GreatWork Blog

Building better workplaces through compliance, culture, connection

In the workplace, regardless of the diversity you bring, everyone wants four things: to be recognized, appreciated, valued, and have their talents and skills utilized. The challenge is in how to make sure everyone is getting what they want and need. Learn more at our October 13 session on Understanding and Managing Different Behavioral Styles. 

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has announced that it will extend the 2019 and 2020 EEO-1 filing deadline to October 25, 2021. The previous deadline was August 23, 2021. 

Cascade is excited to announce that the 2021 Regional Benefits Survey report is now available! With 381 participants, this survey report is a great resource for benefits and policies data for Oregon and Washington organizations that want to review their benefits packages and benchmark their benefits and policies against local competition.

Check out great data on common benefit practices.

Silos may be a natural and predictable phenomenon with work groups. They are certainly common. Are they always a bad thing? Probably not. When speaking of silos, typically workplaces are referring to the “I-am-only-interested-in-my-group” dynamics that occur between day shift and swing shift, or between sales and production, between administration and front-line service. Information isn’t shared, resources are hoarded, barriers are erected and business suffers.

As we continue to emerge and adapt to the effects the pandemic has had on our personal and professional worlds, I wanted to reach out to make sure you are aware of an upcoming virtual leadership conference Cascade is co-hosting. From one leader to another, this is an event you won’t want to miss! In fact, you may want to have your entire leadership team attend.

Measuring and evaluating the effectiveness of your employee benefit offerings enables you to maximize both your organization’s and your employees’ unique nature and needs.

Terminating an employee can be a stressful process for any employer, as the decision to terminate employment carries the risk of a possible legal claim. All employers, whether you have just a few employees or thousands, need to have the proper policies and practices in place to negate the risk of legal challenges down the road.

Minimum wage increased in the Portland Metro area on July 1, 2021 to $14.00 but that likely isn’t enough to attract or retain many in the current labor market. An overwhelming amount of businesses are reporting difficulty in hiring workers and retaining existing employees. This is always a key concern for employers but not to the current magnitude. 

The 2021 Regional Benefits Survey is now open for participation! With over 100 questions, this survey is a great resource for Pacific Northwest organizations looking to review their benefit packages and get a sense of the local competition. With the recent hiring difficulties, remaining competitive against multiple offers is more important than ever!

Last month during Member Appreciation Month, Cascade members experienced a great virtual session on the best practices to avoid employment lawsuits presented by Randy Sutton, a partner with Saalfeld Griggs Business Lawyers. At one point, Randy referred to the “paranoid lawyer” and followed up with a list of actions in the workplace that create unnecessary risk and make it easier for a plaintiff to prove pretext.

The Oregon Legislature passed several employment related bills this session. Many of these will take effect at the beginning of 2022, but some were passed by emergency order, meaning they’ve already taken effect.

Employee benefit programs are rooted deeply into Cascade’s history of helping its members build better workplaces. We understand that each employee is different and that every employer wants to meet their healthcare needs, within budgetary reasonableness of course. Cascade’s benefits partner, CSNW Benefits, digs deeper for you!

Are you feeling overwhelmed with recruiting right now? You are not alone. Everywhere you turn, there are employers offering hiring bonuses and other incentives to try and attract candidates. Anyone who is serious about finding great people has started exploring different recruiting avenues from networking to job boards to hiring dedicated (and expensive) recruiters. 

The 2021 Regional Pay Survey reports are now available! This year, 553 organizations participated from across Oregon and Washington, representing data for 41,467 employees. From that data we were able to report on 527 positions overall. Of the 553 participants, 192 were nonprofits, which resulted in 195 positions being reportable in the Nonprofit Report.

With all the changes we’ve endured the past 15 months, let us not forget about the scheduled minimum wage increase effective July 1st. The chart below outlines the increase amounts each year by region and which counties are included in each region.

Members are the reason that Cascade Employers Association has existed for nearly 75 years. As a “thank you” for your ongoing support, we are dedicating June to YOU! We have set aside the entire month of June to show our appreciation to Cascade members with free webinars, prizes and more!

With restrictions easing and more employees returning to the workplace, we know you have questions about both the legal and practical issues around the impact of COVID-19 vaccines and the new mask requirements. We hope you can join us for this one-hour live conversation on May 26th to participate and ask questions as you make critical decisions for your organization. 

OSHA recently released guidance related to when employers are required to record adverse reactions to the COVID-19 vaccine.

Many of us have been invited into the supervisor’s role because we were competent in a specific area and others thought we should be “promoted.” Next thing we know we are dealing with human beings which can be rewarding or frustrating.

Behind every great organization is a well-trained staff. Hundreds of employers rely on Cascade’s proven soft skills and compliance training to achieve performance improvement and personal success for their managers, supervisors, and employees.

The EEOC recently announced that the data collection portal for Component 1 of the 2019 and 2020 EEO-1 Report will open on April 26th, 2021. The deadline for submitting 2019 and 2020 data will be Monday, July 19th, 2021.

Equal Pay Day was on March 24, 2021. Equal Pay Day marks the day into the year on which it takes women on average to earn what men did in the previous year. 

Inviting employees to provide feedback about their work experience can lead to process improvements, increased customer satisfaction, greater profitability, greater employee retention, and overall improved organizational performance.

Because sitting down in a room with a group of colleagues to address challenges and how to tackle them head-on really isn’t a thing right now, Cascade created HR Connect. This newly-added membership benefit focuses on trending HR topics and best practices around compliance, culture and connection.

With the COVID-19 vaccination process continuing to roll-out, employers are faced with novel employment issues. We can help you understand the legal framework surrounding vaccinations in the workplace and practical implications including employee morale and retention. If this is a conversation your organization is having or needs to have, we have a webinar for you.

For years we have been teaching supervisors, managers and team leaders to over-communicate to their teams. We would encourage leaders to articulate with effective repetition our vision, rallying cries, day-to-day policy and procedure updates, team priorities, staffing changes. 

In 2020, Oregon had 222 discrimination claims filed with the EEOC.  The largest number of complaints (56.3%) came in the area of retaliation.

Cascade Employers Association is focused on building better, more equitable, and inclusive workplaces through compliance, culture, and connection and the team is growing so we can continue to give you the exceptional support we are known for. 

Typically, our recommendation on best practice is to formally analyze market data at least every three years, using multiple market sources. There can be many reasons why you would want to look at data more frequently for reasons such as high turnover and an increase in market demand for certain jobs.