November 2004, Volume VII Issue 1

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Congress and federal regulators are now looking to tackle an area largely untouched by the governance reform: executive compensation. Over the next year, public companies will be required to disclose all types of remuneration for top employees including details of the executive retirement plans. Businesses will have to revise nonqualified deferred-compensation plans for high-level managers to comply with new provisions in the corporate tax bill passed this month by Congress. 

The SEC and IRS plan to increase scrutiny of companies' books to ensure they comply with the new rules. The plan is thought to rein in on the more generous compensation packages and build investor confidence. However, this legislation is now impacting smaller and privately held businesses. The following changes would impact both public and private companies: 

• Restrictions on payouts: Corporate tax legislation taking effect January 1 will restrict executives from speeding up or delaying payouts from a nonqualified deferred-compensation plan. Employees will essentially have one chance to delay a scheduled payment, while early withdrawals will result in large financial penalties.
• There will be a six month waiting period between the time an executive is separated from his company and the time he may withdrawal funds. The intention is to avert situations in which executives may pull large sums of money from their nonqualified deferred-compensation plans when the company is about to collapse.

Additionally, greater disclosure will be the next area for review. The commission will likely require precise summaries of executive pensions and retirement benefits. While much of this information is already available, it is often lumped in with total company-wide pension obligations.

The SEC may also require corporate boards and compensation committees to maintain and make public tally sheets of the value of all benefits and perks awarded to current and previous executives. 

Finally, the Financial Accounting Standards board decided to move back the effective date for expensing of all employee stock options by six months, June 115, 2005. The delay has raised concerns. Read the statement from Bill Archey, President and CEO of AeA.

Information in this article provided by NewsEdge Corporation. Read the complete article here.

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2. Harassment Training Now Mandatory for California Employers

For years, employers have diligently trained employees to prevent unlawful discrimination and harassment. This type of training is now a legal responsibility for California employers.

On September 29, Governor Schwarzenegger signed Assembly Bill 1825, requiring employers with 50 or more employees to provide at least 2 hours of classroom or other effective interactive training and education. It must cover the following topics:

• The legal prohibitions against sexual harassment under federal and state law; 
• Prevention of sexual harassment;
• Correction of situations involving sexual harassment; and
• Remedies for victims of sexual harassment.

This law requires the presenter to have knowledge and expertise in the prevention of harassment, discrimination and retaliation. Employers who choose to have a member of their HR staff conduct the training, will need to be able to demonstrate the required expertise. It is still unclear what is meant by "interactive training and education". However, it does imply that an online program will not comply. 

AB 1825 requires the training to be provided to "supervisory employees". However, the law does not define the term "supervisor". Due to this ambiguity, many employers may choose to provide the required training to all employees. 

Effective Date: The required training must be provided to all supervisors by January 1, 2006, if the supervisor was employed in that position on or before July 2005. Employees hired or promoted to supervisor by that time have six months to complete the training. If the supervisor can prove he/she has been through the training within the past two years, he/she need not be trained again. After January 1, 2006, the training must be provided once every two years.

An employer's compliance with the training requirement doe not guarantee a complete defense. However, the law states that an employer is not automatically liable in an action for sexual harassment if the plaintiff shows an individual failed to receive the required training.

Information in this article provided by the law firm of Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker. For more information on anti-harassment training or other new laws impacting California employers, click here. 

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With a rapidly accelerating business load dependent upon sales staff, field engineers and repair technicians spread out around the globe, an online training can be a welcome addition to your organization's learning program. Olympus Medical, a division of Olympus America recently adopted an e-meeting training model that quickly chopped their training costs from $1100 to just $61 per employee per session. By converting a portion of their training into a web conferencing model they were able to greatly reduce dollars spent on airfare, hotel stays, meal expenses, and taxis and subsequently were able to quickly train more people for less money.

In addition to cutting costs, the online training platform ensured their sales teams received timely access to product information without having to leave the office. In rapidly changing markets it's not uncommon to see product launches take place without learning. Companies that launch five to 10 or more products per year often experience problems familiarizing their sales staff with new products. This training gap severely jeopardizes the confidence and credibility a sales team has established with customers and can result in a negative impact on the bottom line. In Olympus' case their service contract business particularly suffered. 

"When a product launch takes place and training does not occur, the timeline to sell other products can be delayed. Customers will not come back," Delgado said. "If someone hasn’t been trained on a product and they’re being asked to support it and that customer’s under contract, it may take one or two service calls to get that product up to performance, whereas a person who has been trained, the expectations of repairing that system and getting customer satisfaction are much greater."

Delgado continued, "In the past we didn’t know how to deliver information. It might have been done through bulletins or conference calls. Now we have a tool that we know can be very effective visually. We’re taking advantage of the technology, whereas two years ago, we didn’t. Information that we wanted to deliver was either delayed or put into a format that was not interactive, that was not enlightening to the group. It was not appealing." Now Olympus Medical utilizes a blend of traditional classroom, on-the-job training, self-study and online training finding that e-meetings are very effective for 1) Training individuals who need to support something right away and 2) Distributing preliminary or follow up information for a classroom training.

AeA Conferencing Services through ACT Teleconferencing offers a variety of cost-effective training and certification platforms. Trainers can use ACT's Event Center's on-line polling and testing feature to ask adaptable multiple choice questions, and record responses for easy participant certification. As an added benefit, ACT can record product training sessions and provide them online or on CD for employees to learn at their own convenience.

AeA members can expect to receive audio conferencing rates starting at .06/minute and web conferencing rates as low as .12/minute. For assistance in establishing online training sessions using AeA's Conferencing Program, contact Jeremy Willius at 303.205.7340. 

