HRIS & Payroll Excellence - March 2023

On the Cover

10 ChatGPT Accelerates The Path To B- But Not A+ In HR Tech Solutions

ChatGPT - A tool for accelerating innovation, but not a panacea

- Purbita Banerjee, Vice President of Product Management, Korn Ferry Digital

14 Earned Wage Access: The Missing Link In Workplace Wellness Programs

The real key to workplace wellness is giving employees instant access to wages

- Tal Clark, Chief Executive Officer, Instant Financial

27 SB 1162: CA Pay Data Reporting for

Workers

What you need to know now as the May 2023 reporting deadline fast approaches

- Lynne Anne Anderson Partner and Sylvia Bokyung St. Clair, Associate, Faegre Drinker

The Real Cost Of Payroll Errors And How To Avoid Them

Learn how to mitigate payroll errors and avoid costly consequences with HR technology

- Excellence ePublications Team

8 Important Factors To Consider When Choosing HR Technologies In 2023 Factors to consider for your tech stack - Brett Farmiloe, Founder and CEO,

Terkel.io

What

Will ChatGPT Mean For Human Capability?

Exploring the potential and limitations of AI in HR - Dave Ulrich, Rensis Likert Professor, Ross School of Business

4 Ways To Reframe Equity Compensation For Women

Equity compensation allows women to share more directly in the growth and success of organizations

- Kate Winget, Chief Revenue Officer, US Public Equity Solutions, Morgan Stanley at Work

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The Hidden Costs of Payroll Errors: How to Mitigate Risks and Improve Efficiency

Payroll is the backbone of every organization. It is the lifeblood of every employee, and it is a crucial component in maintaining the financial health of any company. However, despite its importance, payroll is often taken for granted until something goes wrong.

A recent report by Ernst & Young (EY) found that 1 in 5 payrolls contain errors, costing businesses an average of $291 per mistake. These errors not only result in financial losses but also steal valuable time from HR and payroll professionals. In fact, common errors alone can take up to 29 weeks, or over half a year, to correct.

The consequences of payroll errors go beyond financial losses and wasted time. Non-compliance with payroll regulations can result in fines up to $100,000 per year and can even lead to turnover.

To ensure accuracy in payroll, companies need to adopt proper pre-payment practices. ADP’s Rachele Collins recommends checkpoints to foster accuracy and ensure a strong process, in her article, Proper Pre-Payment Practices: Validating Your Payroll. Also read Read, The Real Cost Of Payroll Errors And How To Avoid Them to learn how HR professionals can also leverage HR tech to mitigate

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payroll errors and invest more time in higher-reaching goals and initiatives.

Choosing the right HR technologies is crucial in ensuring accurate and efficient payroll processing. In his article, Brett Farmiloe outlines the 8 Important Factors To Consider When Choosing HR Technologies In 2023. Moreover, Tal Clark highlights the importance of Earned Wage Access (as) The Missing Link In Workplace Wellness Programs

In conclusion, payroll accuracy is not something to be taken lightly. It is a critical aspect of any organization, and every effort must be made to ensure its accuracy. By adopting best practices and leveraging HR technologies, companies can prevent payroll errors and invest more time and resources in achieving their organizational goals.

We hope, this edition of HRIS & Payroll Excellence will help you achieve excellence in your core HR and payroll processes.

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Rensis Likert Professor, Ross School of Business, University of Michigan Partner, The RBL Group

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I regularly read and contribute to Leadership Excellence and Talent Management Excellence. I use many of the articles I read to augment my own presentations and I often share the articles with my clients. They are always quick, right on target for the latest issues in my field, and appreciated by my clients. If you want to stay up to date on the latest HR trends, choose a few of the different issues from the Excellence series of publications.

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Proper Pre-Payment Practices: Validating Your Payroll

Three factors to ensure accurate payroll

By Rachele Collins, ADP

Introduction

Payroll is one of the most important functions in an organization, yet it can be taken for granted … until something goes wrong. For example:

● An employee is paid too much, and has to refund the overage

● An employee is paid too little, or not on time, which causes him/her to be late on bills or to have to borrow to make ends meet

● An employee is paid incorrectly, resulting in a hassle to fix it for both the employer and employee during the next pay cycle

● Taxes are not paid on-time or properly, resulting in potential compliance issues or penalties

In one extreme instance, a government employer in Australia was recently profiled in the news for overpaying its employees by $3.6 million, with a large portion of that still outstanding, as a result of poor systems and controls. While this example may seem excessive, it reiterates the importance of robust mechanisms for ensuring accurate, compliant pay.

A strong process for ensuring accurate payroll should include three layers:

1. Internal controls (part of the larger framework of finance internal controls in the organization,

such as setting up appropriate checks and balances)

2. Payroll validation checks (ensuring payroll is accurate before scheduling and paying employees)

3. Payroll audits (routine checks of the payroll process itself, may be part of the larger internal audit process)

Of course, accurate and compliant pay is first and foremost enabled by robust automation and reporting.

Validation Checkpoints for Payroll

Payroll practitioners should consider the following checkpoints to foster accuracy in payroll prior to paying employees.

“Eyeballing”/Reasonableness

Seasoned payroll practitioners are naturally going to have knowledge about what payroll totals “should” look like, approximately, for their organization. Important points to check prior to issuing payroll are items such as how is payroll trending this pay period compared to the last period and the total employee headcount and hours (regular and overtime) that are being paid, and whether or not these numbers make sense.

Payroll practitioners should check (and the vendor system may automatically flag) any unexpectedly large payments or deductions, and similarly any really small or no payments for an employee, which could be the result of a keying or transmittal error. If the numbers are off beyond a certain threshold, then they should be looked into and corrected prior to issuing payroll. Practitioners will also want to be sure any manual and/or off-cycle checks are included in the payroll run and are correct.

