HR Solution Center FAQ

In short, the HR Solution Center is a problem-solving and compliance hub that exists for the sole purpose of helping business owners and managers like you limit your legal liability and solve any HR problems you might face while running your business.

CEDR’s HR Solution Center team is made up of HR and employment law experts who are on-call five days a week to help CEDR Members prevent and solve HR problems as they arise. Our all-star advisor team is made up of seasoned HR veterans, HR certified professionals, and attorneys specializing in employment law.

The HR Advisors in CEDR’s Solution Center are hired for their HR expertise, experience, and credentials. Once hired, each Advisor is put through a rigorous training process to ensure that their knowledge of HR and employment laws is current, up-to-date, and comprehensive with respect to current HR and team management trends, as well as employment laws at the federal, state, and local levels.

As a new CEDR Member, you’ll work one-on-one with an expert HR Advisor in the Solution Center to customize your CEDR Employee Handbook to fit your unique business and comply with all applicable federal laws, as well as any laws specific to your state, county, and/or city. CEDR Members also have unlimited access to the Solution Center for help with any HR, team management, or compliance issue that might arise during the course of your membership.

Running in the background of the HR Solution Center is the legal engine we call the CEDR Compliance Department. Employment laws are always changing, which is why this team of employment law attorneys is tasked with watching employment laws and legal trends as they roll out across the United States in order to ensure that our members remain current and compliant with all rules, regulations, and guidelines that apply to them.

This allows our members to practice with confidence knowing that your business is always up-to-date from a compliance standpoint without having to worry about a compliance lapse or monitor the ever-shifting landscape of employment laws yourself.

The HR and employment law experts in CEDR’s Solution Center are ready and able to help you prevent any HR, team management, and/or employment law compliance issues before they present a problem, and/or help you troubleshoot any issues in those categories as they arise at your business.

In addition to assisting employers with addressing any HR questions they might have, CEDR Members also receive handbook updates whenever laws change in a way that might affect their business, as well as access to our deep library of white-labeled HR forms and documents.

Though not a complete list of the issues we can help you work through, here are some of the most common problems we help employers solve on a daily basis:

EMPLOYEE ISSUES

• Frequent Tardiness / Absenteeism
• Dress Code Violations
• Employee Hygiene Problems
• Whiners / Complainers
• Drama Kings / Queens
• Bullies
• Complicators
• Laziness & Bad Attitudes

TEAM DYNAMICS

• Injuries on the Job
• Employee Disputes
• Disagreements & Infighting
• In-office Gossip
• Harassment
• Complaints & Investigations
• In-office Dating

HIRING

• Job Descriptions
• Job Ads
• Interviews
• Working Interviews / Skills Tests
• Employment Offers
• New Hire Onboarding
• Employee Classification
• New Hire Paperwork
• Training

FIRING / SEPARATION

• How to Handle a Two-Week Notice
• Preparing to Terminate
• Documentation and Paperwork
• Risk Assessment / Protecting Your Practice
• Exit Interviews
• Final Pay Process
• Layoffs & Terminations
• Job Abandonment
• Voluntary Resignations
• Unemployment Issues

MANAGEMENT

• Employee Coaching
• Corrective Actions
• Having Tough Conversations
• Scheduling Conflicts
• Continuing Education
• Travel & Training
• Overtime, Commissions, and Bonuses
• HR Appropriate Holidays & Parties
• Temporary Office Closure
• Time-Off Requests

COMPLIANCE

• Policy Enforcement
• Federal, State, & Local Employment Laws
• Sick Leave
• Time Off
• Timekeeping and Mandatory Breaks
• Wage and Hour Laws
• Discrimination Laws
• Medical Accommodations
• Maternity Leave
• Leaves of Absence

Please note that, as HR specialists, we are unable to assist with questions related directly to patient care. For questions about patient care, please refer to the state boards and associations for your industry.

HR and employment law compliance are complicated subjects that require specialized knowledge, expertise, and experience to master.

Addressing the HR issues that arise at your business in ways that are good for you, good for your business, good for your team, and are in accordance with all applicable laws is a nuanced and detail-oriented process. Without intimate knowledge of current employment laws and how they apply to your business, it would be difficult for any employer without a professional HR certification or JD in employment law to implement any team management or policy decisions without leaving their businesses vulnerable to employment litigation or an audit by the Department of Labor or the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Most business owners got into their industry and area of specialization by becoming experts in a particular product or service. For most of our members, that meant attending dental and/or medical school, which likely left precious little time to also cultivate a detailed knowledge in other areas of running a business, including HR, team management, and employment law.

What’s more, most managers of small-to-midsize businesses also lack crucial information in these important areas. That’s because the vast majority of professionals in management roles rose in the ranks of their industry to ultimately find themselves in a management position. This explains why nearly half of all managers say that they have never had any formal management training — a dangerous figure when you consider the potential costs of HR compliance mistakes.

Here’s the breakdown:

• 1 in 5 small business end up facing lawsuits from their employees or former employees
• 275 = average number of days it takes to settle an employment matter
• $125,000 = average cost to settle out of court
• $250,000 = average cost of an employment lawsuit
• 81% = portion of cases that result in no payment by insurance
• $35,000 = average employment liability insurance deductible
• 62% = portion of audited cases that turn up employee classification errors
• 40% = portion of SMBs who pay fines for payroll mistakes each year

Having CEDR’s HR experts in your corner can help you minimize your exposure to potential employment litigation and avoid costly lawsuits. The experts in our HR Solution Center can also help you to address and correct any compliance issues that may already be on your books before they present a problem — and a financial burden — to your business.