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Following the announcement that nearly half of the 100 million flu vaccines needed this season will not reach U.S. shores, employers are canceling onsite programs to immunize workers. Experts predict that businesses should expect to feel losses associated with increased absences. 

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, they estimate that up to 20% of the population contracts the flu each year. According to a study conducted by SHRM in June, 60% of U.S. companies have provided flu shots to employees to reduce illness and use of sick leave.  However, given this season's shortfalls, plans are changing. Boeing, for example, usually offers flu shots to employees free of charge. They have canceled the program this year and have donated their vaccine supply to a local group. 

What can you do? According to an article published by WebMD, keeping common work areas clean may help prevent the spread of the flu. Failing to clean the desk before lunch may increase the chances of you and your employees getting sick. A new report shows that an nearly half of Americans don't clean their desks before eating at them. Nearly one-third don't wash their hands, also leading to the spread of infectious diseases like colds and the flu. 

With a shortage of flu vaccine this year, health officials strongly advise the public to take extra measures to reduce risk of infection this season. Keeping desks, phones, door knobs, conference tables, fax machines and other common areas clean, can improve at-work hygiene and drastically reduce sick days.

Although this is just common sense, surface cleaning and disinfecting practices are valuable tools to keep the workplace healthy, especially during a trying cold and flu season. 

Information provided by Workforce.com and WebMD.com

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As an exclusive AeA Healthcare Trust benefit, your employees receive full FREE access to the AeA Trust Life Management Employee Assistance Program, helping members deal with personal issues that may influence their work performance.

This useful program, run by Magellan Behavioral Health, provides confidential counseling and referral services that can help employees and their household members/dependants cope with life challenges and make the most of their personal opportunities.

Professional and licensed clinical staff is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to provide the following services:

• Help with relationship, parenting, or other life concerns
• Childcare and eldercare resources, consultation and referral
• Legal advice and consultation
• Stress, anxiety, depression, and grief counseling
• Alcohol or substance abuse counseling
• Referrals and additional resources

Employees insured through the AeA Healthcare Trust are entitled up to 5 sessions per specific issue per year. 

To receive additional information about AeA Healthcare Trust or the AeA Trust Life Management Employee Assistance Program, please call Paula Estrada at 408.987.4282 or Veronica Franco at 202.682.4459.

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6. Mark Your Calendar: Upcoming AeA HR Events & Seminars
For a complete listing of events visit http://www.aeanet.org/events

 
Now Accepting Applications for the 2005 AeA/Stanford Executive Institute!
August 7-18, 2005
Applications Received by December 31 Receive $1500 Discount
Now is the time to make your nominations for the 2005 class of the AeA/Stanford Executive Institute. Customized for high-tech leaders, the Institute brings together world-class faculty, CEO guest speakers and qualified executives making the experience top notch, intensive and thought provoking. As 2004 alumnus Paul Bindel of HP stated, "This intense and best in class executive program has provided me with very valuable and insightful business information that I will be able to apply to my daily job.” 

For more information or to apply, visit http://www.aeanet.org/stanford. You may also hold seats immediately by calling Jeannine Seremi-Banayat at 408.987.4276.

11/17/2004 - Executives Take on HR - Bellevue, WA
11/17/2004 - HR Roundtable: FMLA Discussion - San Diego, CA 
11/17/2004 - Executives Take on HR Panel -  Bellevue, WA
11/19/2004 - Executive Leadership Institute: Finance for Managerial - Bellevue, WA
12/01/2004 - HR University: Strategic Thinking - Bellevue, WA 
12/08/2004 - Employee Communications that Connect - Chelmsford, MA
01/11/2005 - Communities of Practice - Beaverton, OR
01/13/2005 - Annual HR Issues Update - Atlanta, GA  

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Looking to offer an enjoyable and cost-effective employee benefit to your staff? KeyPoint Credit Union can help by providing lifetime enrollment to your employees across the country. KeyPoint will work with you to spread the word and it won't cost your company a thing. To help you get started, KeyPoint can provide:

AeA members who open a KeyPoint Credit Union Checking Account with direct deposit by 12/15/04 will receive a package valued at over $400. This is their best package deal ever!

• $25 cash deposited into your KeyPoint CU checking or savings account when your first direct deposit is posted to your KeyPoint Credit Union account. New, recurring ACH deposits qualify.

• FREE Companion Airfare Voucher ($350 value).

• Waived one-time $35 membership fee.
  

• Unlimited Checking and use any ATM in the world for FREE*

• Free personalized investment consultation.

• First box of checks for free.

• All of the other KeyPoint Credit Union Checking Account benefits: Free Worldwide ATM rebates (yes, this means that you can use any ATM in the world absolutely free*), Free On Call Telephone Service (real answers from real people 24 hours a day, every day of the year), Free Online Real-Time Banking, Free Online Bill Pay, Free Unlimited Check Writing, Coast to Coast locations, over 17,000 ATMs and on and on.

• If you have a $10,000 minimum combined balance of all share and/or certificate accounts they will throw in the Preferred Services package: Free Travelers Checks, Free Money Orders and Free Corporate Image Checks.

*Direct Deposit of net paycheck required. Subject to change without notice. Certain restrictions apply.

For more information or to add KeyPoint Credit Union to your benefits package, contact Lissa Lakamp at 408.731.4296.

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The next issue of The Site will be distributed in January. Have a topic idea for the next issue of The Site? Let us know! Email thesite@aeanet.org

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This publication is provided as information only and not intended in any way to be used as a definitive guide to your training, compensation or benefits strategy. AeA attempts to report representative data from its compensation surveys as well as other reputable and reliable sources. For additional information on any of the content in this publication, call 800.284.4232 x250. No part of this document may be reproduced without prior written consent from the publisher (thesite@aeanet.org).