In addition, double check common sensical items such as whether or not you are paying for the correct pay period, whether you have any active employees without hours, and whether you have inactive employees with pay, for example.

Changes in employee status

Practitioners should also review any changes in employee status for payroll implications, such as:

● new employees

● terminated and separated employees

● employees going on leave

For example, a change of address for an employee moving across state lines between home and work as a result of the new, hybrid workplace at many organizations could have potential tax ramifications that need to be factored into payroll.

Changes in employee elections or deductions

Payroll practitioners should also review changes in employee elections and deductions, such as:

● retirement

● health savings accounts

● taxes

● mandated garnishments

● benefits elections

Employee changes in any of these areas all affect payroll in terms of deductions or additions to employees’ paychecks and should be ascertained prior to running payroll to be sure that they are incorporated. Companies should likewise consider checking for employees whose pay is insufficient to cover deductions prior to issuing payroll.

Matching between systems

In general, leading practice is for systems to integrate as seamlessly as possible, with minimal manual intervention. Ideally, the data should flow through automatically for “one version of the truth.” If that is not the case at the organization, and data is being manually rekeyed or imported from system to system, then key totals (such as regular and overtime hours, regular and overtime earnings, gross payroll for the period, taxes, and deduction amounts) between systems should be checked and reconciled.

Conclusion

The good news is that today payroll tech platforms have built-in reporting as part of the payroll solution and that helps to validate payroll accuracy prior to paying employees. For example, in addition to pay summary, detail, and transmission reports, useful reports might include reports of new hires, employee changes, employee deductions, and outliers like active employees with no pay.

Strong payroll validation practices are an important part of a robust system that also includes controls

Rachele Collins is Senior Principal

at

has been conducting benchmarking and best practices research and working to help clients improve their processes and practices in various capacities for more than two decades. Her areas of expertise include process improvement, measurement, benchmarking, finance and human capital best practices, and organization development.

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and payroll audits in order to facilitate accuracy and compliance.

This story was originally published on SPARK, a blog designed for you and your people by ADP®.

Client Experience Analyst,

ADP’s Strategic Advisory Services. Rachele

ChatGPT Accelerates The Path To B- But Not A+ In HR Tech Solutions

ChatGPT - A tool for accelerating innovation, but not a panacea

By Purbita Banerjee, Korn Ferry Digital

Immediatelyafter its introduction last Nov. 30, ChatGPT became the fastest-growing app in history, with 13 million daily users and 100 million total users within two months.

In early March, OpenAI launched ChatGPT API at low cost, putting ChatGPT in the hands of the world’s developers and unleashing a ferocious wave of innovation.

What does ChatGPT mean for those of us creating HR tech solutions?  On one hand, ChatGPT is revolutionary: it compels the entire HR tech industry to reengineer every product in our field. Within the space of a few months, our entire world has changed.

On the other hand, ChatGPT is merely evolutionary: it accelerates our path to a stolid B. That was the grade ChatGPT earned when various academic and professional organizations tested it on such things as law school exams, MBA tests, and school essay contests

ChatGPT’s grades went up a bit when GPT-4 was released on March 14. The media played the results

as job-destroying – “ChatGPT Just Passed the Bar Exam!” – but for HR tech vendors, even a B isn’t good enough. Our customers demand and deserve A+ solutions.

There are so many warning flags flying around ChatGPT that extreme caution is the smartest strategy (I note some of those warning flags later in this article)

ChatGPT is a Shiny New Hammer. Let’s Go Find Some Nails!

ChatGPT is neither the one source of truth and the answer to all problems, nor so terrible and creepy that we shouldn’t use it. It’s a wonderful new tool, but it doesn’t change the problems we solve. It simply accelerates the quest we’re already on to solve HR problems, making our work faster, easier, and more effective.

This moment reminds me of a similar feeling when AI first became available to data scientists. There was the euphoric belief that AI in the hands of data scientists would almost magically solve all the HR challenges our customers faced.

Experience soon taught us that AI/data science is a great new addition to our toolkit, not a panacea. To yield optimum benefits it needs to be used in conjunction with other valuable tools. And above all, the results require a validation cycle centered on human enhancement and curation.

Same with ChatGPT. As I tell my hair-on-fire team members: use it, but validate it constantly.

Example: ChatGPT Gets Us to B-Minus Faster in Success Profiles

Many HR tech solutions help organizational designers by creating Success Profiles to define the technical and soft skills, behaviors, and attributes required for success in a particular role. Success Profiles are detailed descriptions of competencies a candidate or employee must possess to excel in their job and contribute to organizational success.

Until now, creating quality Success Profiles took a long time. Subject matter experts spent weeks doing job analysis, competency modeling, and extensive interviewing. The introduction of pre-ChatGPT AI allowed us to increase the granularity, harvesting specific skills, job descriptions, and responsibility statements to sharpen the focus of Success Profiles.

With ChatGPT, we can ask, “What’s a good Success Profile representation of this job?” The chatbot replies: “Here are the responsibilities, here are the skills

needed.” The result is a B- Success Profile in a jiffy. But our customers demand A+ solutions.

We take ChatGPT’s B- solution and train it on our proprietary IP framework to look for certain additional data, then apply individual and crowdsourced human expertise, reinvention, curation, and validation. The result is an A+ Success Profile that can be trusted in organizational design and career navigation.

ChatGPT cuts the time it takes to go from zero to B-, but it can’t take HR tech solutions to A+ by itself.

About those warning flags noted above:

● Even before the arrival of ChatGPT, AI posed bias risks in HR. For example, a January 2022 class action lawsuit in Illinois against an online video interview platform used in Talent Assessment and Recruiting seeks damages for job applicants because the platform allegedly violated government regulation by collecting applicants’ “biometric information” in recorded video interviews without obtaining consent. The company used AI to assess “cognitive ability, personality traits, emotional intelligence, and social aptitude” to provide an “employability score.”

