© 2003 SHRM

SHRM Weekly Online Poll: February 17, 2004

Weekly One Question - Covering for Employees on Active Duty• Analyzing 369 responses of 1631 emails

sent, 1591 received (response rate = 23.2%).• Fielded February 17 – 24, 2004; presentation

generated on February 24, 2004.• Margin of error is +/- 5.1%.• Compared to SHRM Question of the Week,

April 8, 2003 (number of respondents = 320)

© 2003 SHRM

SHRM Weekly Online Poll: February 17, 2004

How are you covering/would you cover for employees who have been called to active duty?

74%82%

42%49%

34%43%

14%16%

10%11%

3% 3%9%

4%

Otheremployees

Outsidetemp

Overtime Hiring Notcompleted

On hold Other

Feb-04 Apr-03

© 2003 SHRM

SHRM Weekly Online Poll: February 17, 2004

How are you covering/would you cover for employees who have been called to active duty?

Choice Count Percent of

Sample

Assigning work temporarily to other employees 272 73.7%

Hiring an outside temporary replacement 153 41.5%

Authorizing overtime 126 34.1%

Hiring additional employees 50 13.6%

Allowing some work to go undone/not completed 35 9.5%

Putting the work on hold until the employee returns 12 3.3%

Other 32 8.7%

© 2003 SHRM

SHRM Weekly Online Poll: February 17, 2004

How are you covering/would you cover for employees who have been called to active duty? Other (specify)

• We have on-call staff to fill in if someone is gone for an extended stay• At this point, we have not had to deal with this issue.• hiring outside independent contractors• Has not effected our company• Hiring an temporary employee on our payroll• All of the above• Have not been affected by this• We have not been affected. None of our employees have been called to

active duty. However, if an employee was called to active duty it would be necessary to hire additional help.

• Any of the above depending upon the job and or length of time employee is out.

• Backfill the position• It would depend on the position. Depending on the position, I could see

doing any one or more of the things listed.• Has not yet affected any of our employees• None have been called yet• n/a

© 2003 SHRM

SHRM Weekly Online Poll: February 17, 2004

How are you covering/would you cover for employees who have been called to active duty? Other (specify), cont’d.

• 1st or 2nd depending on the length of time• Have no one yet called to active duty.• None on site - but corporate policy would assign to others/authorize

overtime• Depends on the position - key employee or not• It would depend on the job category.• Employee would keep his job and current benefits• Long term assignment - hire with knowledge that the employee will be

returning to their position.• Depends on length of time employee will be gone• Haven't been impacted by this yet, but will probably do a combination of

reassigning and hiring, depending on quantity of impact• Depends on the job vacated - all of the above are possible options• Have not had to deal with this as yet, but would most likely have to hire

temporary replacement along with overtime.• Combination of assigning work temporarily to other employees with the

understanding that there may be a need to hire an outside temporary replacement.

• None have been called to date.

© 2003 SHRM

SHRM Weekly Online Poll: February 17, 2004

How are you covering/would you cover for employees who have been called to active duty? Other (specify), cont’d.

• Replace employee, offer them comparable job upon return• 1,2,3 depending on the circumstances• Depending on the position, all of the above• No employees have been called to active duty• Depends on the length of time away