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HR News Roundup: ACA deadline, guns at work, gig workers, work culture & more news of note

by Julie Ferguson
January 16, 2016 in News & Views

IRS Extends ACA Reporting Deadlines
Jason Westphal, The Capital Connection!

IRS Notice 2016-4 extends the due dates for furnishing and filing the new ACA reporting forms for the 2015 calendar year. The new extended deadlines are as follows:
For the distribution of Forms 1095-B and 1095-C to individuals, the deadline is now March 31, 2016 (previously February 1).
For the filing of Forms 1094-B / 1095-B and 1094-C / 1095-C with the IRS, the deadline is now May 31, 2016 (previously February 29)…and June 30, 2016 if filed electronically. (previously March 31).

Guns at Work: Is Your Employment Handbook Loaded to Fire?
Jeana Goosmann, JDSupra Business Advisor

No matter where you may personally stand on the issue, the topic will—if it hasn’t already—creep into your professional life. Depending on federal and state-specific law, you will inevitably hear the question, “Are guns allowed on premise at XYZ Corp?” Is your employment handbook ready to handle this? If not, you might already be behind the eight ball. Move the discussion to one of your front burners and decide on what your company’s stance is going to be.

Have you heard the term “gig workers” yet? You will.
Maria Danaher, Employee Law Matters

Economists and business commentators believe that the U.S. economy is moving from a world of corporations to a world of “pop-up” businesses. Further, they point out that these pop-up businesses are powered by what’s becoming known as “gig workers” – a term borrowed from the music industry, where musicians move from job to job (gig to gig), employed for a particular performance or a defined time, with little more connection to the venue than to the fast food they’re eating for lunch.
While the concept has been around for years, it has been gaining traction through articles from both supporters and nay-sayers. First, there was attention to the change from large corporations to smaller, more agile businesses:

Minimum Wage Changes for 2016

A handy chart from the Astron Solutions Blog, along with discussion and pointers to other resources, such as The National Conference of State Legislatures’ state-by-state list of the established minimum wages for 2016.

Employee Separation Agreements – A Refresher
Employee Separation Agreements – A Refresher (The Sequel)
Jonathan Orleans, JDSupra Business Advisor

Covering the essential elements of a valid employee separation agreement, including the employee’s release of claims against the employer, specific requirements of the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act (“OWBPA”) for a valid release of actual or potential claims under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, and special rules that apply when an employer offers a separation package to a group of employees, rather to a single departing worker.

Studies: Opioid epidemic grows; Is obesity a smoking gun in rise of prescription drugs?
Workers Comp Insider

You may have taken hope from studies that pointed to a decrease or leveling of the rate of deaths related to opioid and prescription drug use in 2012-2013. If so, the Centers for Disease Control wasted no time this year in throwing some cold water on those hopes.
On January 1, via the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), the CDC issued new data on Increases in Drug and Opioid Overdose Deaths — United States, 2000–2014.

How Company Culture Shapes Employee Motivation
Lindsay McGregorNeel Doshi, Harvard Business Review

In a recent strategy meeting we attended with the leaders of a Fortune-500 company, the word “culture” came up 27 times in 90 minutes. Business leaders believe a strong organizational culture is critical to success, yet culture tends to feel like some magic force that few know how to control. So most executives manage it according to their intuition.
We’ve found that answering three questions can help transform culture from a mystery to a science: 1) How does culture drive performance? 2) What is culture worth? 3) What processes in an organization affect culture? In this article, we address each of these to show how leaders can engineer high-performing organizational cultures — and measure their impact on the bottom line.

Steps businesses can take to prevent workplace suicide
Alan Goforth, BenefitsPro

There is a rise in the number of workplace suicides. But, on the bright side, businesses can take a number of steps to reduce the risk of workplace suicide. The organization Workplace Strategies for Mental Health recommends the following

How to Respond to Negative Employee Feedback
Sabrina Son, Tiny Pulse

Don’t forget: great managers not only listen to feedback; they’re receptive to it and they act upon it — both the good and the bad. If you’re on the receiving end of negative feedback from your staff, these tips should help you better absorb and respond to it.

Learning from sports (or not)
Wally Bock, Three Star Leadership

But as much as I love sports, I cringe when I read someone suggest that sports are a great model for business. Nope. Or at least, not everything about sports is worth learning. For one thing, there are some very important differences between the way sports teams work and the way business teams work.

Using Social to Find Passive Candidates
Andrew McIlvaine, HRE Daily

Employers prize passive job candidates and are turning to social media to find them, according to a new survey from the Society for Human Resource Management. Eighty-two percent of HR professionals are using social media for this purpose, according to the survey, titled Using Social Media for Talent Acquisition — Recruitment and Screening.

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