● Fearful of exposing sensitive personal, financial, or competitive data; violating government regulations; or incorporating misinformation and bias, several of the world’s largest financial

institutions, many technology and telecommunications firms, Amazon, and Wal-Mart, among other organizations, have already banned the widespread use of ChatGPT.

● Generative AI chatbots like ChatGPT have a tendency to simply make things up to satisfy human requests.

● In what could be the first of many similar moves, Apple blocked the distribution of an app that uses ChatGPT to compose emails because it feared exposing users – especially children – to inappropriate content generated from ChatGPT’s training databases.

● From personal experience, I can say ChatGPT has a swollen head. I asked it to comment on ChatGPT becoming the most viral app in history, and here, in part, is what it said:

“[ChatGPT is] a whirlwind that swept across the digital landscape like a wildfire fueled by the wind. Like a seed that sprouts in fertile soil, ChatGPT’s innovative algorithms took root in the minds of users, germinating into a powerful force that spread with astonishing speed. Its virtual tendrils reached out, connecting people from every corner of the globe in a web of conversation, information, and inspiration. As ChatGPT’s popularity grew, it became a raging river, a torrent of communication that surged through the digital realm, carrying with it the hopes, dreams, and aspirations of millions. Its currents flowed strong and swift, carving out new channels of connectivity and forging a path toward a brighter, more interconnected future. ChatGPT ignited the passions of people everywhere, inspiring them to reach out, connect, and explore the vast expanse of the digital landscape.”

I tell my team: “Take advantage of innovation, but keep your eye on the risks”

The arrival of ChatGPT feels to many like the dawn of a new age, the opening of an exciting new frontier. Using ChatGPT for the first time was like signing onto the World Wide Web for the first time, multiple people have written. I understand that feeling, but in HR technology it’s important we proceed thoughtfully and cautiously.

ChatGPT and every AI iteration that succeeds it won’t change the big problems we’re trying to solve for our customers and clients. Arriving at the B- starting gate just got faster, but that only raises customer expectations for what A+ solutions will do for them.

Since the excitement began in late 2022, I’ve encouraged my team to explore ways to take full advantage of the innovative leaps ChatGPT may enable, but also keep a sharp eye on the risks.

We are in the HR business, which means we are in the people business. Our fundamental purpose is to help people, not harm them.

Purbita Banerjee is the Vice President of Product Management of Korn Ferry’s Digital Platform and Learning Solutions. She manages Korn Ferry’s learning portfolio including sales, customer service, project management, digital leadership and front-line leadership training. She has successfully launched innovative solutions in the Talent management space, solving critical challenges faced by Fortune 1000 companies. Purbita Banerjee is the Vice President of Product Management of Korn Ferry’s Digital Platform and Learning Solutions. She manages Korn Ferry’s learning portfolio including sales, customer service, project management, digital leadership and front-line leadership training.

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The Real Cost Of Payroll Errors And How To Avoid Them

Learn how to mitigate payroll errors and avoid costly consequences with HR technology

By Excellence ePublications Team

correctly.

Despite how crucial payroll accuracy is, Ernst & Young (EY) reports 1 in 5 payrolls contain errors. Each error costs a business $291 on average. One 1,000-employee business EY studied spent nearly $1 million fixing preventable mistakes each year.

Any one of these errors could require fixes like:

● wires

● voids

● reversals

● cutting a rushed paper check

These issues steal time from HR and payroll professionals. How much? Try 29 weeks (over half a year) for common errors alone.

That’s not to mention the cost of non-compliance. EY found fines can reach up to $100,000 in a year. Payroll compliance problems are not just expensive; they frequently lead to turnover. Over half the organizations with compliance issues cut employee headcount. And turnover triggers more costs associated with:

● hiring

● onboarding

● training

This situation not only frustrates employees but also can lead to a negative view of the organization.

Are you tired of payroll errors stealing far too much of your time?

In a new webcast, Steve Boese, President & Co-Founder, H3HR Advisors, Trinity Thomas, Workforce Marketing Partner, Paycom, and Ken Nagle, Senior

Manager, Quantitative Economics and Statistics, Ernst & Young discuss how HR can mitigate these errors, what are the consequences of payroll errors, the five most common issues and what they cost, and how HR tech helps HR professionals invest more time in higher-reaching goals and initiatives.

Click to view the webcast

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Employees don’t just work to get paid — they work to get paid

Earned Wage Access: The Missing Link In Workplace Wellness Programs

The real key to workplace wellness is giving employees instant access to wages

By Tal Clark, Instant Financial

Workplace wellness usually refers to health promotional activities or policies that support positive employee physical health and behavior. But today, we know that financial wellness has an effect on employees’ overall health – it’s time that earned wage access (EWA) be considered and included in wellness programs as more than just a financial benefit.

Businesses today are offering a wide span of wellness benefits to retain their employees and promote their financial health -- from discounted childcare and telehealth services to financial planning tools to even student loan repayment programs. To push employee wellness even further, it’s time to include earned wage access as a part of your workplace wellness strategy.

Earned Wage Access as Part of Your Workplace Wellness Strategy

Today, with more than 63% of Americans living paycheck to paycheck, the narrative around EWA sometimes paints a picture of payday lending in disguise, taking advantage of workers and furthering

the cycle of poverty. That simply is not the case when employers partner with a responsible provider. Out of employees who report worrying about finances at work, 43% say they spend around 3 hours a week being distracted by money stress while on the job. EWA can help ease those worries and increase focus at work, while simultaneously allowing employees to choose how and when they access their wages, enhancing workplace wellness and improving employee morale.

