Greetings, GMA SHRM Members!

By the time you read this, August will be here and we’ll be enjoying the last remnants of a beautiful summer in Wisconsin! Your new GMA SHRM Board has been hard at work planning some outstanding programming for the months and year ahead!

We hope you will join us for our upcoming August Professional Development Summit where we have Robert Shallenberger leading our program, “Start with the Vision: Six Steps to Effectively Plan, Create Solutions, and Take Action.” The Professional Development Summits have become a GMA SHRM “fan favorite” as the move to virtual programming this past year has created convenience allowing even more members and guests to take advantage of the educational sessions being offered. While we all love to see familiar faces at in-person events, our new virtual conference platform has helped us re-create table networking experiences and connections in a virtual format that are receiving rave reviews! Check it out on August 17th from 8am-12pm

Other great August opportunities include our Meet, Greet, and Eat event and the ever-popular HR Roundtables. 

With September also sneaking up quickly, save the date for the September Professional Development Summit on September 14th from 8:00am-12:15pm where Session 1 is “Caught in the Web of Conflict: Navigating Workplace Issues and Ways to Appropriately Solve Them,” and Session 2 is  “Ethics in Human Resources - Case Studies from the Field.”

In the weeks ahead, several GMA SHRM board members will also be attending the WI SHRM Leadership Conference where chapter volunteer leaders from across the state come together for networking and sharing of best practices as we find ways to continue to strengthen our chapters and provide member value.

Lastly, every other year GMA SHRM works with Gallagher & Associates to complete a local area compensation survey. We know that local compensation benchmarking information can be challenging to find, so our chapter coordinates efforts to partner with Gallagher & Associates for the services of administering the survey and collecting and reporting on survey data. We then make this report data available to local organizations who can benefit from this benchmarking information. The window is closing soon for survey participation so please see our website (https://www.gmashrm.org/gmashrm_surveys) for more information if you’d like to participate.

Thank you to our members, guests, and many volunteers who continue to engage in the chapter and see
the value GMA SHRM brings to our local community of HR leaders and professionals!

All the best,

Tracy Nelson, SPHR, CPTD
GMA SHRM Chapter President

Click here to view the full GMA SHRM Board of Directors


 

COVID-19 Resources

Rehiring Injured Employees: Consider Offering Reemployment in Different Positions

Submitted from Brian P. Goodman, GMA SHRM Programming Member, Sarah J. Horner, and Storm B Larson, all Attorneys at Boardman & Clark LLP, a Platinum Sponsor

Brian P. Goodman

Sarah J. Horner Storm Larson

Under Wisconsin’s worker’s compensation law, an employer may be liable to an employee who was injured in the course of employment if the employer “unreasonably refuses to rehire” the employee when suitable employment is available.  If the employer is found liable, it may be required to pay the employee up to one year in lost wages during the period of refusal (in addition to other potential costs).

On June 2, 2021, in Anderson v. LIRC, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals affirmed a Labor and Industry Review Commission (LIRC) decision. The court concluded that if an employee is interested in reemployment in a position other than what the employee previously held, the employee must expressly state this interest to the employer. In the case, an employee sued his employer for unreasonable refusal to rehire him in a different position (car sales) than the one he held prior to his injury and termination (service and parts advisor). To make a claim for lost wages, the employee must show that they sustained an injury in the course of employment and that the employer had no reasonable cause to refuse to rehire them in the same position they previously held. Importantly, Anderson clarified that if the employee is claiming failure to rehire in a different position than the employee previously held, the employee must also show that they expressed to the employer an interest and willingness to accept a different position.

Although the burden is on the employee to show interest in a different position, in practice an employee might argue that they did show interest in different positions and that the employer still failed to offer them different positions. Additionally, the employer in this case might have avoided extensive litigation had it just decided to offer suitable employment, including different positions, to the employee. Employment is considered suitable if it is available and within the employee’s physical and mental limitations, which includes positions other than the one that the employee previously held. If an employee turns down an offer of suitable employment, this provides a strong defense to the employer from this type of claim.

When faced with these situations, employers are urged to reach out to legal counsel to determine the best course of action.

