As company payroll budgets shrink nationwide, employers’ interest in unpaid internships are on the rise. Not surprising, so are FLSA claims of Wage and Hour violations.
The road for an employer to offer an unpaid internship that does not violate the DOL’s Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is very narrow - more like a bike path than a road. It has become a “best practice” in many industries to at least offer minimum wage to interns to avoid the scrutiny of the program or possible litigation. There is a six-factor compliance test for an internship to be unpaid, but the three that usually cause liability for the employer are:
#2. The training is for the benefit of the trainee
More to the point, the training is not for the benefit of the employer. If the internship is designed around meeting an employer’s need for work to be done and the work adds value to the organization, inherently or monetarily, the intern assumes employee status and must be paid at least minimum wage.
#3. The trainees do not displace regular employees, but work under close observation
In layman’s terms, don’t have an intern perform work that employees have performed, do perform or would need to perform if the intern were not there and all work must be closely supervised by and assigned mentor/instructor. They do not work independently. Bottom line, if you would otherwise have to pay someone else to do it, because an intern isn’t there to do it, you’ll have to pay the intern to do it too. They’re an employee.
#4. The employer that provides the training derives no immediate advantage from the activities of the trainees and on occasion the employer’s operations may actually be impeded
This is where the rubber hits the road…or bike path. The employer is not supposed to benefit from the internship – in fact, the expectation is that it should, to some degree, be a burden to the employer. Most of the case law sited is on this factor. If an intern answers a phone that otherwise would have needed to be answered by someone else, the employer has experienced an “immediate advantage” from the intern’s “employment” and therefore must be paid like and employee. To split hairs, if the scope of the internship, for example, is research, and that research does not benefit the employer in its raw state and does not become of value to the employer until a paid staff person further “processes” it, that single activity could meet test #4 of the compliance test for an unpaid internship under the guidelines, but the question still remains, what else are they doing for you?
Many employers falsely believe that if their internship is coordinated through a college or university for credit, then it automatically qualifies to be unpaid. Not so. The first criteria requires that the experience should be “similar to that which would be given in a vocational school” for the intern, but it does not specify anything about college credit. The coordination with the university is not required (although would still be a nicety for the intern) and since the same six criteria still apply, minimum wage is still substantially cheaper than hiring “staff” to do the job. A paid internship would obviously remove the handcuffs of making sure the relationship and intern-output does not immediately benefit the employer and could be of long-term benefit to an employer to explore paid internships as a mutually beneficial relationship.
Sometimes non-profit organizations believe that the internship regulations are different for them or don’t apply, but the reality is that there is only one set of compliance criteria – same six factors for not-profits as for corporate America. This confusion may be due to the frequency that non-profits use unpaid volunteers which is (or should be) very different than the "work" of an intern.
Engaging unpaid volunteers to accomplish work for the benefit of the association has DOL compliance issues as well. To continue the metaphor, it’s a two-lane country dirt road compared the man-made bike path through the rough grass that an unpaid internship can be.
There is a four-factor compliance test for an unpaid volunteer not to fall into the category of employee (and therefore require compensation), and they are far easier to demonstrate compliance with. The one that generates the greatest liability (and law suits) is the first one:
#1. The individual must not be characterized unilaterally by the entity as a volunteer in order to avoid minimum wage or overtime obligations
More often this is referring to existing employees who are asked to “volunteer” after hours or for extended hours so that the employer can avoid additional compensation or overtime, but equally there are cases where the creation of “volunteer” positions inadvertently (or intentionally) displaced paid workers and the employers were found to be liable under rule #1. Best practice is to avoid tasking volunteers with work that has traditionally been performed by paid staff. If you take rule 3 from the “intern” test, adopt that first phrase and reverse the second part, you’d be on track. Volunteers need to be free to come and go on their own schedule, perform only the work that interests them and can’t be held to performance standards like you would an employee. When you consider all that, it’s frequently more effective and (less risky) to just hire someone to get the work done.