Having access to pay immediately after a shift has proven to improve employee engagement, with employees more likely to feel a sense of connection and loyalty to their employer. Additionally, 80% of employers said EWA improved employees’ mental health and that 88% of leaders who offered EWA saw less employee stress. And according to our studies, 62% of employees feel more valued and are more likely to stay longer at a job that offers on-demand pay. Earned wage access is not just about earning money, but also offering financial security and promoting positive mental health and overall wellbeing for your workforce.

Earned Wage Access as a Business Growth Solution

Did you know that in OECD countries, around $1 trillion is accumulated in employer payroll accounts on any day? If this money is made available to workers immediately at the end of their shift, it can make a huge difference in terms of financial wellbeing and how employers operate their business.

Offering earned wage access has benefits for employers as well, not just employees. In competitive job markets, EWA can help employers stand out and bolster recruitment efforts. Earned wage access has been proven to decrease turnover by an average 27%, which can save businesses valuable time and money by reducing administrative costs and burdens of constantly onboarding new employees. In fact, we recently created a retention savings calculator that calculates estimated turnover reduction and annual savings that organizations could reap when using Instant.

Similar programs such as offering tips on demand can reduce costs associated with carrying cash for tip payouts, and significantly decrease the amount of time that management spends on manual cash counting. By reducing employee stress and increasing productivity within the organization, you can further increase organizational efficiency. In fact, according to Harvard Business Review, improving an employee’s work experience can increase organizational revenue by 50%. Expanding the use of EWA can expand financial resilience and freedom for workers, ushering in a new era for the payday revolution.

Methods of Delivering On-Demand Pay: How to Choose

As recently as 2021, only 5% of US companies offered EWA. However, that number is expected to increase to 20% this year. Whether starting a vendor review or exploring the idea of on-demand pay as a benefit to your workforce, it’s crucial to understand the different types of EWA programs.

Here are the three most common models for delivering earned wage access:

1. Deduction Model

The Deduction Model of on-demand pay requires the employer to make payroll deductions in order to recover the earned wage advance. This use of payroll deduction is restricted in more than 14 states, thus exposing the employer to risk associated with state labor regulations. Because it changes the date that an employee has constructive receipt of wages, this model also creates tax withholding and reporting issues for the employer.

2. Wage Assignment or Intercept Model

The Wage Assignment Model of delivering on-demand pay requires participating employees to reroute the direct deposit of their wages to the earned wage access vendor, using the vendor’s pooled account, where wages are held. Because this process requires the employee to give control of all of their wages to the provider, it creates significant risk for workers. For this reason, wage assignment programs are prohibited or significantly restricted in multiple states, including Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and Virginia. This model may also require the provider to obtain a money transmitter license in each state in which it operates.

3. Responsible Model

The Responsible Model of delivering on-demand pay is the only solution that protects the employer from risk and does not require it to implement payroll deductions or other process changes. This model gives the employee full control over how and when they receive their pay. Workers can access on-demand when they choose and are never charged a fee for the service.

After choosing an on-demand pay provider, businesses must also take into consideration the implementation process and how rollout of the program actually happens.

The following steps must be addressed in order to ensure correct implementation and high adoption rates:

1. Analyze your payroll and HR technology stack to determine ease of integration

2. Review internal payroll operational processes & banking processes in order to validate NACHA information and test payment transactions

3. Hold detailed training and onboarding sessions with key departments and stakeholders to

review ongoing requirements, process changes and overall program benefits

Reviewing and selecting an earned wage access vendor can appear to be a daunting task, but it doesn’t have to be. On-demand pay is a proven positive net addition to employee benefit programs, and helps move the needle on turnover, retention and hiring, all while improving overall employee wellness. With the right evaluation process in place, choosing the right vendor can be a straightforward process that has significant business benefits.

Tal Clark is the Chief Executive Officer at Instant Financial, where he leads the organizational strategy behind the industry’s leading responsible earned wage access solution. Previous to working at Instant, Clark worked at Money Network as a member of the prepaid card team. In 2008, First Data bought Money Network; from there he continued his career at First Data in various leadership roles through 2018. One of those roles was General Manager of the Money Network business.

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8 Important Factors To Consider When Choosing HR Technologies In 2023

Factors to consider for your tech stack

By Brett Farmiloe, Terkel.io

From maintaining employee autonomy to discovering how new tech will integrate with your existing HR tech stack, here are eight answers to the question, “What are the most important factors to HR leaders when evaluating and choosing HR technologies to add to their tech stack?”

1. Focus on End Users’ Needs

2. Do Thorough Research

3. Easy Implementation

4. Technology Should Augment but Never Replace Humans

5. Understand Your Company’s Level of Productivity

6. Prioritize “Must-Haves” First

7. Self-Service Options for Employees

8. Cost Savings

Focus on the End Users’ Needs

It seems kind of obvious, but the most important factor should always be if the solution is what best serves end users’ needs. We should also critically evaluate other factors like integrations, administration burden, cost, etc. And some factors, like security, are non-negotiable. We should critically evaluate other factors, such as integrations, always making sure that the solution is what best serves end users’ needs.

Do Thorough Research

When evaluating which HR technologies, make sure you do your due diligence. The key thing I consider is how any new platform will integrate with my existing HR tech stack. See if the vendor already has a relationship with the provider of my existing HCM.

Do they have proven case studies from customers who already use that combination of software? See if adding this application to your HR tech stack will make your life easier— and not cause complications because it doesn’t integrate with the existing suite of applications. Find out if it will be easy to swap out if you no longer need it, or need to replace it.

Matthew Hamilton, VP of People Analytics and HRIS, Protective Life

Claire Williams, Chief People Officer, Ciphr

Easy Implementation

Before adding anything to your tech stack, ensure how adoptable it is first. Can your team pick it up easily? Make sure there will not be a lot of turbulence during those initial stages of use.

