Coronavirus (COVID-19) for Employers and Small Businesses

Hello, and thank you to those of you joining us live and to those of you who are watching the recording after the fact. Today is March 19, 2020, which is important to note because the situation seems to be changing by the hour as it relates to regulations regarding the coronavirus impact. For updates, you can keep up with us on our website, which is displayed on the screen at ergpayroll.com. And please subscribe to our list so that you can get all of the most up-to-date information. Today we're going to talk about one of the more challenging topics we've seen in HR in quite some time, and that is the coronavirus pandemic, the impact of that virus on employers. My name is Matt Beatty, and I am the CEO of ERG Payroll and HR. We're going to cover not only this recently signed law, as recent as last night, I had to go through and change many of the slides and expound on some of the slides and learned a lot between late last night and this afternoon, and also touch on some of the frequently asked questions we've been getting over the past few weeks from our clients. But first, I have one question for each of you. What exactly are you gonna do with all that toilet paper? Now, I'm sorry, I had to start it off with a little bit of humor. It's been a tense time for a lot of you, and I know that for many of us, this has been challenging. I want you to know that we are here for you and many other people are here for you, and we should all be there for each other and for our employees. We all have a vested interest in the success of our communities. Let's do what we can to help each other out, and one of the greatest ways we can help each other out is by making each other smile and by helping each other so that we can emerge from this stronger than ever. So once again, my name is Matt Beatty. Just a little bit about me. I've been in the HR services and software space for over 16 years. During that time, I've hired thousands thousands of people, started two companies of my own, including an HR services company and an HR software company, and I've consulted with thousands of companies during that period. In the last 6 years since ERG started, we've answered over 40,000 human resources questions. We serve as everything from an online payroll service provider to an outsourced HR department for our clients. We really see it all over the course of a week, and this week has been a fantastic challenge for us in trying to really get this information in real time and help our clients and even folks that are not clients to make decisions about the health and welfare of their business and their employees. And that's really valuable to us, that, that's, that we can provide a service and guidance during these times. So I thank you for attending today and for allowing us to be, be part of your business ecosystem. Personally, I'm very passionate about helping companies create high-performing workplaces. I love helping companies solve their people challenges through technology. And people expertise. You know, our name says it all, ERG. Get asked all the time, what does that stand for? Stands for Engage, Retain, Grow. We want to help people to engage, retain, and grow their number one asset, their people. This is a very challenging time for us as leaders in a time where we need to exercise empathy, precision, and tact. And I'm hopeful that I can help each of you to execute on some of those with some of the guidance that we have for you here today. I will say we are not going to have time for an open Q&A due to the fact that Q&A could probably last for a day or two. We have 1 hour that will be packed with information. So please take my email down and send me your questions. Many of you that already registered have sent me questions. I am going to do my best to personally answer those questions and help in any way I can. I also want you to know that I am praying for each of you during this challenging time and that we are, you know, doing everything we can to try to help folks in this time of need. So I am really grateful that you would spend some time with me today. So let us go ahead and dive right in. We're going to talk first and foremost about the recent updates to the Families First Coronavirus Response Act. We are not going to cover everything, as this was a rather sweeping piece of legislation, albeit short, but most importantly, the parts that have the most immediate impact on employers and HR specifically. We're going to touch on a couple of best practices for working remotely. I think this is a topic that has been really well covered by a variety of venues over the last few weeks. Just offer a little bit of guidance there. And then we're going to go through some of the most commonly asked questions we've received over the last few weeks, of which the last couple days has been primarily around, you know, what to do in circumstances regarding layoffs, furloughs, and temporary closures of businesses. So we'll be sending this information along with several templates as a follow-up to this webinar. So once again, if you hear me reference a template on this webinar, then please don't worry, we're going to send it, you know, whether that be a layoff template or a work-from-home agreement. We're going to have all those things in a Dropbox that we'll share with everybody as this webinar concludes. And if you're watching the recording, then please just email me and I'll send it over to you. All right, so let's talk about the Families First Coronavirus Response Act. It was HR 6201, was passed by the House of Representatives on March 14th with first changes made by the House on March 16th, and then it passed through the Senate yesterday and was signed into law by President Trump last night. March 18th, there were significant changes made to the bill, and so we were left scurrying around a little bit to get the new details in place. And this act will go into place on April 2nd of this year. So this is going to go into place almost immediately. The act was very short compared to many bills that come through, but