That’s not to dismiss the educational value of an internship or the philanthropic value of volunteerism … for both the volunteer or intern as well as the employer. But more frequently than not, the context of a manager’s inquiry about unpaid interns and pursuit of these programs is not “how can my organization give back to the field and community at large by providing these kinds of volunteer and internship opportunities, even if it costs us productivity and time” but rather “how can I get some of this work done for free.” That second thought is precisely what the regulations were written to prevent.
The Department of Labor and the EEOC recently released their annual statistics of claims filed and they are experiencing record highs. Not to minimize or dismiss legitimate claims, but it’s no surprise that with people losing their jobs left and right, that those people may be looking for ways to go after the employer. In this current economy and our litigious culture, I would not recommend that an employer create a new unpaid intern program unless it meets the letter and the spirit of all six criteria. If you have an existing unpaid internship program, don't assume that it's in compliance, just because "we've done it that way for years and never had a problem." This is probably a good time to give it a solid review and adjustment, if needed.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Monday, January 18, 2010
Human Resources Audit
Our Human Resources Audit will provide a professional and objective perspective of your organization’s Human Resources processes, identify areas which can be improved and recommendations for changes, identify areas of risk which involve compliance with state and federal laws. Clients will receive a comprehensive review of all Human Resources functions, including:
- Recruitment and Selection
- Compensation
- Legal Compliance
- Policy Development
- Performance Management
- Payroll
- Record Keeping & Reporting
- Workforce Development & Training
- HR Technology
- Mandatory & Optional Benefits
Employee Handbooks
Clear communication is the key to consistent and fair policy application! HR CPR handbooks are created to meet your organization’s specific needs, ensuring your organization’s philosophies and values are incorporated in its policies. A comprehensive handbook is a critical tool in demonstrating your proactive efforts to comply with all state and federal mandates. Topics addressed in our handbooks include:
- Employment at Will Statement
- Organizational Mission Statement
- Performance Management
- Discipline Policies
- Employment and Working Conditions
- Employee Pay Plan
- Employee Benefits
- Job Responsibilities
- Employee Concern Resolution
- Attendance Policies
- Safety and Health
Employee Relations - Concern Resolution
HR CPR offers unparalleled employee relations consulting services and products, partnering with its clients to:
- Prevent Employment Claims through engaging employment relations training and counseling.
- Correct Personnel Problems through impartial complaint investigations and one-on-one coaching.
- Enhance Employee Relations through partnering with our clients to implement effective tools and programs.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Social Media Mania
You can't watch television, listen to the radio or sit at your computer for more than 2 minutes without an invitation to "follow us on Facebook and Twitter!" Individuals (over 350 million individuals) have been on board with social media from the beginning, but businesses have been a little slower to recognize the social media platform as a valuable business tool. If your business hasn't committed to integrating social media into your business plan as a means to reach and serve your customers, you may just miss the boat!
Change at the Speed of Light
Futurist and innovation expert Jim Carroll made the comment at NRPA’s 2009 Congress that, in the technology arena, over half of what today’s college freshman learn will be obsolete by the time they graduate. That made me think of my own technology transformation (albeit over a 20 year period) from my college days in the ‘80s when “social media” amounted to saving a favorite joke on a 5 ¼ inch floppy disk and giving it to a friend so the next time he or she went to the computer lab (no one had their own PCs) they could pop it in and laugh at it… to the Blogging, Tweeting, web-surfing techno-geek I’m proud to be today.
Today’s Social Media is certainly more than just having the technology to email that favorite joke and have your friend instantly receive it and even send back a quick “LOL” all in a matter of seconds, but a buffet of digital opportunities to connect with people around the world in real time. “Social Media” itself has changed so rapidly since the phrase was coined in 2004 that the original Wikipedia definition posted in July of 2006 has had over 500 revisions to date.
So what is Social Media?
