Fast growing NYC based PR firm with approximately 80 professionals seeks qualified HR Director. This person will interact with senior management and will be responsible for implementing and managing a diverse HR program featuring strong recruitment duties. This is an extremely important position with significant growth potential. We welcome confident candidates to submit their credentials, cover letter and salary requirements.

JOB RESPONSIBILITIES:
- Process a variety of HR-related paperwork (e.g., payroll, benefits, new hire) according to established procedures; ensure HR forms are completed and processed appropriately.
- Maintain and input employee changes, new hire information, and termination information into HRIS.
- Ensure compliance with federal, state, and local employment laws and company guidelines.
- Draft employee related HR communications for CEO's review and/or create communications to ensure effective, accurate, and timely dissemination of information.
- Assist with payroll and benefits administration, follow-up on outstanding issues, and investigate employees' inquiries.
- Screen resumes and interview candidates for positions of all levels.
- Generate various HR-related reports for management as requested.
- Maintain a variety of hardcopy and softcopy HR records and files.
- Assist with special projects as needed.
- Maintain an understanding of the PR industry, competitive firms and understand how and where to recruit in this industry

Qualifications must include:

* Possess excellent communication skills
* Have a flexible management style
* Maintain strong interpersonal skills for interaction with both management and staff
* Minimum of 10 to 15 years experience in management
* Organizational and Management skills
* Demonstrate the ability to supervise administrative staff and other firm activities
* Have recruiting skills for administrative and professional staff
* Self motivated

SKILLS:
- Strong organizational and project management skills.
- Excellent interpersonal and written and verbal communication skills.
- Good listening skills and ability to interact with all levels of employees and display genuine interest and respect for people and their concerns.
- Detail-oriented, self-starter able to work calmly and flexibly in order to respond to changing priorities.
- General knowledge of the various federal, state, and local laws and regulations relative to labor and employment issues (e.g. FLMA, COBRA, ERISA, FLSA, etc.).
- Strong pc skills, preferably MS Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) and knowledge of HRIS.

Email resumes to: directorhrpr@gmail.com

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Previously: Freelancers Union Health Benefits SNAFU Has Members Fuming

"They gave us three weeks to find new doctors, psychiatrists, etc. I was outraged," a union member told us. "FU bills itself as a savior and friend to the freelancers, but instead it's an inconvenient mess of an organization that seems like it's being run by a third party company that doesn't fully understand what it's doing."

Since the health plan switch was announced, we hear that FU's phones have been so clogged with members seeking guidance from customer service that the department was effectively shut down at certain points during the holidays. In fact, the Freelancers Union seems to have been rather unresponsive since November, according to several reports.

The package on offer to union members doesn't provide dental coverage—the old plan did. "Now I'm forced to switch to a new plan that offers no dental coverage at all, and I can't enroll in separate dental coverage until next fall—ridiculous," a freelancer (perhaps one with children in braces?) told us. "And you thought the
MTV freelancers were screwed." Well...yeah, we did.

Even with the rate bumps under the new plan, the union still provides more affordable health care to its members than Viacom wanted to provide for its permalance army. The FU's new plan covers care at Memorial Sloan-Kettering (the previous one didn't) and offers a larger physician network. And wait a second—the Freelancers Union used to offer dental? Talk about the life of Reilly!

That's not to say that union members don't have anything to complain about: besides this gap in coverage and the disappearance of their dental coverage, the union's new plan will set freelancers back $750 for a hospital stay. Lab tests performed as a result of any doctor's visit are subject to a member's $3,000 annual deductible, which is about a grand more than it used to be. Hey, diagnose yourselves, people! We suggest watching a lot of House or becoming a rabid clipper of the "Diagnosis" column from the Times magazine.

From: Office Of JoAnne Griffith
Sent: Wednesday, December 12, 2007 2:53 PM
To: M_MTVN__ALL
Subject: More Important News for Freelance and Temporary Employees

As you know, we've been holding information sessions over the past several days to discuss our freelance and temporary employee benefits. We've had many insightful conversations and heard a number of your specific concerns.

As a result of the input you've given to us directly through the sessions and your managers, we want to announce the following changes:

· We are expanding our freelance and temporary medical and dental benefits options to include the United Healthcare plan under which many of you are currently covered. This means anyone who is eligible for benefits in 2008 can opt for medical and dental coverage with United Healthcare at the current rate of contribution, or you can elect instead to enroll in the newly offered Aetna plan.

· The Aetna plan has certain advantages that may make it the preferred option for many of our freelance and temporary employees. Based on your input, however, we want to make sure that those of you who prefer the United Healthcare plan have that option.

· As a result of this change, the freelance and temporary employee payroll conversion to Cast and Crew has been delayed until February 1, 2008. Therefore, the December 14th deadline to submit your Cast and Crew paperwork has been postponed. We will inform you of the new deadline early in the New Year.

· We've implemented a process for evaluating freelance and temporary employee positions for possible conversion to staff positions. This process is currently underway and decisions will be communicated by January 31st, 2008.

In order to address additional questions, HR representatives will be available to discuss individual circumstances and concerns at the following times and locations:

· New York: Thursday, December 13th
11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
1515 Broadway, Conference Room 44-02

· Los Angeles: Thursday, December 13th
11:00 a.m.
2600 Colorado Ave., 5th Floor LEG Room

Employees in other regions should contact their HR representative directly with any questions or concerns.