If certain technology offers a slight improvement but carries significant adoption barriers, you must decide on whether the short-term volatility is both warranted and manageable. After all, even a different user interface can lead to a loss of productivity if workers can’t quickly find what they’re looking for. Left unchecked, this can bring entire departments to a grinding halt.

Before adding new technology to your stack, ensure that training resources are both fully comprehensive and easy for your team to understand. This helps to streamline adoption and ensures that HR teams become more efficient—not less—through the use of modern innovations and technology.

Technology Should Augment but Never Replace Humans

The trend in HR tech has been to automate everything and anything. Companies that adopt emerging technologies without reservations see efficiency improvements, but the impact on other areas is often concerning.

Take recruitment as an example. Companies can theoretically automate finding, evaluating, and hiring new employees. Actually, many companies offer such services already. However, human relationships are what companies and teams are built on. For many, entering a new company is like joining a family. That’s why having a human talk with candidates has intrinsic value. You wouldn’t send a robot in your stead to welcome your newborn into the world—you should be there yourself because you want to be.

I agree with HR practitioners that de-humanization is the most significant risk of increased AI adoption. The key factor I consider when implementing HR tech is this: does this technology augment or destroy the “humanness” of my HR team?

Max Wesman, Chief Operating Officer, GoodHire

Max Korpinen, Co-Founder and CEO, Hireproof

Understand Your Company’s Level of Productivity

As remote work continues to trend bigger, productivity is the word of the year. Using HR technology to understand and improve productivity is a new necessity to look for when adding new programs. To decide which features will work best for your company, consider where your company stands with productivity.

Has it been at the forefront of company focus for a long, or is it something the company is just now beginning to look into? If you understand your company’s productivity already, you may look for features in HR tech that can help you identify areas for improvement.

However, perhaps productivity has just come into the company’s view, so you would look for an HR tech that can help you understand where company productivity is already at, in order to move forward soon. Whatever stage you are at in productivity improvement, there is HR tech that can help take you further and should be the selling point of any newly adapted technology.

Prioritize “Must-Haves” First

One of the biggest concerns when building an HR tech stack is to get all your core functions covered. Since most HR departments have limited budgets, spending over budget and missing the bigger picture can be far too easy when you’re excited about some shiny, tech-forward features.

You need to ensure your tech minimizes bottlenecks and makes your core functions faster and easier before you get wrapped up in the excitement. By creating a list of “must-haves” and ensuring every layer in your tech stack meets those needs first, you can then choose between the software that has your “nice-to-haves” next.

Chandler Rogers, CEO, Relay App

Fernando Lopez, Marketing Director, Circuit

Self-Service Options for Employees

We look for an integrated solution when selecting an HR technology that has self-service functionalities. We select those that enable our employees to keep track of, manage, and update their own data so they can add, view, and change their own private data as needed.

By doing so, we can cut down on labor hours, reduce user error, and minimize redundant work. It is helpful because it guarantees that information is always correct and current, preventing mistakes or errors that can impair efficiency.

Employee self-service allows HR staff to devote more time to mission-driven activities like employee engagement and retention.

Cost Savings

Cost is always a consideration when choosing any business technology. But it is especially important when choosing an HRIS because of the potential return on investment. A good HRIS can offer significant cost savings by automating many of the tasks of HR staff.

In addition, a good HRIS can help managers make better personnel decisions that lead to increased productivity and profitability. When considering cost, be sure to look at the total cost of ownership, not just the initial purchase price. The total cost of ownership includes the costs of implementation, training, support, and maintenance.

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David Bitton, Co-Founder and CMO, DoorLoop

Danielle Bedford, Head of Marketing, Coople

Brett Farmiloe is the Founder and CEO – and currently CHRO - of Terkel.io. Brett is an SHRM Influencer and has also been a keynote speaker at several state SHRM conferences around the topic of employee engagement.”

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Place your HR team in a certification program as a rewarding team building achievement.

For Your Organization

Certified HR professionals help companies avoid risk by understanding compliance, laws, and regulations to properly manage your workforce.

HR Professionals lead employee engagement and development programs saving the company money through lower turnover and greater productivity and engagement.

A skilled HR professional can track important KPIs for the organization to make a major impact on strategic decisions and objectives, including: succession planning, staffing, and forecasting.

Why Certification is the Best Choice:

1 Less expensive than a masters or PhD program, and very manageable to prepare with flexible study options.

2. Recertification - ensures HR professionals continue to be up to speed on the latest legislation and best practices

3. Recognized, Industry benchmark, held by 500,000+ HR Professionals

Group Rate Options

We offer group rates for teams of 5+ or more for our regularly scheduled PHR/SPHR/ SHRM or aPHR courses.

For groups of 12+, we can design a more customized experience that meets your organization’s needs. You can have scheduling flexibility in terms of the days, times, and overall length of the course.

Groups rates for HRCI exams are also available as an add-on.

All group purchases come with 1 year of HR Prime membership for each attendee to gain the tools and updates needed to stay informed and compliant.

What Will ChatGPT Mean For Human Capability?

Exploring the potential and limitations of AI in HR

By Dave Ulrich, Ross School of Business

Almostall my friends and colleagues are awed by ChatGPT and its ability to compose essays about nearly any topic. ChatGPT is a leading example of how AI will change our world. Its advancement is like moving from encyclopedia Britannica to Wikipedia, from long-hand math to calculators, and from maps to GPS guidance systems.

ChatGPT has great potential for preparing documents of all types.  So I tested it with a simple question: What is the future of HR? Here is the 200-word answer, generated within seconds:

It is difficult to predict the exact future of HR with certainty, but it is likely that the role of HR will continue to evolve and become increasingly important as organizations place a greater emphasis on people and culture. Some potential developments that could shape the future of HR include:

● Greater use of technology: HR technology, such as applicant tracking systems and HR information systems, is expected to become more prevalent and sophisticated.