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Professional Development

Keynote Presenter:  Robert Shallenberger,  U.S.A.F. Pilot Retired, CEO Becoming Your Best Global Leadership

When employees are asked for their biggest challenges, responses range from, "I feel overwhelmed with everything on my plate" to "We have this great opportunity, but we can't get everyone aligned." The answers span a wide range, but they all share a common issue– they need a planning process that is practical, manageable, and will help develop a way forward.

During this hands-on and interactive program, each leader will tackle the most significant issue they are facing - personal or professional – then use the Six-Step Process to find a solution and develop a plan to solve it. This experience will provide a process you may use again and again in your personal and profession life! The Six-Step Process can immediately be taken back to your teams to address any issue until it becomes a part of your culture.

Becoming Your Best Global Leadership firm has spent years researching more than 50 organizations to see how employees and leaders planned and problem solved to identify what worked and what did not. It was interesting to find less than 10% of leaders had a planning or problem-solving process. To close the gap an approach to planning, The Six-Step Process, was born.

This program will utilize the Six-Step Process to give individuals and teams a process to solve their biggest problems and create a clear plan of who will do what by when in order to solve the problem. The Six-Step Process is the same process used by many successful organizations to solve their biggest challenges. While it will apply to any organizational problem or opportunity, people can also use it to solve any personal challenge they may be facing.

This program will help participants:   

• Understand how you can use the Six-Step Process with individuals, teams, and your organization to solve your biggest problems and challenges.
• Develop a plan of who will do what by when to solve your biggest problems and achieve your vision.
• Learn strategies to help stay accountable and flawlessly execute your plan at a high level.

 

GMA SHRM welcomes the following members who joined our chapter in June 2021!

Tracy	Beil		Monona Catering
Julie	Kopp		Complete Mobile Dentistry, Inc.
Jesi	McLellan	PHR	Sielaff Corporation
Wendy	Miller		Balisle Family Law Legal Counsel, S.C.
Brandi	Schaefer		Fairway Independent Mortgage Corporation
Kayla	Schaller-Greenwood		Universal Presentation Concepts
LaDonna	Steinert	SHRM-SCP, SPHR	UW Credit Union

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Member Awards and Recognition

Have you recently earned a professional achievement award? If so, we want to hear about it. 
If so, we want to hear about it. Send us an e-mail, and we’ll publish your good news in the next HR InTouch!  

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In Transition

If you are a member who is in between jobs, or who is currently employed but seeking new positions or career paths, write us a brief description of your skill set, areas of expertise, what you’re looking for, etc. Send us an e-mail. We’ll publish your information in the next HR InTouch.

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HR InTouch Guidelines

Article Writing:

Do you have an interest in writing for the HR InTouch? We have an interest in learning more about your area of expertise!

Why should you volunteer? Top three reasons: 1) to share your knowledge and experiences to educate others; 2) to become more connected in the HR and Dane County communities; and 3) to contribute towards the advancement of GMA SHRM and the HR profession.

The first step is for you to choose a submission option: you can pre-submit an article to GMA SHRM at any time for us to use in any of the upcoming newsletters, you can sign up to write for a particular month, or we can put you on a list of people to contact in future months whenever we need articles.

Article length:

Because the HR InTouch is now in an online format, the size is flexible. The article should be engaging and hold readers’ attention. Include the core information in your article, and we will advise if it is too lengthy.

Solicitation:

GMA SHRM is conscious not to allow solicitation through the articles, in an effort to protect the interests of our partners and members. The nature of the article should be educational (i.e., what are the business advantages of having a product like yours) or informational. Otherwise, if you truly are interested in advertising through the HR InTouch, you can work with our Marketing Committee. As a rule of thumb for article writing, if the submission relates to a for-profit event, or specifically markets your company (vs. your industry), it is an advertisement, and should be purchased. If it is a not-for-profit event that your company is hosting, or an announcement (i.e., a SHRM member recently joined your company), it is an acceptable addition to the HR InTouch content. If you have any questions related to the appropriateness of your submission, please contact us.

If you have questions, or to submit an article, contact GMA SHRM at chapteradmin@gmashrm.org .