June 8, 2023 • 30 mins
How do you plan for the unexpected?Schools are back in session, restrictions are in place, and job security is low, and parents are running out of options to keep their kids educated and stay productive at work. Employers of all sizes are struggling with how they can be flexible in providing and planning for those who are facing some of these difficulties.Key Takeaways:
- How parents can prepare for school/work scheduling demands
- What are the Employers’ obligations and what can they offer
- Changes to benefit plans mid-year that parents can make without qualifying life events
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Fashional in the HR industry on theshow today, Christine, Hi, how
are you? Christine Hi wording Iam doing great despite the weather right now,
Yes, doing great and no crazystuff here and we're dealing with So
Christine, I appreciate you jumping onthe show with us today. We felt
(00:21):
that your your knowledge and expertise wouldlend to the show and our clients and
people that are out there kind ofstruggling with some things, especially employees and
working from home. You know,we wanted to make sure that we get
some input from your side and seeinghow how you're seeing things, how your
(00:42):
peers are seeing things, your clientsthink would be very valuable. So before
we jump into that the actual topic, I wanted to give you a background
background on Christine. Excuse me,So, Christine, you have a big
change recently I did. Yes,you've joined Five Star Bank as their senior
vice president and chief human resource officer. Did. Yeah. They were a
(01:07):
client for many years and they saidokay, it's time come on over and
so yeah, hopefully that they're rightin the big check too, right,
that's what I think too. Soyou'll be responsible for executing their HR strategies
and organizational performance management and training development, etc. That sounds like a lot
(01:29):
on your plate there, Yeah,definitely, but a lot of fun.
I mean, I still um,I still have my HR consulting business.
I have some amazing consultants that willthe clients and I will focus my energies
on Five Star Bank and their growth. And they're you know, they're a
community bank that helps other businesses inthe community. So it feels good,
(01:51):
feels like giving back. That's awesome. Well, you're you're really good at
doing that. As we found out, Christine also is the HR consultant for
Want of Working. It supports's architecturalgroup and we appreciate her expertise and knowledge
there and helping them. So Isee, you have a pretty lengthy background
here. You've got a lot ofdesignations. So you've got it looks like
(02:14):
your strategic HR consultant on with thecertification and HR management from Sacramental State.
You certified Senior Professional of HR,A Senior Certified Professional with a Society of
HR Management and California California Certified SPHRCAfrom the Human Resource Certification Institute, So
(02:35):
you're pretty well versed. I wouldsay, got a lot of knowledge there.
Yeah, I think it lends toour profession for our HR practitioners out
there that are getting certified. Itjust helps our industry along and it shows
what's important, and that is weare experts in a body of knowledge,
but always learning, always learning,always learning. Yeahs, I'm just curious
(03:01):
and we'll jump into this real quickhere. It was this something that you've
always wanted to do? I mean, did you kind of as a I
mean most of us more little kidswould say, Hey, we're going to
be a doctor, Dennis whatever.Fortunately most of us don't, you know,
pursue that. But when did youfind out that this is were passion?
(03:21):
You know? I never knew.I don't think when I started my
career, HR was a thing reallyit was personnel. And we have worked
really hard to change that image inthe human resources profession. And I started
out and after college working with professionalsports teams in sales and marketing. I
worked with some minor league teams inthe beginning of a league that was starting
(03:44):
its formation and did a lot ofthe human resources tasks, but never really
had that title. When I cameto Sacramento, I had an opportunity,
a job opened up and I convincedthem that I was qualified, and I
gave him this long list of reasonsof all these things that I've done that
would qualify under HR, and theywere they were benevolent enough to give me
(04:05):
an opportunity and I learned a lot. That's when I went to SEC State
and on their continuing education I gotmy certificate of HR Management because you know,
I didn't know what I didn't know, and it's the serving people HR
practitioners we are. You know,we're servants. We serve our clients who
(04:26):
are the employees of an organization,and we try to help people grow and
develop. And so I just foundit. I like that. I like
helping people. It's not that it'snot frustrating sometimes, but right, all
of us have that in our jobs. Yeah, well that leads into us
kind of our topic today and servingpeople. We certainly are in the midst
(04:48):
of some challenging in different times rightnow, and especially as as we get
back to school and parents dealing withsomething that they've never had to deal with
before, which is balancing their worklife, their family life with school,
you know, two homeschooling and thatkind of a thing. And so I
(05:12):
was talking to my daughter that livesin Arizona a couple of weeks ago,
and they had started their their schoola little bit earlier than Northern California does.
And she has seven children, fourof them are adopted, three are
biological, and six of them arein school right now. So she was
just literally pulling her hair out thatfirst couple of weeks. And I can't
(05:35):
even imagine, you know, ifshe were also working. She's not working
right now, but if I'm workingand I'm having to take care of my
children and their schooling, that's gotto be a major stressor. And you
know, something that people are notused to doing. And when you know,
you know, I talked about thisa couple of weeks ago, you
(05:58):
know, we were going to kindof die. I've into this and get
some ideas around how maybe people canbalance the work and homeschool you know,
their children. You know, soif I'm a parent and we're trying to
coordinate that, you know, thehomeschooling and my job, you had some
ideas around that I'd like to getyour input on it. Absolutely, this
(06:20):
is these are unprecedented times in somany topic areas. But we'll just try
to stay focused on You know,I think we talked about kind of the
theme of the entire year really needsto be managing with grace, managing our
employees with grace, understanding how they'refeeling and what they're trying to do.
(06:42):
Funny, I spoke to a friendof mine this morning who is trying to
teach second graders, so seven yearold, and she's pulling her hair out
too and trying to keep them engagedfor three hours. And the expectations that
are set by to schools. Sowhat a lot of my clients and also
you know, inclusive of five StarBank has been doing over the summer.
