February 16 Mid-Month Blast
From: Raymond J. Bailey Sent: Wednesday, February 9, 2022 4:56 PM
Lone Star Town Hall Meeting is scheduled for March 24th at 2:30.
Inclement Weather Policy
Lone Star is making a change to its inclement weather policy. We will now cover up to four days of inclement weather each year. After discussion with the COOs and HR, we have concluded ice days are not common in all offices and the number of times we close a jobsite or the offices is even rarer. Therefore, if in the future Lone Star is forced to send an employee home for the day due to inclement weather, Lone Star will pay you for the time your time off work. Lone Star will cover up to 4 days a year and any longer period will be addressed at that time. During your time off however, you may be assigned work that can be done remotely or learning modules on the LMS to study so that you can make the best use of your time. This change is effective immediately and we have already covered last week’s work stoppage as a result of the storms.
PTO Policy Update
Also, effective immediately, our PTO policy is changing so that all salaried employees will have open PTO beginning after the 60-day probationary period when joining the company. Any salaried employee that has been hired within the last 5 years under the accumulated PTO policy will automatically be changed to the new policy as soon as any accumulated PTO is consumed. All employees under the open PTO policy are still required to submit PTO requests for time off and managers must still approve the time prior, but PTO will no longer be tracked for these employees.
In addition, going forward all new employees will start with 40 hours in the PTO bank and will accumulate PTO as described in the handbook.
Thanks For Your Input
These policy changes came as a result of questions and comments from the Emplify survey Lone Star employees take each quarter. Sometimes these suggestions have a significant cost impact and need careful consideration as to the impact to the company and to your profit sharing bonus. Sometimes these suggestions are appropriate and are implemented. This particular suggestion came from the last survey and prompted management to review policies and research the impact of the changes, and it was determined the value of the employee satisfaction was worth the cost of the changes. Though sometimes it is perceived management does not listen, this action is proof that the surveys are reviewed, and the suggestions are considered. It can sometimes take a while to respond to give us time for proper research and review. However, I can assure you all suggestions are considered for their value and impact to the company and the employees.
Thank you to those that took the January Emplify survey. We will explain these changes again and take questions at our next Lone Star Town Hall Meeting scheduled for March 24th at 2:30.
Ray
February 2022
Hello All,
It’s Newsletter time again!
I would like to announce the promotion of John Borden to Director of Education Sales for the Lone Star Communications Company. John will be responsible for education sales in all regions and will work with the sales staff in every office. This position will require travel to every office to mentor and teach salespeople the idiosyncrasies of selling to schools and school districts. John has been in sales in the Grand Prairie office since 2004 and has become
