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State program aims to preserve jobs, cut costs

By Linda Lerner, Globe Correspondent, 1/4/04

Need advice about managing your career or your workplace? The Job Doc can help. Our specialists can answer your questions on topics ranging from career transitions to management issues. E-mail queries to jobdoc@globe.com, or send letters to Job Doc, c/o the Boston Globe, P.O. Box 2378, MA 02107-2378. Letters may be edited for clarity and length.

I am a department head in a manufacturing plant in the western part of the state. Due to serious budget constraints, we are planning a layoff during the first quarter of 2004 of about one-third of the employees in my department. I have heard that Massachusetts has a program that assists companies in reducing the number of employees they have to cut while still saving salary costs. Do you know of such a program and, if so, what are the requirements for getting into it?

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The program that you are referring to is called the Massachusetts WorkSharing Program. It is run by the Massachusetts Division of Employment and Training and it is a unique program that many employers are not fully aware of.

It is designed to preserve jobs in the state by allowing employers to reduce the hours that employees work in a company or in a department while retaining their experienced workers. These employees with reduced hours collect unemployment insurance for a portion of the amount of hours that their wages are reduced.

For example, an employer could reduce workers' hours by 20 percent, perhaps to a four-day workweek, instead of laying off 20 percent of its work force. The individual employee would receive 80 percent of their pay from the company and a portion of the remaining 20 percent through the use of their unemployment insurance benefit claim.

All Massachusetts employers are eligible to participate. The employer can be as small as only two employees or it can be a very large company with a thousand workers. It can be a for-profit corporation or a non-profit organization or even a governmental agency. If an employee would be eligible for regular unemployment insurance if he or she were to be laid-off, then that employee is eligible to participate in such a program. Seasonal layoffs are not eligible.

According to a brochure produced by the DET, a WorkSharing plan has multiple benefits. The employer can keep skilled and trained employees, reduce future hiring and retraining costs, avoid disruption of business operations, and maintain worker productivity. In a guide designed for workers who are in their company's WorkSharing plan, the DET states that participation ''allows them to keep their jobs, continue to receive company benefits, and utilize and develop their skills.''

A WorkSharing plan can be developed when an employer can:

• Demonstrate that the reduction in hours is in lieu of layoffs and the employer is able to describe the reasons for and the expected duration of the work reduction.
   
• Specify the department or units that will participate. It can be the entire company, a unit, a shift or a job function as long as the group has at least two people in it.
   
• Decide the duration of the plan in advance, up to a maximum of 26 weeks.
   
• Identify by name and Social Security number all employees who will be participating. All employees in the designated unit must participate and have their hours reduced by the same amount. The range of these reductions can be 10 to 60 percent of hours normally worked.
   
• Provide participating employees with the same health insurance benefits. This means that their health-related benefits cannot change due to the reduction in hours.
   
• Continue pension benefits in accordance with the rules of ERISA (the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974).
   
• Agree to supply necessary information and reports to the DET for verification and evaluation of the WorkSharing plan.
   
• Allow a union, if affected employees are covered by a contract, to sign off that it agrees to the participation.
   
• Be up to date with any unemployment contributions and payments to the DET.

There is a simple application and approval process. It can all be accessed and processed on line at www.mass.gov/det. Or call 617-626-5510 for more information.

Employee reviews not legally required

We own a small sales distribution company with six employees. Most of these employees have been with us since my wife and I started the business fourteen years ago. Last year we hired a new employee who wants to have a written performance evaluation. She says that her other employers gave her a performance review at least once a year and that we need to do so as well. We have never done them. What we do is train people and just let them know how they are doing. Is there a requirement for a business our size to do these written evaluations?

There is no legal requirement to provide an employee with a performance evaluation. You do not need to conduct such a review of an employee's performance and, if you make the choice to do a performance review, there is no obligation to put it in writing.

I am inferring from your question that no commitment was made either by you or a member of your management/supervisory staff that a performance evaluation would be given to your new employee. Given the absence of such a commitment, an employee does not have a right to a performance appraisal.

This question has been tested in the courts where it has been made clear that an employee does not have a right to have their performance formally evaluated.

If an agreement has been made to complete an evaluation for an employee either by a statement in the employee handbook, a statement to an individual employee or by regular company practice, then these evaluations need to be done in a consistent manner. If you do choose to do performance evaluations, then my strong suggestion is that you do them for all employees, not just for one or two, and that the form of these reviews should be the same for each person.

Address workplace issues promptly

Our office has a rule that no one is allowed to eat at his or her desk. Most people either go to the employee cafeteria or go out for lunch. One employee, who I supervise, has been breaking the rule and eating at her desk. We find her food wrappers, crumbs, cans, etc. I have seen her wrap up her sandwich when she sees me come by her cubicle. How can I stop her from doing this and thinking she is hiding it?

Unless I am misreading your question, there is a clear approach to this situation and many similar ones that frequently occur in the workplace. The real problem is not eating at the desk but rather a supervisor's reluctance to address these issues promptly. This delay, often caused by fear of confronting the situation, causes a small matter to grow out of proportion into a major concern.

Here is the way that I recommend this type of problem be addressed. Call the employee into your office, tell her what you have actually seen her do and describe the other evidence of her behavior. Remind her that it is a violation of company policy and that it must be stopped immediately.

Ask if she has any questions and also if she agrees to follow the policy from now on. If there is a next occurrence of this problem, deal with it on the spot. Do not wait to address it as you did before and be certain to take appropriate disciplinary action.

Linda Lerner coaches executives, managers, and professionals. She provides consulting on human resources best practices to a broad range of businesses. She is principal of Lerner Consulting services and can be reached at Linda@Lernerconsulting.com.

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