Spot Awards—A Detailed Plan You Can Use

Here are the last two of Cherry and Green’s Six types of incentive. [Go here for the first four types.] Cherry and Green are both principals at HR consultant Hay Group. They offered their tips at a recent webinar hosted by BLR and HR Hero.

Plan Type		Overview		Advantages	Disadvantages
	Recognition		Cash or non-cash reward for a specific act or achievement. Usually based on peer or supervisor nomination.	Proven tool for building goodwill and communicating the strategy of the organization.	Requires basic leadership credibility. Can undermine equity if individual awards are given group achievement. If the recognition is for a profoundly impactful achievement or innovation, it may appear hollow (save $100,000, get a $100 gift card)
	Individual		Individual plans can contain any of the options outlines above.	Tailored to individual needs	A lot of administration.

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Finally, a simple but comprehensive guide to wage and hour. Correctly apply the FLSA, remain the go-to expert with BLR’s comprehensive guide. Save hours of research time.  Go here for information or to order Wage & Hour Compliance: Practical Solutions for HR

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Individual Spot Awards

Cherry offers the following example of a carefully-worked-out spot awards program:

Example Title	Funding	Annual Frequency	Suggested Awards
Bronze Star	Allocated based on % of local payroll Budget set as part of annual planning cycle	40-50% of employees in any given year	Book, framed print, photos Clothing, gear, logo items Gift certificate (approx. $25-$100) Cash (approx. $25-$100) Personal gifts Food / celebration Recognition letter from leadership
Silver Star	Allocated based on % of local payroll Budget set as part of annual planning cycle	20-30% of company in any given year	Book, framed print, photos Clothing, gear, logo items Gift certificate (greater than $100) Cash (greater than $100) Personal gifts Food / celebration Public recognition Time off (1-2 days)
Gold Star	Central funding Budget set as part of annual planning cycle Proposed award value is part of nomination process Case demonstrating impact	Maximum of 5 recipients in any given year	Travel to other offices / work sites Cultural exchange opportunity Cash (greater than $500) Time off (3 days or more)

Incentives for non-exempts, just one of, what, a dozen wage/hour challenges on your desk? Joint employers, off-duty phone use, overtime, and a host of other picky other issues—wage and hour just won’t be as simple as we want it to be. Let’s face it, comp’s never a picnic, and complying with the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is one of the most confusing and challenging things comp managers have to do.

Even the most savvy practitioners get tripped up, and the law’s complex requirements can easily land you and your company on the wrong side of a lawsuit or DOL investigation.

Fortunately, there’s help—Wage & Hour Compliance: Practical Solutions for HR provides you with detailed guidance on how to comply with the FLSA and takes you through the most complicated wage & hour issues that HR practitioners encounter.

When you’re faced with a supervisor’s travel time question, an employee’s request for comp time, another executive’s suggestion that more assistant managers be deemed exempt from overtime, you’ll find answers in seconds, from a reputable and reliable source.

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Wage and hour lawsuits are expensive—and easily prevented. Here’s how to protect against crippling judgments. Go here for information or to order Wage & Hour Compliance: Practical Solutions for HR

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Wage & Hour Compliance: Practical Solutions for HR features:

• Real-world examples of wage & hour challenges, and how to solve them
• Multiple quizzes, so you can see where you need to review more carefully
• An overtime exemption audit checklist, so you never make the wrong call
• State-specific charts, for comparing your multi-state obligations
• Sample policies, easily modified to fit your specific preferences
• A quarterly newsletter, Wage & Hour Compliance Bulletin, to keep you aware of the latest developments in the law, and why they matter to you.

BONUS! Not just a manual. You also get:

• Free CD-ROM containing over 20 forms, policies, checklists, state-by-state comparison charts and more, all so you can point, click and go.

Why are aggressive attorneys so eager to file claims on behalf of employees? Because there’s so much money to be made:

• $4.75 million: Hospital in Thousand Oaks, California settles wage and hour lawsuit over miscalculated overtime pay and failing to compensate workers for missed meal and rest periods.
• $1.15 million: Las Vegas construction company to pay in back wages to 1,060 current and former employees.
• $976,327: New Mexico aerospace company settles with 900 employees who were routinely required to work through lunch breaks without compensation.
• $340,400: New Jersey convenience store to pay back wages and damages for violations of overtime and recordkeeping.
• $84,541: New York physical therapist agrees to pay 22 employees for minimum wage violations
• $30,000: Texas chain of four gas stations to pay their six hourly employees, again for recordkeeping and overtime violations.

Avoid steep fines. Go here for information or to order Wage & Hour Compliance: Practical Solutions for HR.

Buyers’ Benefit: To make sure your Wage & Hour Compliance: Practical Solutions for HR remains current with changing interpretations and court decisions, we monitor courts, Congress, and state legislatures. Each year, we’ll rush you an updated edition and bill on a 30-day review basis. You pay only if you decide to keep the updated edition.

Stay up to date with wage/hour changes. Go here for information or to order Wage & Hour Compliance: Practical Solutions for HR.