HR professionals gather to discuss issues at annual IBA conference

Northwestern Financial Review, Mar 21, 1998 by Shelton, Billie

A variety of personnel issues were addressed at the Iowa Bankers Association's annual Human Resources Conference conducted at the West Des Moines Marriott Feb. 23-24. Approximately 50 human resource professionals attended.

Michael Neill, of Fayetteville, Ga., led large group sessions Monday morning on employee retention and recruitment, and incentive programs that motivate employees to perform at peak levels. After lunch, breakout sessions were offered on three topics: effective interviewing, train the trainer, and job burnout.

Highlighting the first day of the conference was a human relations showcase that offered products from five local and out-of-state companies.

Small group breakout sessions were scheduled the entire second day of the conference, with break times planned to allow plenty of opportunity for networking. At a session titled "Credit As It Relates To Employees," Sharon Malheiro discussed the new "credit rights" law. Malheiro is with Davis, Brown, Koehn, Shors & Roberts, IBA's law firm

While Malheiro doesn't see the legal need to hold all employees accountable to the same employment screening standards, she stressed it is possible to hold one class of employees-all loan managers, for instance-to a more stringent requirement "as long as you treat them all the same."

Malheiro also shared information on recent amendments to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which she says now requires employers comply with extensive and often-confusing disclosure and reporting requirements before checking credit, employment and personal references when hiring a new employee or promoting a current employee. The main point in a reference, she emphasized, is to disclose only what you can prove.

What should and should not be retained in employee files was reviewed by IBA's Jeanie McDonald. McDonald reminded those in her workshop that banks with more than 50 employees are required to keep an affirmative action plan on file. Job descriptions should not include the phrase "and other duties as assigned," she said, because "it is too much of a cop-out." Job descriptions should include what is required physically to do the job in such areas as vision, hearing, lifting and standing.

The Fair Labor Standards Act was reviewed at another breakout session. Gene LeSeur, also of Davis, Brown, Koehn, Shors and Roberts, discussed responsibilities related to recording employees' hours. According to LeSeur, "the law says you must record all hours worked for exempt employees." His theory is that time sheets work better than a time clock in most banks.

LeSeur also touched on topics such as bonuses, accumulated vacation pay when an employee quits, time collection, weekends and holidays, breaks, and rest periods.

"What's Adult Day Care Really All About?" was an open forum that generated plenty of interest Tuesday afternoon. McDonald and Malheiro led an open forum on issues that consume way too much time in daily operations for most banks: dress codes and work breaks, plus issues of the 1990s such as tattoos and hair color.

The real value of the session came from sharing ideas, and from learning what had worked for other human resource personnel when they were faced with similar situations in other Iowa banks.

"It is okay to have dress codes as long as they are applied equally," Malheiro said. "The standard has to be the same for everyone."

"It's amazing how much time you spend on these issues," commented Heidi Worrall of First Security Bank and Trust of Charles City.

These issues face many banks, McDonald believes, at least partly due to Iowa's current low unemployment rate, which means that the pool of workers is smaller and that perhaps employers have to be more flexible to keep good employees.

"I think that banks are looking at being more family friendly," McDonald commented. "Most families have two parents working full time, so employers must be more flexible than before. Banks are meaner and leaner now too, and expect more out of their employees."

Eric Branson of First Citizens National Bank of Mason City agreed with McDonald's assessment that it is challenging to hire the right kind of bank employees. "It's especially difficult to hire ag lenders who want to be in the small town," he stated, adding that Mason City is the smallest city that he has ever called home.