Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER CANADIAN HR REPORTER June 2, 2014 June 2, 2014 INSIGHT INSIGHT 15 15 Smart use of smartphones after hours Smart use of smartphones after hours Best practices for helping to avoid unpaid overtime claims Best practices for helping to avoid unpaid overtime claims QUESTION: We have heard a number of stories recently involving workers claiming overtime because they were required to respond to emails on their smartphones after hours. What are the best practices here? Do we need a policy banning it or can it be expected that an- swering an email or two after hours is part of the job and, therefore, not considered overtime? Answer: It is particularly ironic that I actually wrote a signifi- cant portion of this article on my BlackBerry after hours. However, I am a manager who is ineligible for paid overtime and I was mak- ing up for lost time due to an ap- pointment earlier in the day. My own personal experience illustrates how the use of tech- nology can actually be a bit of a double-edged sword in many respects. On the one hand, tools such as smartphones, tablets and laptops make it easier for employ- ers to extend the workday and place obligations on employees even if they're off site and it's after hours. Such tools can negatively impact work-life balance. On the other hand, technology can bring us tremendous freedom to complete our work when and where we choose, and allow us greater fl exibility and work-life balance in some situations. For example, even though I came into the offi ce late today, my smart- phone allowed me to leave at a reasonable time. Today was one of the days when I didn't have the car so I had to take transit. Ordinarily, time spent commuting would have been wasted and unproductive, but because I had my BlackBerry, I was able to extend my workday and remain productive on the journey home. Unpaid overtime litigation While recently there has been quite a bit of unpaid overtime liti- gation in the United States based on employees using their com- pany-issued smartphones after hours, there have been few, if any, such claims in Canada. at's not to say such claims couldn't happen here — particu- larly in light of the number of unpaid overtime claims against several high-profile Canadian employers in recent years. ere's no doubt some employ- ers can be unreasonable when it comes to requiring employees to be available to answer work- related emails after hours. is defi nitely poses a certain amount of risk to those organizations. Some companies have re- sponded by banning business emails and smartphone use after hours. For example, a few years ago, Volkswagen in Germany stopped sending work emails to its unionized workers 30 minutes after the end of their shifts and didn't resume sending them un- til 30 minutes before their shifts begin. I personally wouldn't go that far in most organizations because, as mentioned, smartphones can provide tremendous freedom and flexibility to employees — being too rigid might just result in throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Implementing best practices Nevertheless, there are a num- ber of best practices employers can implement to help deal with this issue and mitigate the risk of unpaid overtime litigation. While the legislation is diff erent across the country, employment standards legislation in most jurisdictions generally exempts managers (and sometimes cer- tain professionals) from having to be paid overtime. Therefore, it is important to determine exactly which em- ployees should be provided with company-issued smartphones. Such devices should be limited to employees for whom there is a defi nite business need to be con- tacted off site or after hours. Managers throughout the orga- nization must also be coached on setting expectations with respect to electronic communications and the timing of replies from their direct reports. Other than in an emergency situation, it is important to get the message across to employees that they are not expected to re- ply to emails after hours, either using their smartphones or other channels such as webmail or text messaging. It is also important to have a well-crafted overtime policy in place that requires preapproval before employees work overtime. However, such policies should in- clude a provision that allows for approval after the fact for over- time worked in emergency situ- ations or extremely busy periods where it wasn't possible to obtain approval beforehand. Where a non-managerial em- ployee is expected to monitor and respond to email after hours they should receive some type of compensation, either in the form of paid overtime or at least some type of pay for being on-call (when not actually working or re- quired to be onsite, although the time spent reading and respond- ing to email should count as ac- tual work and be subject to paid overtime). I also believe employers can help to forestall potential un- paid overtime litigation by be- ing somewhat reasonable and fl exible (although this isn't gen- erally something recognized by the law). In my mind, employees would be less likely to