Free snacks at work? Yes, that was my thought as well. When I started at Pinnacle, I was amazed. We had free snacks at work–food and drinks for our employees to enjoy anytime they wished. At previous companies it was unheard of, and at first I was hesitant to use any of it. Then my thirst got the better of me and I\’ve been best friends with the refrigerator ever since.

Recently I was talking to someone about the costs of our office goodies. Not only do we have the snacks and drinks, but we also have Free Breakfast Thursdays, where our superstar admin brings in breakfast for everyone. Sometimes it\’s Donut Palace (a local treat!), sometimes it\’s Atlanta Bread, and other times it\’s Chick-Fil-A; however, it\’s always welcome!

Over the course of a year (or longer), that cost can add up. In larger companies, someone would probably come along, see what we were spending, and put a stop to it in the interest of cutting expenses. But that\’s where things get hairy.

A genius once told me, “If you are going to provide a benefit to your employees, plan to do it forever.” She was right as far as I can tell. If you ever decided to cut off something that was a crowd favorite, you risk upsetting your workforce. Sure, it seems like a small factor, but we can be irrational creatures when it comes to benefits and perks we feel entitled to.

I think it\’s a great idea if the question ever does come up about whether we should cut those special benefits for us to poll our affected employees. I’d love to ask them this question:

Would you rather have $500 more per year in salary or would you rather have free snacks and drinks at work?

I\’m willing to bet that the majority of our people would choose free snacks and drinks, just because it frees us up to work a little later without having to leave for food. We can push through lunch on some fruit or crackers without having to stop working on that urgent proposal to go grab something to eat. And I\’d like to personally vouch for how much I can get done when I\’m pumped up on the caffeine provided by our superstar admin. :-)

Have you ever worked at a place that offered snacks at work? What do you think about the costs of offering or taking away these kinds of perks?

Last Wednesday I had the opportunity to visit the Birmingham, AL OFCCP office. It was an eye-opening experience, and I wanted to share some of the (scary!) “big picture” takeaways I learned.

The Quality vs. Quantity Falsehood

During the short seminar, one of the compliance officers with the OFCCP mentioned that they were changing their focus from previous years where they only performed audits at a business if they felt issues were systemic and repetitive, allowing them to move through a higher quantity of audits in a shorter period of time. He said that they are now looking at doing more in-depth audits, turning the focus now to quality of audits.

The part he didn’t explain thoroughly is that since the Obama administration took office, the OFCCP has been hiring more auditors as if they just can’t get enough. Having twice as many auditors means they have the manpower to look at quantity and quality.

Assuming the Worst

Ever heard the phrase “innocent until proven guilty?” Not the way of life with the OFCCP, apparently. During the seminar, the speaker reminded us that having interview notes and other data available could help in the event of an investigation. However, in the next second he casually mentioned, “If you don’t have the data to back up your claims as to why person X was paid differently from person Y and one of them is a minority, we will assume the worst intentions.”

I’ve been around the business world long enough to know that if you’re looking for trouble, you’ll find it. If you assume the worst, you’ll find something to substantiate your claim, no matter how minuscule.

New Compensation Data Tool

A few weeks ago I participated in a teleconference with other companies in conjunction with the OFCCP. They are looking at unveiling a new compensation data collection tool, forcing employers under their purview to provide them with data that they can scrutinize for “unfair pay practices.” As you can imagine, looking at a spreadsheet is very misleading, and some of the callers brought up roadblocks such as: performance history, seniority, unions, Service Contract Act (SCA) and other government-regulated minimum wage requirements, benefits, perks, commissions, bonuses, etc.

All I can say is good luck to my fellow federal contractors out there, because they aren’t going to stop, no matter how costly or difficult the tool is to implement.

Want to know more?

This topic isn’t my cup of tea, but if you want to know more about regulations and other things on the horizon, Mike Haberman is the guy to follow for info on that and other legislation that will have an impact on the people side of business. Here’s a recent post he wrote about GINA and how the ubiquitous breast cancer ribbons can cause issues at some companies.