully comply with these new harassment laws, we recommend to not delay training. Companies must still provide training to all new employees within the first 6 months of hire. So, in order to ensure best practice, companies need to start implementing them as soon as possible.

We advise companies to use a learning platform, like CorpStrat, to keep employers on track and help with compliance. Employers will be able to easily upload their roster, push out trainings, track progress and secure completion certifications. With a platform, companies will be able to get started on compliance right away. Again, it is important to know that delaying is not best practice.

To recap, here are the new California laws that companies must implement:

Require employers with five or more employees in the state to provide sexual harassment prevention training to all employees;
Expand and clarify employer liability for workplace harassment; and
Prohibit employers from entering certain agreements related to sexual harassment and other unlawful acts in the workplace.

All California employers should become familiar with the new laws. Those with five or more employees should review the new training requirements and ensure that each of their employees receives the required training by the end of 2020.

Managers must complete 2 hours
Employees must complete 1 hour

The appropriate training must be completed by each employee within six months of assuming his or her job. Each employee must receive the appropriate training once every two years.

The deadline for initial compliance with these requirements is now January 1, 2021.

Contact CorpStrat to learn more about our learning platform ASAP! Don’t delay.

Amazon Opening Their Own Healthcare Clinics – Will Your Company Be Next?

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The latest news in the health care industry comes in the form of Amazon Care, Amazon’s in-house health care service. Announced on September 24, 2019, this pilot telemedicine program is part of Amazon’s effort to cut rising health care costs and improve care for employees.

Amazon Care is a virtual health clinic created in partnership with Oasis Medical Group to service Amazon’s Seattle-based employees and their families. It will provide in-person services for employees at home or in the office as well as prescriptions for medications. An Amazon spokesperson says, “We’re currently piloting a health care benefit designed to help Amazon employees get fast access to health care without an appointment, at the convenience of their schedules, at their preferred location (home, office or virtual).”

Amazon Care 101

Covered employees will be able to access Amazon Care conveniently through a mobile app and connect with a provider within minutes. Services include Care Chat, an in-app text chatroom that connects to a nurse, and Video Care, a video call service employee can use to talk to doctors or nurses face-to-face.

If further examination is necessary, the provider can use Mobile Care, a service that sends a nurse to the employee’s location. Mobile Care can be used to collect samples, conduct lab tests or physical exams, and administer treatment. Prescriptions will also be delivered to employees within two hours or can be sent to a pharmacy for pickup.

The app will only be available on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., and on weekends from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Amazon Care will not provide emergency care services.

Amazon and Health Care

Amazon Care is Amazon’s latest move within the health care industry. In 2018, the company acquired online pharmacy PillPack, and teamed up with Berkshire Hathaway and JP Morgan to create a new health care company. Earlier this year, Amazon also partnered with health care organizations interested in developing Alexa, the cloud-based voice service, to handle patient information.

With these moves and the recent Amazon Care, Amazon is quietly disrupting the health care industry. They are not only Amazon’s latest efforts to address rising health care costs, but also a path for them to secure a foothold in a growing industry. In order to compete with Amazon’s growing presence, industry giants must adapt digital technologies that enable convenience-driven access to care and combat rising health care costs. Contact CorpStrat to learn how to do this for your company.

Good Benefits and Pay Aren’t Enough to Keep Your Employees

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Is workplace culture important?

90% of employees say “yes”
79% of employers say “yes”

What is workplace culture?

Most organizations don’t really understand that culture in the workplace represents the deeper values and beliefs of the company. It’s not the stuff on the surface. It’s not the ping pong table, it’s not the margarita party, it’s not the cool benefits employees get. It’s really what is valued and how we behave and treat each other behind closed doors.

What we see most organizations doing is thinking about culture at the perk level. But, it’s really trying to get to the meaningful level of work, and it has a lot to do with how people are treated.

What kind of culture should employers strive for?

The kind where employees know that employers care about them. Organizations have to think about their intention around their culture. What we see is most organizations don’t even know what their own culture is. Employers may say on their website that they want to have a certain kind of culture, but employees may be laughing about that behind closed doors because they know the organization is nowhere close to achieving that idea.

What mistakes do employers make when it comes to workplace culture?

The most important thing to start with is the company understanding what they are aspiring to from a cultural perspective. They need to do the work around figuring out how they need to treat each other within the organization. What do managers need to do? What do leaders need to do? They need to articulate to everybody, so they are 100% clear on the standards and expectations. Most organizations completely skip that step and go right to putting a couple of cute things on their website.

Instead, make it really simple and say, “These are the standards and expectations we have for how we are with each other.” If you want your business to be successful, this is how you connect everybody’s individual behavior to the success of the business.

What specific tactics can employers take to improve workplace culture while also considering their benefit programs?

Be intentional. Think about being an architect of how people are with each other, within the organization.

If organizations had a culture department that had as much funding as a benefits department, where might we be? It’s almost odd that there are organizations that are focused on pet insurance, but they are not focused on being intentional about their culture. People are attracted to an organization, but they stay because of how the organization makes them feel.

Reach out to CorpStrat to learn how we help companies with strategies to attract, reward, and retain their most important assets – their people.

The Gig Economy and California Bill AB 5: What You Need to Know

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A California bill signals a ‘brand new ball game’ for gig economy businesses, such as Uber, Lyft, Airbnb, and Postmates.

With the California Legislature passing a bill expected to make the gig economy workforce more expensive in California, the governor has also signed the bill this month, meaning workers will soon face new limitations within their independent contractors.

The legislature passed Assembly Bill (AB) 5, a bill that largely codifies the 2018 Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Los Angeles County Superior Court decision. That decision made it harder to justify classifying workers as independent contractors instead of employees.

Dynamex and the new bill are putting major stress on businesses such as ride-share giants Uber and Lyft since they along with other gig economy entities rely on the independent contractor model, which is a far less expensive way to staff their businesses than hiring employees who are eligible to form unions, collect benefits, and be covered under an array of state and federal laws.

Employers need to take a careful look.

The passage of AB 5 “creates a brand-new ball game” related to independent contractors. Once it’s finalized, employers will have to look carefully at how the new statute will affect their workforce.

Almost every workforce in the state will be affected in some way.

The new statute affects more than just wage and hour issues. Since it broadens the definition of an employee, many more workers will come under laws such as Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and other anti-discrimination laws as well as the National Labor Relations Act. Also, the state’s sexual harassment training requirements must be done for those classified as employees under the new statute.

Benefits – yes, companies with 50 and up must “offer” and provide “affordable” healthcare benefits under the ACA. This, combined with the added payroll taxes and workers compensation coverages could be a colossal blow to businesses.

Both the federal and state governments have focused on misclassification of employees as independent contractors for the past decade, and California law includes a penalty for misclassification in addition to other potential liability.

For example, a California employer faces liability for misclassification in addition to liability for not paying for workers’ compensation insurance and unemployment insurance on workers determined to be employees.

The governor signed the bill as of September 13, 2019. Even after the bill is signed, the issue may not be over since Uber and Lyft have put resources behind a possible ballot initiative to allow them to keep their independent contractor model.

CorpStrat provides companies with tools to attract, reward and retain their staff, through delivery and council on benefits, insurance, payroll, technology, and HR services. Contact the CorpStrat offices today to learn more!