...regulatory requirements are currently in place to standardize and promote workplace safety. Organizations with extensive safety programs have reduced number of accidents, decreased workers’ compensation claims and lawsuits and lesser accident-related expenditures (Gomez-Mejia, et al, 2010, p. 511). This paper discusses the effects of legal, safety and regulatory requirements in ensuring employee safety and welfare in the workplace. In addition, it will also discuss other employee-related legal regulatory requirements and topics pertaining to human resources process in hiring employees to prevent costly litigation. Safety and the Law Many Human Resources (HR) experts and managers have implemented HR strategies to comply with federal regulations to supervise efficiently employee health and safety in the workplace. An organization has the responsibility as mandated by all levels of government to offer all employees the assurance of a working environment free from health hazards. The two important workplace regulations in place that affect employees at all levels are workers’ compensation laws at the state level and the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (OSHA) at the federal level (Gomez-Mejia, et al, 2010). Workers’ Compensation The workers’ compensation system offers wages and medical payment to employees who experienced injury or illness on-the-job. Workers’ compensation programs have been in place in all states since 1948; however, only 47...
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...The Impact of Compensation Practices February 20, 2011 “The ultimate goal of a pay system is to align the goals and interests of employees with the goals and interests of the organization” – Robert L. Heneman The Impact of Compensation Practices The business arena is ever changing. Where people work, how they work, the relationships in the workplace and compensation for their work continues to change. Hence, “It will be the challenge of compensation professionals to devise ways to reward and motivate employees who work under increasingly flexible arrangements” (Bennett, 1995). Most people interchange and have the perspective that pay and compensation are the same when in reality, compensation is more than just monetary rewards. Compensation is often misunderstood, and can also be misapplied. More often than not, it is out of synch with the values and processes of an organization. This is because despite continued organizational changes, the actual strategies for administering and implementing compensation is misaligned with the rapid changes in the company. “Pay can no longer be seen as a mere expense and cost of doing business, but instead must be viewed as an investment that is closely linked to the long-term success of the organization” (Flannery, et. al., 1996). As Cable and Judge (1994) note, “compensation systems are capable of attracting (or repelling) the right kinds of people because they communicate so much about an organization’s philosophy,...
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...QUICK FACTS Dying for a job, is the result of three years of research. Journalists with CBC's Investigative Unit navigated freedom of information laws and negotiated for data from workplace safety insurance boards across Canada. The work allowed us to help track top national trends in the workplace of today. This is the first time a Canadian media company has investigated workplace safety issues by analyzing Canada’s own data on a national level. Go back 125 years in Canada's labour history and you'll find a very different country – especially when it comes to workplace safety. If you were the victim of an accident on the job, chances are you'd be left to fend for yourself. The Canadian government was determined to join the industrial age. What had been primarily a rural economy was turning into a world of coal, steam and hard manual labour. Machines got bigger, louder and more dangerous. People were getting hurt – and dying – in large numbers on the job. Some industries, the reasoning went, were simply more dangerous than others and you had to expect accidents. It wasn't until 1914 that Canada had its first "modern" workers' compensation law The building of the Canadian Pacific Railway did much to open up the country – but at a very high price. More than 15,000 Chinese workers were imported to work on the project. More than 1,000 of them died. They were paid 30 to 50 per cent less than white workers – and often given the more dangerous jobs like working with explosives...
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...1. How do employer priorities affect claim adjudication and management in workers’ compensation systems? The number one priority for all companies is to be successful and that means being profitable. As the global market becomes more competitive, many businesses must cut costs and adopt strategies to ensure that their doors remain open. When an employee injures themselves on the job the potential costs of an injury claim can significantly impact the WCB premiums for a company (Barnetson, 2010). Workers’ Compensation Boards use its experience rating system to adjust an employer’s premiums based on its injury prevention performance compared to the industry average. Performance compared to that average determines if employers are awarded a rebate or presented with a surcharge (Barnetson, 2010). The system is designed to provide an incentive to employers in hopes they will improve safety performance and prevent injuries, but it also can create pressure to minimize claim costs (Barnetson, 2010). Instead of making safety improvements to the operation, employers may attempt to game the system through the adoption of aggressive claim management and adjudication strategies (Barnetson, 2010). These strategies are designed to do three things; get workers back to work as soon as possible; dispute and appeal claims where feasible; and lower premium rates without having to make significant changes to work processes. More and more employers are recognizing that an early return to work...
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...safety and health (NIOSH) that research what the causes of an injury of fatality in the workplace and what could prevent from another occurrence. The other being the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the agency that will be discussed, that establish the safety standards in a workplace as well as enforce them. Introduction When Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was established in 1971, advocates believed it would dramatically improve the safety and health of American workers. In the past 40 years of its existence fatal and nonfatal injuries, and illnesses in the work place have declined. However, OSHA is not necessarily the sole cause of this decline. After the OSH Act was passed workplace fatalities have fallen considerably. Before it was established the amount of deaths in the workplace in 1970 was around 1,800,000 workers. In the following years deaths per year decreased substantially. By the year 1992, the worker deaths in the...
