HR News

HR Headliner: What Have You Done For Me Lately? Communicating Your Total Rewards Program to Employees

April 2025 HR Headliner:

What Have You Done For Me Lately?

Communicating Your Total Rewards Program to Employees

Business owners know that a competitive compensation package is essential for attracting and retaining great employees. Your “total rewards” program includes monetary factors such as wages, bonuses, paid time off, and insurance coverage, and non-monetary benefits such as employee recognition programs, flexible scheduling options, and career training and enrichment opportunities. With so much time and energy dedicated to developing these areas, do you ever feel that employees don’t fully appreciate what the company has to offer? Below are a few tips for effectively communicating your total rewards philosophy:

Start by being a good listener. Seek employees’ feedback about what kinds of compensation and benefits are most meaningful to them. Not only will this allow you to focus your budget on the best programs, it will help employees feel “in on things” and that their opinions matter to the company.

Connect your compensation package to the company’s mission and goals. For example, a company in a growth phase might emphasize client acquisition bonuses or job upskilling activities. A firm that values its community roots could highlight employee volunteering or sponsorship opportunities.

Provide clear, detailed information about each component of your total rewards program. Of course employees see the paychecks they receive, but do they understand all that their health insurance plan has to offer? Do they know about available training courses that may make them eligible for promotion? Do they know about an Employee Assistance Program that offers mental health support and financial planning assistance?

Use multiple communication channels. A beautifully-designed company newsletter may not be effective for employees who don’t sit at a desk or have time to check company emails during the day. Posted notices or printed memos delivered by supervisors can help to ensure everyone receives the right information. Be mindful of language differences, as well.

Address employees’ questions and concerns in a timely manner. If an employee is frustrated with your health insurance carrier or believes that new hires with less experience are receiving higher wages, it’s best to offer support and clarity before minor issues grow into larger grievances.

Provide comparisons and benchmarking information when needed. Employees may have inaccurate perceptions of what other companies provide. When appropriate, sharing salary surveys and other research can help to show that your business is staying competitive.

Sierra HR Partners is here to help you analyze your total rewards programs and communicate effectively with employees. Contact one of our certified Consultants with any questions you have!

HR Headliner: Is AI Influencing Your Interviews?

March 2025 HR Headliner: Is AI Influencing Your Interviews?

HR managers and recruiters have long known that candidates may embellish their resumes to boost job-related experience. Back in my day, the trickiest move may have been to coordinate with a friend to give a positive professional reference, instead of allowing a recruiter to contact a real former supervisor. But the “new normal” of video interviews and AI tools like ChatGPT has opened up a whole new world of potential cheating.

In July 2024, reports were published about an international company that hired a North Korean cyber criminal after he used fake a employment history and AI-enhanced photo and video during the hiring process. Despite a seemingly thorough screening process that included video interviews and a background check, the hacker was able to gain employment, download sensitive company materials, and transfer potentially harmful files into the company’s systems.

While this may be an extreme example, the use of AI during the hiring process is becoming an increasing trend. ChatGPT can easily generate a well-written resume and cover letter, misrepresenting a candidate’s writing skills. Our recruiting team at Sierra HR has yet to experience an AI-faked video, but they have detected candidates using “teleprompter apps” that can listen to an interview conversation and feed real-time answers to the job seeker.

So, how can an HR manager or recruiter spot the fakes and hire the right (real) person? Below are a few guidelines for interviewing in this AI age:

• Plan in-person interviews with finalist candidates. Telephone and video meetings are efficient for initial screening, but there’s nothing like the real thing when it comes to having confidence in the person you’re hiring.
• Ask behavior-based questions during all phases of the interview process. AI may be great for generating answers to technical skills questions, but the candidate will have to rely on his/her own memory and discernment to answer a prompt such as, “Tell me about a time when you went out of your way to help a client, and how you might apply that effort to this position?”
• During video interviews, watch for signs that the candidate is typing while being asked a question, has unnatural pauses before responding, or his/her eyes appear to be tracking text or looking elsewhere. These could be signs that the person is entering your questions into an app and reading auto-generated responses.
• Ask follow-up questions if the candidate delivers a seemingly-confident response that does not clearly address the question being asked. This could be another signal that he/she is using AI to craft answers. Ask the person to dig deeper and provide more specific details, allowing you to gain better insight into potential job performance… or confirm your suspicion that the candidate isn’t really as good as he/she appears to be.

Whether you love the new tech developments emerging in our workplaces, or you’re concerned about potential negative impacts, AI is here to stay and will only become more efficient and convincing over time. Understanding and navigating the balance between AI tools and “irl” human interaction will continue to be a critical management skill.

If you’d like our input on a great (or questionable) candidate, or you’re hoping to outsource the entire recruiting process, Sierra HR Partners is here to help you hire the best people for your business. Contact one of our HR Consultants (consulting@sierrahr.com) or our Recruiting team (recruiting@sierrahr.com) with any questions you have.

HR Headliner: Employers Urged to Prepare for Surge in I-9 Audits Amid Changing Immigration Policies

Employers Urged to Prepare for Surge in I-9 Audits Amid Changing Immigration Policies

As new regulations take effect, businesses face the risk of costly penalties for I-9 compliance failures; experts advise proactive audits and training to avoid issues.