most of the questions about how to execute are in implement are going to be clarified over time by lawmakers and federal agencies. So we will still expect to see more details coming out. And once again, with this just passing last night, we still have a couple of minor gaps in here as well. So the act includes many provisions which apply to employers, such as paid sick leave for employees impacted by COVID-19 and those serving as caregivers for individuals with COVID-19. While there are also several provisions to increase funding for familiar benefit programs like WIC and SNAP, during this webinar, we're going to only focus on the provisions that affect employers. And it's important to note that this particular component of the webinar, we're really going to be discussing the pieces that apply to people impacted directly by coronavirus in regards to actually having the illness. So, there are two provisions that provide paid leave to employees forced to miss work because of COVID-19. COVID-19 outbreak. There is an emergency expansion to the FMLA, Family Medical Leave Act, and a new federal paid sick leave law. And now on top of that, there is a payroll tax credit which will help you to recoup some of these funds as it relates to paying your employees related to these two acts. As far as we can tell, there was nothing in the bill that would have any retroactive application for these credits. So let's take a look at the Emergency Family and Medical Leave Expansion Act first. This act significantly amends and expands FMLA on a temporary basis. So the current employee threshold for FMLA coverage would change from only covering employers with 50 or more employees within 75 miles to instead covering those employers with fewer than 500 employees, which I expect most of the people on this line that would impact. It also lowers the eligibility requirements such that any employee who has worked for the employer for at least 30 days may be eligible to receive paid FMLA. So as a result, like I said, there's going to be thousands of employers that were not previously subject to FMLA that are going to be required to provide job-protected leave to employees for a COVID-19 coronavirus designated reason. Once again, I want to emphasize these are only related to COVID-19 coronavirus designated reasons. So when we look at the reasons for emergency leave, any individual that has been employed by the employer for at least 30 days before the first day of leave can take up to 12 weeks of job-protected leave to allow an employee who is unable to work or telework or— and to care for the employee's child who is under 18 years of age, which is probably going to be the biggest part of this. If the child's school or place of care is closed or the child care provider is unavailable due to a public health emergency related to COVID-19. So once again, these are people who are unable to work or telework because they need to care for an employee's child. If the child's school place or school or place of care is closed or the child care provider is unavailable due to a public health emergency. Now this changed from the time it reached the House to the President. This is now the only qualifying need for emergency FMLA and a significant change from the prior version that the House passed over the weekend, which contains several other COVID-19-related reasons to provide emergency FMLA. So what will people get? They will get paid leave, which is another big change from the prior version paid— passed by the House. Now, instead of the first 14 days, they will get the first 10 days of emergency FMLA may be unpaid. So the first 10 days of this could be unpaid. During this 10-day period, an employee may elect to substitute any accrued paid leave, like vacation or sick leave, to cover some or all of the 10-day unpaid period. So they have 10 days unpaid to start this paid leave process, and they can use any accrued sick or vacation during that time. After the 10-day period, the employer must pay full-time employees at two-thirds of the employee's regular rate. For the number of hours the employee would otherwise normally be scheduled to work. So the new act now limits this pay entitlement to $200 per day and $10,000 in aggregate per employee. So once again, after 10 days, employers generally going to be responsible for paying that full-time employees at two-thirds of their regular rate for the number of hours they would normally be working, and that's going to be limited to $200 per day and $10,000 in aggregate. So now what about our folks that are part-time? Employees who work on a part-time or irregular schedule are entitled to be paid based on the average number of hours they would have worked for the prior 6 months prior to taking emergency FMLA. If they haven't been with you for 6 months prior to leave, they're entitled to what were the reasonable expectations that were set during the hiring process as to the average number of hours the employee would normally be scheduled to work. So this goes back to something we talk to our clients about all the time, and that's setting proper expectations during the hiring process. So if you are setting expectations that somebody is going to work 25 hours, but in reality you need them to work 35, or you need them to work 15, these things have ripple effects beyond just employee morale. We point to circumstances like this where they can, they can be a hindrance to compliance. So So, the other component of this, not only is there the paid leave eligibility, there is also the job restoration component, which is natural to FMLA. And that's something where the employee is going to be— has a reasonable expectation to come back to their role after the period of leave is up. Now, there is an exclusion to this. Employers with 25 or more employees will have the same obligation as under traditional FMLA to return any employee who has taken emergency emergency FMLA to the same or equivalent position upon return to work. So, at the end of the FMLA, they can come back to the same or an equivalent position. However, if you have less than 25 