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...Safety In The Workplace Kristy Roper HCS/341 January 17, 2012 Joseph N. Atkins Safety In The Workplace Data from the Bureau of Labor statistics states that over 4.1 million people were injured on the job in 2006 and 5,488 were killed in 2007 (Gomez-Mejia, Balkin, & Cardy, 2010). All levels of government have passed laws to regulate and maintain safety in the workplace. There are two basic levels of workplace safety laws that affect most workers. On a state level it is workers' compensation laws. On a federal level it is the Occupation Safety and Health Act of 1970 (Gomez-Mejia, Balkin, & Cardy, 2010). When it comes to the various objectives, policies, and operations of these two levels of law, one will notice how different they are. This paper will discuss the effects of legal, safety, and regulatory requirements in ensuring employee safety in the workplace. It will also discuss how the Department of Labor and the Occupation Safety and Health Act of 1970 play a vital role in workplace safety. Each state has its own workers' compensation laws, which means that the funding and enforcement of these laws differ by state. The main goal of workers' compensation is to provide compensation to workers who suffer job related injuries or illnesses. Workers' compensation was first established in the early twentieth century. Since 1948, all states have had workers' compensation programs, however it is mandatory in only 47 states(Gomez-Mejia, Balkin, & Cardy...
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...With the rising popularity of shared capitalism in the United States, it is worthwhile to analyze the effects this trend and the workplace theories that correspond to it. The purpose of the paper is to show not only how forms of shared capitalism in the workplace can increase overall employee compensation, but how several labor theories relate and support the outcomes of shared capitalism. More specifically, three theories will be extrapolated and the outcomes of shared capitalism will follow each theory. First, expectancy theory will be explained and followed by its correlation to motivation and increased compensation. Second, equity theory will be explained and followed by the results of ESOPs. Finally, an explanation of efficiency wage theory will be provided and followed by the outcome of pay on shirking. Expectancy theory hypothesizes that a person decides to act in a certain way due to their motivation to choose a certain behavior rather than another behavior because of what they expect the outcome of their chosen behavior will be. Hence, an individual will choose the behavior with the most desirable result. Expectancy theory is a type of pay-for-performance theory that focuses on the needs for institutions to reward employees based off of their performance and to ensure that those rewards are desired by the employees. The motivational force of the employee is theorized to be a function that is multiple of three factors: expectancy (the perceived link between effort...
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...to give them priority and take care of them. Moreover, all the employers are compelled by law to guarantee the safety of the workplace for their employees. For this reason, workers' compensation insurance is offered by the insurance companies for all the employers who want to protect their employees. Overview to the Workers' Compensation Insurance Policy Accidents take place suddenly. They can occur at any time and at any place in spite of extra care and attention. Under such circumstances, this insurance policy is beneficial for both employers and employees. For Employees: It guarantees that the employees will be provided with coverage for the portion of income they lost when they were incapable to work. For Employers: It provides coverage...
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...DISCRIMINATION IN THE WORKPLACE Introduction Background Discrimination is always been the issues that widely debate among people, no matter they are employees, company executives or authorities from labor union, and even though plenty of methods has been carried out the discrimination still exist in workplace nowadays. The definition of discrimination is commonly means the act of treating other people differently based on gender, age, marital status, race or physical appearance regardless of their capability and qualification in doing the jobs. There are many problems that might arises for fresh graduates in workplace from the act of discrimination, such as dissatisfaction due to unfair treatment, loss of self-esteem or morale, isolation caused by bias, unnecessary overload stress, restricted opportunity for uncovering talents, and poor loyalty towards company. Therefore, it is vital for any company to eliminate the prejudices among society that leads to workplace discrimination in order to boost performance and improve mutual trust between employers and employees. Purpose The purpose of our research is to: 1. Investigate and identify the reasons that may create discrimination in the workplace for fresh graduates. 2. Use the result of research to form applicable guides or rules that can help them to handle and reduce the phenomenon of workplace discrimination. Method There are two method that we will use for this investigation are through survey using questionnaires...
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...Administrative Agency: Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation The state administrative agency is the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation. This agency interests me because I am working towards my Master’s in Human Resources. The proposed regulation will not directly affect me or the business I am working. The company I work for already has an employee wellness program in place and is not state funded. Because the program already exists, a workplace wellness grant is not needed nor warranted from the bureau. The workplace wellness grant program proposal is to help mitigate and prevent health risk factors. Preventing and or decreasing health risk factors cuts down health costs verses waiting for an illness to appear and then treating the illness. The proposal is to provide employers with grants to fund a wellness program in order to decrease the amount of workplace injuries and illnesses. The grants will be awarded to state fund employers on a first come first serve basis. In order for the employer to be eligible, they must be up to date on all premiums, fines, assessments and administrative costs. The employer must maintain active state fund coverage in order to remain eligible. If an employer already has a wellness program in place, they are not eligible. My comment is that a workplace wellness program for state funded businesses would be very beneficial to the community. The proposed rule, 4123-17-56.1 - Workplace wellness grant program rule, will agreeably decrease costs associated...