(07:03):
So over the summer, kids it'slike free reign. There are things that
little ones can do that the parentsor the caregivers can get their work done.
And it's of course it's more difficultnow that the school years started because
their structure or they're attempting to havesome structure by the teachers and the schools,
(07:26):
and there's these expectations, and sowhat a lot of people have done
is like kind of like getting readyfor fall. You know, back to
school time is kind of a resetfor a lot of people. It's like,
Okay, what do we need todo to get ready to kick into
fall, and we should be doingthose same things. You know. Suggestions
that are working is figuring out thestructure of your child's needs. You know,
(07:51):
the schools are putting out expectations.If they're a little bit older middle
school or high school, there's sometimesthere's a syllabus or there's a little maybe
firmer understanding. But with littles,you know, before school or kindergarten through
fourth, fifth, sixth grade,it can be a little more challenging than
It also depends on the kid.But what we've recommended and what's been working
(08:15):
is to first just take a deepbreath and take a really deep breath and
figure out what do I need todo to support my child? And it
could be different. You have multiplechildren, each child like, what is
their school going to look like?What are the expectations, when do they
need to log in? What kindof stuff do I need to do?
Now? As a working parent,you know, further on in your career,
(08:39):
you may have a little bit moreflexibility. I do a lot of
emails at night at eight o'clock atnight. Well, that may not be
your option. Working with your employee, if you're the supervisor or working with
your supervisor. If you're the employee, here's kind of what my expectations are
with school and how do you makethat work? And let's all try to
be flexible. There are a lotof jobs that are exile and there are
(09:01):
many jobs that aren't and figuring thatout. I am I know, I
am in touch with a lot ofHR professionals across the country and what works
for some doesn't work for others,and trying to determine how do we best
support our employees that have these schoolaged children because we don't have an end
to end game. The other thingis that I heard yesterday from another HR
(09:26):
professional that the people without kids arefeeling, hey, what about us?
And that's kind of a one onone conversation. We're trying to be supportive
of people's needs. We're trying tobe supportive of, you know, balancing
getting the work done and balancing tryingto be a good employer. And I
(09:46):
think most people understand that. Right. Those are a couple of things you
said that really stuck out to me. You talked about managing with grace.
You're talking about the employer, right, This is new territory for the employer
as well, of course. Yeah, yeah, it is hard because as
an employer, you're answering to yourcustomers, your stakeholders could be your shareholders.
(10:13):
And we you know, as abusiness, we're obligated to get to
produce or to get this work doneor provide services, whatever that might be.
And we need to figure out howto manage our workforce in this new
you know, in this new way. Um, you know, a bank,
(10:33):
if I show up at nine am, I'm ready to deposit my millions
of dollars, then I want thebank to be open, right, And
so that makes it challenging. Ifyou have a service business, you've got
to open the doors. And whatsome employers are doing is they're figuring out
Like we have employees who are tradingoff days with their spouse or another family
(10:54):
member, so they're coming to workon certain days and on certain days they're
working from home and again balancing okay, I know between you know, when
my child blogs in at eight o'clock, I need to be there to support
them, and so I work beforeand after and you know, and figuring
that right. Yeah. I alsomentioned that each what each household is going
(11:16):
to be different. Children out child. You know, if you have multiple
children, like you said, eachchild is going to be different, so
you have to be in tune withwhat their needs are. And you've talked
about structure, important structure. Canyou talk a little more and more about
the structure and kind of what youwhat your thoughts are around that. But
I would do if i'd my parents. I think in a perfect Pinterest and
(11:39):
Instagram world, you have you've setup this beautiful space for your child to
have their their school. Right,Well, that's beautiful, but what's reality.
Some of us are working at kitchentables, as you can see,
some of us are you know,some of us are working at the family
kitchen table. You know with yourdaughter, for example, with six school
aged children, she probably doesn't havesix rooms where they can all go.
(12:03):
Yeah, yeah, no, notat all. So figuring out you know,
we've we've redone space, in bedrooms, in kitchens, in dining rooms,
you know, whatever works. Andyou know, it's it's a bummer
because it's like, you know,this is it's clean behind me, right,
you should see the other side.Not so much my reality. And
I've kind of come to the conclusionthat this is the way, this is
(12:24):
going to be probably through the endof the year, and really figuring out
what works for your family. Donot get wrapped up in instagram, um,
you know, Jeff, and thinkingabout benefits to uh, don't forget
about EAP employee assistance approach. Thosephones to be ringing off the hook.
That's a wonderful benefit that people have, right. There's also flexible spending.
(12:48):
People have flexible spending amounts childcare withthe schools being closed. If your school
is not open to having kids goon campus, that fies as a flexible
spending dependent care expense. And theyou know, we're allowed to add FSA
funds mid year mid plan here whenwe have a know, a new need
(13:11):
arise, and so if my childrequired daycare or anything like that, you
know I would be able to dothat. There's also child care by college
students. A lot of college studentsare not going back to school and so
they're available. They're doing online learning. Now, granted, that's introducing a
(13:33):
new person into your I call itpod. But if you know them well
and it's you know, a regularthing and they have the same you know,
they do the same thing your familydoes. If they are isolated,
great if they're not. Whatever worksfor your family, you'll be able to
use those FSA funds towards having somesupport. Right. Yeah, that's a
(13:54):
good point where entering for most employersright now, opener woman periods, So
this is a time to evaluate thatwhat your needs are there. When we
were talking a couple of weeks ago, we talked a bit about employees asking
their employers for reasonable accommodations. Canyou talk a little about what that means?
