BRIGHTER, Better, Faster, Stronger
By Shayla Teague, Individual and Family Benefits Consultant
We recently packed up and moved our RISQ office for the second time in 2 years. After two moves so close together, it became obvious to me that my environment was playing a huge role in how I felt at work and how much I got done.
When I first started working for RISQ, our office had a bright, white, grey, and teal color scheme, with a ton of natural light in almost every part of the office. Our first move brought us into an older building with floor to ceiling wood paneling throughout which put most of the windows out of sight. Even though the office was nice, the lack of natural light took a toll on my mood. Now, we are happily settling into our brand-new office with a bright white and grey color scheme. There are also plenty of windows and sunlight bouncing around our glass walls. I feel great at work again, which makes it all the more apparent how much the color scheme and lighting of an office can affect my mood and productivity.
As Americans, we spend over 2,000 hours per year at work. For many of us work is essentially a second home and we sometimes see coworkers more than our own family. If our environments play such a large role in how happy and productive we are, wouldn’t you want to provide an environment that best fosters these traits? Here is an article with some ideas on how to create the right environment to boost productivity with your employees: https://teresadeberry.com/the-physical-work-environment-impacts-the-employee-experience/
- Published in Blog
The RISQ RECAP – March 7th – March 11th, 2022
March 7th – March 11th, 2022
Each week, you’ll find specially curated news articles to keep you up to date on the ever-evolving world of insurance and risk management. The articles are divided out between items relevant to Property & Casualty, Employee Benefits/Human Resources, and Compliance. We’ve included brief summaries of each item as well as a link to the original articles.
PROPERTY & CASUALTY
China Instructs State Insurers to Review Exposure to Russia, Ukraine
“China has told top state insurers to perform urgent checks on their exposure to Russia and Ukraine, as concerns swirl about the damage to the two economies amid intense fighting, according to two sources and documents seen by Reuters.” Full Article
– Insurance Journal
EMPLOYEE BENEFITS, HUMAN RESOURCES, & COMPLIANCE
Time Is Money: A Quick Wage-Hour Tip on… Salaried Nonexempt Status “When it comes to paying office workers who do not qualify for an overtime exemption, businesses often look for ways to treat those workers as much like exempt personnel as possible, including by paying wages in the form of a salary rather than hourly pay. Salaried nonexempt status ordinarily starts with good motives, but it frequently ends with claims for unpaid overtime.” Full Article – Epstein Becker Green
To Test or Not to Test: Considerations for Employers Pondering the Future of Their Cannabis Testing Practices “The latest Gallup poll shows that 68% of Americans support cannabis legalization. Further, the rate of positive cannabis test results has jumped in the last decade. And according to recent news reports, some large employers have stopped testing job applicants for cannabis. As a result, other employers may be pondering whether to change their approach to an increasingly popular drug that is legal for medicinal or recreational use in most states. However, the decision may not be so easy.” Full Article – Seyfarth Shaw LLP
Senate Introduces Bill Requiring Corporate Audits to Uncover Forced Labor Practices in Supply Chains “On February 3, 2022, Senators Joshua Hawley (R) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D) introduced a bill aimed at preventing the use of forced labor in corporate supply chains by requiring certain publicly traded companies to perform detailed, annual audits and disclose the results to the federal government. The Slave-Free Business Certification Act of 2022 would require certain covered entities to annually audit their operations for evidence of forced labor, including suppliers, secondary suppliers, and on-site servicers. The Act defines a “covered business entity” broadly: any issuer, as defined in the Securities Act of 1933, involved in mining, production, or manufacture of goods for sale, that has annual revenue exceeding $500 million.” Full Article – Jones Day
The Duty to Preserve Documents and Data When on Notice of Litigation or Threatened Litigation “When an employer receives notice of a lawsuit or a threat of a lawsuit, the employer has a duty to preserve records, including personnel, employment and any other records that may relate to the matter. Courts will assess sanctions against an employer when it determines that the employer failed to preserve information that was in the employer’s control, the employer failed to take reasonable steps to preserve the information, and the loss of the information impacts the litigation. As a result, it is critical that a litigation hold notice be issued upon notice of a lawsuit or a threat of a lawsuit.” Full Article – White & Williams
