Take simple steps to start going green at the office

At home, many of us have taken steps to become more environmentally friendly, such as carrying reusable grocery bags and switching to more energy-efficient light bulbs. When it comes to carrying that same green ethic into the workplace, it’s easy to get overwhelmed at the thought of taking on such a large project.

However, going green at the office can be a simple process to start and involves many of the same simple steps you take at home. Borrow a few of these ideas and take the first steps to turning your workplace into an eco-friendly oasis:

• Buy plants. Plants not only brighten up the office, but also improve the quality of the air in your building. There a wide variety of plants that can flourish indoors. Talk to your local nursery about plants that would work best in your office.


• Only print when necessary. Paper is one of the most wasted items in the workplace. When you want to print something, ask yourself if it is absolutely necessary to have a hard copy.


• Print with eco-friendly ink. Soy-based toners offer an environmentally friendly alternative to the petroleum-based options. Using soy-based ink also increases the recyclability of paper, so that when you have to print, you know you’re doing it in the ‘greenest’ way possible.


• Purchase recycled office products. From printer paper to the labor law posters along the walls, do your research and find the best recycled products on the market.


• Consider using electronic forms. The recent changes to the Form I-9 turned into a green disaster after hundreds of companies threw out out stacks of old forms, only to be told to start using them again. Electronic forms allow you to print out the documents you need, only when you need them. No more wasted stacks of unused forms the next time laws change.


• Turn it off. Turning off the lights when you leave a room is a simple way to make a positive impact on your energy costs. Take it a step further by shutting down your computer and switching appliances off when you leave the office at the end of the day.


• Buy reusable utensils. Instead of going through boxes and boxes of plastic utensils every month, ask employees to bring their own from home or invest in a set of inexpensive silverware for the office. Switching to the real thing will not only reduce waste, but will also save you money.

With more organizations and manufacturers jumping on the ‘green’ bandwagon, creating a more environmentally friendly workplace is easier than ever before. With a little bit of creativity, going green in the office can be easy and fun.

Have any more ideas for going green at work? Leave a comment and let us know.

Read these related posts for more ideas:

HR survey reveals top green business practices

Commuter benefits a growing business trend

Want happy employees? Promote public transportation

Recycle your way to a ‘green’ workplace

Going green at the office? Start with your printers

Take simple steps to start going green at the office

Stimulus plan subsidizes COBRA, expands unemployment insurance

President Barack Obama signed the $787 billion stimulus package into law yesterday hoping to provide a boost to the nation's continuing recession.

"I don't want to pretend that today marks the end of our economic problems, nor does it constitute all of what we're going to have to do to turn our economy around," said Obama, who signed the bill at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, underscoring its hope of creating environmentally-friendly jobs.

"But today does mark the beginning of the end; the beginning of what we need to do to create jobs for Americans scrambling in the wake of layoffs; the beginning of what we need to do to provide relief for families worried that they won't be able to pay next month's bills; the beginnings of the first steps to set our economy on a firmer foundation, paving the way to long-term growth and prosperity." Read the full Boston Globe story.

The stimulus plan contains specific measures that will effect most businesses across the country, including a COBRA subsidy for laid-off workers, hiring incentives and new HR requirements.

Roughly $21 billion of the stimulus package is available to help workers who have been laid off to keep their employer-provided health insurance through COBRA, the federal law that gives unemployed workers the right to maintain their employer health insurance after a layoff.

The federal government will pay 65 percent of COBRA premiums for a period of nine months for employees who are laid off from September 1, 2008 through December 31, 2009. Employers will receive a payroll tax credit to offset the subsidy. Employers must notify former employees who are eligible for the new subsidy by March 1.

Documents will have to be updated as the new rule requires that information on the COBRA subsidy is to be included in employers' COBRA notices.

The stimulus also outlines tax benefits for hiring certain types of workers. If your company hires an unemployed military veteran or a person who didn’t finish high school, you could receive a $2,400 per employee tax credit as part of the Work Opportunity Tax Credit. The two new classes of qualified workers were added to the “target group” of disadvantaged workers.