employees, you're generally excluded from this requirement if the employee's position no longer exists. So, if when they are— it is time for them to come back, the position no longer exists due to an economic downturn or other circumstances caused by the public health emergency, then you are excluded from this. But the exclusion is also subject to employers making reasonable attempts to return the employee to an equivalent position and requires an employer to make efforts to return the employee to work for up to a year following the employee's leave. So, you're not exactly off scot-free on that where if somebody comes back afterwards, you still need to be trying to place that person back inside your organization for up to a year following the leave. So, once again, this goes into effect April 2nd and will remain in effect until December 31st, 2020. We have that exemption of 25 or less as it relates to FMLA return to work and job restoration. Now we have another exclusion here, which is small businesses with fewer than 50 employees, uh, would be excluded from this if the required leave would jeopardize the viability of their business. So if paying this leave would jeopardize your ability to stay open as a company, you are going to have a possible exemption from the Emergency Family Medical Leave Expansion Act. And once again, we'll provide more detailed information on this as a follow-up to the call, as I know that's, that's a lot to chew on right there for folks. Let's look at the second part of this, which is the Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act. So the Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act gives us— this portion of the Act significantly changed since we first saw it on the House floor. The Act now allows an eligible employee to take paid sick leave for the following reasons. So if they are subject to a federal, state, or local quarantine or isolation order related to COVID-19, if they are advised by a healthcare provider to self-quarantine due to COVID-19, if they are experiencing COVID-19 symptoms and seeking medical diagnosis. So Interesting thing, keep in mind the difference between these top 3 and these bottom 3. As we get into the next page, I'm going to explain more about that. So, the top 3 relate to you and your persons. So, I'm having health-related issues and need to take paid sick leave. The bottom 3 relate to caring for others. So, number 4, caring for an individual who's subject to a federal, state, or local quarantine or isolation order, or advised by a healthcare provider to self-quarantine due to COVID-19. Or caring for my child if I'm an employee, if the child's school or place of care is closed, or the child's healthcare provider is unavailable, or their— excuse me, their care provider is unavailable due to public health emergency, or if I'm experiencing any other substantially similar condition as specified by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. So once again, top 3 basically are going to allow me to get 100% of my wages as it relates to this paid sick leave. Bottom 3 are going to go to 2/3, which we're going to touch on right now. Eligibility remains the same for employers, requires employers of fewer than 500 employees to provide full-time employees, regardless of the employee's duration of employment prior to leave, with 80 hours of paid sick leave at the employee's regular rate. So it's going to affect employers with fewer than 500 employees, those sick, those exposed, and caretakers. So I'm also going to be required to pay two-thirds of the employee's regular rate to one— yeah, and if it's to care for people for qualifying reasons on 4, 5, or 6 from the prior page. This is an important change in this section because it provides an exception for employers who are healthcare providers or emergency responders at their election. So you can elect out of components of this if you are healthcare providers or emergency responders. There are a cap on paid sick leave wages. So another significant change placed limits on the paid sick leave. Paid sick leave wages are limited to $511 per day, up to $5,110 total per employee, $5,110 per employee for their own use. So if I'm in that 1 through 3 category, or up to $200 per day, up to $2,000 total to care for others and any other substantially similar condition for those numbers 4 through 6. On the prior page. The original measure called for workers to receive their full pay but limited federal reimbursement to employers to that amount. So we've, we've once again seen another change of where this thing started and where it wound up. So how does this carry over and interact with your other paid leaves as an employer? This paid sick leave will not carry over to the following year, not like your normal paid sick leave, and it can be in addition to any paid sick leaves currently provided by your place of work. How do you calculate the rate of pay for folks that are part-time? Employees who work a part-time or a regular schedule are entitled to be paid based on the average number of hours the employee worked for the 6 months prior, same way as the first component. So this program once again goes into effect immediately April 2nd and will expire December 31st, 2020. So you're saying to yourself, all right, this is great, Here's what we can pay out to our employees. I heard something about a tax credit to get this back, and that is true. And this is the part where, of course, we don't have quite as much details at the moment, but the tax credits for paid sick and paid FMLA are going to be provided to employers that pay these out to their employees. So there's a series of refundable tax credits for employers who are required to provide the emergency paid sick leave and emergency paid family and medical leave act. these tax credits are going to go against the employer portion of your Social Security. So the employer portion of Social Security, while this limits application of the credit, you will be reimbursed if your cost for qualified sick leave or qualified family leave exceed the taxes that you would owe. So specifically, employers