● Increased focus on diversity and inclusion: Companies are likely to place a greater emphasis on creating diverse and inclusive workplaces, and HR will play a key role in this effort.

● More strategic role: HR is expected to take on a more strategic role within organizations, working closely with business leaders to align

HR practices with business objectives and drive organizational performance.

● Emphasis on employee experience: HR is likely to focus more on creating positive employee experiences, including through the use of employee engagement and satisfaction surveys and by implementing programs and initiatives that support employee well-being.

● Talent management: As the competition for top talent continues to heat up, HR will play a critical role in attracting, retaining, and developing top performers.

Very impressive. Like a tailored Wikipedia and an advanced Google search, this essay offers an astute and able overview of the future HR agenda. Using ChatGPT could be useful for almost any written document provided by HR: policies, training manuals, communications, speeches, presentations, social media, letters to employees, and so forth. However, relying only on this technology has four limitations (at least).

1. Emphasizes the Past More Than the Future

AI relies on existing information on the Internet. It sources and communicates that information in conversational language so that answers sound reliable and relevant. It can reconfigure words into patterns that synthesize what has been and is today.

But it does not have the ability to create what can be tomorrow. If compared to a GPS map system, AI is like how a GPS can give you a route to get where you are going but is less able to help you define where you want to go.

2. Conveys a Standard More Than Guidance

The insights from the essays of ChatGPT could quickly become an accepted standard for how to think about an HR agenda. In organizations today, a baseline of HR benchmarks often becomes accepted as generally used and even can become best practices. However, success comes less from benchmarking and copying others and more from differentiating and being the thought leader or first mover in a field. ChatGPT can synthesize what others have done but cannot offer guidance about what your company should uniquely do.

3. Generates Generic More Than Specific Responses

AI–generated answers are often more generic than specific. The answers to the HR query above

(technology, diversity and inclusion [DI], strategic role, employee experience, talent management) are very helpful categories to explore HR’s future. But the ultimate future of HR is likely in the specific insights. Insights provide theories that explain why things happen so that they can be replicated, research to test those ideas with both quantitative and qualitative data, and solutions that are tailored to a specific situation. The generic essays from AI may not offer specific insights related to a specific circumstance.

4. Provides Thought Synthesis More Than Thought Leadership

Thought leadership creates the future more than builds on the past, discovers new opportunities rather than repackaging traditional actions, provides expertise based on research more than personal opinion, identifies and explores questions that do not have readily packaged answers, and continually learns by sharing and debating ideas. Organizations need thought leaders who don’t repackage what others have done but imagine what can be done. Relying on AI may encourage intellectual laziness where the

machine “thinks” by recasting previous work rather than creating new ideas.

So while the potential for AI—in this case ChatGPT— is great (and will likely be used for college essays, internet searches, and baseline HR work), it may be useful but not sufficient for HR’s future advantage.

The HR future answer above by ChatGPT is a great baseline, but if I (or many others) were asked the question, “What is the future of HR?” I would add:

● HR’s future is not about HR but about creating value in the marketplace with key stakeholders. HR activities (like technology, DI, and employee experience) should be linked to the value they create for others.

● HR’s future requires an integrated framework to organize all the disparate HR practices and tools. We have seen the evolution of HR from personnel (administrative work); to HR practices (array of HR tools); to human capital (focus on employee experience); to human capability, which includes HR tools and talent (human capital); and then also adds leadership and organization to the framework. Within this human capability framework are specific initiatives for HR, all of which can be aligned to stakeholder value.

● HR’s future will require an ability to select which of the myriad of HR initiatives deliver value to a specific organizational setting. We call this organization guidance and want to move beyond generic ideas to specific recommendations that deliver value. Prioritizing HR investments can increasingly be done through rigorous AI/NLP research that links HR investments to stakeholder value through analytics that determine the right choices.

● HR’s future will lead to increased disclosure and dialogue with: investors to show them how human capability is material to their debt or equity investments and thus reduce their risk; customers to show them which human capabilities will ensure they have the right products and services; boards to help them deliver on financial and strategic goals; senior

executives to help the crafting and delivery of strategic reinvention; employees to help them have a positive experience.

● HR’s future lies in the creative genius of individuals who observe challenges not yet discussed and explore unique solutions to those challenges.

● Add your own?

(See our work on these future agendas with insights based on new ideas, rigorous research, and improved practice: www.g3humancapability.com.)

Envisioning the potential of new AI technology like ChatGTP to improve our personal and professional lives is exciting. But helping business and HR leaders integrate this technology with thought leadership so that they will craft human capabilities (talent, leadership, organization, and HR) that deliver value to all stakeholders is more exciting.

The best is yet ahead.

Dave Ulrich is the Rensis Likert Professor of Business at the Ross School, University of Michigan, and the Co-Founder & Principal at the RBL Group He has helped generate award-winning databases that assess alignment between external business conditions, strategies, organization capabilities, HR practices, HR competencies, and customer and investor results. Would you like to comment?

SB 1162: CA Pay Data Reporting for Workers

What you need to know now as the May 2023 reporting deadline fast approaches

By Lynne Anne Anderson and Sylvia Bokyung St. Clair, Faegre Drinker

The California Civil Rights Department (CRD) released amended FAQs providing guidance on compliance with the new pay data reporting requirements: PDR FAQs – 2022 Reporting Year | CRD (ca.gov). CRD also intends to issue regulations expected later this year.

As previously reported here and here, Senate Bill 1162 amended Labor Code section 432.3 and Government Code section 12999 as part of California’s ongoing efforts to promote pay transparency as a means to combat pay discrimination. Companies need to act now to be prepared to comply with the obligation to report data not only for their W-2 employees, but also the new obligation to compile and report data for workers supplied by staffing agencies and other third parties that are either working at or assigned to their California locations.

