 Greetings, and welcome to Working Together on ThinkTech Hawaii, where we discuss the impact of change on workers, employers, and the economy. I'm Cheryl Crozier-Garcia, inviting you to join the conversation. Please call in with your questions or comments to area code 415-871-2474 or tweet us at ThinkTechHI. Today we're going to do something a little bit different. We've been doing these shows for six months now, and in that time I've been collecting questions sent to me by viewers and fellow HR professionals. Today we're going to take a chance at looking at some of the more interesting questions to see how you might choose to react to some of them. Now these are fairly common. I went through the list and kind of screened them and looked for the ones that appeared the most, and some of them only came up once, but they're so interesting that they're worth discussing. So I have the list, and we're going to go over those right now. Myself and my invisible evil twin here will be commenting on how I would respond as an HR professional to some of these issues. So here's the first question. My uncle is newly arrived from the Philippines. He does not speak nor read English very well. He wanted me to call the HR department and find out some information about his medical coverage. The HR person I talked to said he can't give out information to anyone but the employee. Is this true? How can I help my uncle? Actually it is true. The HR department by law is obligated to keep all of the detailed information about conditions of employment, pay, benefits, and other issues confidential. And so they're not supposed to discuss those things with anyone but the employee. If your uncle really does have an issue where it's difficult for him to understand then what I would have you do is write a letter to the HR department that says that you are your uncle's agent and translator and that your uncle gives permission for the HR department to discuss issues of pay, benefits, and working conditions with you. And then have your uncle sign it. Have him take it to the HR department. And that way when he has questions he can get an answer and you will be able to interpret for him either via phone or in person if you go to visit your uncle's working place. So this was not I don't think the HR person trying to be difficult but it really is a matter of respecting the employee's right to privacy and the need to maintain confidential information and keep it confidential. So thanks for that question. Let's move on. This here's an interesting one. This one is about overtime. I work for an office cleaning company. Sometimes I have to work on Saturday but when I do I don't get overtime. My cousin who does the same job for a union company gets overtime for Saturday work. Is my company ripping me off? And the answer I would say is probably not. This is a misconception that many people have about overtime but the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act says that you get overtime pay at one and one half times your hourly salary or hourly pay rate for hours worked over 40 in a week. And it doesn't specify days, times, specific shifts. Now you mentioned Coller that your cousin does get overtime pay for Saturday but that your cousin is a union member and that is probably something that was negotiated by the union with the employer so that union members would receive overtime pay for Saturday. So take a look at your pay stub and if your pay stub says that you've worked 40 hours or less per work week even if you did work on weekends or night shift or something like that then you would not be eligible for overtime pay. And if this is something that you feel that you really do deserve what you may want to do is ask your cousin to let you know the next time a position opens up at his or her working place and then apply for a position where union members do receive this kind of overtime pay for working on Saturdays. And thanks for writing in. This is another misconception that people often have about working on weekends, night shifts and this kind of situation. No one likes doing it but unfortunately the law does not require employers to compensate workers who do work those kind of funky schedules any extra for the work that they do. Here's another one that's very common and this one has to do with drug testing. I am applying for a job with a company that has pre-hire drug testing. Can they really make me take the test? Yes, they can. Even though we're in an environment now where marijuana is becoming legal on a state by state basis, the federal law still says that marijuana is against the law and so employers do have a right to test for marijuana as well as other illegal drugs either pre-hire or in a random type of situation. So yes, the companies you're applying to can make you submit to a pre-employment drug test as a provision of getting the offer of employment. And you may want to, if you believe that this is an issue for you, that is to say that you may not pass the test, you may want to focus on employers that will not ask you to take that test. And then avoid companies that have that requirement. So good luck with that. If you are taking a medication that was prescribed by a doctor and that would come up as part of the items that are tested for on some kind of pre-employment or random drug test, make sure that you take the bottles with you to the test and you can show those to the folks that are administering the test and they will write that down along with the prescription number so that you will not be penalized for having an narcotic in your system at the time of testing because you're taking them for legal purposes, okay? So good luck with your drug test and with your job search. And so just be careful with the drug test issue, yeah? Okay, how about this one? This one came from an HR colleague and they're thinking about some ongoing professional development, okay? I'm thinking about going back to school for a master's in HR or possibly getting my certification. Which would you recommend? Well, I have both actually. I did go back to school for a follow-on degree and I am a certified HR professional so I would say this, get