are entitled to refundable tax credit equal to 100% of the qualified sick leave wages paid by employers for each calendar quarter with the Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act. Once again, sick leave wages are capped at $511 per day, $200 per day if they're caring for a family member or child, and so your tax credits will not exceed those amounts. Now, the other thing to keep in mind here is that these tax credits and how they're going to be applied and how they're going to be reconciled is still a little bit fluid. Obviously, as a payroll company, we're going to have further guidance on that in the coming days. And for those of you on the line that are current clients of ERG, we will be discussing how this will look and work inside of our system and inside of our normal processes. So, as it relates to these changes that just got passed last night, that's all we're going to cover today. There are other provisions in there related to coverage for testing, requiring private healthcare plans, including insured, self-insured, and grandfather plans to provide coverage coverage for COVID-19 diagnostic testing and related services to employees and their covered dependents without cost sharing like deductibles, copayments, and coinsurance. And so that's something to look out for and definitely talk to your healthcare— your health insurance agent about and make sure that you have all the details you need as it relates to getting your team tested and what's covered on your plan and how that's going to operate going forward. All right, so here's a question that we're getting a lot over the next last few days. The scenario where an employer decides to close their business by choice or is required to close by public health authorities. Most circumstances, this has been temporary, and hopefully for all of you on the line, it continues to just be temporary. So when a company closes its operations temporarily, non-exempt employees only need to be paid for the actual hours worked. And that's really what we're going to focus on here is when do folks need to be paid, when do they not need to be paid, what are some other considerations as it relates to unemployment benefits. These are the things that once again our phone is ringing off the hook related to these particular topics. So for non-exempt employees, you really have 4 options. And non-exempt, for those of you out there, they— you may call them hourly. That's not exactly what makes them non-exempt, but that is a common commonality amongst non-exempt employees that they are traditionally hourly. You know, your first option would be to pay the employee for the time even though they did not work. Obviously uncommon, but if you're feeling very generous or you're well cashed, then that's a great thing to do. You can require that they take days off unpaid. You can also require that they use any available vacation time or PTO. Or you can allow employees to choose between taking unpaid days or using accrued vacation or PTO. All 4 options are compliant with state and federal law. We generally recommend the last option, allowing employees the option of using vacation time or PTO. But not requiring it. So if a company closes temporarily, exempt employees must be paid their regular salary if they work any portion of a week. So if you have a salaried exempt employee who's working at all, they're, they're going to be required to be paid because they're available for work for that week. So this holds true whether the office closure is for full or partial days. You may, however, require your exempt employees to use accrued vacation or PTO during a closure if you have a policy that indicates you will do do so or if this has been your practice in the past, which is an important point. If your office has closed for emergencies in the past and you have not required exempt employees to use vacation or PTO and you want to require that this time around, you should indicate ahead of the closure, if possible, that you are changing your policy or practice on this issue. Policies and practices are something we're going to talk a lot about throughout this conversation. When it comes to accrued vacation or PTO, it is safest to give employees advance notice if there are situations where you will use their accrued hours whether they like it or not. For exempt employees who don't have sufficient vacation or PTO to cover the closure, you are still required to provide them with their full regular salary. The only scenario where you will not be required to pay an exempt employee their full salary is if the office is closed for an entire work week or the employee is unable to come in for an entire work week and they do not work at all from home. So exempt employees could also lose exempt status if they fall below hours work thresholds, which also means they could lose benefits. There's a lot going on going on with your exempt staff that you certainly need to take into consideration. And when we look at this, it trickles into the benefits piece where if I look at putting my people on a furlough or lay them off, furlough being— the difference between a furlough and a layoff would be a furlough is the expectation that is a short-term layoff that I am expected that I will be coming back to work. And a lot of folks are taking the furlough route right now.. And things to consider if people are on a furlough is how are they going to pay benefits premiums? Are you going to pay them as you normally do as an employer and then recoup the cost later down the road? What if they don't return to work and you want— you still need to get the money back? Making sure you have a written agreement in place with the employee is critical. Most states are going to require it as it comes to a wage deduction, and so this is just additional measure to make sure that you as an employer are protected and not on the hook for employees' healthcare premiums after they leave or if they decide not to come back at the end of the furlough, or if you just can't bring them back. So a lot to take into consideration as it relates to benefits as