The description I like best comes from Brian Solis, author of “The Future of Communications - A Manifesto for Integrating Social Media into Marketing." Solis said, “Social Media is, at its most basic sense, a shift in how people discover, read, and share news and information and content. It's a fusion of sociology and technology, transforming monologue (one to many) into dialog (many to many.)”
From a business perspective, the social media mediums of Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Blogging, top the list in popularity, accompanied by a comprehensive website to tie them all together, of course. Why not just create a website that does all that? You have to meet people where they are to bring them where you want them to be. You can’t just stand in the middle of your shiny new digital island and say, “Huh? Why isn’t everyone here with me?” You need build a bridge and a create a motive to cross over to the island. That’s where social media comes in.
Island Vacationers... 10 or 10,000?
Your company’s website is like a digital island – the question is… is it an uninhabited wasteland that your organization is about to starve to death on because no one knows it’s there? Or is it the inviting “go-to” vacation spot for weary web travelers looking for the just the information, product, services and events you have to offer? Social Media platforms can provide and facilitate a lot for a business, but where you really want people is at your website because it's where you have the greatest amount of control of your audience. You can't keep them focused on you with 349,999,999 other Facebookers competing for their attention.
Building the Bridge
There are a lot of social media tools out there and it’s important use the right ones to accomplish your goals… which begs the question, what are your goals? Driving members to your services? Driving citizens to your events? Connecting the community with each other? Collecting a pool of professionals to use as a resource? Collecting a pool of advocates to mobilize?
It’s important to choose the right tool for the job. Up until five years ago, email was virtually the only “bridge” available to drive people to your website - ten years ago, it was considered cutting edge to send emails with hyperlinks to your customers/members – but now, with everyone experiencing “email overload” at home and at work, it’s critical we change our approach.
Email is slowly being replaced as a communication tool and social media is moving in and taking over. College students are more likely to use Facebook to communicate important, timely information than email. But there's a business impact as well. If you are relying exclusively on email to reach out to your customers, you're losing business.
There’s a clear consensus that Facebook and Twitter are “must haves” in building your social media bridge, followed closely by LinkedIn, and Blogs and they each reach a different audience for different purposes.
Twitter, launched in 2006, is the latest and greatest sensation in social media. Described as a “microblog,” Twitter had over 44.5 million users as of August of 2009. The beauty of Twitter is that is has the capability of tying many of the other technologies together in applications like TweetDeck, sharing website links, pictures, videos and your single “Tweet” has the potential of reaching all 44.5 million users (whether they are following you or not) through RTs (Re-Tweeting) or keyword searches. Of course, the key to build a solid base of followers who will see your message directly.
Facebook, although often said in the same breath with Twitter, is really a different vehicle. Facebook has been available to the general public for about the same time (public launch in September 2006) but it’s student-only roots from 2004 have helped build a user base of over 350 million. Unlike Twitter, you have to “friend” someone on Facebook (and be accepted as a friend back) in order to be in their network and participate in group discussions. With a “community feel,” Facebook is much better at facilitating a real connection between people and true two-way dialog (whereas Twitter tends to be a little more one-way and less personal because it’s so public) and creates energy and engagement easily.
Like every medium, it has its place and drawbacks. Most people began using Facebook on the personal front so they have their friends, family and neighbors in their network. If a person is “friending” your company as an end-user, it probably okay to mix it up, but from business to business or within a field of professionals, this may be more problematic.
LinkedIn, although it’s been around twice as long (launched in May of 2003) has just a few more users than Twitter at 55 million, but has a much narrower, business-focused community of users. Where Facebook and Twitter are great vehicles to connect with the community and customers you serve and want to engage, LinkedIn is a place where professionals with common interests can connect with each other and exchange ideas related to the job on discussion boards. Although building a LinkedIn profile is unlikely to lead to more traffic/visitors/revenue in a direct way, if it facilitates the exchange of innovative ideas by professional peers leading to new programs or services that do result in new revenue generating programs, well you’d be missing out if you didn’t include it on your social media buffet.
