Business Essentials Santinelli
A Monthly Update on Day-to-Day Management Issues for Optical ECPs and Retailers December 2006
Made possible by an unrestricted grant from Santinelli
It's Your Business

Party Smart This
Holiday Season


Hedley Lawson
"’Tis the season to be careful,” is the motto of employers referring to holiday parties.

No matter how unblemished a record of past parties an organization may have, overdrinking is the major threat, because it can lead to accidents, unwanted sexual advances, fights between co-workers, and car accidents, just to name a few.

Here are a few tips to plan a safe holiday gathering:

Restrict alcohol consumption. Reasonable limits include serving only beer and wine and issuing drink tickets, say providing only two free beverage servings to each employee. Also, you can limit the hours during which alcohol is served, closing the bar once the meal has begun.

Reduce the effects of alcohol consumption. Bar snacks and other types of salty foods increase thirst and should be avoided at holiday parties. As well, a party that offers nothing more than music and alcohol increases the possibility of excess drinking.

Consider a party disclosure/waiver. This is a carefully crafted statement to the effect that participation in an employer-sponsored party is completely voluntary on the part of each employee. It also informs employees that they will be required to behave responsibly on their way to and from the party and during the festivities, with an emphasis on alcohol consumption. One feature of the document should be to encourage employees to carpool to the event and/or to choose a designated driver in the family or work group in case of over-consumption. Each employee is then required to sign his or her understanding and acceptance of the waiver.

No matter what you may do to prepare for a safe and enjoyable holiday party, remember to emphasize one key point to your employees: “Please use good judgment and common sense. If you do so, we will all have a wonderful and enjoyable evening.”

Hedley Lawson, Jr. is the managing partner of Aligned Growth Partners, LLC, a strategic, operational and organizational consulting and executive search firm ( www.alignedgrowth.com). Lawson also serves as consulting editor for Jobson's Business Essentials monthly e-newsletter. To read current and past issues of the newsletter go to www.visonmonday.com.


 
Ask the Experts

Retirement Plan Tips

Q: When does a Roth IRA make sense?

A: Here is a profile for when a Roth 401(k) would work best:

  1. Eligible participants are young and earning significantly high incomes
  2. Most participants are maxing out their 401(k) contribution limits
  3. The participants who are maxed-out can then put away as many after tax dollars as they want into the Roth 401(k)

  4. Note, Roth IRAs have Adjusted Gross Income (AGP) caps and that makes them less attractive than Roth 401(k)s

If, on the other hand, very few people are contributing up to the maximum 401(k) limits, then a Roth 401(k) may not be very advantageous to the group as a whole.

Each practice needs to evaluate their own demographics and understand the long- term nature of their business. In this regard, some actuarial studies have shown that putting after tax dollars into a Roth 401(k) can generate more total income at retirement as compared to traditional 401(k) savings with pre-tax dollars.  This is typically true for young participants and is dependent on future interest rates and income tax assumptions.

Victor Deksnys is the executive vice president of GallagherBPI, a group insurance agency based in Lakespur, Calif., specializing in insurance plans, human resources services and compliance issues for large employers. To contact Deksnys call (415) 925-2079 or go to their Web site by clicking here.

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Resource Corner
Easy-reference to web resources about human resource policies and rules
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Roth IRA
Click Here

Family Medical
Leave Act (FMLA)
Click Here

IRS
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Amazon
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From the Top

"Food For Thought" From Business and
Sports Leaders

Check-ListAdvice on how you should run your business, and ultimately your life, is all around this holiday season, a popular time for stuffing stockings with books. Two new editions recently hit the shelves at the bookstores and each has attracted the attention of individuals and business-people alike. Advice, like holiday cheer, is plentiful this time of year and the sources are sometimes diverse, ranging from the former CEO of a Fortune 500 company to a highly successful college basketball coach. Both publications offer interesting and provocative thoughts that eyecare practitioners who own and manage a practice can easily relate to and translate into sound advice for running their business.

Tough Choices: Tips from former Hewlett-Packard CEO, Carly Fiorina

  • The workplace is not gender blind, but women get further by focusing on possibilities, not limitations.
  • Give everything you’ve got to the job you have and recognize opportunity when it knocks. Don’t be afraid to go after it.
  • Quarterly reports are a look through the rearview mirror. Focus on leading indicators, such as customer-satisfaction trends.
  • Choosing people is the most important choice a manager or leader makes. A leader’s job is to motivate people to do things that they initially resist.
  • Don’t be consumed by personal agenda. Put tough issues about the business and personality conflicts on the table and talk about them face to face. It’s a big part of keeping a team functioning.
  • You can’t make everyone happy. Leaders motivate people to do things they resist.