well. Now let's talk about unemployment briefly. So I estimate that a little more than half of the folks on the call are from South Carolina, and as we are headquartered here in Columbia, South Carolina as well. So employees will be able to file for— excuse me, employers will be able to file for unemployment insurance in South Carolina on behalf of their employees. And so this is something that recently opened up through the South Carolina DEW, and I've seen a lot of other states starting to take some similar form of this due to the high volume of unemployment due to COVID shutdowns. Employers are able to request and file claims on their workers' behalf for up to 6 weeks of unemployment benefits. Once again, this is in South Carolina. If you choose to file on behalf of your employees, you must contact contact South Carolina DEW and sign an agreement letter before you can start filing claims for your employees. We're actually going to provide details on that in the Dropbox full of information we're going to share at the end of this webinar. So if you're in South Carolina, we'll have a detailed step-by-step process on how to do that. If, and if you're one of our clients and you're in another state, and then please just reach out and we'll inform you as to the regulations in your state. We work in all 50 states and are monitoring them all closely. So, but if your closure goes beyond the 6 weeks, then employees must contact SEDC to file for an extension of benefits and/or open a new claim. Traditionally, waiting periods range from 1 to 3 weeks when you start to look at unemployment. As you can see, there are many emergency processes being put in place, but be prepared to respond to requests for verification or information from the state unemployment department if you close for longer than the waiting period. So keep an eye on the mail, keep an eye— even if you're not going to be going to the office, make sure that you are in a great position to answer these questions so you can help your employees to take advantage of unemployment where necessary. So once again, if you have to go through an involuntary furlough, mandatory suspension from work generally without pay, a couple of things to consider. A lot of companies again are doing the furloughs. A furloughed employee generally has that expectation of returning to work and retaining their benefits. The important thing to note is that if I am furloughed, I cannot be doing doing any work during that furlough. You need to cut off my access to email, my access to company media. Any work done triggers payment. So for non-exempt, it's not as difficult because if I were to just log in and help a customer for 30 minutes, you pay me for 30 minutes, it's easy. For exempt, any work during a work week, even answering a single, single email could trigger that I need to be paid my full salary for the week. So during a furlough, you want to limit at— you want to just completely restrict access to facilities. And technology considerations, you want to restrict email and company media during the furlough. It's very important that their access is cut off. And just further on the benefits continuation, as an employer, you get to decide how you want to manage health benefits during a furlough. You can continue to share the premium with the affected employees or cancel their coverage and offer COBRA. Canceling insurance will— typically doesn't make sense in the case of a furlough for a few weeks, but when you're talking about a longer temporary temporary layoff without a clear or anticipated return date, this could make more sense. You have to consider if people are on furlough, how are they going to pay the premiums and how you're going to get— recoup those costs. It's important to address any benefits implications in your communication to employees. If you continue cost sharing, you will want to clearly delineate logistics for employees to pay their portion of the premium, assuming you want to keep employees on benefits during a short furlough. I recommend you confirm with your insurance carrier that you can leave employees on your health insurance if they aren't actively working and discuss any other questions you have with your carrier or broker. And this brings up just a quick aside, something that I'm noticing a lot of businesses haven't done yet, and it is time to have an all-hands meeting if you have not had one. If you have not started to communicate to your staff what the status is, what things are going to look like, what possibilities exist in the future for the business, now is the time. There is no need to further delay this. You need to get out. I mean, we're already a little bit behind, but, and we obviously can't see the future, but your employees need to hear from you what you've done, what you're going to do, and what you do and don't know at this point. There's a lot we don't know, and it's okay to say that, but they need to hear it from you, not from the grapevine. Alright, so I'm going to transition away from that and talk a little bit less about laying people off and talk about when we're able to keep people and set them up in a remote environment. So for some of you on this call, having remote employees has been a natural extension of your business for years. Maybe it's a portion of your employees, maybe it's a large percentage of your employees. For us, we have maybe 20-25% of our workforce works remote, and people regularly work from home. So it's not a huge deal. However, we do have to look at some specific items for those who are not normally working from home. And for those of you that this is a new process, then there is a lot to consider. First of all, you have to make sure it is a feasible arrangement for your company and your business operations. Can you properly serve your customers, and can you properly provide your service and properly allow your employees to get work done in a remote environment? So when you start to look at non-exempt employees, you want to make sure you have appropriate technology to track hours. As it relates to employees as a whole, you want to make