Stefan Keller, President of Certiphi Screening, presented, "Monsters in the Closet: Identifying Red Flags during the Hiring Process." During his learning session, Keller gave attendees examples of red flags from different portions of an employment application.
Social media red flags: Watch for unprofessional email addresses, such as "partygirl," "gr8wrkr" and the like. Also, social media presents a great temptation to learn more about a potential hire. Keep in mind the validity of information and protected class information. The legal waters are untested at this stage regarding social media and its contribution to the hiring process.
Previous address red flags: Take a close look at the street address to make sure it is valid and isn't the address of a correctional facility. Look for continuity. Compare the residential history to work, school, and licensure histories.
Job details red flags: Watch out for too much information and items that seem too good to be true, i.e., salary being inappropriate for the position and a specific request to work night shift. What are the intentions of that potential hire?
Education red flags: Make sure you verify schools. Watch out for diploma mills.
Previous employment red flags: Make sure titles and dates of employment are correct and there are no gaps. Make sure the applicant gives you permission for background checks from schools, previous employers, etc. If you ran a background check and found something negative, before you take action on that information, you must provide a copy of what you found to the applicant and give that individual a chance to dispute it. A number of lawsuits have been filed when companies did not follow this practice.
Other key takeaways from Keller’s presentation:
When asking about criminal records, remember you cannot ask about arrests, and there is a "whole world" of options between arrest and conviction (such as deferred prosecution and adjudication). Keller suggested adding "ever pled guilty or no contest" rather than "ever convicted" to an application's criminal records question.
At the state level, the "ban the box" movement (wherein an employer cannot put a checkbox on an application asking a potential employee about his or her criminal record; that information must be gathered at the interview) is gaining momentum, and each state law is unique.
Make sure you ask for an individual's full, legal name. When an individual gets into trouble, his or her legal name is used, and many background investigation searches are legal name based. Always check into maiden names and AKAs, particularly for education verification.
"If you're getting negative information from a previous employer, get it in writing," Keller said.
Attorneys David D. Powell, Jr. and Austin E. Smith kept attendees engaged in a session devoted to an issue becoming more and more problematic for the workforce.
Their presentation, "Avoiding FLSA Liability through a Culture of Work-Life Balance: How the Smartphone Has Upset That Balance and What Can Be Done to Stem the Tide," offered different fictional scenarios to allow attendees to determine what they would do if faced with a legal issue related to smartphone use.
Smith gave a few statistics as a backdrop to explain the effect smartphone use has on workplace productivity:
• Employees with company-issued cell phones have been found to work more than 50 hours per week (Pew Internet and Merican Life Project).
• A study of Microsoft employees showed one group of employees averaged 15 minutes to return to serious mental tasks (writing reports or computer code) after responding to emails or text messages. Instead, they replied to other messages, or browsed news, sports, or entertainment websites.
Much of the session focused on whether employees are spending too much time off the clock responding to work email and whether expectations have been established by an employer for the employee to respond quickly. Courts are seeing more cases of this nature as non-exempt employees claim they are entitled to overtime pay for these off-the-clock activities. A few of the more important recent cases on this subject are: Allen vs. City of Chicago, Agui v. T-Mobile USA, Inc., and Rulli v. CB Richard Ellis, Inc.
A key element of the presentation that resonated with hospital HR executives was the differentiation of on-call status and whether that means "engaged to wait" or "waiting to be engaged."
Powell reviewed the general rule that if an employee who is required to remain "on call" on the employer's premises or so close that he or she cannot use the time effectively for his or her own purposes is working while "on call." An employee who is not required to remain on the employer's premises, but is merely required to leave word at his or her home or with company officials where he or she may be reached is not working while "on call." The key inquiry is whether the employee can use the time effectively for his or her own purposes?
Some generic solutions to avoid non-exempt employee use of smartphones after work hours are: Implement policies prohibiting smartphone use after hours; require that employees record their time (this can be accomplished through apps); and do not issue smartphones to non-exempt employees.
We’ll have one Learning Session block this morning from 8:15-9:45., where you can select from the following education sessions:
• T1 - Cultivating Effective Medical Staff Leadership and Creating a Culture of Respect
• T2 - Breaking Down Silos: Exploring Wage and Hour Issues
• T3 - OMG! Why Can't I Text My Boss?
• Note: this session has been CANCELED: T4 - Healthy Hospital Choices: A National Perspective
• T5 - ASHHRA HR Metrics Tool
• T6 - Engaging Your Medical Staff
• T7 - Health Care's Game Changer: The Talent Implications of Reform
• T8 - Thought Leader Forum Panel: Physician Integration
