Human resources and staffing.

• Position: Industry Outlook - Interview

Utah's human resources and staffing professionals are proving their worth as companies face employment woes during today's rough economy. Our human resources and staffing experts discussed compliance issues, immigration changes and hiring practices. The group also discussed the importance of human resources as a profession and its place in Utah's business landscape.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

We'd like to give a special thank you to David Cherrington, professor of organizational leadership at Brigham Young University, for moderating the discussion and to Holland and Hart for hosting the event.

From a human resources and staffing perspective, what's your take on the economy? Is the situation improving?

WHALEN: I think that, unfortunately, the economy is clearly not going up, and at best we're going to remain status quo for several more months, if not have a second dip.

JOHNSON: From my perspective it's going up. We've been busier the last three months than the previous year and a half.

HACKETT: I'm in general staffing for temporary and permanent placement. Our company nationally has had three all-time highs in the history of our years in business. What that tells me is that companies are starting to bring people back temporarily, but they don't want to put the funds out for permanent positions. And I've seen far more project work and far more short-term project work than I've seen in my six years in Utah.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

MERKLEY: I'm more in the permanent hire business. We've seen a slight uptick in February, and there's still been an uptick since then, but the trend is declining. So there was a little bit of optimism at the beginning of the year that companies were going to start hiring again. We've had a broad reach across a lot of different industries, so it's hard to say which ones are doing well. Obviously the construction and home building industries are way down, but we're starting to see some pickup in professional services. I know a lot of our clients are hiring people on a temporary basis and then putting some on permanent jobs. But, overall, it's a pretty slow improvement.

SHAFFER: At Myelin Resources we offer a supplemental and flexible workforce, and so we're seeing those upticks as well, but it seems to be localized to certain drivers in the economy.

MERKLEY: What I've seen in HR is an increasing level of complexity and burden, both in compliance and in just the vagueness of a lot of the things, especially health care reform. A lot of companies and HR professionals are wondering whether or not they're going to have a significant burden under health care reform. Companies, even large companies that have low-paid workforces, are asking themselves, "Am I going to be able to afford to stay in business if I have to pay or play in health care reform?" So there's a lot of complexity, and I think all of these issues might slow down the interests of the employers in doing permanent hires.

SHAFFER: Beyond the challenging market, the stipulations that are placed on companies today, like new regulations, take away the competitiveness of enterprise. If you can't be competitive, you've got to find other solutions. I think the temporary model is what allows companies to have that competitiveness in a changing environment.

CHERRINGTON: I have to admit that something inside me is very concerned about the difficulty that employers have facing all the restrictions and regulations. I remember when I first taught human resource management years ago, I believed that I could teach my students everything that they would need to know so they would be able to comply with the current laws. I don't think that's possible now.

Discuss health care as it relates to human resources and staffing issues.

MERKLEY: The concern that I hear from many is what they are seeing in the general framework of health care reform, and that is the lack of flexibility. You're limited to the kinds of choices you're going to have. Even though the main parts of the health care reform law don't go into place until 2014, companies have to make decisions about their plans now. And by and large, with the regulations that came out recently, it's going to be almost impossible for a small employer to keep the health care plan that they have.

Another consideration is the nondiscrimination provision that says you can't discriminate in favor of highly compensated employees, but there are a lot of companies that have a management carve-out plan, and they don't offer insurance coverage to most of the employees because of the cost. Well, now they can no longer continue that, so they're having to decide, "Do I try and hang on to grandfather status with a management carve-out plan or my plan for managers? Or am I going to let those people go uninsured in the market?" There's a lot of really important decisions being made right now, even though the bulk of it doesn't come into play for a few years.

WHALEN: From what I'm hearing from employers, the main thing that they're concerned about with health care reform is cost--the bottom-line impact to them in providing benefits to their employees. I take the opinion that health care reform did absolutely positively impact access to health care and coverage issues, but undoubtedly this will have an increased cost effect. How much is still undefined at this point. Many of the brokers are still saying, "We don't know what the costs are going to be. The carriers are still trying to figure that out." The impact of that is employers are reluctant to give raise increases or salary increases. They're waiting to see what the overall total impact of the health care reform is in terms of increased costs and whether they will have to ask employees to share in those costs more than they already are.

MONAHAN: Marriott, which has many employees, is reevaluating plans and we're actually decreasing some benefits. We're also increasing the share that employees pay, but that's the trend everywhere. One of the real positive things that we've done, and maybe some of your companies are doing this as well, is we're really promoting wellness in a big way. The true corporate focus for Marriott this year is all about managing your health and your lifestyle. We're encouraging associates to get a one-on-one relationship with a health coach, which our insurance providers provide to them for free. It's a little too soon to tell how successful that is going to be, but it's certainly a focus, and we are certainly pushing it and hoping to get some long-term benefits out of it in health care reduction costs.

BRANDON: I also work for a large company and health care costs did go up slightly. Obviously we probably have an advantage, being a larger size. But one thing that we did this year is offer the employees more choices, so not just choosing from plan A, B or C, but you can actually choose your deductions from your paycheck. You can choose your coinsurance. The end result and what they pay is truly their choice.

We're also really encouraging employee involvement, and we're also focusing on wellness. We've introduced a health advocate that actually helps our employees wade through all the different health care terminology as they're faced with bills or different procedures.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

COTTERELL: We have a small shop, and we just had open enrollment. Two years ago we made some changes, anticipating what was...