The new presidential administration has already made significant changes to how the Federal government approaches immigration policy. Experts suggest that employers should be prepared for a surge in I-9 audits. During the first Trump administration, audits rose from over 1,300 in 2017 to almost 6,000 in 2018 and almost 6,500 in 2019. (The COVID-19 pandemic halted a planned 15,000 audits in 2020).

Employers are required by Federal law to complete Form I-9 for each new hire. New employees must provide documents that verify their identity and their work authorization, and employers must examine these documents to confirm their validity. Form I-9 documents this process. Employers who fail to follow these requirements or who complete Form I-9 incorrectly could be subject to civil fines, and employers who employ individuals not authorized to work in the United States may also be subject to criminal penalties.

While some industries, including agriculture, manufacturing, and construction, are more likely to be targets of I-9 audits, any employer could be subjected to an audit. If I-9 forms are missing, incomplete, or were completed late, if document information was transcribed incorrectly, or if forms have not been retained as required, employers could be subject to penalties totaling in the tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. Employers should review their new hire orientation process to ensure that I-9 forms are completed correctly, and previously completed I-9 forms are audited and (as needed) corrected. Every employer should now be using the recently updated Form I-9 with an expiration date of 05/31/2027.

USCIS has published guidance on internal audits for employers. Sierra HR Partners can also assist with internal audits and training administrative staff on completing I-9 forms accurately and making corrections appropriately. Once a Notice of Inspection has been received from ICE, employers typically have three days to provide requested forms; it is best to make corrections to forms before such notices are received.

Don’t forget – employers must post their 2024 annual summary of work-related injuries and illnesses (Form 300A) starting February 1. This summary must be left posted through April 30, even if no injuries occurred in 2024. Instructions and a blank copy of Form 300A can be found here from the DIR

HR Wisdom From Hollywood Drama

HR Wisdom From Hollywood Drama

What Managers Can Learn from the Blake Lively/Justin Baldoni Legal Case

The entertainment world does not often intersect with HR, but late last month it did just that, in a complaint filed by Hollywood star, Blake Lively, against former director and co-star, Justin Baldoni. The two had starred in the August release It Ends with Us, and Lively had strangely been subjected to disparaging stories at the time. Lively’s complaint against Baldoni included many damning text messages – but how exactly did those end up in the hands of Blake Lively’s legal team? The answer is Stephanie Jones, founder and CEO of celebrity PR firm, Jonesworks.

The Backstory: Jonesworks had been providing services to Justin Baldoni since 2017, with a Jonesworks publicist named Jen Abel eventually assuming responsibility for the Baldoni account. Ms. Abel was responsible for this account during the events that gave rise to Lively’s complaint. For some reason, in July 2024, Ms. Abel submitted her resignation – “With LOVE!” – with a commitment to remain until August 23.

The Drama Starts to Brew: That final month was hardly uneventful. On August 15, Business Insider published a hit piece on Jonesworks CEO Stephanie Jones, accusing her of being “combative” and “tyrannical.” As an example, the piece included a story of Ms. Jones calling an employee on FaceTime to check on her after she took a sick day (the horror!). The employee had admittedly taken the sick day to attend a job interview and was forced to hurriedly wipe off the makeup she’d been wearing, but she couldn’t hide her mascara.

Ms. Jones suspected Ms. Abel was involved in the piece and fired her on August 21, two days before her planned final day of work. The (likely) surprise termination meant that Ms. Abel didn’t have time to delete personal data from her company-provided cellphone, and when Ms. Jones examined the phone, she confirmed that Ms. Abel had indeed been in contact with Business Insider. The phone also contained the text messages later used in Lively’s complaint against Baldoni.

The intricacies of how Blake Lively became the recipient of these messages includes some speculation beyond the HR implications of this case, and we are not weighing in on the validity of her claims. Yet, it’s worth noting that Jonesworks is not included as a defendant in her complaint, while Jen Abel’s new PR firm, set up in the wake of her termination (and taking several Jonesworks employees and clients, including Baldoni), is. Perhaps it’s best not to conspire against your employer using a searchable company-owned device.

The HR Lesson: At Sierra HR, we are often asked about how to approach employee resignations. Sometimes, resignations mark the end of a legitimately positive relationship (and not just a superficially positive one, like between Ms. Jones and Ms. Abel). In those cases, immediate action is usually unnecessary. But what about mediocre or toxic employees? Are we bound to honor their resignations?

The answer, of course, is no – we are not obligated to honor an employee’s timeline. In fact, doing so may give toxic employees a chance to further damage morale or steal/destroy company assets or information, leaving us to clean up the mess long after they’re gone. An employer may be worried about the former employee being awarded Unemployment Insurance, and it’s true that terminating employment early would change a “resignation” into an “involuntary termination,” but an Unemployment claim is not a compelling reason to hold onto an otherwise destructive employee.

We should also not provide employees with the opportunity to wipe data from company devices. As our Employee Handbook policy states, “all information placed on computers, telephones or any electronic data system, whether or not personal in nature, is property of the company and may be assessed and reviewed by the company, without notice or reason.” And, as with Stephanie Jones, you may have very good reason to “assess and review” what employees have been doing with their company phone or other device. It is a mistake to allow them to reset company devices on their way out the door.

If you would like support in planning or conducting sensitive terminations, don’t hesitate to call Sierra HR Partners (559-431-8090). These unpleasant events may be unavoidable, but a timely and efficient process can help to avoid costly employee behaviors.

Written by Senior HR Consultant, Dan Larsen, PHR