Just My E-pinion
By Cindy McPherrin
Cindy McPherrin, today’s guest columnist, offers her thoughts on the challenges of coping with her suddenly acquired HR responsibilities. (We’d like to hear about the challenges you’re facing as well.)
I am the office manager of a two-family owned mid-size design/building firm. We have professional architects, we provide construction management services to our clients, and we have a separate company for each area. A mid-size firm in this industry is typically 15 employees or fewer.
Although we aren’t very large compared to similar companies in other industries, we do face several HR challenges and OSHA challenges that many other industry companies do not encounter.
The majority of our employees are employed by the architecture firm and two employees are employed on the construction management side. Because the two companies each have employees, it means double payroll, benefits, training, and other documentation that needs to be kept separate for legal reasons. Sometimes the challenges are great—especially at tax time.
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I came to this firm 2½ years ago with office management experience, but no HR experience. I have been learning as I go, and taking courses to help me understand laws and to better myself at what I do.
Online resources, such as HR.BLR.com, have been a great aid in my growth process. I also have learned that I need to stay in regular contact with our CPA and attorney in order to keep within the guidelines of the law.
When I first came to this company, a young girl, fresh out of high school, was doing the office management/HR duties on a part-time basis. She apparently was very overwhelmed as I received many angry phone calls from suppliers not getting paid for several months and employees not understanding their benefits.
Rebuilding Trust
I also found documents hidden in various places throughout the office. It took me several months to gain suppliers’ and subcontractors’ trust as well as the employers’ and employee’s trust and confidence.
I found that the healthcare provider agent was never easy to reach, nor was she helpful when questions were presented to her. One of the employee’s medical bills was confusing and difficult to understand, and the employee had been trying for almost 2 years to correct some of the charges. This person was ready to give up his insurance altogether because of the complexity the insurance provider and agent were causing.
One of the first things I did was contact a large insurance brokerage firm with a great reputation locally. We were able to get our healthcare benefits changed and, in fact, were able to get better benefits and more selection at a lower price than the company had been paying.
Since the change to the new brokers, whenever we have problems, they have stepped up and assisted us within less than a day of my inquiries—each and every time.
And a Free Lunch, Too
Plus, because this brokerage firm is an all-inclusive firm, it has monthly classes on different areas of the laws governing HR and OSHA. The classes are free, and the broker provides lunch. The broker/agent comes out and goes over the policies as needed with employees, and the firm sends regular updates and newsletters to keep us informed of law changes and policy updates or changes.
The other day, I contacted its HR specialist because we were having a problem with an employee and wanted to terminate him. We really didn’t want to pay him unemployment after the termination because, instead of doing his work, he was surfing the Internet all day, every day. She walked me through the steps of what we needed to have documented, although she did say that depending on the person reviewing the unemployment application, our company might need to provide backup documentation to prove our case for termination.
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We followed her advice and we’ll see what the outcome is from the unemployment division. The luncheon seminars and the availability of a specialist have been great perks from our health insurance broker for someone like me, who isn’t familiar with these types of procedures.
The challenges I faced when I came to this firm have been many, but I have been able to take one at a time and work through each of them. I believe that by not trying to tackle all of them at the same time I saved my sanity. I also got people on board with us who have been extremely beneficial to a company of our size.
Thanks for letting me talk about some of my challenges and choices. I hope this will help others who are facing similar challenges.
Cindy McPherrin is Office Manager of Guenther Mills Keating Architects, Inc. and HGK Construction Management, Inc. in Raytown, Missouri. cmcpherrin@gmkarchitects.com
We’d love for you to share your challenges and choices. Use the Share Your Comments link, below, or e-mail ckilbourne@blr.com.