Blogging reached mainstream status by 2004, but had its roots in “online diaries” about a decade earlier. The Blog has a solid place in social media because of its flexibility and capacity for interactivity. Blogs reach people in a different way than the others mediums, so it’s got to be used in concert with, not instead of. Blogs also have a great capacity for editorial, feedback and customer participation and engagement and can be a real value in balancing the “push-pull” of communication and provide some relief from the email epidemic by incorporating RSS feed capability.
Creating the Motive
The goal, remember, was to use social media as a bridge to lead people across to your digital island (or website). Why would they want to that? Perhaps they don’t. But you want them to do that because, as mentioned before, it's where you have the greatest amount of control of your audience and customer attention.
Creating the motive to move from your Facebook Fan page to your organization’s website is all about making sure that what you’re offering is something the people actually want. Easier said than done, I know, but here’s another opportunity to utilize the social media tools to find out what they want. The feedback you get may not always be positive, but people will appreciate that they've been provided with a venue to connect with you in an authentic way.
The Journey of a Thousand Miles
If you’re not already engaging with social media, you have to take that first step and just jump in. Don’t worry so much about “which one is best for us” at this point. At the rate that technology changes, there will be ten new social media platforms to choose from before you’ve figured out the first one you’ve decided on so you can’t afford to do a 10 page ROI study to figure it out. Take the first step now.
.
Change at the Speed of Light
Futurist and innovation expert Jim Carroll made the comment at NRPA’s 2009 Congress that, in the technology arena, over half of what today’s college freshman learn will be obsolete by the time they graduate. That made me think of my own technology transformation (albeit over a 20 year period) from my college days in the ‘80s when “social media” amounted to saving a favorite joke on a 5 ¼ inch floppy disk and giving it to a friend so the next time he or she went to the computer lab (no one had their own PCs) they could pop it in and laugh at it… to the Blogging, Tweeting, web-surfing techno-geek I’m proud to be today.
Fun Fact
Although mainframe-based inter-office email was used as early as 1965, the World Wide Web was publicly launched in April of 1993 facilitating email as a global communication tool
Today’s Social Media is certainly more than just having the technology to email that favorite joke and have your friend instantly receive it and even send back a quick “LOL” all in a matter of seconds, but a buffet of digital opportunities to connect with people around the world in real time. “Social Media” itself has changed so rapidly since the phrase was coined in 2004 that the original Wikipedia definition posted in July of 2006 has had over 500 revisions to date.
So what is Social Media?
The description I like best comes from Brian Solis, author of “The Future of Communications - A Manifesto for Integrating Social Media into Marketing." Solis said, “Social Media is, at its most basic sense, a shift in how people discover, read, and share news and information and content. It's a fusion of sociology and technology, transforming monologue (one to many) into dialog (many to many.)”
From a business perspective, the social media mediums of Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Blogging, top the list in popularity, accompanied by a comprehensive website to tie them all together, of course. Why not just create a website that does all that? You have to meet people where they are to bring them where you want them to be. You can’t just stand in the middle of your shiny new digital island and say, “Huh? Why isn’t everyone here with me?” You need build a bridge and a create a motive to cross over to the island. That’s where social media comes in.
Island Vacationers... 10 or 10,000?
Your company’s website is like a digital island – the question is… is it an uninhabited wasteland that your organization is about to starve to death on because no one knows it’s there? Or is it the inviting “go-to” vacation spot for weary web travelers looking for the just the information, product, services and events you have to offer? Social Media platforms can provide and facilitate a lot for a business, but where you really want people is at your website because it's where you have the greatest amount of control of your audience. You can't keep them focused on you with 349,999,999 other Facebookers competing for their attention.
Building the Bridge
There are a lot of social media tools out there and it’s important use the right ones to accomplish your goals… which begs the question, what are your goals? Driving members to your services? Driving citizens to your events? Connecting the community with each other? Collecting a pool of professionals to use as a resource? Collecting a pool of advocates to mobilize?