Beyond Basketball: Advice for success from Duke’s Basketball Coach
Mike KrzyzewskiBeyond_Basketball

  • Adversity. “Failure can never be your destination.”
  • Belief. When someone believes in you, it “raises your confidence level and allows you to try things that are impossible to do by yourself.”
  • Communication. “My team has one rule regarding communication: When you talk to one another, you look each other in the eye.”
  • Courage. When offered the chance to attend the U. S. Military Academy and play basketball, he did not want to go. But his dad, not a man of many words, was “vocal and emphatic,” that he not turn down the opportunity out of fear. “Always surround yourself with individuals who will help to enable your courage when it is lacking from within.”
  • Guidance. “You can go to someone you trust and respect…but remember: Solutions are personal. They are yours.”
  • Imagination. “Imagination gives you a destination. The greatest gift a coach can give a player, a teacher can give a student, and a parent can give to their child is the opportunity to imagine great things. These dreams in childhood pave the way for future successes.”

--Hedley Lawson, Jr.

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People Management

Common Problems in Performance Appraisal Meetings

AppraisalConducting employee performance reviews always seems to be a challenging process. Even if you are successful in taking the time to prepare and discuss the appraisal with your employee, you may inevitably experience a few disappointments or surprises along the way.

At the recent Employer Resource Institute's 2006 California Employment Law Update, management consultant Rhoma Young explained some of the potential problem areas employers need to be aware of during the performance appraisal meeting. Here are a few “No No’s” to consider in your planning process:

  • Rushing through the meeting
  • Doing too much of the talking
  • Discussing activities instead of results
  • Discussing performance in generalities without specifics to support the rating
  • Avoiding or underemphasizing discussion of genuine performance problems
  • Getting emotionally involved and losing objectivity and control of the interview
  • Getting sidetracked or bogged down in details
  • Over-praising or using too many negative examples of performance deficiencies
  • Failure to build on the employee's strengths in developing solutions to performance problems
  • Failure to involve the employee adequately in the planning and goal/objective-setting process
  • Not listening or not pursuing new information or suggestions the employee offers
  • Comparing employees instead of making individual assessments in terms of potential
  • Succumbing to the halo or central effect on ratings (that is, giving a favorable overall rating based on one job aspect, as opposed to a rating that fairly takes into account performance in all job areas)
  • Failure to write down all the key points, goals, objectives and target dates mutually agreed to
  • Failure to close with a summary that leaves the employee with a clear understanding of where they stand, what they need to do in the future to meet standards, and how and when the supervisor will assist the employee in doing so

--Hedley Lawson, Jr.


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Santinelli

Rules and Regulations

Court Rules in Favor of Proration of Bonus After FMLA Leave

Congress A federal appeals court has ruled that an employer may prorate an hours worked-based "production bonus" for employees who are absent from work while on leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act.

In Sommer v. Vanguard Group, No. 05-4034 (3d Cir. Aug. 24, 2006), the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, which has appellate jurisdiction over federal cases arising in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and the Virgin Islands, held that the employer did not violate the FMLA when it reduced a former employee's annual bonus payment based on the employee's eight-week leave under the FMLA.

This decision represents the first where a federal appellate court has considered the legality of proration of bonus programs under the FMLA. Accordingly, this decision provides valuable guidance for employers in structuring bonus programs to permit reductions based on employee leaves of absence.

 
Santinelli
In this edition...

ArticleIt's Your Business

Article From the Top
"Food for Thought" From Business and Sports Leaders

Article Ask the Experts
Retirement Plan TIps

Article People Management
Common Problems in Performance Appraisal Meetings

Article Rules & Regulations
Court Rules in Favor of Proration of Bonus After FMLA Leave

Article Resource Corner
Links to Important Resources

 


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Money Matters

IRS Raises Mileage Rates for 2007

SS44012
The IRS has increased the standard mileage rate commonly used to reimburse employees for business use of a car to 48.5 cents per mile, up from 44.5 cents in 2006.

The new rate will apply to miles driven beginning Jan. 1, 2007. Employers who use the IRS standard mileage rate to reimburse employees may deduct the reimbursement as a business expense.