Where other services like to boast about the fact that their call centers are staffed by “real, live people,” we think employers deserve a little bit more when HR issues come up at their businesses.

Not only is the CEDR Solution Center composed of “real, live people,” but those people are qualified, experienced HR and employment law experts. When you call the Solution Center, you’re going to get actionable, legally compliant guidance from a real, experienced HR professional every single time.

When you work directly with experts, there’s no need to escalate your call to a manager or transfer from department to department in order to find someone who understands what you’re talking about. Every HR Request that comes into the Solution Center goes straight to one of our expert Advisors, so you know the guidance you’ll get back will be thoughtful, personal, and in line with all applicable laws — and that’s just not the type of service you should expect from the other guys.

Since the majority of the HR Advisors in the CEDR Solution Center are either barred attorneys or are certified by one of the two professional HR organizations that offer official licensure, they are required to continually renew their professional credentials by taking regular CE courses in the same way that doctors and dentists are required to take CE to remain licensed.

Our Compliance Department is also tasked specifically with keeping an eye on the state of current and pending employment laws at the federal, state, and local levels, and then disseminating their findings to both the Solution Center team and our Member base.

Finally, the Solution Center team does not work in a bubble. When a particularly sticky or complicated HR issue arises for one of our members, the Advisors in the Solution Center work together to come up with a solution that best supports that member’s business needs and minimizes their legal risk.

Whenever you reach out to the CEDR Solution Center for HR support and guidance, you can rest easy knowing that our team of HR experts has done everything in their power to ensure that they have provided the best possible course of action for addressing your HR concerns in a way that protects your business from potential legal liability.

Solution Center Membership includes the peace of mind and confidence that comes with knowing your business is protected and in compliance with all federal, state, and local employment laws, plus a whole lot more!

As a CEDR Solution Center Member, you have unlimited access to one-on-one guidance from our expert HR Advisors. Members can submit an HR Support Request from your Members Area here.

In addition to helping you customize your CEDR Employee Handbook and troubleshoot HR issues as they arise, CEDR’s HR experts can also help you draft employee letters and notices, create and implement HR and team management strategies for your business, perform risk assessments, make updates to the policies in your employee handbook, and more.

CEDR Members also have exclusive access to the CEDR Members Area, which includes dozens of white-labled HR forms and documents, employee job descriptions, legal updates, access to the CEDR Member Forum, and more.

As a CEDR Member, you also get full access to our powerful suite of customizable HR and team management software. This includes:

• HR Vault employee file system + document storage, sharing, and signature collection
• PTO & Time Tracking with payroll integration, automatic time-off accrual, and instant time-off requests
• On-Demand HIPAA Training

For software support, to get help setting up your system, or if you have any additional questions about how to get the most out of your Solution Center Membership, send a message to support@cedrsolutions.com.

If you are a CEDR Member and need HR support from the Solution Center, you can get in touch in the following ways:

• Submit an HR Support Request from your Members Area
• Send an email to support@cedrsolutions.com
• Call (866) 414-6056

We guarantee a response to any HR inquiry within one business day of receiving your request.

If you are not a CEDR Member but would like to submit an HR question, join our private, professional Facebook Group, HR Base Camp.

To talk to someone about becoming a CEDR Member, you can get in touch in the following ways:

• Schedule a time to talk to a representative.
• Sign up for a free HR consultation.
• Send an email to info@cedrsolutions.com
• Call (866) 414-6056

The CEDR Solution Center is open:

• Monday-Thursday, 8:30am – 4:30pm Arizona time
• Friday, 8:30am – 3:30pm Arizona time.

Note that Arizona time is the same as Mountain Standard Time (MST), but the state does not observe Daylight Savings. To see the current time in Arizona, click here.

CEDR is also closed on the following holidays:

• New Year’s Day
• Memorial Day
• Independence Day
• Labor Day
• Thanksgiving Day
• The Friday following Thanksgiving
• Christmas Eve
• Christmas Day

Access to the Solution Center is limited to business owners who are members of CEDR and any users the business owner authorizes from their business (usually an office manager). If you would like to add an authorized user to your CEDR account, submit an HR Support Request to that effect here.

We cannot assist employees who are not authorized users directly, nor can we assist authorized users when the HR issue they are inquiring about concerns them (e.g., a payroll discrepancy on your OM’s paystub, if your authorized user has been accused of harassment by another employee, etc.) as this could present a conflict of interest to our business owner members.

Our goal at CEDR is to protect our business-owner members to the best of our ability, and part of that protection involves limiting employee access to the expert Advisors in the Solution Center.

As HR and employment law experts, we are happy to provide you with solutions to your HR problems that are compliant with all employment laws that apply to your business. But, since we do not represent your business in a legal sense, our HR Advisors are not able to provide legal advice in the same way that your legally appointed council does.

Rather, CEDR’s products and services are intended to provide general liability prevention guidance in the field of human resources and are not meant to substitute for legal advice from a barred attorney in your state. CEDR is not a law firm and, therefore, no attorney client relationship is established by your CEDR Membership.

We guarantee a response to any HR Support Request that comes from one of our members within one business day of receiving that request.

Because HR issues can be nuanced and complicated, they require time for review to ensure that the guidance we provide is personalized, actionable, and legally compliant.

In general, we like to stress for our members that there is no such thing as an “HR emergency.” What we mean by this is that even the most complicated and egregious HR issues require time to investigate, document, and formulate and implement a plan to resolve them.

If you feel that an employee or former employee is threatening or putting you, your business, or other members of your team at risk, this indicates that the issue has grown past the scope of traditional HR advice. When this is the case, we recommend that you contact local law enforcement.