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...legal restraints, particularly federal legislation such as Department of Labor, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission affects the human resource process. Laws and regulatory requirements are currently in place to standardize and promote workplace safety. Organizations that have a wide range safety programs have resulted in a decrease of accidents, reduced workers’ compensation claims and lawsuits and less accident-related expenditures (Gomez-Mejia, Balkin, and Cardy, 2010). Many experts and managers in the human resource department have executed strategies to act in accordance with federal regulations to efficiently supervise employee health and safety in the workplace. An organization has the responsibility as authorized by all levels of government to offer all employees the assurance of a working environment free from health hazards. According to Gomez-Mejia, Balkin, and Cardy (2010), the two most basic workplace regulations that affect employees are workers’ compensation laws at the state level and the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (OSHA) at the federal level. Of these two sets of laws, the policies, operations, and objectives are very different from each other. Every state has their own compensation law for workers and the terms for funding and enforcing the law differs in each state. Because of safety laws and regulations, employers are responsible for making sure that the...
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...and motivation to support the period of transition, requires some understanding of the basic factors and common methods used for employee motivation. Evidence suggests that improvement in job satisfaction is directly correlated to improvements in employee performance. Employee satisfaction, though, is a complex issue. A number of different types of human resource management systems have been put into place in an effort to improve employee satisfaction, including shorter workdays, shorter workweeks, and improvements in compensation packages. Some theorists have argued, though, that of all of these efforts, compensation improvements have had the greatest impact on performance outcomes of all of the efforts put in place (Lawler and Worley, 2006). This review of literature assesses the impacts of motivational strategies, especially in the presence of workplace dissatisfaction, to provide support for compensation motivators in a transitioning workplace. Literature Summary Since the late 1960s, theorists like Gary Becker have attempted to determine the best ways to retain and motivate a workforce population. Becker (1967) defended the use of the concept of human capital, a concept easily applied to the modernizing and...
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...With the need to perform at an all time high in the workplace, more employers are beginning to look at the possibility of stimulant abuse within their own company. Illicit drug abuse such as cocaine, adderrall, etc, seems to lend itself to a trend of increased worker’s comp claims involving incident and injury. One study shows that nearly 75% of all drug users are employed, as are most binge drinkers. “Alcoholism causes 500 million lost workdays each year (National Association of Treatment Providers, 1991).” Another study shows that seventy-three percent of all current drug users aged 18 and older (8.3 million adults) were employed in 1997. This includes 6.7 million full-time workers and 1.6 million part-time workers (United States Department of Health and Human Services, 1998). More surprising than this data set is the data collected during a national survey conducted by the Hazelden Foundation, more than sixty percent of adults know people who have gone to work under the influence of drugs or alcohol (Hazelden Foundation, 1996). There are two major categories of drugs: those that speed up bodily and mental functions, and those that slow them down. Stimulants such as caffeine, amphetamines, crack, ephedrine, etc; all speed up heart rate, metabolic rate and cognitive abilities. Depressants such as alcohol, and many times anti-anxiety medicines slow down motor skills, and prevent an over active central nervous system. Both used within the context of the original prescription...
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...resources required laws that are to be followed at all times. The purpose of these laws is for employers to give employees the necessary provisions that they require to be successful in whatever that they do in the society. Human resource process requires that HR managers hire employees, provide compensation and Benefits to employees, engage in performance management and evaluation of employees as well as firing and hiring employees, provide employee health safety and prevent employee discrimination and sexual harassment among others(Walsh, 2009. P.299). Currently, the workplace are being regulated by the workers’ compassion laws at the state level and the OSHA or occupational safety and health act of 1970 at the federal level with all this Acts that is been implemented on both the employees, employers, and the organizations themselves if not developed adequately will lead to a serious criminal lawsuit against everyone that are involved. In most workplaces, today the managers and employees so not fear that they are been sued by someone but the managers do their best to prevent it from happening, and this has left no room for common sense and compensations. The presence of compassion in the workplace enhances the spirit to reach out by employees and the business experience a cooperative work culture where people are willing to help and not just sue the organization (Lilius et al, 2003). With compassion, the pain or suffering...
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...recruiters and employment specialists generally is measured by the number of positions they fill and the time it takes to fill those positions. Recruiters who work in-house -- as opposed to companies that provide recruiting and staffing services -- play a key role in developing the employer's workforce. They advertise job postings, source candidates, screen applicants, conduct preliminary interviews and coordinate hiring efforts with managers responsible for making the final selection of candidates. Safety Workplace safety is an important factor. Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, employers have an obligation to provide a safe working environment for employees. One of the main functions of HR is to support workplace safety training and maintain federally mandated logs for workplace injury and fatality reporting. In addition, HR safety and risk specialists often work closely with HR benefits specialists to manage the company's workers compensation issues. Employee Relations In a unionized work environment, the employee and labor relations functions of HR may be combined and handled by one specialist or be entirely separate...
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