both and here's why. The master's program or following up education gives you a good opportunity to bring your skills current, to learn the up to the minute most common practices, not necessarily best practices but most common practices in the profession and will give you an opportunity to meet and learn to work with people that will be competing with you for jobs. So you get a good chance to see how the market is going and that's a good thing but certification shows the prospective employer that you are committed, first of all, to the HR profession. Secondly, that you're committed to ongoing professional development because you do have to recertify periodically and it also shows that professionals recognize your skills, knowledge and ability as current and relevant to the profession. And that's the difference between a degree and certification. Degrees show that from a university perspective that the faculty of a particular university recognize your skills as deeper and more detailed maybe than others who don't have a degree but certification is granted by the professional organization. And so it's other HR professionals saying, yes, Cheryl is, she knows what she says she knows and we as fellow professionals support her assertion that she is a well qualified professional in the field. So it's very important to pursue appropriate certification as well as to update your certification when you've moved up and gotten more experience. One of the issues that I find very troubling is the issue of people that are under certified for the position that they currently hold. So say, for example, you're a young HR professional and the minute you're eligible, you sit for the PHR exam, the professional and human resources exam and you pass. So then you're certified and you continue to recertify as you climb the ladder within the HR profession. Now you are a chief human resources officer, vice president or director of HR in a particular company and you are eligible for the senior designation but you choose not to certify. You don't go back and take the senior exam. My recommendation to you at that point would be absolutely take the senior examination and become certified at the senior level because that then proves again not only that you are committed to your profession, you're committed to ongoing professional development, you are passionate about your profession but it also shows that you are able and your colleagues in the profession are able to certify your strategic level of HR knowledge, skill and abilities. So do make sure not only that you seek certification the moment that you are eligible but that you also continue to appropriately certify as you climb the corporate ladder. You want your certification to match the level of the organization that you are currently in. And I am seeing a sign that we are headed to break. So please take a look at some of the awesome programming we have available on Think Tech Hawaii. I'm Cheryl Crozier-Garcia and we will be back for more working together in just a moment. Yeah. Match Day is no ordinary day. The pitch, hallowed ground for players and supporters alike. Excitement builds. Game plans are made with responsibility in mind. Celebrations are underway. Ready for kickoff. MLS clubs and our supporters rise to the challenge. We make responsible decisions while we cheer on our heroes and toast their success. Elevate your Match Day experience. If you drink, never drive. Welcome back to Working Together on Think Tech Hawaii. I'm Cheryl Crozier-Garcia with more viewer questions. Do feel free if you'd like to call in and join the conversation area code 415-871-2474 or tweet us at Think Tech HI. This question came from another HR colleague who is having some difficulty with turnover in her organization. And the email says, I work for a light industrial firm. Recently we've been experiencing a great deal of turnover. One of our competitors raised their pay rate by 50 cents, excuse me, an hour. All of the employees who have left us now work for them. The president says we can't afford to raise wages. What can we do to reduce turnover? That's a hard one. Particularly if your employees are at the level where an additional 50 cents an hour represents a significant increase in compensation. But there are some things you might try to do, even if the issue of raising the hourly rate is off limits and cannot be contemplated at this time. The first thing you might do is consider longevity bonuses. So say, for example, you hire a new employee. The person lasts six months on the job. And you would give them at that time some kind of bonus to reflect that they've been here for six months already. And then you could follow those along at a year, two years, et cetera. If cash is not part of the bonus that you could offer, how about offering paid time off as one of the benefits? So say, for example, you work for six months. You are then entitled to an additional day off at the next three-day weekend. So we've got one coming up. Next week is Memorial Day. Monday is a day off for most of us. So you might tell employees, OK, if you've worked at least six months, you get the Tuesday after Memorial Day off with pay. And when you work a year, you might get whatever vacation you've earned plus an additional number of days off. So there are ways to offer things that a competing employer is not offering that maybe don't cost as much as you thought they might have. But this is a real problem for employees. And I've certainly seen it in my career. And people, particularly HR professionals, will kind of look at that and say, why would they walk across the street for an additional $0.50 an hour when it's exactly the same job. And the only difference is $0.50 an hour. Well, $0.50 an hour isn't just $0.50 an hour. It's $20 a week times 52 weeks. It's for people that are making close to the minimum wage or have large families, et cetera. This represents a significant increase to their take-home pay. And so people are going to do whatever they feel like they need to do in order to continue to support their families and have a level of income that will allow them to have a comfortable life. So for us as HR