Scam Alert: New Study Says Job Scams on the Rise Due to COVID Pandemic

Employco USA

Employment trends expert comments on the Better Business Bureau study

Fraud AlertA new study from the Better Business Bureau has found that employment scams nearly doubled during 2020. Over 14 million victims fell prey to employment scams in 2020, causing losses of nearly $2 billion.

Employment trends expert Rob Wilson speaks on this troubling trend, as well as offers solutions for companies and employers.

“We’ve known these scams have been on the rise for months, and we have been helping our clients with how to best address the issue, but it is still very shocking to see just how quickly these scams mushroomed during the pandemic,” says Wilson, who is the President of Employco USA, an employment solutions firm based in Chicago.

Wilson says that the perpetrators are stealing employees’ identities in order to access government funds under their name.

Continue reading →

HR Newsletter: EEOC Extends EEO-1 Deadline for 2019 and 2020

Employco USA

EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission)

Employers now have even more extra time to submit equal employment opportunity (EEO-1) workforce data from 2019 and 2020, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced on Aug. 18, 2021.

The 2019 and 2020 EEO-1 reports were previously due by Aug. 23, 2021, which was an extension from the original deadline of July 19, 2021. Employers now have until Oct. 25, 2021, to complete their submissions. According to the EEOC, this new deadline is final, and no additional extensions will be made.

The EEOC’s collection of the 2019 and 2020 data, the portal for which opened on April 26, 2021, had been delayed numerous other times due to the coronavirus pandemic. Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the EEO-1 Report is usually due by March 31 every year.

Continue reading →

HR Newsletter: Managing Workplace Culture in a Hybrid Model

Employco USA

Workplace Culture

Nearly 2 in 3 employees say strong company culture is the main reason for staying at their job, according to a Glassdoor survey. Employers can leverage their company culture to attract and retain top talent in a competitive job market. However, a strong company culture could be at risk in a hybrid workplace as different on-site and remote workplace cultures emerge.

Organizational leaders should intentionally create, foster and nurture culture when people are working from everywhere. This article provides an overview of company culture and considerations for employers managing their culture with a distributed workforce.

What Is Company Culture? Company culture is the personality and environment of an organization. Defined by more than just a mission statement or organizational values, company culture encompasses the unwritten norms of how employees interact with one another. Company culture can be broken into three broad categories:

Continue reading →

HR Newsletter: Delta Air Lines’ Surcharge on Unvaccinated Workers

Employco USA

Airport Employee

On Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2021, Delta Air Lines announced it will require employees to receive a COVID-19 vaccine or pay a $200 monthly fee. Starting Nov. 1, unvaccinated employees on Delta Air Lines’ health plan would be responsible for paying a $200 monthly surcharge for health benefits, in addition to being tested weekly for COVID-19. Unvaccinated workers will undergo weekly testing beginning mid-September, according to the company.

Delta Air Lines’ CEO, Ed Bastian, said the company acknowledges that vaccinations are the “most effective” way to combat the spread of COVID-19—75% of the organization is fully vaccinated. Moreover, Bastian said it costs Delta Air Lines $50,000 per employee hospital stay due to COVID-19. The $200 surcharge is intended to both offset those costs and incentivize employees to get vaccinated.

“We’ve always known that vaccinations are the most effective tool to keep our people safe and healthy in the face of this global health crisis.” – Ed Bastion, Delta Air Lines CEO

Continue reading →

HR Newsletter: COVID-19 Business Survey Results

Employco USA

Employco COVID-19 Survey Results

In early September, we closed a confidential COVID-19 survey of businesses from around the country.  Thanks to everyone who took the time to submit their responses. The survey included the following 6 questions:

  1. Are you requiring your employees to wear a mask when they are working at a company facility?
  2. Are you requiring your employees to be vaccinated?
  3. Are you tracking if your employees have been vaccinated?
  4. What percentage of your office staff is work-from-home (WFH)?
  5. Which group do you find more productive: work-from-home (WFH) or in-office employees?
  6. Compared to pre-pandemic, do you anticipate long-term changes to your work-from-home (WFH) headcount?

Click the following link or scroll through the images below to view a summary of the survey results:

Continue reading →

HR Newsletter: COVID-19: Vaccine Surcharges, Mandates and Incentives

Employco USA

Vaccine

COVID-19 vaccinations are a highly contentious topic in America. Many U.S. adults still haven’t gotten the shot despite the Food and Drug Administration’s recent (FDA) full approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

This reluctance is seen as a problem by health experts, who contest that vaccination is the most effective way to control the widespread coronavirus Delta variant. It’s also a problem for employers wishing to maintain uninterrupted operations and to keep employees healthy.

So, if an employer wants a vaccinated workforce but is dealing with vaccine skepticism, what are their options? We have created an HR Insights article that explores this complicated situation and discusses the multitude of choices facing employers. The article includes information on :

Continue reading →

No Jab, No Job? Biden Makes Sweeping Vax Mandates, as United Airlines Puts Unvaxxed Employees on Unpaid Leave

Employco USA

Human resources expert offers commentary on this breaking story

Vaccine MandateYesterday President Biden directed the Labor Department to mandate that any companies with more than 100 employees either require the COVID vaccination or COVID test all their employees once a week.

“Those companies that don’t comply could face thousands of dollars in fines per employee,” says Rob Wilson, HR expert and President of Employco USA, an employment solutions firm with locations across the country. “This means that even those employers who may disagree with the mandate or dislike requiring the vaccination are left with very little choice: They will have to require the mandate or face costly fines that could cost them their business.”

Meanwhile, United Airlines just made international headlines after it was revealed that the airline giant is putting all unvaccinated employees on unpaid leave, even if they have a religious exemption.

Continue reading →

Transgender Rights in the Workplace: What Employers Need to Know

Employco USA

Employment trends expert discusses Hobby Lobby ruling and what employers can learn from their costly mistake

Transgender FlagAn Illinois appeals court recently upheld a ruling deeming that Hobby Lobby’s bathroom policies violated a transgender employee’s human rights. Hobby Lobby now must pay the employee $220,000 in damages, along with potential additional damages and fees.

“Denying this transgender woman the right to use the women’s bathroom has cost Hobby Lobby a great deal of money, but as a large corporation, they can easily absorb the damages,” says Rob Wilson, President of Employco USA and employment trends expert. “However, other mid-size and small businesses could be decimated by such a ruling.”

No wonder many employers are wondering what they can do to avoid similar fines. There are many new regulations that companies need to adhere to if they don’t want to wind up facing civil suits like Hobby Lobby.

Continue reading →

COVID-19 Survey

Employco USA

COVID-19 Survey

Employco USA is conducting a quick, 6-question survey related to COVID-19 for businesses. If you are in management or human resources, we’d love to get your input. The survey is completely voluntary and anonymous. We will be sharing the overall results with everyone in a future follow-up post.

Click the following link to take the survey:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/LC9TNDY

Thank you in advance if you are able to participate!

Survey Question

HR Chat w/Employco USA: HR Bootcamp on September 16th!

Employco USA

We receive a number of questions from our clients as we consult them on a variety of HR issues.

In this video, Rob and Jason discuss our upcoming HR bootcamp. This event is focused on the food industry, but open to all. We have partnered with Food Industry News and GARC Restaurant Cooperative to present 90 minutes of valuable information. HR topics we will be covering include: COVID-19, recruiting and onboarding, employee retention, compliance issues, and more.

This event will be taking place at Chicago Italian Prime in Schaumburg on September 16th at 3:00pm.

RSVP to Dawn Nelson at 630-286-7356 or dnelson@employco.com.

We hope to see you there!

Continue reading →