(14:18):
Absolutely so. Reasonable accommodation is anemployee requesting some sort of adjustment to
their regular work situation. And veryfew employees would use that term. But
I need help or hey, Ineed to do something different with my schedule.
(14:41):
As an HR professional, our requirementis to enter into that interactive process,
and you know you want to doit anyway because we're managing with grace
and I want to find out whatexactly are you requesting, what is the
employee requesting, and can the businessaccommodate it. Sometimes the answer is yes
with some adjustments, and sometimes theanswer is we just can't make this adjustment
(15:05):
or accommodate this request reasonably. Now, when it comes to COVID and childcare
issues, there's you know, there'sthere's some legalities around that, and they
should get some support from legal counselif it's getting too difficult. But if
you can accommodate people, you wouldwant to do that. Sometimes a reasonable
(15:28):
accommodation is making some shifts to theschedule. You know, the example I
gave earlier. If I know thatI need to help my child, log
in at eight or eight thirty andI can take a break. You know,
if I'm an hourly employee, Ican clock in and do my work
and then clock out and help mychild, you know, is at thirty
(15:48):
minutes, an hour, couple hours, as long as I'm in communication with
my employer. And on the companyside, the company should be documenting these
things. They should be commenting,Okay, we're gonna you know, this
is a temporary accommodation because you know, it's like within what happens down the
road, and how do we managethis down the road? Right? Yeah,
(16:10):
as we know, um, ourgovernment responded right right away and pass
some legislation, one of them beingFamilies First Coronas response to Act that follows
FMLA. So there's there's some leniencythere or or you know, liberal or
act some additional um, you know, timelines and what have you that have
(16:33):
been extended in that in that sothat definitely employees have have access to that.
And I find that, UM,probably I think this is maybe a
good thing to talk about because Ithink that especially if I'm a small employer
and I don't have an hr UMmanager per se on staff, maybe I
(16:53):
just have an office manager and alot of our small businesses that might be
you know, my wife for youknow, my brother in law's wife or
some or somebody else that's doing it. So I think this is an area
that they probably don't even realize thatis you know, out there, UM,
and I think that it's important thatthey know about it and have access
(17:17):
to it. Um. What areyour peers, what are you finding with
your peers? You know, whatare they saying or doing around you know
f fcra um Maybe you heard anythingthere in that regard. Yeah, I
think it's UM. It feels goodthat the government you know, like you
said, responded quickly and it's helpingbusinesses, small business you know, businesses
(17:38):
under five hundred employees, and thatthat encompasses a lot of people, you
know, a lot of entrepreneurial businessesor just you know, well businesses in
general, and that's helpful. TheFCRA allowed for some paid sick time that
uh, that employers could use witha payroll tax credit for any of that
(18:00):
time used. And if we're usingthat time to pay employees, that is,
if your employee as either maybe they'rethey have symptoms of COVID and they're
getting tested and you want them tostay home and stay out of your business,
which seems like a good plan,you would be able to pay them
that time, so there's not thatfinancial hit to your employee. Not only
(18:23):
am I freaked out about possibility ofcode, but now I got to freak
out about my financial insecurity. Andso that's really really helpful. It's been
very helpful for everybody that I've beentalking to that's been using and it's been
a huge relief. And so myrecommendation if you're using that and paying that
is just keep a log of youknow, Susie used it for this,
(18:44):
Johnny used it for this, justin the event that you ever had an
audit. You know, we alwayswant to be careful, you know,
we're not going to remember these things. Hopefully this is just blacked out.
This time in our lives is blackedout later MLA. That's also up to
ten weeks or COVID related UH absence, including school closures. You know,
(19:07):
well remember remember back in March,the schools were open, and the schools
were like businesses. They're just theirbusinesses. They're panicking trying to figure out
how to respond and how to supportthem their own you know, industry,
and so that was what that wasfor. But that is also uh you
know, if it's because the school'sclosed, an employee would only be eligible
(19:29):
for two thirds of their pay,and so it's a little bit different.
So if you don't have any ofcourse, I'm always going to recommend an
HR consultant or be participate in agroup like a lot of brokers like you
know, provides an HR consulting support, right, um, you know,
learn as much as you can andthen and then get some legal counsel,
(19:51):
right yeah. Yeah, it's reallyhelpful. And you can have you know,
experts like yourself that we can goto and ask questions. We certainly
have other resources as well, butit's always nice when you can actually talk
to somebody live, you know,like yourself and get get that that knowledge
and input around what's going on.Remember, we hr professionals. We have
(20:17):
been working in this space every day, all day long, seven days a
week since March, and so Ifeel like my team we are PPP loan
subject matter experts, but we're notyou know, we're not lenders. We
are CRA experts. We really have. We've learned so much, you know,
(20:38):
in a in a very short periodof time. I feel like professionally
I've grown so much, and allby serving clients and serving people's needs.
Yeah. I heard a quote fromsomebody that I M one of my peers
in the benefits world, and hesaid, what normally would have taken us
(20:59):
ten years to change happening in likethree months. Ye yeah, quote,
Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah. It sports the issue in some cases
around healthcare and making you know,changes in that in our industry. So
you know, I was thinking also, you know, we talked a little
(21:19):
bit about the FSA and opener momentdependent care UM, and I just want
to make sure that we're really clearthat preschool is defined as daycare. It
is. It's true, right,there are actually some schools that offee offers
excuse me, early childhood education UMor sometimes it's called pre K, sometimes
(21:41):
it's called t K, but thoseschools they're licensing allows for them to be
open because it's daycare. So that'ssomething to explore. If you are a
parent with that age kid, youprobably know more than we do at this
point. Yeah. Yeah, Soone of our staff members heard, um,
you know, they lost their daycarewhen this all went down. So
(22:04):
so, you know, talking aboutmanaging with grace, you just said,
hey, if you need to workfrom home, we're going to allow you
to work from home. And she'sbeen working from home the whole time and
it's actually she said, she feelsthat she's been more efficient working from home
than she was in the office,which I thought was interesting because it's a
(22:25):
reverse for me. I prefer towork in the office they're rather than at
home. So I think it justdepends on the individual. It does.