sue for unpaid overtime if their employer en- gaged in a bit of "give and take," for example, with fl exible hours and the ability to occasionally work off site. Brian Kreissl is the Toronto-based product development manager for Carswell's human resources, OH&S, payroll and records retention prod- ucts and solutions. He can be reached at brian.kreissl@thomsonreuters.com or visit www.carswell.com for more information. Brian Kreissl Toughest HR Question Does your offi ce have 'Sigh-Fi'? Does your offi ce have 'Sigh-Fi'? Signs your company's tech policies are outdated Signs your company's tech policies are outdated ere are many signs an organization is desperately behind the times in terms of its technology — unfortunately, that situ- ation is rife in many corporate environ- ments today. If your organization has any of the issues discussed below, chances are they are irritating people be- yond all comprehension, getting in the way of work — and they have no genuine utility behind them. Banish these things immedi- ately, or make a quick buck by shorting the share price of the of- fending institution. You can't connect to Wi-Fi unless you bring your device to IT is baffl es me. Unless you are the National Security Agency, there is no reason why a company should make it harder to connect to Wi- Fi than it is on the shop fl oor of a department store. People need it so much, they will even choose to shop at loca- tions with Wi-Fi. If you have a secure network with confidential information, there may be some safeguards that need to be put in place. But this doesn't mean employ- ees should waste hours of their valuable time ferrying equipment to IT to have it "approved" — which often consists of just hav- ing its serial number recorded on paper and put in a fi le. Guests can't use Wi-Fi or need to fi ll in a convoluted form to do so If your guests (for example, pros- pects or leads) can't connect to Wi-Fi, the experience is like visiting a restaurant without a washroom — it will cause them unnecessary discomfort and they will think your company is amateurish. Do everyone a favour and in- stall a guest network with a simple password that everyone can share. Connecting your own device to the network is forbidden Similar to the point above, this is also frustrating. ere is many a time when an employee will need to go online using a device her workplace might not have given her. Perhaps she needs to check if a site works on mobile. It could even be she is using her own com- puter because your organization hasn't given her the software she requires. To work remotely, you need special permission (and often a convoluted VPN) Working remotely for many types of teams (especially developers) is the new norm. In fact, among people in the younger genera- tions, the ability to work remotely is seen as a valuable benefi t when looking for employers. Aside from this, you probably have employees who may have to care for people at home or may have a disability that requires they work from home from time to time. ese people want to work, so make it easy for them. Any changes to the website (no matter how small) require an unnecessary business case If your business requires someone to spend a huge amount of time completing pa- perwork or online forms to make small, quick, positive changes, chances are you are lagging way behind the competition. Kill this backward thinking — it helps no one. Tech support processes are used to delay work rather than make things easier for everyone ere is a sad reality within many organizations: e technical team is so demoralized and depressed with their work, they really don't want to help anyone. As a result, they adopt passive- aggressive strategies to delay their work. If this happens, do the following: 1. Buy some doughnuts or coff ee. 2. Find the technical team's work area. 3. Give them the doughnuts or coff ee. 4. Ask them for help while they consume the doughnuts or coff ee. Tech projects frequently reference 'stakeholders,' but most people are never consulted A similar hallmark of a passive- aggressive technical team is the frequent use of jargon, babble and lengthy documentation in lieu of actually fi nding out what people need. Face-to-face communication is quick, easy and accepts the fact we are human, not automata. Projects are rolled out 'big bang' style but with minimal testing and no resources to deal with problems Companies don't do enough test- ing. Make sure yours isn't one that regularly displays error messages on its website. If it does, hire an agency. Immediately. Andrew Warren-Payne is a senior re- search analyst at Econsultancy. Follow him on Twitter @agwp or on Google+. Andrew Warren-Payne Guest Commentary If people can't connect to Wi-Fi, it's like a restaurant without a washroom — it will cause unnecessary discomfort and they will think your company is amateurish. Volkswagen stopped sending work email to unionized workers 30 minutes after the end of their shifts and they didn't resume until 30 minutes before their shifts began. C r ed i t: va ld is t or m s/ Sh u tt er s to ck

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