The new rules for overtime became law on Dec. 1, 2016, this means employees that work over the 40-hour work week will be required to be paid time and a half (Gibbons, 2016). From an Organization Development standpoint, it is a challenge, on the one hand, there are negatives and positives for the employee and then, on the other hand, the organization.
With this type of new rules as the article states, organizations will now need to be mindful of how they allocate their resources when it comes to scheduling their workers. This may as the article stated on the organization side will lead to slashing hours, elimination of management staff and reallocation of task assignments (Gibbons, 2016). These maybe all negatives, however, this means that organizations will be required to write accurate job descriptions instead of promoting general descriptions. Meaning instead of having “administrative duties” listed in a job description during the hiring process the position must be specific in all task assignments (Gibbons, 2016). No longer will project managers have to worry about generalities in what a staff can do or cannot do, this translates to employees across the board being trained in the same tasks. The requirement will streamline training programs to focus
Meaning instead of having “administrative duties” listed in a job description during the hiring process the position must be specific in all task assignments (Gibbons, 2016). No longer will project managers have to worry about generalities in what a staff can do or cannot do, this translates to employees across the board being trained in the same tasks. The requirement will streamline training programs to focus on certain skill sets rather than individualizing the training increasing costs and draining other resources.
For the employees although there is a bump in pay and the unspoken requirement of working off the clock is eliminated by this new rule, as these are all positives, employees actually getting paid for all the work they do for an organization (Gibbons, 2016). The negatives are that some organizations will cut hours for employees to make sure that they do not have to pay the time and a half in overtime hours, this also may mean more automation for certain tasks to streamline, in turn, the workforce. This could also force organizations to translate more employees hourly to salary in order to bypass this law altogether, which sounds great but the amount of time spent working for a salary employee can be more than if they were hourly (Gibbons, 2016). Plus, over time the ratio of dividing in the hours worked into the salary given by the organization may equal or be less than the take-home pay of the hourly employee now making time and a half for over time.
Now in the realm Organization Development we would have to determine which of these negatives would be positives for the organization first and then the employees, and how to deter or overcome any waves of turnovers created by exiting employees who go elsewhere as a result of the organization’s decision. Eliminating employee hours to a fixed, expected rate of 40 hours and under, along with accurate job description allows a project manager to create a more accurate “pitch” for the projects, procedures or products they wish to be approved for implementation. This will assist the project manager to request, plan and adjust a budget in which can have less overhead and also lessen the probability of outliers that can disrupt the project when it comes to the aspects of scheduling and payroll.
So, in either case, the new rules can be a headache for organizations it may be a chance for an Organization Development specialist to prove their worth and show the importance of investing in Organization Development as a science, a way of thinking, and an attitude to approaching an organization’s problems. The trick for the specialist will be to find the silver lining in such rules and make gold from it.
Are there any other issues you see my become an issue for the Organization Development specialist that is not mentioned in the article or in this blog entry? Do you think as a result of these new rules will increase automation in organizations and higher rate of eliminations of an organization lower management staff? Do you think that these rules harm the employee more or the organization more? Do you think that these rules hurt the employee more or the organization more?
Gibbons, Lauren (2016) “New federal overtime regulations could have big impact on Michigan businesses, employees” July 04, 2016 MLive http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2016/07/new_federal_overtime_regulatio.html