I think people feel like, youknow, signals to my brain, like
I've entered my office and I it'sthat structure. I mean, adults crave
it, children crave it. Weall do, even even people that are
free students. Yeah. Good,Yeah, structure is good. I like
(22:48):
structure to you know. One ofthe things too, with benefits you mentioned
that open enrollments coming up, weare looking at doing some pre open enrollment
education. I know, Jeff,we participated in gorgeous open enrollment already,
but we look at the actual openenrollment meetings. Is education about the actual
(23:14):
plan that they're going to be.You know that they can plan, they
can choose between during you know,during the next plan year, not a
lot of changes. Sometimes sometimes there'sno changes. But think about this time.
If you haven't done your open enrollmentmeetings, think about between now and
your open enrollment meetings. Is educatinglike what do people not understand? Consumerism?
(23:37):
Absolutely? How is COVID covered bythe carriers? What about testing?
Things like that? People I geta lot of calls about where to go
test and how to manage that.And then if you've got some time,
if you have a December one oreven a January one plan here, you
(24:02):
still have time to do some education, even some voluntary So it's like you
capture the people that are you know, are unsure, like a brown bag
lunch and just a voluntary situation thatwould be able, you'd be able to
educate people about Okay, this ishow finding a doctor works, or this
is how this plan works things likethat if you have an HSA or an
(24:25):
HR all those initials. To me, it's a good time to educate how
those plans work now before we getinto selection, which is yeah, that's
a great point. I think you'reright. Um, the education is so
critical until the space to understand whatthey really have. I mean, like
(24:49):
you're saying open rollment meetings, youknow, that's when we're going over the
benefits, and you know we don'treally get a lot of time. So
yeah, adding that extra you know, meeting or brown baggage you said,
would be really beneficial. And youmentioned the carriers, and the carriers have
been very lenient during this COVID nineteentime as well, and you know,
(25:11):
extending their rules for reducing rules aroundhours and benefits and that would have you
which you know you and I areworking on with Borgeous right now. So
yeah, the carriers have stepped up. We've had some carriers that, like
you said, the EAP, youmentioned that some of them throughout EAP for
(25:32):
free, you know, even ifhe didn't have it. Very critical and
mental health and as really a bigtopic right now. Everyone's talking about it,
and it's it's you know, We'reall are going through this together,
and this is the first time weas a nation have ever had to experience
(25:52):
something like this, and it's it'schanging our structure. It's messing up our
structure, mentioning with our brain.And there's a lot of people that are
that are struggling with that out there. So mental health is a big,
big, big one. It's reallyhard, you know, with a lot
of my clients previously and now aswith my employer is I'm just making regular
(26:15):
phone calls to people, just checkingout how you doing. And I think
people appreciate that. Number one,but you know, I've had some individuals
who've asked me to call them again. We call me in a couple of
weeks, and I think that's helpful. One thing I'll say, I'll forget
about the executive team. Don't forgetabout them. They are the your leadership
(26:36):
groups that are managing the company.Not only do we feel like when I
have to make sure my business remainsviable and successful, but I have all
these mouths to feed, and that'sa lot of pressure. And it's funny
because with one of my clients,I wasn't calling their executive team, and
then I realized that I've I've lefta really important group out. You know.
(26:57):
That's so that's a good thing todo. Yeah, you're just assuming
they're good, no problem, You'refine, Yeah, but you know it's
good. The other thing is Ialways ask supervisors and managers. Don't suggest
to somebody that they contact HR orthat they you know whatever, tell them,
(27:18):
tell them how to do that.UM, tell your HR person to
contact them instead, UM, givethem information. And I was, it's
better for me to call you thanfor you to be told, oh,
here called Christine. You know,because you're not you might not do it
right. True. Yeah, wellthat's great advice. I love it.
(27:40):
Um. I'm going to pass thatone on for sure. I'm going it
just makes sense, right if you'rea leader, you need to be um,
you know, involved and find outhow people are doing. You know,
how can you really know what theirneeds are if you're not communicating with
them. That's I think the biggestchallenge in my my worry has been,
as you know, we've gone throughthis and the sheltering everything is this disconnection
(28:04):
if you will you know, yeah, zooms are great, but um,
you know there's something about that personalyou know, interaction and touch, you
know, one on one that that'sbeen missing during this whole thing. Well,
I think we're gonna we're running outof time here. Um, want
(28:25):
to be respectful of everyone's time.I know you've got another meeting you got
to go to here in a coupleof minutes. So, um, is
there anything else that you can thinkof that we haven't covered before? We
jump off pleas for HR professionals networkwith other HR professionals. I'm always reaching
out by what do you guys?What do you guys think? Okay,
(28:45):
what we're doing. We're sharing documents, we're sharing information, We're sharing a
lot experience and that's really helpful,you know, supporting ourselves. You know,
nobody's calling me. You see Helendoing I'm standard. My network of
professionals and provisors should do that too, you know, if they're in Yeah,
(29:07):
find out what they're doing and seehow we can all do a great
job today to help each other.That's great. Yeah, we're not an
island, and there there may besomething that you're struggling with that someone else
is struggling with it you know hasfigured out a solution to that and it
can help you with it. Definitely. Yeah, great, well, thank
(29:30):
you opportunity. Fun to see youand talk about this stuff. And you
know, my consulting business is availableChristie and Hide hr Consulting the title,
but we're available. You can findme on LinkedIn and I can connect you
with one of my great team membersif anybody needs help. All right,
awesome, thanks so much for yourtime. Yeah, it's good seeing you.
