XpertHR aligns with ComplianceHR to provide new tools to employers

Tools help employers with employee classification

NEW PROVIDENCE, NJ (Apr. 14, 2016) – XpertHR is pleased to announce its alliance with ComplianceHR, a joint venture between global employment law firm Littler Mendelson and Neota Logic, to bring new tools to employers looking to ensure compliance in areas of great complexity and business risk. These new tools, now available alongside XpertHR’s comprehensive set of HR and employment law resources, help employers reduce mistakes about how employees and contractors are classified and paid, decreasing their exposure to regulatory fines, expensive class action lawsuits and litigation, according to Lori Brown, President and Chief Operating Officer of ComplianceHR.

Employers are under increasing pressure to assess risk regarding how they hire, engage and pay individuals for services and are in desperate need of guidance regarding regulatory uncertainties so they can better mitigate risk, said Alicia D’Angelo Smith, Product Manager for XpertHR.

Accordingly, Smith said, XpertHR pursued the alliance with ComplianceHR to provide additional support for companies undertaking workforce reviews in 2016 given the likely changes to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), expected to become final at some point this summer, as well as increasing enforcement efforts by the Department of Labor (DOL) and state regulators around the classification of independent contractors in the rapidly growing “gig economy.”

“The timing for this alliance could not be better,” said Brown. She further stated: “There is little question that the DOL has dramatically increased its focus on the validity of independent contractor classifications, even partnering with more than half the states on enforcement efforts. In addition, the annual rate of FLSA filings has more than quadrupled in the past 15 years and more than doubled since the last time DOL issued regulations in 2004. With the impending proposed rules and the anticipated heightened scrutiny once they are made final, that number is likely to grow.”

Tammy McCutchen, managing director at ComplianceHR, partner with Littler Mendelson and a former administrator of the DOL’s wage and hour division, stresses that putting off classification reviews in the face of a rapidly evolving legal landscape is risky. Instead, McCutchen urges employers to prepare now rather than wait for anticipated final rules from the DOL. She also recommends that in light of the DOL’s recent expansion of the definition of joint employer under the FLSA, and their corresponding narrowing of the definition of independent contractor, employers are wise to tighten their procedures for hiring and managing contract workers to avoid unwanted DOL scrutiny.

ComplianceHR’s Navigator Suite™, available through XpertHR, is ideal for helping employers tackle these complex compliance decisions. The suite currently contains two virtual risk assessment tools that will help employers:

  • Ensure independent contractor classifications across the organization are proper and avoid costly mistakes including liability for unpaid employment taxes, employee benefit obligations, overtime pay, unemployment insurance taxes, and workers’ compensation obligations (Navigator IC™).
  • Prepare for the new DOL overtime rules and ensure that employees have been properly classified as exempt to avoid costly overtime back pay lawsuits, regulatory fines and litigation as well as save countless hours involved in the complex classification process (Navigator OT™).



These easy-to-use and intuitive tools employ complex underlying decision trees, weighted factor analysis and other logic based on the current statutes, regulations and case law across federal and all 50-state jurisdictions. Each employee or independent contractor assessment can be saved to create an archived audit trail, which can form the basis of a good-faith defense in subsequent litigation or investigations, Brown said.

“This has been an area of ongoing concern for many employers,” said Smith, who further noted that adding these tools to the full set of comprehensive employment law resources available through XpertHR, “gives employers a leg up in ensuring they have a well-oiled and compliant onboarding process to manage talent effectively, handle complicated decisions quickly and reduce their legal risk.”

To learn more about the advantages of XpertHR’s alliance with ComplianceHR and the suite of virtual risk assessment tools, visit here.

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For media inquiries:
Mary Heimstead, Strategic Communications
mary@stratcommunications.com
715-577-2828

About XpertHR

XpertHR is the revolutionary resource helping HR professionals comply with global, federal, state and municipal employment law. XpertHR provides resources written by more than 400 attorneys from 70 of the country's top employment law firms, and edited by an in-house team of legal editors and HR professionals who provide easy-to-understand explanations and practical guidance on legal requirements across all jurisdictions.

About Littler

Littler is the largest global employment and labor law practice, with more than 1,000 attorneys in over 70 offices worldwide. Littler represents management in all aspects of employment and labor law and serves as a single-source solution provider to the global employer community. Consistently recognized in the industry as a leading and innovative law practice, Littler has been litigating, mediating and negotiating some of the most influential employment law cases and labor contracts on record for over 70 years. Littler Global is the collective trade name for an international legal practice, the practicing entities of which are separate and distinct professional firms. 

About Neota Logic

Neota Logic is an award-winning global provider of intelligent software that helps companies consistently make the right operational, legal and compliance decisions. By making the knowledge and judgment of experts available at the point of decision-making, Neota Logic improves the speed, quality and efficiency of routine decisions. The company’s easy-to-develop smart applications uniquely combine rules, reasoning, decision management and document automation to scale expertise quickly and cost-effectively.