I must start this blog by stating that I approach the topic of MRA’s Hotline Advisor Team with significant bias. After all, I’m privileged to be part of that team. To all our members who have used the Hotline, thank you – it is wonderful to develop strong relationships with you and to provide guidance for all your challenging, wacky, and wonderful questions. We hope you feel that you are not alone!
Our Hotline Team is an amazing group of professionals! We average 20+ years of experience across industries, including healthcare, non-profit, retail, social services, manufacturing, service, and technology. Our past positions have given the team diverse experience, further enhanced by our opportunities to serve our members. Our expertise (to name just a few) includes strong backgrounds in compliance, employee relations, investigations, affirmative action, recruiting, benefits administration, immigration, coaching, performance management, organizational development, wage and hour, and HR administration.
Our team has provided many services to our members—as HR Business Partners, engaging in formal coaching assignments, working with separated employees through MRA’s outplacement services, acting as roundtable facilitators, providing affirmative action, compensation, and training, providing information as subject matter experts, and assisting with investigations and employee surveys.
Many of our calls start with “well, this is probably silly, but….” I can assure you, there are no silly questions or scenarios in HR. A look at our statistics shows that we have responded to 5,510 calls and emails (through early June) within our top ten inquiry categories.
Consistent with Hotline history, the most frequent inquiry relates to leaves of absence, predominantly FMLA (Thinking of FMLA training? See our training – FMLA Essential for Leave Administrators). As federal laws have been in flux over the last several years, we are seeing a marked increase in compliance questions regarding state laws and local ordinances. Employee relations challenges will always make our top 10, as will areas of HR that do not provide a bright line for answers (such as the Americans with Disabilities Act).
If you are a member who has not called (866.744.6854) or emailed ([email protected]) the hotline, I invite you to call us with your next HR challenge. We are here (and happy) to help!
In closing, I’d like to thank my Hotline colleagues for their unending flexibility, willingness to share their knowledge and problem-solve, and for being great teammates.