(29:55):
Thank you, all right, we'lltalk to you soon, okay,
bye bye, take care
Fashional in the HR industry on theshow today, Christine, Hi, how
are you? Christine Hi wording Iam doing great despite the weather right now,
Yes, doing great and no crazystuff here and we're dealing with So
Christine, I appreciate you jumping onthe show with us today. We felt
(00:21):
that your your knowledge and expertise wouldlend to the show and our clients and
people that are out there kind ofstruggling with some things, especially employees and
working from home. You know,we wanted to make sure that we get
some input from your side and seeinghow how you're seeing things, how your
(00:42):
peers are seeing things, your clientsthink would be very valuable. So before
we jump into that the actual topic, I wanted to give you a background
background on Christine. Excuse me,So, Christine, you have a big
change recently I did. Yes,you've joined Five Star Bank as their senior
vice president and chief human resource officer. Did. Yeah. They were a
(01:07):
client for many years and they saidokay, it's time come on over and
so yeah, hopefully that they're rightin the big check too, right,
that's what I think too. Soyou'll be responsible for executing their HR strategies
and organizational performance management and training development, etc. That sounds like a lot
(01:29):
on your plate there, Yeah,definitely, but a lot of fun.
I mean, I still um,I still have my HR consulting business.
I have some amazing consultants that willthe clients and I will focus my energies
on Five Star Bank and their growth. And they're you know, they're a
community bank that helps other businesses inthe community. So it feels good,
(01:51):
feels like giving back. That's awesome. Well, you're you're really good at
doing that. As we found out, Christine also is the HR consultant for
Want of Working. It supports's architecturalgroup and we appreciate her expertise and knowledge
there and helping them. So Isee, you have a pretty lengthy background
here. You've got a lot ofdesignations. So you've got it looks like
(02:14):
your strategic HR consultant on with thecertification and HR management from Sacramental State.
You certified Senior Professional of HR,A Senior Certified Professional with a Society of
HR Management and California California Certified SPHRCAfrom the Human Resource Certification Institute, So
(02:35):
you're pretty well versed. I wouldsay, got a lot of knowledge there.
Yeah, I think it lends toour profession for our HR practitioners out
there that are getting certified. Itjust helps our industry along and it shows
what's important, and that is weare experts in a body of knowledge,
but always learning, always learning,always learning. Yeahs, I'm just curious
(03:01):
and we'll jump into this real quickhere. It was this something that you've
always wanted to do? I mean, did you kind of as a I
mean most of us more little kidswould say, Hey, we're going to
be a doctor, Dennis whatever.Fortunately most of us don't, you know,
pursue that. But when did youfind out that this is were passion?
(03:21):
You know? I never knew.I don't think when I started my
career, HR was a thing reallyit was personnel. And we have worked
really hard to change that image inthe human resources profession. And I started
out and after college working with professionalsports teams in sales and marketing. I
worked with some minor league teams inthe beginning of a league that was starting
(03:44):
its formation and did a lot ofthe human resources tasks, but never really
had that title. When I cameto Sacramento, I had an opportunity,
a job opened up and I convincedthem that I was qualified, and I
gave him this long list of reasonsof all these things that I've done that
would qualify under HR, and theywere they were benevolent enough to give me
(04:05):
an opportunity and I learned a lot. That's when I went to SEC State
and on their continuing education I gotmy certificate of HR Management because you know,
I didn't know what I didn't know, and it's the serving people HR
practitioners we are. You know,we're servants. We serve our clients who
(04:26):
are the employees of an organization,and we try to help people grow and
develop. And so I just foundit. I like that. I like
helping people. It's not that it'snot frustrating sometimes, but right, all
of us have that in our jobs. Yeah, well that leads into us
kind of our topic today and servingpeople. We certainly are in the midst
(04:48):
of some challenging in different times rightnow, and especially as as we get
back to school and parents dealing withsomething that they've never had to deal with
before, which is balancing their worklife, their family life with school,
you know, two homeschooling and thatkind of a thing. And so I
(05:12):
was talking to my daughter that livesin Arizona a couple of weeks ago,
and they had started their their schoola little bit earlier than Northern California does.
And she has seven children, fourof them are adopted, three are
biological, and six of them arein school right now. So she was
just literally pulling her hair out thatfirst couple of weeks. And I can't
(05:35):
even imagine, you know, ifshe were also working. She's not working
right now, but if I'm workingand I'm having to take care of my
children and their schooling, that's gotto be a major stressor. And you
know, something that people are notused to doing. And when you know,
you know, I talked about thisa couple of weeks ago, you
(05:58):
know, we were going to kindof die. I've into this and get
some ideas around how maybe people canbalance the work and homeschool you know,
their children. You know, soif I'm a parent and we're trying to
coordinate that, you know, thehomeschooling and my job, you had some
ideas around that I'd like to getyour input on it. Absolutely, this
(06:20):
is these are unprecedented times in somany topic areas. But we'll just try
to stay focused on You know,I think we talked about kind of the
theme of the entire year really needsto be managing with grace, managing our
employees with grace, understanding how they'refeeling and what they're trying to do.
(06:42):
Funny, I spoke to a friendof mine this morning who is trying to
teach second graders, so seven yearold, and she's pulling her hair out
too and trying to keep them engagedfor three hours. And the expectations that
are set by to schools. Sowhat a lot of my clients and also
you know, inclusive of five StarBank has been doing over the summer.
(07:03):
So over the summer, kids it'slike free reign. There are things that
little ones can do that the parentsor the caregivers can get their work done.