folks, it really isn't our kuleana to sit and think about, gee, they're making a foolish decision. That's not the issue. The issue is they're leaving and you don't want them to. So focus on that. What is it that has value to employees and can you offer it in a way that continues to reward longevity and stick-to-itiveness? The other thing you may want to consider that I have found often is an incentive to stay is an employee referral program, where current employees receive bonuses for recommending folks that you then hire for other positions. Now you might say that, ooh, but then we run into the issue of having entire families employed by the same company, doing the same type of job. And yes, but in the case of retention, that's a plus, because people like working with their relatives, their friends, et cetera. And so you get the opportunity to continue to work with the people you love in a way that makes sense for you. And so then you disincentivize walking across the street for a measly $0.50 an hour. So think about those kinds of things. It doesn't have to be cash. It can be other things that are meaningful to the employee. And that really is the issue. No reward is a reward unless the recipient believes it's a reward. OK. OK, here's a hard one that I've actually seen this happen. And it's a really sticky one. I supervise a number of professional staff. The person who wrote in doesn't say which company or what kind of professionals, but professional staff. One of my supervisees has begun a romantic relationship with our vice president. They don't do much to keep their relationship quiet. Now, some department members are claiming that the vice president is showing favoritism to her new romantic partner. What can I do? Some of our coworkers want to join forces and tell the VP's husband. The best advice I can give you about this is stay out of it. First of all, to the degree that you can have a conversation with those employees that want to let the VP's spouse know that this is a situation, if you can talk them out of it, do it. You really don't need that kind of headache in your day-to-day work life. If there is a situation that you are observing where favoritism does appear to be a factor, then you should speak with the vice president. And if there's a perception that it is the employee that is the lower ranking person in the relationship who is using the knowledge of that relationship as a way to perhaps get over on some of the more onerous tasks or finagle their way into longer lunches, more days off, this kind of thing. If it's a performance issue, then you take it up with the employee just like you would any other performance issue without mentioning the relationship. If this continues, then you can take it up as you go further up the chain of command with the vice president. But as a performance issue, not as a relationship issue, because unless you have an anti-nepotism policy or an anti-fraternization policy, it really isn't up to the company to make a decision about who people date, who they socialize with, who their friends are. So focus exclusively on the performance issues that are impacting this specific employee's performance, as well as the performance of the rest of the group. And like I said, to the degree that you feel comfortable dissuading others from squealing to the vice president's spouse, you should probably do that, because nothing will be solved if they take this step. And it'll just make things a lot worse and a lot unhappier for those that remain. Let's see. I like this one. This is a hard one, and I've actually been here. I mean, I've seen the situation in action. So the writer says, I am the newest executive level employee in a large service industry company. Again, they don't say which one. All of my new colleagues have been in their positions for many years. The entire team has worked together for at least 20 years. I was hired to make some fairly significant changes approved by the board of directors and the CEO. But when I try to get information about processes that would be affected by these changes, I get nothing but resentment and pushback. Below the executive level, I am very successful and I am building a good reputation. But the executives just don't seem to want to do what they've hired me to do. And they pay me a very good salary to accomplish these things that just aren't happening. How can I get them on my side? You would have thought, wouldn't you, writer, that because the board of directors and the CEO approved these changes and then hired you to make them happen, that they would naturally be supportive of whatever initiatives you are putting forward to make these changes happen. But the sad truth is most people are change a verse. So my recommendation to you, it's a terrible thing to say. And I know that you're getting paid very well and good salaried jobs are hard to find. So here's the best advice I can give you. Number one, save your money. Number two, update your resume. And number three, start looking for another position that, in which you believe that you will not get this same level of rejection, pushback and resentment. Because toxic environments can have an impact not only on your work reputation, but on your personal health. And no job and no company is worth that kind of pain and heartache and unhappiness. So really, you probably shouldn't stay in a relationship that you believe is damaging or abusive or toxic to yourself, but you want to have an exit strategy that will put you in a good position to make your next career move. And I wish you the best because I've been there and I didn't like it much either. Gee, this half hour has really flown by and we're down to our last minutes. So what I'd like to say to you is, if you have other questions, please feel free to call in or tweet at think tech Hawaii or at think tech HI, I should say, or call in area code 415-871-2474 and we'll be collecting your questions. And then when we have enough of them, we'll be setting up another Just You and Me conversation. I'm Cheryl Crozier-Garcia. Thank you for joining us on Working Together at Think Tech Hawaii and I will see you in two weeks. Bye. These are all.