Other HR requirements included in the stimulus plan:

• An increase of weekly unemployment benefits by $25.
• An extension of the temporary emergency unemployment compensation program through December 2009. The program provides up to 33 weeks of extended unemployment benefits.
• Unemployment compensation to workers who leave an employer for "compelling family reasons," such as domestic violence, illness or disability of an immediate family member.

As the Department of Labor releases more information on the compete details of the stimulus plan and what will be required of businesses, G.Neil's legal team will be there to help make sure your organization is fully compliant.

Please check back often or subscribe to our blog for the latest updates on how the stimulus plan impacts your business.

For more on how the stimulus package will impact your business, read:

USA Today - Employers fear cost of health insurance for jobless workers

HR Morning - Obama stimulus package contains 6 big paperwork changes for you

Boston Globe - Stimulus is signed as storm builds

About.com: Human Resources - Economic stimulus package and COBRA

Stimulus plan subsidizes COBRA, expands unemployment insurance

Why DO businesses pay for things that are free from the government?

As Veritas points out, the government provides most forms and postings to businesses at no cost, and most business people understand that this is available. Which raises the question: “Why do businesses pay for government forms and other compliance materials that are available for free from the government?”

The answer we hear from customers involves their definition of “free.” They place a high value on their work time and have more pressing business matters to address. They recognize that accessing the appropriate compliance materials, interpreting their purpose and requirements, monitoring them for frequent changes, and downloading and printing documents on their own is often less cost-efficient than relying on labor law experts such as G.Neil to provide these services. As an added value, we also provide tools and resources that make executing your documentation easier and error-free.

Also, there is no single government-supplied resource that provides everything a business needs to maintain compliance. And even more concerning, is the fact that government agencies and regulators have no obligation to advise businesses when requirements change. So while the Department of Labor does provide downloadable posters on their website, this government agency is only one of the more than 150 different agencies that issue and frequently update more than 500 different mandatory labor law postings. This makes a “do-it-yourself” philosophy for maintaining compliance higher risk and more time-consuming than many realize.

Of course, I can make these statements as a provider of such compliance tools, but our customers can speak for themselves.

Anybody else have an answer for the question: “Why do businesses pay for government forms and other compliance materials that are available for free from the government?”

Susan Drenning

President, G.Neil

Why DO businesses pay for things that are free from the government?

Possible jail time for noncompliant recruiting practices

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement policy can put recruiters in jail for workplace immigration law violations, as reported in a recent Workforce article.

Employers who have not fully trained their recruiters in new state regulations and federal I-9 compliance could be looking at stiff penalties and possible jail time, according to the article.

Until new federal legislation is enacted, recruiters are being caught up in the nationwide crackdown on undocumented workers.

The current Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) policy allows for criminal arrests for workplace immigration law violations. In 2007, ICE made 863 work-site criminal arrests of corporate officers, managers and contractors, and 4077 administrative arrests.

“ICE commonly stage raids at the workplace and then move straight to corporate headquarters.”

As of December 26, 2007, employers must be using the updated Form I-9 that was released by the Department of Homeland Security in November. Read previous HR Forum posts regarding the updated I-9 form.

Read our new Form I-9 FAQ for more information on the revisions.

Possible jail time for noncompliant recruiting practices

Form I-9 in a nutshell - What you need to know…

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a revised form I-9 on November 7, 2007. The most significant change to the form was a reduction in the number of documents that employees may present to establish their identity and work eligibility (also known as "List A" of the List of Acceptable Documents on the back of the Form I-9).

All new employees, including U.S. citizens, must verify work eligibility with a Form I-9 when they are hired. Completed forms do not need to be submitted to the government, but employers must hold on to them. Employers are required by law to keep on file a hard copy or electronic version of the Form I-9 for three years after the employee's date of hire or for one year after the date the employee leaves the company (whichever date is later).

The new acceptable List A documents are:

• U.S. passport (unexpired or expired)
• Permanent Resident Card or Alien Registration Receipt Card (Form I-551)
• An unexpired foreign passport with a temporary I-551 stamp
• An unexpired Employment Authorization Document that contains a photograph (Form I-766, I-688, I-688A or I-688B)
• An unexpired foreign passport with an unexpired Arrival-Departure Record, Form I-94, bearing the same name as the passport and containing an endorsement of the alien’s nonimmigrant status, if that status authorizes the alien to work for the employer

You can no longer accept:

• A Certificate of U.S. Citizenship (Form N-560 or N-561)
• A Certificate of Naturalization (Form N-550 or N-570)
• An Alien Registration Receipt Card (I-151)
• An unexpired Reentry Permit (Form I-327) or
• An unexpired Refugee Travel Document (Form I-571)

The new form must be used starting 11/7/07.