And it's of course it's more difficultnow that the school years started because
their structure or they're attempting to havesome structure by the teachers and the schools,
(07:26):
and there's these expectations, and sowhat a lot of people have done
is like kind of like getting readyfor fall. You know, back to
school time is kind of a resetfor a lot of people. It's like,
Okay, what do we need todo to get ready to kick into
fall, and we should be doingthose same things. You know. Suggestions
that are working is figuring out thestructure of your child's needs. You know,
(07:51):
the schools are putting out expectations.If they're a little bit older middle
school or high school, there's sometimesthere's a syllabus or there's a little maybe
firmer understanding. But with littles,you know, before school or kindergarten through
fourth, fifth, sixth grade,it can be a little more challenging than
It also depends on the kid.But what we've recommended and what's been working
(08:15):
is to first just take a deepbreath and take a really deep breath and
figure out what do I need todo to support my child? And it
could be different. You have multiplechildren, each child like, what is
their school going to look like?What are the expectations, when do they
need to log in? What kindof stuff do I need to do?
Now? As a working parent,you know, further on in your career,
(08:39):
you may have a little bit moreflexibility. I do a lot of
emails at night at eight o'clock atnight. Well, that may not be
your option. Working with your employee, if you're the supervisor or working with
your supervisor. If you're the employee, here's kind of what my expectations are
with school and how do you makethat work? And let's all try to
be flexible. There are a lotof jobs that are exile and there are
(09:01):
many jobs that aren't and figuring thatout. I am I know, I
am in touch with a lot ofHR professionals across the country and what works
for some doesn't work for others,and trying to determine how do we best
support our employees that have these schoolaged children because we don't have an end
to end game. The other thingis that I heard yesterday from another HR
(09:26):
professional that the people without kids arefeeling, hey, what about us?
And that's kind of a one onone conversation. We're trying to be supportive
of people's needs. We're trying tobe supportive of, you know, balancing
getting the work done and balancing tryingto be a good employer. And I
(09:46):
think most people understand that. Right. Those are a couple of things you
said that really stuck out to me. You talked about managing with grace.
You're talking about the employer, right, This is new territory for the employer
as well, of course. Yeah, yeah, it is hard because as
an employer, you're answering to yourcustomers, your stakeholders could be your shareholders.
(10:13):
And we you know, as abusiness, we're obligated to get to
produce or to get this work doneor provide services, whatever that might be.
And we need to figure out howto manage our workforce in this new
you know, in this new way. Um, you know, a bank,
(10:33):
if I show up at nine am, I'm ready to deposit my millions
of dollars, then I want thebank to be open, right, And
so that makes it challenging. Ifyou have a service business, you've got
to open the doors. And whatsome employers are doing is they're figuring out
Like we have employees who are tradingoff days with their spouse or another family
(10:54):
member, so they're coming to workon certain days and on certain days they're
working from home and again balancing okay, I know between you know, when
my child blogs in at eight o'clock, I need to be there to support
them, and so I work beforeand after and you know, and figuring
that right. Yeah. I alsomentioned that each what each household is going
(11:16):
to be different. Children out child. You know, if you have multiple
children, like you said, eachchild is going to be different, so
you have to be in tune withwhat their needs are. And you've talked
about structure, important structure. Canyou talk a little more and more about
the structure and kind of what youwhat your thoughts are around that. But
I would do if i'd my parents. I think in a perfect Pinterest and
(11:39):
Instagram world, you have you've setup this beautiful space for your child to
have their their school. Right,Well, that's beautiful, but what's reality.
Some of us are working at kitchentables, as you can see,
some of us are you know,some of us are working at the family
kitchen table. You know with yourdaughter, for example, with six school
aged children, she probably doesn't havesix rooms where they can all go.
(12:03):
Yeah, yeah, no, notat all. So figuring out you know,
we've we've redone space, in bedrooms, in kitchens, in dining rooms,
you know, whatever works. Andyou know, it's it's a bummer
because it's like, you know,this is it's clean behind me, right,
you should see the other side.Not so much my reality. And
I've kind of come to the conclusionthat this is the way, this is
(12:24):
going to be probably through the endof the year, and really figuring out
what works for your family. Donot get wrapped up in instagram, um,
you know, Jeff, and thinkingabout benefits to uh, don't forget
about EAP employee assistance approach. Thosephones to be ringing off the hook.
That's a wonderful benefit that people have, right. There's also flexible spending.
(12:48):
People have flexible spending amounts childcare withthe schools being closed. If your school
is not open to having kids goon campus, that fies as a flexible
spending dependent care expense. And theyou know, we're allowed to add FSA
funds mid year mid plan here whenwe have a know, a new need
(13:11):
arise, and so if my childrequired daycare or anything like that, you
know I would be able to dothat. There's also child care by college
students. A lot of college studentsare not going back to school and so
they're available. They're doing online learning. Now, granted, that's introducing a
(13:33):
new person into your I call itpod. But if you know them well
and it's you know, a regularthing and they have the same you know,
they do the same thing your familydoes. If they are isolated,
great if they're not. Whatever worksfor your family, you'll be able to
use those FSA funds towards having somesupport. Right. Yeah, that's a
(13:54):
good point where entering for most employersright now, opener woman periods, So
this is a time to evaluate thatwhat your needs are there. When we
were talking a couple of weeks ago, we talked a bit about employees asking
their employers for reasonable accommodations. Canyou talk a little about what that means?
(14:18):
Absolutely so. Reasonable accommodation is anemployee requesting some sort of adjustment to
their regular work situation. And veryfew employees would use that term. But
I need help or hey, Ineed to do something different with my schedule.