sure you have all of the great communication tools to help employees. It's kind of funny, actually. I had a question for Zoom, who's hosting this meeting right now, their online webinar tool, and I submitted something to their chat, and I was number 482 in You queue. in their chat. So Zoom right now, while an incredibly popular and wonderful tool, is also up to their eyeballs in new users. And so, you know, choose the right tools that work well for you. Obviously, things like Slack to communicate internally and making sure that you have access— employees have access to the applications they need from a remote environment. Talking to your IT provider would be the most ideal route there. So the second piece of that, once again talking about your IT providers, the security component of it. Making sure your employees are accessing from a secure network and also they're aware of phishing issues in this type of environment. We are seeing a massive uptick, as if there could be any more of an uptick, in phishing attempts. But we are seeing a lot of phishing attempts with COVID-19-related information, right? So here's our latest COVID-19 update. Policy sent as the CEO of the company in a masked email and asking that person to click on a link which houses malware or virus. And so phishing is at a very high level. Make sure you are educating your staff and putting proper security protocols in place. What I like to do and what I like to typically suggest for clients, especially once again assuming most of the companies on this call are below 50 employees, is finding an internal champion who can be your remote work champion, who can be the person who is leading the efforts to make sure that people are comfortable in the remote work environment, they're set up with the tools they need. Going back to this first one, you know, one of the first things that we mandate when folks are going to work from home is, hey, same way as here in the office, you've got to have your two monitors, your, your, you know, extended tools from beyond your laptop. You have to be able to set up in an environment where it's, you know, not at your dinner table where your kids are running around right next to you. We're trying to get them set up for success and providing them with the tools where they can do that. So these are resources that we purchase as a company and provide to our employees and/or we provide them with a stipend to do so. So make sure that you're setting your people up for success to be productive at home. And collaboration is huge. Once again, I don't want to turn this into a commercial for Zoom, even though I do own some stock, but the— being able to jump on these video calls. I noticed when I logged in, I didn't turn off the video, and I'm sure if you poke around in the thing, a lot of folks have their video on right now. I'm tempted to look, but I'm not going to. So having video calls where we can have our entire team collaborating, talking to each other, and even just one-to-ones in that environment where we can still see each other, even when we're working remote, helps to break down some of those walls and concerns about working remote. One of the things I'm not hearing as much about as it relates to remote working is this fourth bullet, and that's training. Training your people how to be productive at home. And so this could be as simple as, you know, we're having a webinar with our team tomorrow where we're going to talk about those best practices, and our staff that have worked remote for years are going to share some of the things that work really well for them. We're going to talk through some of the best practices we're outlining here today. We're going to talk We're going to talk through some best practices specific to our industry. We're going to talk about their setups. We're going to take a look at their setups. We're going to make sure everybody is set up for success. And just providing that brief training that's not just a, hey, here's your laptop, go work from home, go take care of business. You know, do the follow-up and collaborate and make sure that people are set up for success in their home environment. And then finally, we want to make sure we've got policies wrapped around all this. Do we have it in the handbook? Who's eligible? Who's not eligible? You should create a policy for remote employees and also device-related policies to make sure that you are compliant and to make sure that your employees understand what is expected from them in a work-from-home environment. It is very different to, you know, we have a staff of all ages, some folks that are fresh out of college, and it's very unique for them to come into the professional workforce and then go right back to working from their home where they've got 3 roommates and a dog and a whole lot of things going on. We have to set them up not only with the tools to succeed, the training to succeed, but also So, in the policy, outline proper expectations as far as what is to happen in a remote work environment. So, those are just a few things. Like I said, there are tons of resources. This seems to be— outside of learning how to properly wash your hands and sanitize your office, I think the remote work environment information is the most widely distributed at the moment. So, I'm sure you can find tons of great resources out there, and I'd be happy to receive any that you— that you find as well. All right. Let's dive into some FAQs. Let's talk about the things that people are blowing up our phone and email about every day. So we are getting a lot related to kind of similar-ish questions. So I'll try to address some of them with multiple answers for similar questions. But first question we are getting is, can employees refuse to travel to areas considered safe from COVID-19. So areas considered safe, no particular high-risk area, but it's still travel nonetheless. You can require employees to travel as long as you are meeting your general duty under OSHA to provide a workplace, including any travel location, that is free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm to employees. Now the question becomes whether you want to force that employee to travel. Requiring a fearful employee to travel will erode your trust with that individual and their confidence in you and likely cause them a whole lot of anxiety. So once again, why don't you consider video calls or video conferencing or canceling the meeting that they need to go on. Obviously, some of these things are much more inexpensive alternatives to traveling for the next few weeks or months. Also, keep in mind, Employees who are immunocompromised or have other relevant disabilities may be entitled to an accommodation, such as not traveling, given the current conditions, under the ADA. So, definitely something to consider in that circumstance. Can we send employees home if they are symptomatic? And there are a whole lot of variations of this question that all pretty much come back to the same answer, and that answer is yes. