World-Class Safety with Zero Incidents is Possible…

Did you know your company culture has a significant correlation on safety and number of recordable incidents? Implementing a strong safety culture increases performance, productivity and profitability.

What does your company culture look like? How much emphasis is placed on raising safety awareness? Do you have weekly, monthly, quarterly, annual safety meetings and if so, are you consistent? And most importantly, does your leadership follow by example?

Here at VertisourceHR, we care about your people’s safety and business performance. How do we build a sustainable solution for your organization? The DuPont Bradley Curve has been proven to be effective and successful across many organizations. The goal is to develop an interdependent culture promoting employees to be engaged with pride in their own safety as well as their team members.

So what is The DuPont Bradley Curve? "Designed to help clients understand and benchmark the journey toward world-class safety performance, this proven, proprietary system has helped enable safety success within DuPont, and for our clients around the world, since 1995" (source: dupont.com). So in other words, it demonstrates the relative culture strength with the number of recordable incidents and shows progressive maturity of safety cultures mindset and behaviors. It provides a way to give your employees proper safety training while keeping them engaged, entertained, and interested.

The DuPont Bradley Curve can be implemented in any industry. Let’s use an office environment as an example; practice safe stretches at the beginning of each shift, deliver informative materials such as the 20-20-20 rule to reduce eye strain from our computers, assign and rotate safety topics to engage your team during safety meetings, share near misses with the group and discuss preventative action plans.

Improving an organization’s culture takes time and effort. Begin by evaluating where you are, identify the opportunities and start by “taking a step to the right”. Let’s take your company from a reactive, dependent, or independent to an interdependent safety culture.


By: Amy Walker
HR Generalist, VertiSource HR

"Did you document it?" - all HR practitioners, everywhere.

I'm almost positive you've heard that line before.  And I'm almost positive it was in response to a discussion about the performance or behavior of an employee that you, or your boss wants to terminate.

So why do Human Resource pros ask this question?  Simple.  To do the RIGHT THING by the company and by the employee.

For the employee, it's best to give someone the chance to correct their behavior or performance issues as early as possible.  This can be done beginning with a verbal warning (which really is a verbal warning with documentation that you spoke to them) and can increase if and when the behavior continues.  The sooner you speak to an employee about their tardiness the sooner they are on notice that the behavior is unacceptable and that it needs to be corrected.  Perhaps they have a home issue that you weren't aware of, or maybe they thought being late was acceptable because so-and-so does it too.  You get the idea though; it's all about communication to the employee so they are aware.

For the company there are many reasons why documentation is important. 

Future litigation.  When the company keeps a record of proper documentation when dealing with an employee, it creates a paper trail that can shield the company from a wrongful termination claim or discrimination claim.  If the proper steps were taken to address the behavior or performance issue with the employee, the company will be able to prove that the termination was warranted.

Correct behavior and improve performance.  You have a company to run and you want it ran efficiently so you can turn a profit, right?  In order for that to happen you need to run a tight ship and if one of your "crew" isn't swabbing the deck properly it affects the performance of the whole operation, right?  Correcting behavior and improving performance not only allows the employee a fair change as mentioned before, but also ensures that your business runs smoothly.

Unemployment claims.  In most states, if you discharge an employee for cause and have proper documentation to warrant the termination, your former employee (in most cases) will not be awarded unemployment benefits.  This is a "win" for you because, like all insurances, the more claims you have the higher your insurance rating goes, the more you pay. 

Provides a record.  Records are great because if you leave the company, the next manager will have a record of the behavior or performance issue and can pick up where you left off.  It provides exactly what we're talking about here, documentation of poor performance or bad behavior and the steps you took to correct it.

To properly terminate. Can you just up and terminate someone because employment is "at-will?"  Of course you can!  The problem lies in all the ideas discussed above.  If you want to avoid a disgruntled employee, a costly wrongful termination or discrimination claim, a poor performing/behaving employee, and rising costs to your unemployment insurance then properly terminating an employee with documentation is the best practice.

I'll end with something else you've probably heard from an HR pro: "Document.  Document.  Document."

By: LeiLani Quiray, SPHR

HR Director of VertiSource HR 

Employee Self Service

                

An employer offering a high paying salary along with benefits can build up a strong reputation not only for you but also your business. The combination of the two is beneficial in promoting improved work habits and reducing employee turnover.  Benefits tend to drive employee engagement while providing a sense of security, encouraging workers to stay at their job, even during tough times. A standard workplace consists of a diverse group of individuals, and it’s important for companies to consider different aspects of employee benefits based on various factors. Businesses should invest in a company that offers efficient ways to handle HR functions.

At VertiSource HR, we implement a Web-based employee self-service functionality that allows employees of your organization to access their personal data securely over the web. Employees will be able to access their information any time of the day from the convenience of their home. Another great benefit is that an employee self-service program can drastically reduce the workload of an HR department and can allow HR personnel’s to focus on more important issues.  Employees can have access to personal information updates, company policies, employment verification, W2 inquiries, direct deposit changes and so much more. Employee self-service is quickly becoming the HR standard.

Welcome to VertiSource HR

                                                             

Businesses today need help managing increasingly complex employee related matters such as health benefits, workers’ compensation claims, payroll and more. Welcome to VertiSource HR a vertical, human capital solution. Companies contract with us because we assume these responsibilities and provide expertise in human capital management. We offer turn-key payroll and human resource solutions for our client partners. At our facility, we are here to enable companies to cost-effectively outsource the management of payroll, payroll administration, human resources, employee benefits, workers’ compensation and claims management, which allows our client partners to focus on their core competencies to maintain and grow their bottom line. We deliver services by establishing and maintaining an employer relationship with employees at the client’s worksite and by contractually assuming certain employer rights, responsibilities, and risk. Our goal is to help our client partners focus on the operational and revenue-producing side of the company’s operations. VertiSource HR is ready to help. VertiSource HR owns its own insurance agency which offers a full line of both commercial and personal lines of insurance. We provide integrated services to effectively manage critical human resource responsibilities and employer risks. Please visit our website for more information.