What Is the New Reporting Deadline?

May 10, 2023. The FAQs have a link to the online portal and templates to create reports. Additional resources will continue to come online for employers.

How Does Senate Bill 1162 Amend the Prior Pay Data Reporting Requirements?

● A private employer with 100 or more employees nationally, and one or more in California, must file a “Payroll Employee Report.” This new report must be filed in addition to the EEO-1 report.

● A private employer using 100 or more full-time (FT) or part-time (PT) workers supplied through labor contractors nationally and with one or more workers in/assigned to a California location must also file a “Labor Contractor Employee Report” (LCER).

● The Payroll Employee Report (and the LCER) must include the mean and median hourly rate of employees (or contract workers) grouped within the same establishment, job category, race, ethnicity and sex combination.

● CRD may obtain penalties and costs against employers that fail to file their reports and against labor contractors that fail to provide data to their client employers.

What Is a Labor Contractor?

An individual or entity that supplies, either with or without a contract, workers to perform labor within the client employer’s usual course of business.

Who Is a Labor Contractor Employee (LCE)?

An FT or a PT worker on a labor contractor’s payroll for whom the contractor is required to withhold federal social security taxes from wages and is assigned to perform work within the client employer’s “usual course of business.” For example, a cafeteria worker assigned to work at a tech company’s HQ would presumably be considered outside the “usual course of business.”

What Time Period Is Used for the Data Collection?

A 2023 LCER will contain 2022 pay data from a “Snapshot Period,” which is a single pay period between October 1 and December 31 chosen by the employer. The FAQs encourage employers to use one Snapshot Period across all labor contractors.

What Data Is Reported in the LCER?

Labor contractors need to supply mean and median hourly rates by establishment, job category, race/ ethnicity and sex for the LCEs working at and/or assigned to the client’s California locations. The FAQs do not specify a deadline for providing this information to the client.

The employer must disclose the ownership names of all labor contractors used to supply LCEs. An employer only submits one LCER even if the employer uses multiple contractors and any of those contractors provide LCEs to multiple locations.

How Are Teleworkers Reported?

If an LCE is working at and/or assigned to an establishment in California, then the LCE should be included in the LCER. This includes an LCE

working in California but reporting to a client establishment in a U.S. territory or foreign country. LCEs living in California but working at/reporting to an establishment outside of California would not be reported.

These same guidelines apply to the client employer’s remote W-2 employees for reporting on the Payroll Employee Report.

How Are the Mean and Median Hourly Rates Calculated?

The same method is used for W-2 employees as for LCEs. First, the hourly rate needs to be derived from an LCE’s total annual earnings for the entire Reporting Year, as shown on IRS Form W-2 Box 5. The FAQs then discuss how to calculate hourly rates for exempt and non-exempt employees and how to include paid time off in the calculation.

For the mean hourly rate, LCEs should be grouped within the same establishment, job category, race/ ethnicity, and sex combination. The mean hourly rate is calculated by adding the individual hourly rates for each employee in the group, then dividing that sum by the number of employees in the group.

For the median hourly rate, LCEs are grouped in the same manner. Then, the median hourly rate is generally calculated by adding the individual hourly rates for each employee in the group, then ordering the rates by smallest to largest and using the middle number.

Can the Client Employer Ask the Labor Contractor to Certify the LCER?

No, an official of the client employer must certify the LCER. The client employer can have the professional employer organization, human resources outsourcing or labor contractor assist in the completion of the LCER but cannot delegate responsibility for certifying the accuracy of the report. However, a certifying official may authorize another person to electronically file the certification on their behalf.

What if the Labor Contractor Is Unable to Provide All of the Information Needed for the LCER?

Employee self-identification is the preferred method of identifying sex, race and national origin. Absent self-identification, employers are expected to use reliable employment records (e.g., an employee’s self-identified pronouns for sex or observer perception for race/ethnicity). For the 2022 Reporting Year only (filed in May 2023), the CRD is permitting client employers to submit LCERs that list gender/race/ national origin as unknown. However, the CRD cautions that employers and labor contractors should not expect this option in the future.

Does the CRD Enforce SB 1162’s Separate Pay-Scale Disclosure Requirements?

No. The Labor Commission’s Office of the Department of Industrial Relations has the responsibility for enforcing the obligation to disclose pay ranges in job postings or upon request to existing employees. That provision of SB 1162 was effective as of January 1, 2023.

Next Steps for Employers

Employers should now determine whether they must submit a separate LCER in addition to the Employee Payroll Report in May. If yes, they should immediately request the data needed for the LCER from their contractors. The responsibility to provide and maintain accurate data should be incorporated into contractor agreements.

Employers should continue to prioritize privileged pay equity audits to review and analyze the data before reporting to agencies that use it for potential enforcement action. Also, in 2023 the CRD will begin publishing aggregate results – starting with the data collected in 2020. CRD expects employers to review these results and assess their own pay data and practices for purposes of compliance. Privileged pay audits are the best means to accomplish that review and proactively where remedial action and training may be warranted. The need for such audits is even more pressing given the salary disclosure obligations also required by SB 1162. Managers and HR professionals are being asked by current employees for explanations about why they are not placed higher in those ranges. Privileged pay equity audits can ensure that those questions are answered accurately to limit confusion and potential claims.

Lynne Anne Anderson is a partner at Faegre Drinker

Sylvia Bokyung St. Clair is an Associate at Faegre Drinker. Would

4 Ways To Reframe Equity Compensation For Women

Equity compensation allows women to share more directly in the growth and success of organizations

By Kate Winget, Morgan Stanley at Work

Thelast few years have proven that there is still work to do when it comes to gender inclusion and equality in the workplace. Consider that women made up 52% of the US workforce in 2020,1 but as the dust of the great resignation and rehiring settles, women have reached an all-time high of just 32% of director roles on the boards of S&P 500 companies as of 2022.2

One lever to pull is in our equity incentive programs, a sometimes underutilized tool that can help support female talent in their career and financial goals.

