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Companies face a lot of staffing decisions in a rough economy — which are often complicated by tough legal questions. For clarification, the Department of Labor (DOL) recently released a fact sheet on legally trimming exempt employees’ salaries and schedules.

Reducing salaries and hours for exempt employees can easily lead to FLSA violations. Here are the DOL’s answers to some of trickiest questions about legal staffing strategies during a slowdown:

1. Can we require exempt employees to take unpaid days off?

Only if it’s for a full week, the DOL says. Exempt employees must be paid for any week in which they perform any work — other than when a full day of pay is deducted because the employee took off for personal reasons.

But when the day off is the employer’s decision, pay can’t be deducted.

2. Can exempt employees volunteer to take time off without pay?

Employers can’t force exempt employees to take unpaid days off — but when it’s 100% voluntary, the DOL counts that as a “day off for personal reasons” and pay can be deducted in full-day increments.

3. Can we require exempt employees to use vacation time?

Yes, companies can deduct from an exempt employee’s leave bank for absences, even when it’s for less than a full day and the absence was mandated by the employer.

The tricky part: Exempt employees need to be paid a full salary in weeks in which they perform any work (except when a full day of pay is deducted when the employee is absent for personal reasons) — which means if someone’s leave bank is empty, pay cannot be deducted.

4. Can we just reduce exempt employees’ regular salary?

Yes — as long as salaries aren’t regularly changed to get around the salary basis requirement. What’s the difference? According to the DOL:

Allowable pay deductions involve “a prospective reduction in the predetermined pay to reflect long-term business needs,” rather than a “short-term, day-to-day or week-to-week deduction” based on how many hours employees work.

If you are thinking about trimming your Exempt Employee’s Salaries, then please contact Workforce Solutions, Inc to speak with our in-house legal counsel. This is a free service provided for clients of Workforce Solutions, Inc.

Small-business owners focused on finding and keeping customers in a difficult economy have little time for managing human-resource functions. Here are some questions asked of Matt Peterson, C.O.O. of Workforce Solutions, Inc.. Workforce Solutions, Inc. is the leading HR Outsourcing company along the Wasatch Front and has now expanded throughout the United States. Matt Peterson helps companies with the task of managing employees.

What sort of demand are you seeing for your services?

Our clients are placing a stronger emphasis on cost reductions and cost containment without affecting their strategic plans. We have received requests to review payroll processes, employee benefit programs and overall HR processes. Most of these requests are geared toward ensuring the value of the current process. We operate as HR generalists, allowing us to provide support in all areas of HR, including payroll, benefits, workers compensation, hr legal compliance, recruiting and training.

Is outsourcing human-resources functions an enduring trend?

This is the best way to do things in this economic state. We are seeing an increase in business because people can no longer devote their own time to HR functions when they need to be focusing on growing or retaining their business. Workforce Solutions, Inc is on-site as much as our clients want us to be.

HR is one of the biggest expenses and it’s hard to find qualified employees to do what we do. Generally companies have a benefits person, a payroll person, a recruiter and an employee-relations person. We provide a single source for these functions.

How does the cost of outsourcing compare with handling these functions in-house?

We operate under a co-employment relationship with our clients. As co-employers we are able to group or client base together and thus are able to provide lower costs on Health Insurance, Workers Compensation, Unemployment Insurance, Payroll Processing and Hr Legal services then if our clients were to try and handle those functions in-house.

Are employers taking a selective approach to outsourcing, giving consultants domain over certain areas but not all HR functions?

Companies are really doing both. For some companies, outsourcing the entire function is ideal. For others, it makes sense to have help with a few areas of HR management. It just depends on the company and its needs. We help companies identify which approach would work best for them.

Employee relations must be taking a hit as employers ponder or act on staff reductions. Can outside HR expertise help?

We have a unique perspective on the situation. Sometimes it’s difficult to see all the angles when it’s your company and you are making decisions from the inside. Quite often we find we are able to offer insight and direction that helps business owners reach the right decisions.

What are the growth areas in your business?

The overall management of health-insurance programs is a major emphasis right now. We partner with clients to help with the entire process of designing a program, vendor selection and rollout of the program. Clients want to know what happens if they do something different with their health insurance. Benefits have a huge financial impact on companies.

You offer employee training. Isn’t that one of the first expenses cut when businesses face a downturn?

Frankly, quite often yes. Training is the first area to go. However, it certainly isn’t needed any less. The need to train employees is constant. Companies often suffer because they choose to cut this particular area. Again, this is an area where we can most effectively assist our clients. We are a less-expensive avenue to critical training.

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