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC, as I will refer to them going forward, have advised employers that employees who appear to have symptoms of COVID-19, to be fever, cough, shortness of breath, should be separated from other employees and sent home immediately. If the employee feels well enough to work, consider whether or not they can effectively work remotely or telecommute. Important to note that non-exempt employees may be entitled to a few extra hours of pay if you're in a state with a reporting time pay, but this cost will be well worth it when you talk about removing a potential hazard from your workplace and maintaining the safety of your office environment. So, given COVID-19, if an employee is out of the office due to sickness, can we ask them about their symptoms? So, great one, a little tricky, right? So, the answer is yes, but there is a right way to do it and a wrong way to do How do you do it? In most circumstances, employers shouldn't ask about an employee's symptoms, as that could be construed as a disability-related inquiry. Under the circumstances, however, and in line with an employer's responsibility to provide a safe workplace, we recommend asking specifically about the symptoms of COVID-19 and making it clear that this is the extent of the information you are looking for. Here's a suggested communication in writing that you could send. Thank you for staying home while sick. In the interest of keeping all employees as safe as possible, we'd like to know if you are having any of the symptoms of COVID-19. Are you experiencing a fever, cough, and/or shortness of breath? Now just remember, medical information must be kept confidential as required by the ADA. If the employee does reveal that they have symptoms of COVID-19 or has a confirmed case, you should look to the CDC's interim guidance to determine next steps. If an employee presents himself at work with a fever or difficulty breathing, this indicates that they should seek medical evaluation, and you are well within your right to ask them to do so. While these symptoms are not always associated with COVID-19 and the likelihood is low, it pays to err on the side of caution. Retrain your supervisors on the importance of not overreacting to situations in the workplace potentially related to COVID-19 in order to prevent panic among the workforce. And going back to that medical, uh, medical records needing to be kept confidential. The last thing on earth you want to do is have somebody respond that they are having some of those symptoms, and then you go and tell several members of your team, because now you violated their rights. All right. Next question we're getting: What if my employee discloses that their family member or roommate has COVID-19? So, once again, we want to follow the same guidance as before from the CDC. Employers should ask somebody who lives with someone confirmed to have COVID-19 to notify someone on your team as soon as possible. We should then go to the CDC guidance and determine next steps, which would be to treat the situation as if the suspected case is a confirmed case and sending them home away from potentially— in the case to eliminate potential infection of other employees. Communicate with any other workers. Let them know what's going on, that they were asymptomatic, but we wanted to send them home acting out of an abundance of caution. Without employee's permission. So we want to make sure that we are not putting high-risk folks in, in our workplace if we can prevent it. And once again, we want to try to allow them to telecommute and work remote when possible if they're not displaying any symptoms. So this one's coming up a good bit as well, surprisingly. So what if I have a fearful employee who refuses to come to work? Well, generally employees do not have a right to refuse to work based only on a generalized fear of becoming sick. But if their fear is not based on objective evidence or possible exposure, you can enforce your normal attendance policies. But you should be prepared for employees to express anxiety about coming to work and evaluate any requests on a case-by-case basis. You can consider alternative arrangements. Once again, telecommuting is an option. Employees who are immunocompromised or have other relevant disabilities may be entitled to reasonable accommodations, such as working from home or taking a leave if working from home is not possible. So if the nature of the employee's position does not allow telecommuting and there is no legitimate threat, reiterate the steps they can take to keep themselves safe from contracting the virus and explain the proactive steps you are taking to keep infection risk low in the workplace. Which, once again, I'm going back to the assumption that all of you have gone from, you know, 0 to 3 on these steps and further sanitizing your workplace, doing everything you can to create a safe work environment. For your employees. So, can we require or allow certain groups of employees but not others to work from home? Great question, Matt. Yes, employers may offer different benefits or terms of employment to different groups of employees as long as the distinction is based