Most companies strive to hire or promote someone with the right skills to do the job. But when hiring a manager, many fail to take the manager's personality, attitude, values, and emotional intelligence into consideration. What they end up with is a highly technically skilled manager with poor people skills, big ego, "my way or the highway" attitude, and blind spots the size … [Read more...] about Are you the reason your employees quit?
Employee benefits
Paid sick leave: what medical practices need to know
Currently, there is no federal law that requires private sector employers, including medical practices, to provide paid or unpaid sick leave, explains a new report from XpertHR, an online service for HR professionals from Reed Business Information. Without federal legislation in place, however, several states and local jurisdictions have taken matters into their own hands by … [Read more...] about Paid sick leave: what medical practices need to know
Model Policy: Catastrophic leave program
Why you need this policy: A leave-sharing program appears to be a win-win-win solution for employer, donating employee, and receiving employee. But employers need to be careful when implementing a program like this to avoid some potential administrative, managerial, and tax problems. How this policy helps you: Rules regarding an employee's right to various types of leave … [Read more...] about Model Policy: Catastrophic leave program
90 minutes of unpaid time off ends a bookkeeping nightmare
A Kentucky medical office manager has devised a method to control time off, focusing on making the paperwork easier. Keeping track of 45-minute appointments or an hour of personal leave is a bookkeeping nightmare, says the administrator for a five-physician women's care clinic. And it's especially difficult for a large practice such as hers, which has 26 staff. So she combined … [Read more...] about 90 minutes of unpaid time off ends a bookkeeping nightmare
How to implement a leave-sharing program
"How can I help?" It's a question that many employees ask when a coworker or a coworker's family member is facing a serious medical issue. One way that employers can facilitate assistance is to allow employees to donate time off to their coworkers who have exhausted all available leave. At first glance, a leave-sharing program appears to be a win-win-win solution. It's a … [Read more...] about How to implement a leave-sharing program
How to manage personal cell phone use in the workplace
"Like many offices, we have had problems with employees using cell phones for personal calls, texts, etc. during business hours," says Beverly Bragg, administrator at San Antonio Preventive & Diagnostic Medicine. It hasn't been an easy problem to resolve. "Although we've talked about this issue on a routine basis at our monthly staff meetings, employees continued to use … [Read more...] about How to manage personal cell phone use in the workplace
10 tips to manage employee leave
The environment for leave management has become increasingly complex. The Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and employee awareness of rights under these laws and others have made managing leave while remaining in legal and regulatory compliance more difficult than even. Terri Rhodes, executive director of the Disability Management … [Read more...] about 10 tips to manage employee leave
EEOC proposes rules for employer wellness programs to avoid potential discrimination
As the focus on quality and value intensifies, wellness programs will no doubt play an integral role in the health care system. The 2014 Employer Health Benefits Survey from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation reports that "[v]irtually all large employers (200 or more workers) and most smaller employers offer at least one wellness program." Furthermore, the survey indicates … [Read more...] about EEOC proposes rules for employer wellness programs to avoid potential discrimination
Mental illness in the workplace: not just “a case of the Mondays”
By R. Scott Oswald bio When we think of "mental health" problems, many of us envision obvious symptoms. But mental health presents challenges precisely because it can be almost impossible to observe. This can become a problem in the workplace when an employee experiences intense anxiety or panic due to the stress of the position, and management simply expects these … [Read more...] about Mental illness in the workplace: not just “a case of the Mondays”
What’s in your employee handbook?
Emerging issues are emerging in employee handbooks. Paid sick leave tops the list of emerging issues most commonly addressed in employee handbooks, with 79.4% of respondents addressing this new legal trend in their handbooks, according to an XpertHR survey. Data privacy is the second most common issue addressed (67.2%) and social media is a close third (64.2%). The survey … [Read more...] about What’s in your employee handbook?