Greetings GMA SHRM Members –

I am excited to announce a great turnout for our May conference! I heard a lot of positive feedback on the sessions and I personally enjoyed all that I attended. Dr. Rick Rigsby’s session was amazing and provided straightforward concepts that people in any field can take away. I think my favorite quotes from the day are “You are what you repeatedly do” and “Excellence ought be a habit, not an act”.
 
The Wisconsin State Council is seeking 2021 State Conference Co-Chairs and the deadline is October 27, 2019. Planning a conference is invaluable experience, especially one of this magnitude, and I would encourage you to apply if you are seeking opportunities to broaden your organizational, planning and facilitation skills. More information and the application can be found here.
 
If you have a Human Resources opening at your organization, don’t forget to post it on the http://www.wishrm.org/WISHRMJobs board. This is a very cost effective way to get your position in front of HR professionals. The price is $325 with a $100 discount if you are a GMA SHRM member.
 
Join us for the next Meet, Greet and Eat on June 27^th! Details are on our website. Our next Professional Development Summit will be on August 13^th focusing on the Strategic Vision for HR.
 
I hope you have a wonderful summer! Please feel free to reach out to me with questions or feedback at tammy.wacek@wpsic.com.



Take Care,

Tammy Wacek, SHRM-CP, PHR
President
GMA SHRM

New Wisconsin Worker Misclassification Task Force

Submitted by Brian P. Goodman, Attorney with Boardman Clark and GMA SHRM VP of Programming

On April 15, 2019, Governor Evers signed Executive Order #20, creating a new Joint Enforcement Task Force on Payroll Fraud and Worker Misclassification regarding employee versus independent contractor status. The new task force will be staffed by Department of Workforce Development (DWD) members and will lead increased coordination and investigative efforts among several state departments to ensure employers are correctly classifying employees.
 
What does this mean for employers? State administrative agencies will likely make worker misclassification a priority going forward. The increased coordination between agencies could lead to employer audits from state agencies regarding both employee status and overtime exemption status. Remember, Wisconsin has its own overtime exemption laws, and when those state laws provide greater protection to employees than the federal law, employers must follow the state laws.
 
For example, an independent contractor sues for discrimination, and the Equal Rights Division (ERD) of DWD determines that the independent contractor is actually an employee that can sue the employer for discrimination. The employer now has to defend the merits of a discrimination claim. In addition, ERD might share this conclusion with DWD’s Unemployment Insurance Division. Now, the employer faces a potential audit from the Unemployment Insurance Division because the employer likely didn’t pay unemployment taxes on the employee’s pay, believing at the time that the employee was an independent contractor. Further, if the employer wasn’t paying unemployment taxes on the employee’s pay, the employer faces liability for not paying all other applicable payroll taxes. A standard discrimination case has ended up opening the door to a variety of challenges for the employer. Complicating this situation further, not every law uses the same legal test for determining if an employee is an independent contractor or an employee.
 
Employers should take this opportunity to review their independent contractor agreements to determine if the person is truly an independent contractor under applicable laws. One general factor to consider is that an independent contractor should have the opportunity for profit or loss under the agreement. An agreement that provides that the person is to receive an hourly rate for all work performed likely does not provide such an opportunity for profit and loss, and thus the person might be an employee rather than an independent contractor. These types of contracts in particular should be reviewed and revised with legal counsel, as appropriate.
 

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Professional Development

Human Capital Conference Photos

The 2019 GMA SHRM Human Capital Conference was held May 14, 2019 at the Alliant Energy Center and was a great success.   Dr. Rick Rigsby delivered a moving keynote and followed with a workshop on Building Great Teams.

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Compensation and Benefits

GMA SHRM Compensation Survey – A Great Resource from GMA SHRM, Don’t Miss It!

Submitted by Amy Esry, Compensation Committee Member, GMA SHRM
 

Participation is Now Open! Check your email from May 1 for an invitation from Thomas Cummins at Gallagher Surveys. If you would like to participate, and save 50% on the purchase price contact  - Thomas_Cummins@ajg.com

An exciting opportunity is upon us! This is too good to pass up, and it is definitely worth the time.
 
It’s the GMASHRM compensation survey. For a limited time, there is an opportunity to participate and submit organizational data for the local market. Then in the fall organizations will be able to purchase the results. Participants get a discount on the results!
 
Why is this such a big deal? Let me tell you my story as to why this is a big deal.
 
I’ve been doing the GMA SHRM comp survey for more years than I care to admit. I remember when we used to have a GMA SHRM Benefits Survey as well. Every year I look forward to participating in both surveys and getting those results. The Benefits survey is no longer available, but the comp survey is still a great resource for us!
 
Much of my career in human resources has been in smaller organizations, which generally means a very small HR budget. This means I can’t afford to get a subscription to a high-end comp service. I have to find comp data wherever I can. And the comp data must be right. Even when unemployment isn’t as low as it is now, getting comp right, for a small company, can make a huge difference in being able to hire great people. So where does that data come from? Well, when your budget is small, you look under every rock. That often means websites of various caliber. Some websites are better than others. Some websites are so general, the data isn’t much help (Software developers make between $40,000 and $150,000, Really? Duh!). When you read the fine print, you find that some sites are not using local data, instead they use a multiplier of some sort for the Madison area. So is that really accurate for us? Some sites use data from people who visit the site. Are they telling the truth or just dropping in a number so they can move on and use the site? And are they just going off titles or are people really looking at the job description so the data is actually relevant? I could go on and on.
 
But the GMA SHRM comp survey is different.
 
It’s local. If you are hiring in the Madison area, you need to know what pay is appropriate for your jobs here, not in the “Midwest” or even in the state. Madison is a unique city, and having local data is important so you know your comp plan is accurate and effective.
 
The survey uses job descriptions so you can match to the right jobs. For example, “Account Manager” means a lot of different things, so actually matching up the job descriptions is key. On some websites, you can’t even find a brief job description! How do you know you are comparing apples to apples?
 
And it’s easy. There are a lot of jobs listed in the survey, to try to reach a broad audience of the membership. You simply provide data for the jobs that are a match for your organization. You can easily skip any jobs that aren’t relevant to your organization.
 
The survey is also very reasonably priced. I’ve recently researched using a third party for some compensation planning, and we are talking about thousands of dollars. For a small company / small HR Department, the GMASHRM comp survey may seem expensive when you have a miniscule budget to work with. But really, it’s a bargain. It’s worth trying to fit the survey into the budget. And if you participate, you get a discount.
 
Please join me in participating this year. I know you’re busy. I get it. This is worth squeezing into your schedule. This is an opportunity you just don’t want to miss. I don’t know of any other local SHRM chapters in WI that offer a resource like this. Let’s participate, enjoy this resource, and keep it going for years to come!

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GMA SHRM welcomes the following members who joined our chapter in April 2019!

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Movin' Up

Have you started with a new company? Has your organization recently promoted you to a new position? Or do you want to recognize a new person or promotion within your department? 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 .