Order your updated forms.

Form I-9 in a nutshell - What you need to know…

New Form I-9 Just Released

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that a revised Employment Eligibility Verification Form (better known as the Form I-9) is now available for use. All employers are required by law to complete a Form I-9 for each employee hired in the United States.

The new form is effective immediately, however, there will be a grace period for companies not yet in compliance.

The document was revised to reflect a reduction of the number of documents an employer can accept to confirm the identity and work eligibility of their employees.

Order updated forms today.

New Form I-9 Just Released

EEO-1 Report Revised for 2007

The Employer Information Report (EEO-1) changed last year and covered employers should now be using the revised EEO-1 Report format for 2007. Our New Hire EEO-1 Data Sheet complies with the new requirements and was updated to include the new race, ethnicity and job categories for 2007.

Earlier last year, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced the implementation of the first major changes to the EEO-1 Report. The EEO-1 Report must be filed annually by employers with 100 or more employees, or employers with federal government contracts of $50,000 or more and 50 or more employees.

You can learn more about the EEO-1 reporting requirements on the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Web site.

EEO-1 Report Revised for 2007

New Final HIPAA Regulations Released

New HIPAA regulations were issued yesterday. The new rules clarify HIPAA's non-discrimination provisions and provide new guidelines on wellness plans (e.g., sponsoring employee memberships at fitness clubs, offering incentives for quitting smoking, etc.). While the effective date of the HIPAA regulations is February 12, 2007, employers have until July 1, 2007 to comply (the "first day of the company's plan year beginning on or after July 1, 2007").

If you have an existing G.Neil HIPAA product, you are still in compliance. The new HIPAA regulations add and clarify information that's addressed in our HIPAA Portability Guide so we’ll be working on updates along with some other ideas we have for products to help you stay in HIPAA compliance. Stay tuned...you’ll hear about it first, right here.

And, as always, if you’ve got any specific suggestions for products you’d like to see, please feel free to share your ideas with us here.

New Final HIPAA Regulations Released

I-9 Confusion

Recently, I discovered some very interesting...um, quirks, let's call them...about the Form I-9.

First of all, there is a typo in List A — #9 reads Form I-571, not 1-571. It gets better, though...there are actually forms in this list that are no longer considered acceptable documentation to establish identity and employment eligibility.

How did I figure this out? I read it on the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website. Don't you visit that website daily to keep up with what may be wrong on their forms?

Many "clarifications" to acceptable List A documents can be found there, including the fact that a bunch of forms like the Form I-766 (Employment Authorization Document), Certificate of U.S. Citizenship, Certificate of Naturalization, Unexpired Reentry Permit and Unexpired Refugee Travel Document are all out. Plus, Form I-151 is out, but Form I-551 is still in.

This is how we find out that we can't accept half the documents on the list?! Confused? Me too! How many hardworking decent keepers of the I-9s just happen to wander onto the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website and come across this information?

And how can we be held accountable for mistakes on the I-9 when we're following the instructions right on the form itself?! It makes no sense.

Well, according to language buried in regulations passed several years ago, the government has "discretion" not to penalize us for using documents from the current list — at least until the form is officially revised. But the way I see it, we depend on the government to keep us informed about important changes like this — and in this case, that obviously isn't happening.

The next question, then, is when will the I-9 be revised to be just a little more user friendly? Your guess is as good as mine. Stay tuned for I-9 updates in the (hopefully near) future. Keep checking back here, too, as I'll be sure to keep you posted.

In the meantime, has anyone else come across something like this with another government-issued form? Maybe if we start sharing our discoveries, we can help keep each other informed. At the very least, it will remind us that we're not alone in our confusion AND in our never-ending quest for complete compliance.

- Maurice Rosenberg, Human Resources Manager

I-9 Confusion