If you’ve ever thought HR is an easy gig, now is the time to reconsider. As an outsider, you might envision recruiting events, teambuilding workshops, and other employee engagement activities. But in reality, HR involves a ton of un-fun tasks and processes as well. HR professionals are under immense pressure to make the company go ‘round, and this has only intensified since the onset of COVID-19. 

HR Policy Management During COVID-19

The pandemic stress on HR teams increased in stages as the virus began to take shape. At first, HR concerns were centered around virus protocols and tough decisions like when/whether to send employees home as the U.S. shut down at varying speeds. For positions that required employees to be in person, HR had to help create and institute policies and practices to protect company employees. In situations where remote work was possible, HR needed to develop and implement teleworking policies that enabled employees to work productively from home. Then, as vaccinations became available and certain areas loosened COVID-19 restrictions, HR teams had to navigate what the future of work looked like for their employees across all of the company’s locations. And these were just the HR complexities for companies that were able to maintain business operations without significant disruption. 

Pandemic-Related Layoffs and Reductions in Force

Then there were the companies that had no choice but to make quick and difficult human capital decisions to account for the sudden virus-induced financial ramifications. HR teams everywhere had to manage furloughs, layoffs, and reductions in force — all of which are emotionally challenging at any time, but especially in the midst of a global pandemic. Now HR professionals were trying to manage severance when their hands were already full handling virus-related workplace concerns. And, of course, the picture was bleak without considering any COVID-19 impacts on their own personal lives.

Enter: The Great Resignation

Finally, the push of the envelope came as the Great Resignation took shape. With employees everywhere feeling burnt out and frustrated as the virus persisted, they started to resign en masse. Suddenly, in addition to everything else on HR’s plate, they were facing unprecedented levels of employee departures. Increased turnover led to workforce morale issues that needed to be addressed, as well as the obvious need to recruit and hire new employees to fill the positions that were becoming vacant at a steadily rising pace. 

HR’s Breaking Point

Work has become so stressful that HR professionals have started taking part in the Great Resignation, which only means one thing: something’s got to give. What can be done to help alleviate the pressure HR teams face today? Make their lives easier. This can be approached from many different angles, but technology is at the top. There are new and/or better ways to handle some of the workload. 

The Solution: Technology

By nature, HR is highly administrative. Since HR teams handle so many sensitive topics like leaves of absence, performance concerns, and employee conduct, documentation is a must. Technology can help lessen the administrative burden in a number of ways, like using electronic forms, managing benefits enrollment, and automating routine tasks. In recent months, employers have started to embrace the use of severance management technology, like Onwards HR, to make one of the most painful processes easier.  

Managing Severance

Severance, whether due to layoffs or for-cause terminations, can take a very long time to process — up to 45 days when handled manually. Why? First, there are many teams involved in the process, such as HR, Legal, Finance, Immigration, Employee Relations, Investigations, and Compensation. When coordinating with so many different departments, it’s inevitable to experience process inefficiencies surrounding communication. Onwards HR’s communication hub allows teams to see real-time updates throughout the severance process, as well as notify team members when action is needed from them.

Compliance with WARN Act and OWBPA

In addition to the delays caused by having so many [necessary] cooks in the kitchen, the administrative pieces require significant time. After employees have been selected and finalized, it’s time to evaluate the event for compliance. Employers must evaluate for WARN Act applicability and, if WARN is triggered, advance notifications must be generated 60 days in advance. Severance automation technology can help analyze for WARN applicability and, if necessary, generate the required notices.

Next comes the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act (OWBPA), a regulation to prevent age discrimination. OWBPA has very specific waiver requirements, including seven criteria that must be met in order for the waiver to be considered valid. To further complicate things, employees must be given a 45-day (in most cases) period to review and sign OWBPA waivers. The good news is that employers can leverage separation automation technology to generate mandated waivers and ensure proper adherence to the time requirements 

Severance Automation Pay and Packages 

Are you getting tired yet? The biggest, most costly mistakes are made when determining severance. Whether it be a simple miscalculation, an extra zero at the end of a value, or severance pay eligibility based on certain milestones, it’s important that the process is error free. Severance pay calculators are often configurable and include algorithms that help mitigate risk of incorrect severance payments, providing immeasurable peace of mind. 

Once the proper disclosures are determined, it’s time to generate the severance packages. Many HR professionals deal with the headache of utilizing mail merge functionality, which is mildly frustrating at best. Through automation, these packages can be generated in seconds, saving significant time on non-value add administrative tasks. The best part? Separation automation platforms also deliver the packages, track the agreements, and retain all the relevant documentation, which is particularly useful in developing a comprehensive audit trail.  

The Takeaway: Lend HR a Hand

Working in HR is no easy feat, especially given the current state of the workforce. The Great Resignation has no end in sight, and employers need to act fast before stress leads to a bare-bones HR team. Consider the ways technology can make HR’s role a bit easier so employers can retain the HR talent that helps retain the company’s talent.

Ready to introduce your HR team to a game-changing tool? Request a demo of Onwards HR’s severance automation platform.