EEOC Ramps Up Enforcement Lawsuits “Protection against unlawful treatment in the workplace is a goal shared by employers and employees alike. Employers that may have relaxed their compliance with federal employment and discrimination laws during the pandemic take note: the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has been ramping up its enforcement activities; meaning employers should refocus on their internal review, implementation, and compliance with anti-discrimination, harassment, retaliation laws under the EEOC’s enforcement arm to avoid EEOC changes, investigations, and lawsuits.” Full Article – Dickinson Wright
The H-1B Cap Lottery for FY 2023 is Less Than One-Month Away. Are you ready? “U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“CIS”) is once again requiring employers that want to sponsor a worker for an H-1B visa—which is awarded to employees who possess highly specialized knowledge and a bachelor’s or higher degree in a specific specialty—to register for a chance to be one of 85,000 applicants permitted to submit their H-1B petitions for processing. Registration for the H-1B cap lottery for the 2023 fiscal year starts at noon on Tuesday, March 1, and closes at noon on Friday, March 18. CIS intends to notify lottery winners by March 31.” Full Article – Benesch, Friedlander, Coplan & Aronoff
STATE & INTERNATIONAL COMPLIANCE
In addition to the RISQ Review, RISQ Consulting also provides a resource that features changes and updates to State and International Compliance measures. We’ve included brief summaries of each item below, and also provided links to the original articles if you’d like to read further.
New York
New York Employers: Continue Implementing Your Airborne Infectious Disease Exposure Prevention Plans and Review Your Masking Policies
“New York employers must continue to implement airborne infectious disease exposure prevention plans, pursuant to the New York Health and Essential Rights (NY HERO) Act, through at least March 17, 2022. The law, however, no longer requires many New York employers to mandate their employees wear masks in the workplace.” Full Article
– Greenberg Traurig
California
California Supreme Court Clarifies Burden of Proof in Whistleblower Retaliation Claims
“The California Supreme Court has clarified that state whistleblower retaliation claims should not be evaluated under the McDonnell Douglas test, but rather under the test adopted by the California legislature in 2003, thus clarifying decades of confusion among the courts.” Full Article
– Hunton Andrews Kurth
Illinois
Illinois Supreme Court Eliminates Defense to Biometric Privacy Class Actions
“Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) has spawned a tsunami of class actions against employers who utilize biometric timekeeping or security systems. Now, the Illinois Supreme Court in McDonald v. Symphony Bronzeville Park, LLC has eliminated a defense invoked by employers facing claims under BIPA: the exclusivity of workers’ compensation.” Full Article
– McDermott Will & Emery
D.C.
D.C.’s Non-Compete Law Poised To Be Delayed Until October 1, 2022
“The District of Columbia’s ban on non-compete agreements is delayed again. As we previously reported, the DC Government enacted The Ban on Non-Compete Agreements Amendment Act in January 2021, which creates one of the most comprehensive non-compete bans in the country.” Full Article
– Proskauer Rose
Virginia
Virginia Begins Process to Revoke Permanent COVID-19 Workplace Safety Standard
“The Virginia Department of Labor and Industry’s (DOLI’s) Safety and Health Codes Board convened and voted to recommend revoking the Commonwealth’s COVID-19 permanent workplace safety standard. This action comes after newly-elected Governor Glenn Youngkin issued Executive Order 6 directing the Board to convene an emergency meeting to consider whether there is a continued need for the permanent workplace safety standard.” Full Article
– Reed Smith
- Published in Blog
RISQ Company Book Club “The Signals Are Talking: Why Today’s Fringe is Tomorrow’s Mainstream”
By Ashley Snodgrass, Employee Benefits Analyst
The RISQ Consulting Team has been proud to sponsor a company book club for the last few years. Our book club has led to many insightful discussions about client experience, productivity, effective meeting structure, team dynamics, leadership and more. Some of these ideas have even led to tangible and beneficial changes in our organization.
