Pembleton HR Consulting

02/10/2023

Is your employee manual up-to-date? Is it also a good recruiting tool to help you attract the best talent? Check out this article about the importance of a good employee manual, even for small businesses.

https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/going-by-the-handbook-can-be-employer-s-6561881/?origin=CEG&utm_source=CEG&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CustomEmailDigest&utm_term=jds-article&utm_content=article-link

Give me a call if you want a free assessment of your current manual or want assistance in developing a new one.

Businesses are always searching for new ways to reduce liability and insulate themselves from risk, but one of the easiest and least expensive tools...

12/18/2021

On Friday 12/16/2021, The Sixth District Federal Court of Appeals rejected the Fifth District Federal Court of Appeals' "pause" on OSHA's Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) paving the way for OSHA to require all employees of companies of 100 or more employees to either be vaccinated or to submit to weekly Covid Testing.

Later in the day on Friday, business groups have filed an appeal to the Supreme Court.

OSHA stated on 12/18/21 that it will not begin issuing citations until January 10.

For further information, and some background, check out my blog at

Updated Post 12/17/2021 On Friday 12/17/2021, The Sixth District Federal Court of Appeals rejected the Fifth District Federal Court of…

05/25/2021

If you read my post on 5/11 regarding OSHA and vaccine reactions, please check out my updated blog post. OSHA has recently changed their position on this topic. My blog post has the complete text of the new OSHA FAQ (https://pembletonhrconsulting.com/requiring-vaccinations-to-return-to-work-faqs/) or you can access the FAQ directly at https://www.osha.gov/coronavirus/faqs .

Frequently Asked Questions Given the evolving nature of the pandemic, OSHA is in the process of reviewing and updating this document. These materials may no longer represent current OSHA recommendations and guidance. For the most up-to-date information, consult Protecting Workers Guidance. This page...

05/11/2021

Are you thinking of requiring your employees to have vaccinations before returning to work?

A number of my clients have asked about best practices and what is legal or illegal. On my blog at https://pembletonhrconsulting.com/requiring-vaccinations-to-return-to-work-faqs/ where I have posted answers to some of the more common questions that I get asked. If you have additional questions that you would like to see answered, please email me at [email protected] and I will respond and post the question and answer there.

Are you thinking of requiring your employees to have vaccinations before returning to work? A number of my clients have…

04/30/2021

Are your ready for an OSHA Covid-19 Inspection?

Under OSHAs National Emphasis Program (NEP) they will be conducting targeted inspections of facilities to ensure that workers are being properly protected from Covid-19 infection.
For further information, please see my blog at

Under OSHAs National Emphasis Program (NEP) they will be conducting targeted inspections of facilities to ensure that workers are being properly protected from Covid-19 infection.

04/20/2021

The Department of Labor has been considering new policies regarding tipped employees for some time now. Under the new administration, recently they put a pause on enacting these rules. In their latest policy, they are putting a pause on parts of the law while allowing other parts to go into force.

For further information, see my blog at https://pembletonhrconsulting.com/tip-pooling/

03/22/2021

As you are probably aware, the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA) went into effect on March 11, 2021. There are three key provisions that may affect local employers. They are:

• FFCRA Tax Credit extensions for E-PSL and E_FMLA
• Cobra Subsidy
• Extended Federal Unemployment Benefits

For additional information on this Act, please see my blog at

As you are probably aware, the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA) went into effect on March 11, 2021.…

03/16/2021

Update: The Department of Labor has proposed withdrawing the Independent Contractor Final Rule (including the economic realities test) described in an earlier post and on my blog. The Department of Labor (DOL) wants to ensure that the Rule is consistent with Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Public comment is open until April 12. DOL could revise the Rule or withdraw it completely. I will continue to watch to see what happens and let you know if anything changes. For more information, feel free to contact me or check out my blog at

The new administration has brought many changes in the labor market. Without getting political, Donald Trump was adamantly pro-Management and…

03/07/2021

Are your employees' Meal Breaks really Breaks? (3/7/2021)

Do your employees take UNPAID meal breaks? If so, you might want to be careful of asking them to do any work-related activities on their break. The US Dept of Labor (DOL) is checking up on this. Under their category of “Theft of Wages” they want to ensure that employees are not working for employers off the clock.

