Employers can say “Catch me if you can,” but they had better be ready to explain their decisions when the DOL says “I caught you,” says consultant Jonna Contacos-Saywer.
“There is a dramatic increase in wage and hour lawsuits,” says Contacos-Sawyer. At her presentation at the recent World at Work Total Rewards Conference in San Diego, Contacos-Sawyer, president of HR Consultants, Inc., was joined by colleagues Polly Wright and Judith Mickey.
What About DOL’s ‘Frightening’ New App?
What about the DOL’s new app that allows employees to keep their own time records? Although it might seem to be a threat, Contacos-Sawyer says that it’s not likely to have much effect. The typical HR manager’s response she gets is: “I can’t even get employees to fill out timesheets at work.”
How to Comply with California Wage & Hour Law — get your copy today!
You can prevail in wage/hour lawsuits, says Wright, but to do so, you must:
- Develop and document a sound compensation system with careful job analysis and thorough job evaluation
- Document movement through the compensation system
- Analyze the results of the compensation system
Developing and Documenting a Sound Compensation System
Job analysis is a systematic process for gathering, documenting, and analyzing information in order to describe jobs. It is the fundamental piece that underlies the compensation system. You do job analysis, says Wright, for several reasons:
- Compliance
- Employee Relations
- Performance Appraisals
- Compensation
- Training and Development
- Communication
- Health and Safety
- Recruiting and selection
- HR planning
The job analysis:
- Focuses on work behaviors, tasks, and outcomes and their relative importance and relationship with other jobs
- Is conducted for the job, not the person doing the job. (What typically happens, Wright says, is that the incumbent has a BA, so that becomes a requirement when it is not really necessary to do the job.)
- Identifies:
- Job Content — activities performed in the job
- Job Specifications — qualifications and skills required
- Working Conditions — environment where work is performed
- Performance Criteria — desired behaviors and results
Everything you need to know about wage hour compliance in California.
Factors to Consider
Wright suggests that compensation specialists consider several factors in planning their job analyses:
- Total Job Titles. Remember that employees often have a title that they use that is different from their official title.
- Total Incumbents. How many are in each job title
- Timeline for doing the analysis (Be generous, says Wright)
- Culture. What will work with your organization?
Methods for Analysis
- HR Department development
- Questionnaires
- Face-to-Face Interviews
- Focus Groups
You must follow a systematic process to determine the relative worth of each job within your organization, Wright says. DOL’s Job Evaluation Method is based on four factors:
- Knowledge
- Job controls
- Contacts
- Physical environment
Wright notes that the federal Department of Labor has a good resource on job evaluation: http://www.bls.gov/ncs/ocs/sp/ncbr0004.pdf
Tomorrow, key elements of pay structure documentation — as well as an introduction to a wage/hour resource you’ll always want to have close at hand.
Download your free copy of Job Descriptions in California: How to Handle Tricky Drafting Hurdles today!
In order to prevail in wage/hour lawsuits, says consultant Jonna Contacos-Sawyer, employers must be able
In order to prevail in wage/hour lawsuits, says consultant Jonna Contacos-Sawyer, employers must be able