It’s important to choose the right tool for the job. Up until five years ago, email was virtually the only “bridge” available to drive people to your website - ten years ago, it was considered cutting edge to send emails with hyperlinks to your customers/members – but now, with everyone experiencing “email overload” at home and at work, it’s critical we change our approach.
Email is slowly being replaced as a communication tool and social media is moving in and taking over. College students are more likely to use Facebook to communicate important, timely information than email. But there's a business impact as well. If you are relying exclusively on email to reach out to your customers, you're losing business.
There’s a clear consensus that Facebook and Twitter are “must haves” in building your social media bridge, followed closely by LinkedIn, and Blogs and they each reach a different audience for different purposes.
Twitter, launched in 2006, is the latest and greatest sensation in social media. Described as a “microblog,” Twitter had over 44.5 million users as of August of 2009. The beauty of Twitter is that is has the capability of tying many of the other technologies together in applications like TweetDeck, sharing website links, pictures, videos and your single “Tweet” has the potential of reaching all 44.5 million users (whether they are following you or not) through RTs (Re-Tweeting) or keyword searches. Of course, the key to build a solid base of followers who will see your message directly.
Facebook, although often said in the same breath with Twitter, is really a different vehicle. Facebook has been available to the general public for about the same time (public launch in September 2006) but it’s student-only roots from 2004 have helped build a user base of over 350 million. Unlike Twitter, you have to “friend” someone on Facebook (and be accepted as a friend back) in order to be in their network and participate in group discussions. With a “community feel,” Facebook is much better at facilitating a real connection between people and true two-way dialog (whereas Twitter tends to be a little more one-way and less personal because it’s so public) and creates energy and engagement easily.
Like every medium, it has its place and drawbacks. Most people began using Facebook on the personal front so they have their friends, family and neighbors in their network. If a person is “friending” your company as an end-user, it probably okay to mix it up, but from business to business or within a field of professionals, this may be more problematic.
LinkedIn, although it’s been around twice as long (launched in May of 2003) has just a few more users than Twitter at 55 million, but has a much narrower, business-focused community of users. Where Facebook and Twitter are great vehicles to connect with the community and customers you serve and want to engage, LinkedIn is a place where professionals with common interests can connect with each other and exchange ideas related to the job on discussion boards. Although building a LinkedIn profile is unlikely to lead to more traffic/visitors/revenue in a direct way, if it facilitates the exchange of innovative ideas by professional peers leading to new programs or services that do result in new revenue generating programs, well you’d be missing out if you didn’t include it on your social media buffet.
Blogging reached mainstream status by 2004, but had its roots in “online diaries” about a decade earlier. The Blog has a solid place in social media because of its flexibility and capacity for interactivity. Blogs reach people in a different way than the others mediums, so it’s got to be used in concert with, not instead of. Blogs also have a great capacity for editorial, feedback and customer participation and engagement and can be a real value in balancing the “push-pull” of communication and provide some relief from the email epidemic by incorporating RSS feed capability.
Creating the Motive
The goal, remember, was to use social media as a bridge to lead people across to your digital island (or website). Why would they want to that? Perhaps they don’t. But you want them to do that because, as mentioned before, it's where you have the greatest amount of control of your audience and customer attention.
Creating the motive to move from your Facebook Fan page to your organization’s website is all about making sure that what you’re offering is something the people actually want. Easier said than done, I know, but here’s another opportunity to utilize the social media tools to find out what they want. The feedback you get may not always be positive, but people will appreciate that they've been provided with a venue to connect with you in an authentic way.
The Journey of a Thousand Miles
If you’re not already engaging with social media, you have to take that first step and just jump in. Don’t worry so much about “which one is best for us” at this point. At the rate that technology changes, there will be ten new social media platforms to choose from before you’ve figured out the first one you’ve decided on so you can’t afford to do a 10 page ROI study to figure it out. Take the first step now.
.
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