Most recently, our team read The Signals Are Talking: Why Today’s Fringe is Tomorrow’s Mainstream by Amy Webb. Amy Webb is a noted Futurist and founder of the Future Today Institute. Webb works to help companies and individuals understand how to interpret signals as information that can be used in planning for the future. According to the Future Today Institute (FTI) website, FTI works with companies to prepare leaders for “deep uncertainty and complex futures”. Amy Webb wrote The Signals Are Talking: Why Today’s Fringe is Tomorrow’s Mainstream to bring futurist thinking to a wider audience.
In this book, Webb illustrates a multi-step process in which the reader can test patterns in societal behavior to determine which are more likely to turn into trends or stick long-term, as well as offer insight on how to think like a futurist. Webb also includes helpful graphics and supplemental resources to allow the reader to implement this process in their own organization.
The purpose of reading this book as a team was to encourage discussions about innovation. After reading, members of the book club met and discussed how varying technologies will impact our industry. We also discussed how we can leverage the NEW to benefit our clients and their employees. This resulted in RISQ creating a more robust and tech-forward employee communications package, which has become a high value service to our clients.
You may not be able to adopt all of the great ideas stored between the pages of a book club book, but when you share the experience of reading you are guaranteed to have at least one great outcome; it builds better comradery. And building better comradery is one positive trend that I know will stick around long-term.
As a reminder, if you want to start a book club in your own organization, I recommend checking out this post – for more tips to a successful start. Happy Reading!
- Published in Blog
10 Themes from HR Tech’s Virtual Spring Conference
By Andrew Kupperman, Employer Services and Workforce Technology Consultant
These days everyone seems to have an overabundance of time on their hands, so I’m sure you spent that free time attending HR Executive Magazine’s HR Tech Virtual conference last week. But just in case you found something more interesting to do (which is unlikely), I wanted to share the 10 themes that were presented as organizational imperatives. These are the 10 areas that an organization should dedicate some love and attention to in order to keep doing what they do best for the foreseeable future.
If you haven’t heard of the HR Technology conferences before, they bring together organizational and business thought leaders from all corners of the earth, who talk about the struggles businesses are faced with now, and in the future, and what’s happening within workforce technology to help solve these problems. Check out the link below to the article, 10 Themes From HR Tech Virtual to Help You Prepare for the Coming Decade.
- Published in Blog
The RISQ RECAP – February 28th – March 4th, 2022
February 28th – March 4th, 2022
Each week, you’ll find specially curated news articles to keep you up to date on the ever-evolving world of insurance and risk management. The articles are divided out between items relevant to Property & Casualty, Employee Benefits/Human Resources, and Compliance. We’ve included brief summaries of each item as well as a link to the original articles.