For further information about Rest and Meal Breaks, see my blog at https://pembletonhrconsulting.com/are-your-employees-meal-breaks-really-breaks/ or the DOL website at https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/fact-sheets/22-flsa-hours-worked

The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

03/01/2021

Employee or Contractor? (3/01/2021)

The new administration has brought many changes in the labor market. Without getting political, Donald Trump was adamantly pro-Management and Biden has been quoted as saying that his administration will be the most pro-Labor administration in the history of the country. A change is afoot! I will try to keep you up to date on some of the changes as they occur

The first topic is the definition of whether an individual is an employee or a contractor. There are a couple of reasons why this is important to business owners. Most notably is the requirement to deduct payroll taxes from employees. The IRS wants their taxes, so they will lean toward classifying individuals as employees.

For more detail and to keep up with this and other current HR issues facing small businesses, check out my blog at

The new administration has brought many changes in the labor market. Without getting political, Donald Trump was adamantly pro-Management and…

02/26/2021

Do you know of anyone who is an experienced Auto Body Repair Technician? Mannes Body Shop, a timeless, forward-moving, independent, collision center in Holland MI has immediate opening for a high-level skilled Body Repair Technician that is motivated to help others; and stay challenged to exercise best OEM repair practices. Work is fast-paced in a team-oriented environment that uses state-of-the-art equipment in a modern/organized facility. Continue to learn and grow your ability to safely and beautifully repair modern vehicles as technology advances. Detail and aptitude are necessary to follow standard operating procedures; along with a respectful attitude, and good character.

Additional information on the position can be found on my website at https://pembletonhrconsulting.com/technician/

If you know of someone who is interested, have then contact me at Technician@PembletonHRConsulting.

05/10/2020

Thoughts about opening up our economy and our businesses.

Sorry for the length of this post, but it is not a simple topic.

The world has changed a lot in the last 4 months. The biggest change is that people are doing different things now. 5 months ago I am not sure I would have know what you were talking about if you mentioned “Social Distancing”. Now it is part of our normal vocabulary.

People have changed in two very different ways. Understanding these differences is critical to businesses getting ready to reopen. There are many things that we are doing out of caution. We now social distancing, we wear masks, we don’t shake hands or hug outside of our immediate family. Eventually, when ever that is, we will again become comfortable doing those things again. These behaviors will “return to normal”.

People have also been encouraged or forced into trying new things. Restaurant carryout, telemedicine, virtual home sales and of course working from home are things that come to mind. Many of us, may not have used some of these services before, or not as much as we are now. Many of us have decided that these new behaviors are not so bad after all. These things will never go back to “normal” because we prefer them.

As businesses open up, they need to realize that it is not as simple as just turning on the sign and doing what we used to do. I hear companies on the news claiming that they will have to go out of business. My recommendation to them is to closely explore what their customers and employees will need in the future. If they don’t adapt to the new world they may struggle, but if they adapt they have a better chance of being even more successful than prior to the pandemic.

The first step is to revisit their Vision. How have their customers’ and employees’ expectations changed? How do they need to adapt to the new world? Can they still be effective with 80% of their employees working from home? Can they deliver their product in a ‘touchless’ manner.
Once they understand how their world has changed, how do they need to change to best adapt? I worked for a consulting firm where most of their employees were either at the client site or at home. They were able to significantly reduce office space costs by “hoteling”. Will more businesses be doing that? How will that effect the managers of commercial office space? Will restaurants need to improve their on-line ordering systems? What changes will you need to make in your business?

Once the Vision is clear, they will need to decide the new strategies they will need to implement to achieve the vision.
Next comes an assessment of your employee base. Do you have the correct set of skills and competencies to meet your new challenges? For some industries this may be a small adaptation, but others may require bigger changes. Can you retrain your current workforce?

Each small business owner, including myself with an employee base of 1, must carefully reflect on how they will reopen and go forward.

Do you have a different point of view? I would love to hear your thoughts.