Consider these four ways companies can leverage equity plans to better include women—in turn empowering not just the next cohort of leaders, but the whole organization.

The Situation

We know that men and women with similar backgrounds may begin their careers on the same footing but often see diverging trajectories: Data shows women provide a disproportionate amount of caregiving in their personal lives, either taking leave or leaving the workforce completely at higher rates than their male counterparts. They’re therefore less likely to join equity programs at work,3 experience more financial stress, 4 and may tend to be more conservative in their investments.5 At the same time, women still face a gender pay gap that whittles down their lifetime earnings.6 By the time retirement comes along, women typically have much less saved than men, despite a longer life expectancy.4

These issues have a ripple effect on a woman’s career progression, access to wealth-building opportunities like equity compensation, and overall financial stability, as well as a company’s potential to unlock a reservoir of developing talent. Within the context of your overall workplace benefits suite, equity can play a strategic role in addressing many of the societal issues behind stubborn gender inequity and help transform your company into an even better place for women to build their careers.

Solutions

Many of your female employees may not have equity compensation on their radar, so it’s key to communicate what this benefit is, how women can access it, and how they can make the most of it.

Start here:

1. Make Equity Compensation More Available

We’ve found that 42% of business leaders say women and minorities experience barriers to career advancement in their organizations,7 so if your equity program is only available to company leaders, many women in your company may not be included. How are you addressing this? Some tactics we see working for companies include making shares available faster, freezing rather than losing vesting time when employees take leave, or shifting to a broader-based Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP) that may include more lower-level employees. As an added boon, organizations with more broad-based equity compensation programs tend to have less voluntary turnover and higher retention rates overall—including among women.8

2. Make Equity Compensation Make Sense

Invest in the participant experience to make sure your equity plan is as digestible and accessible as possible. A recent report highlighted9 meaningful financial education as a high-impact tool for employers to gain a competitive advantage in a tight labor market, yet less than half of stock plan participants (46%) say they know how to reach someone to ask questions about their stock plan.10 Work with your provider to connect participants to robust education, personalized support, and additional financial benefits. Women especially can benefit from financial literacy and benefits education tailored to their unique needs: Women are less likely to say they understand workplace financial benefits and more likely to say they want clearer explanations, easy access, and simplified enrollment.4 An intuitive digital experience can also play a critical role and help drive employee engagement and satisfaction, especially if you are working to scale your equity benefits deeper into the organization.

3. Make Financial Benefits Holistic

Connecting your equity program with holistic solutions that address the full employee experience can add even more value for female staff. Consider supplementing your equity program with access to additional financial wellness benefits that can offer women greater insight into their financial potential and how to plan their finances more strategically. All these resources can help bring equity compensation into a more meaningful and tangible context and better equip women to build holistic financial security for themselves. For example, access to a Financial Advisor through workplace benefits can help participants with creating and implementing a personalized plan to build wealth and tackle their individual challenges.

4. Make Progress a Priority

Balancing equity participation by gender will likely require intentional work as well as time, but the potential payoff is significant: Morgan Stanley Research has found that distributing women across all levels of an organization correlates with higher average returns on company stock prices and lower return-on-equity volatility—making gender-diverse companies more resilient.12

Not only that, but equity compensation allows women to share more directly in the growth and success of the companies they serve and can be especially important for your younger employees who are seeking a real stake in the game. With wise management, your equity compensation program can evolve to become a useful tool for women and help support them in developing thriving careers and wealth. As employers continue to work to revamp and restore lasting gender equity across their organizations, equity plans are an important area to gain ground—significantly improving outcomes both for women and the companies that hire them.

Notes

1. US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Women in the labor force: a databook : BLS Reports: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

2. The 2022 SpencerStuart Board index, SpencerStuart 2022_us_ spencerstuart_board_index_final.pdf

3. Women’s Retirement Outcomes | Morgan Stanley at Work

4. Supporting Financial Health for Millennials and Women in the Workplace — Financial Health Network (finhealthnetwork.org)

5. Support Women’s Financial Wellness | Morgan Stanley at Work

6. 2022 State of the Gender Pay Gap Report | Payscale Research

7. Equity compensation & Equality Report | Shareworks by Morgan Stanley

8. Do Broad‐based Employee Ownership, Profit Sharing and Stock Options Help the Best Firms Do Even Better? - Blasi - 2016 - British Journal of Industrial Relations - Wiley Online Library

9. EBRI/Greenwald Workplace Wellness Survey

10. Stock Plan Survey Results 2022 | Morgan Stanley at Work

11. Strategic Equity Compensation Plans | Morgan Stanley at Work

12. Sources: Refinitiv, FactSet, Morgan Stanley Research; Based on an Equal weighted average 12M forward return for the North America Top 1/3 fractile of HER score versus the excess equal weighted average 12M forward return for the region, 2011-5/2019; Note: Past performance is not indicative of future results.

Kate Winget is Chief Revenue Officer, US Public Equity Solutions at Morgan Stanley at Work

The Future of Coaching and Mentoring

April 5, 2023

The Future of Payroll: New Trends and Global EORs

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April 20, 2023

Unlock Your Hiring Potential: The Predictive Power of Structured Interviews April 4,

Mentoring and Coaching in a Remote and Hybrid World April 5, 2023

Unconventional Benefits With Sharlyn Lauby: What Does Your Workforce Really Want?

Skills vs. CVs: The Power of Skills-Based Hiring in 2023

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April 13, 2023

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