(14:41):
As an HR professional, our requirementis to enter into that interactive process,
and you know you want to doit anyway because we're managing with grace
and I want to find out whatexactly are you requesting, what is the
employee requesting, and can the businessaccommodate it. Sometimes the answer is yes
with some adjustments, and sometimes theanswer is we just can't make this adjustment
(15:05):
or accommodate this request reasonably. Now, when it comes to COVID and childcare
issues, there's you know, there'sthere's some legalities around that, and they
should get some support from legal counselif it's getting too difficult. But if
you can accommodate people, you wouldwant to do that. Sometimes a reasonable
(15:28):
accommodation is making some shifts to theschedule. You know, the example I
gave earlier. If I know thatI need to help my child, log
in at eight or eight thirty andI can take a break. You know,
if I'm an hourly employee, Ican clock in and do my work
and then clock out and help mychild, you know, is at thirty
(15:48):
minutes, an hour, couple hours, as long as I'm in communication with
my employer. And on the companyside, the company should be documenting these
things. They should be commenting,Okay, we're gonna you know, this
is a temporary accommodation because you know, it's like within what happens down the
road, and how do we managethis down the road? Right? Yeah,
(16:10):
as we know, um, ourgovernment responded right right away and pass
some legislation, one of them beingFamilies First Coronas response to Act that follows
FMLA. So there's there's some leniencythere or or you know, liberal or
act some additional um, you know, timelines and what have you that have
(16:33):
been extended in that in that sothat definitely employees have have access to that.
And I find that, UM,probably I think this is maybe a
good thing to talk about because Ithink that especially if I'm a small employer
and I don't have an hr UMmanager per se on staff, maybe I
(16:53):
just have an office manager and alot of our small businesses that might be
you know, my wife for youknow, my brother in law's wife or
some or somebody else that's doing it. So I think this is an area
that they probably don't even realize thatis you know, out there, UM,
and I think that it's important thatthey know about it and have access
(17:17):
to it. Um. What areyour peers, what are you finding with
your peers? You know, whatare they saying or doing around you know
f fcra um Maybe you heard anythingthere in that regard. Yeah, I
think it's UM. It feels goodthat the government you know, like you
said, responded quickly and it's helpingbusinesses, small business you know, businesses
(17:38):
under five hundred employees, and thatthat encompasses a lot of people, you
know, a lot of entrepreneurial businessesor just you know, well businesses in
general, and that's helpful. TheFCRA allowed for some paid sick time that
uh, that employers could use witha payroll tax credit for any of that
(18:00):
time used. And if we're usingthat time to pay employees, that is,
if your employee as either maybe they'rethey have symptoms of COVID and they're
getting tested and you want them tostay home and stay out of your business,
which seems like a good plan,you would be able to pay them
that time, so there's not thatfinancial hit to your employee. Not only
(18:23):
am I freaked out about possibility ofcode, but now I got to freak
out about my financial insecurity. Andso that's really really helpful. It's been
very helpful for everybody that I've beentalking to that's been using and it's been
a huge relief. And so myrecommendation if you're using that and paying that
is just keep a log of youknow, Susie used it for this,
(18:44):
Johnny used it for this, justin the event that you ever had an
audit. You know, we alwayswant to be careful, you know,
we're not going to remember these things. Hopefully this is just blacked out.
This time in our lives is blackedout later MLA. That's also up to
ten weeks or COVID related UH absence, including school closures. You know,
(19:07):
well remember remember back in March,the schools were open, and the schools
were like businesses. They're just theirbusinesses. They're panicking trying to figure out
how to respond and how to supportthem their own you know, industry,
and so that was what that wasfor. But that is also uh you
know, if it's because the school'sclosed, an employee would only be eligible
(19:29):
for two thirds of their pay,and so it's a little bit different.
So if you don't have any ofcourse, I'm always going to recommend an
HR consultant or be participate in agroup like a lot of brokers like you
know, provides an HR consulting support, right, um, you know,
learn as much as you can andthen and then get some legal counsel,
(19:51):
right yeah. Yeah, it's reallyhelpful. And you can have you know,
experts like yourself that we can goto and ask questions. We certainly
have other resources as well, butit's always nice when you can actually talk
to somebody live, you know,like yourself and get get that that knowledge
and input around what's going on.Remember, we hr professionals. We have
(20:17):
been working in this space every day, all day long, seven days a
week since March, and so Ifeel like my team we are PPP loan
subject matter experts, but we're notyou know, we're not lenders. We
are CRA experts. We really have. We've learned so much, you know,
(20:38):
in a in a very short periodof time. I feel like professionally
I've grown so much, and allby serving clients and serving people's needs.
Yeah. I heard a quote fromsomebody that I M one of my peers
in the benefits world, and hesaid, what normally would have taken us
(20:59):
ten years to change happening in likethree months. Ye yeah, quote,
Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah. It sports the issue in some cases
around healthcare and making you know,changes in that in our industry. So
you know, I was thinking also, you know, we talked a little
(21:19):
bit about the FSA and opener momentdependent care UM, and I just want
to make sure that we're really clearthat preschool is defined as daycare. It
is. It's true, right,there are actually some schools that offee offers
excuse me, early childhood education UMor sometimes it's called pre K, sometimes
(21:41):
it's called t K, but thoseschools they're licensing allows for them to be
open because it's daycare. So that'ssomething to explore. If you are a
parent with that age kid, youprobably know more than we do at this
point. Yeah. Yeah, Soone of our staff members heard, um,
you know, they lost their daycarewhen this all went down. So
(22:04):
so, you know, talking aboutmanaging with grace, you just said,
hey, if you need to workfrom home, we're going to allow you
to work from home. And she'sbeen working from home the whole time and
it's actually she said, she feelsthat she's been more efficient working from home
than she was in the office,which I thought was interesting because it's a
(22:25):
reverse for me. I prefer towork in the office they're rather than at
home. So I think it justdepends on the individual. It does.