PROPERTY & CASUALTY
Having a female doctor improves women’s chances for workers’ comp: study
“Women injured on the job have a better chance of qualifying for workers’ compensation disability payments and receiving higher payouts when a female doctor evaluates their claim, according to a recent study.” Full Article
– Safety+Health
EMPLOYEE BENEFITS, HUMAN RESOURCES, & COMPLIANCE
Fifth Circuit Reverses Denial of Preliminary Injunction in Vaccine Mandate Case “A split panel in the Fifth Circuit is the first appellate court to signal certain private employer mandates could be vulnerable. The opinion reverses the district court’s denial of a preliminary injunction against the airline’s mandatory vaccine program.” Full Article – Littler
COVID-19 Testing Provider Sues Plans and TPAs for Violating Group Health Plan Coverage Mandate “In a footnote to its opinion, the court acknowledged the plan’s assertion that the price of the testing was too high and noted that its ruling did not foreclose a counterclaim challenging the propriety of the pricing.” Full Article – Thomson Reuters / EBIA
March 1 Deadlines for Group Health Plans “An employer with a group health plan that provides prescription drug coverage to Medicare-eligible individuals must make an annual disclosure to CMS within 60 days after the beginning of the plan year — no later than March 1, 2022 for calendar-year plans. The plan must report small HIPAA breaches occurring in 2021 no later than March 1, 2022. A ‘small’ breach is one affecting 500 or fewer individuals.” Full Article – Venable LLP
The Clock Is Ticking: HIPAA Small Breach Notifications Due March 1st “Covered entities must report small breaches to OCR no later than 60 days after the end of the calendar year in which the small breaches were discovered. Steps to take for notifications [1] Designating a person within the covered entity [2] Preparing the contents of the notification in advance [3] Printing out and retaining a ‘receipt’ of the filing of the notification [4] Verifying that the covered entity has appropriate documentation in place.” Full Article – Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
Tolling of Important Health and Welfare and Retirement Plan Deadlines Extended Again Due to COVID-19 “On February 18, 2022, President Biden again formally extended the COVID-19 National Emergency. Certain deadlines continue to be tolled for one year (or, if earlier, 60 days from the end of the National Emergency). For Participants: [1] COBRA qualifying event and disability extension notices [2] COBRA election [3] COBRA premium payments [4] HIPAA special enrollment period [5] Benefit claims and appeals [6] External review [7] Perfecting a request for external review. For Plan Administrators: COBRA Election Notice.” Full Article – Groom Law Group
Recent Guidance on Implementing the No Surprises Act “The No Surprises Act was enacted in December 2020 and went into effect on January 1, 2022. With just a year between enactment and the law’s effective date, the Biden administration moved swiftly to implement the law by issuing several interim final rules, one proposed rule, and guidance. But federal officials have not stopped there and have continued to issue new guidance, answer questions, and establish new processes. This article summarizes recent federal guidance on the No Surprises Act.” Full Article – Health Affairs
STATE & INTERNATIONAL COMPLIANCE
In addition to the RISQ Review, RISQ Consulting also provides a resource that features changes and updates to State and International Compliance measures. We’ve included brief summaries of each item below, and also provided links to the original articles if you’d like to read further.
New York
New York State Employers Freed From Mask Mandate
“On February 10, 2022, New York State Governor Kathy Hochul lifted the statewide indoor mask-or-vaccine mandate that had been in effect since December 13, 2021. This mandate required that all persons entering a business’s premises wear a mask, unless all persons were vaccinated against COVID-19.” Full Article
– Phillips Lytle
California
California Reactivates COVID-19 Supplemental Paid Sick Leave
“The new legislation appears to be similar to the 2021 CSPSL, but also contains major differences regarding the characterization of the amount of hours allotted, regular rate calculations, and wage statement obligations.” Full Article
– Ford & Harrison
Illinois
First Deadline Approaching for New Illinois Equal Pay Act Requirements
“On January 25, 2022, the Illinois Department of Labor (“IDOL”) issued notices to 625 Illinois businesses to inform them that they have until May 25, 2022 to submit their Equal Pay Registration Certificate (“Certificate”) application as required under the amendments to the Illinois Equal Pay Act (“IEPA”).” Full Article
– Proskauer
Pennsylvania
Court Approves $4.2 Million Settlement in Suit for Unpaid Overtime
“A Pennsylvania federal judge approved a $4.2 million settlement between Pittsburgh-based grocery chain Giant Eagle and employees who were “team leaders” at its grocery stores and GetGo convenience stores in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Team leaders made allegations of misclassification and unpaid overtime in violation of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act and state wage laws.” Full Article
– Hall Benefits Law
Virginia
Virginia’s Republican Lawmakers Seek to Reverse State’s Overtime Wage Act
“During the November 2021 elections, Republicans regained a 52-48 majority in the Virginia House of Delegates and a Republican Governor, Glenn Youngkin, was elected. Now, although the Senate remains under control of the Democrats by a three-member margin, Republican law makers in both houses are seeking to undo the Virginia Overtime Wage Act.” Full Article
– Jackson Lewis
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