In yesterday’s Advisor,we learned exemption status of many specific jobs. Today, the tricky status of executive assistants, team leaders, and supervisors who perform nonexempt duties, plus we introduce the all-things-HR website, HR.BLR.com.
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Supervisors Who Perform Concurrent Duties
Supervisors who perform both exempt and nonexempt work may still qualify as exempt employees under the law. For example, supervisors who perform such work as serving customers, cooking food, stocking shelves, cleaning the establishment, or other nonexempt work will be considered exempt as long as they perform other duties that are considered executive in nature (scheduling employees, assigning work, overseeing product quality, ordering merchandise, managing inventory, handling customer complaints, authorizing payment of bills, etc.).
Therefore, an assistant manager can supervise employees and serve customers at the same time without losing the exemption.
In contrast, a relief supervisor or working supervisor whose primary duty is performing nonexempt work on the production line in a manufacturing plant does not become exempt merely because the nonexempt production line employee occasionally has some responsibility for directing the work of other nonexempt production line employees when, for example, the exempt supervisor is unavailable.
Executive Assistants
Executive or administrative assistants to a business owner or senior executive of a large business may be exempt under the administrative exemption only if they, without specific instructions or prescribed procedures, have been delegated authority regarding matters of significance.
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Team Leaders
Employees who lead a team of other employees may be exempt under the administrative exemption if they are assigned to perform such tasks as:
- Completing major projects for the employer, such as purchasing, selling, or closing all or part of the business
- Negotiating a real estate transaction or a collective bargaining agreement
- Designing and implementing productivity improvements
Figuring out exemptions—just one more of the many challenges all HR pros face. In HR, if it’s not one thing, it’s another. Like FMLA intermittent leave, overtime hassles, ADA accommodation, and then on top of that, whatever the agencies and courts throw in your way.
You need a go-to resource, and our editors recommend the “everything-HR-in-one website,” HR.BLR.com®. As an example of what you will find, here are some policy recommendations concerning e-mail, excerpted from a sample policy on the website:
Privacy. The director of information services can override any individual password and thus has access to all e-mail messages in order to ensure compliance with company policy. This means that employees do not have an expectation of privacy in their company e-mail or any other information stored or accessed on company computers.
Find out what the buzz is all about. Take a no-cost look at HR.BLR.com, solve your top problem, and get a complimentary gift.
E-mail review. All e-mail is subject to review by management. Your use of the e-mail system grants consent to the review of any of the messages to or from you in the system in printed form or in any other medium.
Solicitation. In line with our general policy, e-mail must not be used to solicit for outside business ventures, personal parties, social meetings, charities, membership in any organization, political causes, religious causes, or other matters not connected to the company’s business.
We should point out that this is just one of hundreds of sample policies on the site. (You’ll also find analyses of laws and issues, job descriptions, and complete training materials for hundreds of HR topics.)
You can examine the entire HR.BLR.com® program free of any cost or commitment. It’s quite remarkable—30 years of accumulated HR knowledge, tools, and skills gathered in one place and accessible at the click of a mouse.
What’s more, we’ll supply a free downloadable copy of our special report, Critical HR Recordkeeping—From Hiring to Termination, just for looking at HR.BLR.com. If you’d like to try it at absolutely no cost or obligation to continue (and get the special report, no matter what you decide), go here.