I think people feel like, youknow, signals to my brain, like
I've entered my office and I it'sthat structure. I mean, adults crave
it, children crave it. Weall do, even even people that are
free students. Yeah. Good,Yeah, structure is good. I like
(22:48):
structure to you know. One ofthe things too, with benefits you mentioned
that open enrollments coming up, weare looking at doing some pre open enrollment
education. I know, Jeff,we participated in gorgeous open enrollment already,
but we look at the actual openenrollment meetings. Is education about the actual
(23:14):
plan that they're going to be.You know that they can plan, they
can choose between during you know,during the next plan year, not a
lot of changes. Sometimes sometimes there'sno changes. But think about this time.
If you haven't done your open enrollmentmeetings, think about between now and
your open enrollment meetings. Is educatinglike what do people not understand? Consumerism?
(23:37):
Absolutely? How is COVID covered bythe carriers? What about testing?
Things like that? People I geta lot of calls about where to go
test and how to manage that.And then if you've got some time,
if you have a December one oreven a January one plan here, you
(24:02):
still have time to do some education, even some voluntary So it's like you
capture the people that are you know, are unsure, like a brown bag
lunch and just a voluntary situation thatwould be able, you'd be able to
educate people about Okay, this ishow finding a doctor works, or this
is how this plan works things likethat if you have an HSA or an
(24:25):
HR all those initials. To me, it's a good time to educate how
those plans work now before we getinto selection, which is yeah, that's
a great point. I think you'reright. Um, the education is so
critical until the space to understand whatthey really have. I mean, like
(24:49):
you're saying open rollment meetings, youknow, that's when we're going over the
benefits, and you know we don'treally get a lot of time. So
yeah, adding that extra you know, meeting or brown baggage you said,
would be really beneficial. And youmentioned the carriers, and the carriers have
been very lenient during this COVID nineteentime as well, and you know,
(25:11):
extending their rules for reducing rules aroundhours and benefits and that would have you
which you know you and I areworking on with Borgeous right now. So
yeah, the carriers have stepped up. We've had some carriers that, like
you said, the EAP, youmentioned that some of them throughout EAP for
(25:32):
free, you know, even ifhe didn't have it. Very critical and
mental health and as really a bigtopic right now. Everyone's talking about it,
and it's it's you know, We'reall are going through this together,
and this is the first time weas a nation have ever had to experience
(25:52):
something like this, and it's it'schanging our structure. It's messing up our
structure, mentioning with our brain.And there's a lot of people that are
that are struggling with that out there. So mental health is a big,
big, big one. It's reallyhard, you know, with a lot
of my clients previously and now aswith my employer is I'm just making regular
(26:15):
phone calls to people, just checkingout how you doing. And I think
people appreciate that. Number one,but you know, I've had some individuals
who've asked me to call them again. We call me in a couple of
weeks, and I think that's helpful. One thing I'll say, I'll forget
about the executive team. Don't forgetabout them. They are the your leadership
(26:36):
groups that are managing the company.Not only do we feel like when I
have to make sure my business remainsviable and successful, but I have all
these mouths to feed, and that'sa lot of pressure. And it's funny
because with one of my clients,I wasn't calling their executive team, and
then I realized that I've I've lefta really important group out. You know.
(26:57):
That's so that's a good thing todo. Yeah, you're just assuming
they're good, no problem, You'refine, Yeah, but you know it's
good. The other thing is Ialways ask supervisors and managers. Don't suggest
to somebody that they contact HR orthat they you know whatever, tell them,
(27:18):
tell them how to do that.UM, tell your HR person to
contact them instead, UM, givethem information. And I was, it's
better for me to call you thanfor you to be told, oh,
here called Christine. You know,because you're not you might not do it
right. True. Yeah, wellthat's great advice. I love it.
(27:40):
Um. I'm going to pass thatone on for sure. I'm going it
just makes sense, right if you'rea leader, you need to be um,
you know, involved and find outhow people are doing. You know,
how can you really know what theirneeds are if you're not communicating with
them. That's I think the biggestchallenge in my my worry has been,
as you know, we've gone throughthis and the sheltering everything is this disconnection
(28:04):
if you will you know, yeah, zooms are great, but um,
you know there's something about that personalyou know, interaction and touch, you
know, one on one that that'sbeen missing during this whole thing. Well,
I think we're gonna we're running outof time here. Um, want
(28:25):
to be respectful of everyone's time.I know you've got another meeting you got
to go to here in a coupleof minutes. So, um, is
there anything else that you can thinkof that we haven't covered before? We
jump off pleas for HR professionals networkwith other HR professionals. I'm always reaching
out by what do you guys?What do you guys think? Okay,
(28:45):
what we're doing. We're sharing documents, we're sharing information, We're sharing a
lot experience and that's really helpful,you know, supporting ourselves. You know,
nobody's calling me. You see Helendoing I'm standard. My network of
professionals and provisors should do that too, you know, if they're in Yeah,
(29:07):
find out what they're doing and seehow we can all do a great
job today to help each other.That's great. Yeah, we're not an
island, and there there may besomething that you're struggling with that someone else
is struggling with it you know hasfigured out a solution to that and it
can help you with it. Definitely. Yeah, great, well, thank
(29:30):
you opportunity. Fun to see youand talk about this stuff. And you
know, my consulting business is availableChristie and Hide hr Consulting the title,
but we're available. You can findme on LinkedIn and I can connect you
with one of my great team membersif anybody needs help. All right,
awesome, thanks so much for yourtime. Yeah, it's good seeing you.
(29:55):
Thank you, all right, we'lltalk to you soon, okay,
bye bye, take care
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