on non-discriminatory criteria. For instance, if I've got a telecommuting option or requirement based on a type of work performed, employee classification, exempt versus non-exempt, or location of the office or the employee, those are all viable options. I just want to be careful that I'm not cherry-picking out individuals who do the same role as everybody else, but I don't believe they can be as productive, so I'm going to force them to come into the office. That could be deemed discrimination. Employers should be able to support the business justification for allowing or requiring certain groups to telecommute but not others. How do I make a telecommuting policy? So if you are— going to start having folks work remote, or you already do, you should have a policy in place around this. So although some of us are going to be comfortable sending everyone home with their laptop and saying, "Go forth and be productive," most of us are going to want to be a little more specific. A good telecommuting policy will generally address productivity standards, hours of work, and how and when the employees should be in contact with their manager and/or subordinates, and how office expenses are going to be addressed.. For instance, your policy might require that employees are available by phone and messaging app during their regular in-office hours, that they meet all their normal deadlines and maintain client contacts as usual, and that they check in with their manager at the close of each workday to report what they have accomplished. Be sure to let people know who to contact if they run into technical difficulties at home. Obviously becomes a big challenge, right? So you'll also want to specify how expenses relating to work from— how expenses related to working from home will be dealt with. If you don't expect there to be any additional expenses involved, communicate it. You don't want employees thinking that this is their chance to purchase a standing desk and fancy ergonomic chair on your dime. That said, you should consider whether employees will incur reasonable and necessary expenses while working from home. Some states even mandate reimbursements for these kind of expenses, but it's a good practice to cover such costs even if it's not required. Covered, but even if it's not required by law. All right, so as we start to wrap this up, we've got some action items as we walk away. I've obviously put a lot on you today, and there are things that are going to impact each of you, and maybe not all of this for everyone, but there are certainly going to be elements of this that are going to apply to almost everybody on the call. So the first thing you want to do is assess the best route for you and your team and your company company as it relates to restricting contact from others, social distancing, your business operations, keeping others safe, and trying to maintain a level of productivity during this unique time. You need to decide on which of these things apply to you: remote work, layoffs, hiring. We have a lot of clients that this has actually turned into a business boon for them, and they're having to hire and try to maintain operations and onboard new hires in an environment where they've had to go go completely remote, which creates its own unique set of challenges. So after you assess and decide what you're going to do, sit down and make a plan. Again, don't just shoot from the hip. You want to have something in place that echoes confidence to your team that you've got a plan in place and that you're going to be addressing things even though they're fluid. And we know that we don't— we know that we don't know everything yet. We can still have a plan in place with contingencies later on down the road. And finally, update your policies and procedures. I think back to 2008 when the economy took a dive, and as unemployment rates climbed and as things continued to change, I saw employees grasping at straws on their way out the door with employers, whether that be discrimination cases going up, wrongful termination cases going through the roof. People were desperate and they were making desperate moves. And so you want to make sure that you've got well-documented policies and procedures that can help to protect your business, all the while doing the right thing for your team. And ultimately, remember, your people are your number one asset. It's time to show empathy and do what you can to take care of those who take care of your business. Let's all band together and do everything we can to take care of each other and our teams. You're seeing a lot of great guidance about what we can do to support fellow local small businesses and what we can do to help to help our employees in these times of need, and it's been amazing to watch the way people come together and do good in times that are hard. I'm happy to be here to help to support you in any way that I can, and we look forward to helping you to not only navigate this unique situation but also come out of it better than you were prior to. If you're not familiar with ERG Payroll and HR, we are a payroll and HR HR Software and Outsourcing Company, once again headquartered in Columbia, South Carolina. You know, we've spent a lot of our week learning about this and proactively reaching out to our clients to try to help as many people as possible, even those that aren't our clients. Obviously, certainly got a lot of emails, and I will definitely get a lot of emails after this webinar from folks that are not our clients. And I want to do my best to try to help you navigate this unique situation. We process payroll in all 50 states and have state-specific HR guidance on these topics and more. We're a mission— excuse me— we are a mission-driven business. We give away 5% of our business to nonprofits around the country that help to educate children and transition the homeless back to permanent housing. So keep us in mind in any way that we can help you in the future. And I'm incredibly grateful that you would spend some time with us today, and I look forward to talking to each of you in the coming days.