Welcome back to another edition of HR Basecamp Roundup! This week, we tackle some interesting and common issues that come up in workplaces more often than you think. If you haven’t joined our HR Basecamp Facebook group yet, be sure to join so you can participate in these discussions in real time!
Podcasts and Resources in this Roundup:
- Hiring Unpaid Interns This Summer? Here’s What You Should Know.
- Episode 106: All Things Internships
- One-on-One Meetings Are a Manager’s Most Powerful Engagement Tool
- Yearly Evaluations, 90-Day Reviews, and One-on-Ones: What’s the Difference?
- Episode 112: How to Prevent Awkward 1:1s
One of my employees has a kid who is looking for an internship for the spring semester. I could use someone to take care of random tasks in the office and this seems like it would be mutually beneficial. Do I have to onboard an intern like an employee even though I won’t be paying them?
The legal side of things: The word “intern” tends to get thrown around whenever a minor or a student is wanting to do some work at the office. But did you know that federal law makes it extremely hard to not pay a worker based on them being an “intern”?
The Fair Labor Standards Act requires that employers pay at least minimum wage to anyone performing work for them. It explains what counts as “work” for the business, and presumes that anyone performing that work is an employee – and therefore needs to be paid.
The only way those pay rules do not apply is if the relationship with the individual meets a seven-factor balancing test, thus allowing the employer to have them work as an unpaid intern. We won’t be diving too deep into the details of that test, but we will say this: a major component of unpaid internships is their focus on the education of the intern. The goal of the relationship needs to be academic, and in most cases tied to a formal academic program.
Learning how to do a job, or learning how a healthcare practice works is not enough to meet that requirement. Instead, having an intern should be more of a burden than a benefit to the practice. Meaning, you and your team are devoting time educating the intern rather than performing their usual job duties. And the intern is not taking the place of a regular worker.
Now for the human approach: The fact that you have some work that your employee’s child could perform does not mean you can have them do that without pay.
If your employee is saying their child wants an internship, start with following up for more information. If they are in an academic program that actually has an internship component, then they should have paperwork that tells you the criteria for that program. Determine from there if you can offer what the internship requires, and whether it fits the federal law criteria for the work to be unpaid.
If this employee’s child doesn’t qualify for an unpaid internship, you can still hire them to help out! But without the internship, they’ll be considered a regular employee. You need to pay them and onboard them just like you would any other new hire.
Check out our blog post about internships here for more information.
Extra Credit Listening: Episode 106: All Things Internships
Should I be conducting employee reviews at the end of each year? If so, what should they focus on? This is my first year as a business owner and I want to make sure I set a good precedent.
The legal side of things: Reviews aren’t legally required. It is fully up to your discretion how often you want to give them and how they are each structured. Every employer will have different methods based on what works best for their business.
Keep in mind that while the review itself isn’t required, documentation of employee performance can be critical from a legal standpoint if you ever face a dispute with an employee. For this reason, it’s highly recommended that you have regular check-ins with your employee, in addition to an annual review. You should document those meetings, including both the positive and the negative that was discussed.
Now for the human approach: While not required, reviews are a key part of the “human” component of HR and it’s good that you want to set a proper precedent as you start your business.
CEDR recommends scheduling an employee’s yearly performing review on or around their employment anniversary. This allows you to have a full year worth of work to reflect back on. It also shows some recognition and significance to your employee’s continued tenure with you.
Some employers do perform annual reviews for their entire team at the end of the year, or at another designated time of the year. There are a few reasons why we typically don’t recommend this.
First, if you are giving pay increases in conjunction with the reviews, you are giving yourself a sudden spike in your payroll costs. This may not be economically feasible, especially for a new business.
Second, it simply creates a ton of work for you! If you’re a small employer with just 10 employees, you need to set aside time to assess performance for 10 employees. Thai means thinking about their work and their future opportunities with you; considering pay increases and promotions; documenting all of this in a formal review form; having 10 individual review meetings; and getting all the pay information updated in your timekeeping and payroll systems.
All of this time, of course, is also time that you can’t be spending with patients or engaging in other important management tasks.
If you spread those 10 performance reviews across the year based on anniversary dates, you’re making things a lot easier. You will also likely have more time and mental space for each review, making them more productive and valuable.
You can learn more about the different types of reviews in this CEDR blog and learn how to prevent awkward one-on-ones in this episode of ‘What the Hell Just Happened?!”
I just found out an ex-employee has made several Facebook posts talking negatively about our office. I know for a fact they are friends with several patients on Facebook so there’s a good chance our patients saw these posts. Can I tell the ex-employee to stop posting about the practice?
The legal side of things: Unfortunately, this is an incredibly common issue and we’ve spoken to many, many members who have gone through similar situations. Most of them have the same question you do and many are curious about whether any legal action can be taken to get the social media posts to stop.
The truth is, there are legal limitations towards restricting what an ex-employee says on social media channels post-separation, and it really depends on if they have stated any information that compromises the confidentiality of another patient or if they revealed private company information.
If they have, you can send them a certified letter reminding them of their commitment to confidentiality and HIPAA.
A lot of employers want to jump to a cease and desist but truthfully, doing this very often results in the ex-employee getting more upset and only increasing their efforts. While you may be thinking it’s defamation, the legal definition of that varies by state but is almost always a pretty high bar. And, even more often, not worth the cost of pursuing a claim.
Now for the human approach: As frustrating as it can be to see your business being talked about in a negative light, nine times out of ten our advice is to leave it alone. In most cases, the posts that disgruntled ex-employees are making are fueled by anger and other emotions felt immediately after separation. Once those feelings dissipate, the posts stop and you never hear from the ex-employee again. In fact, there’s a good chance that reaching out to the employee to tell them to stop will only escalate the situation.
That said, if the employee’s posts are accusing the business of anything illegal (wage violation, harassment, etc,), you should take it as seriously as you would if they were a current employee and contact them to gather details for an investigation. If they were to file a claim against you, it’s important that you’re able to show that you did everything you could to address their complaint. CEDR members – if you find yourself facing this problem, contact the Solution Center for guidance.
