First Hawaiian Bank values a culture of life-long learning and high performance. As part of our long-term growth and sustainability initiatives, we collaborated closely with the Hawaii Employers Council to deliver a custom four-part series for more than 300 supervisors. HEC’s Talent & Organizational Development team prioritizes the needs of HEC members as they consult, tailor, and facilitate engaging and effective learning programs. This approach enhances our ROI on our development initiatives. First Hawaiian Bank values the professionalism and HR services offered to HEC members.

What I would tell those who are looking to use the Hawaii Employers Council is that they provided a lot of resources to me over my career in a leadership role to the human resources department that I've led in the past and to the labor relations departments that I did here today at Matson. So, there is definite value added to any organization looking forward to some assistance in the areas of labor relations and human resources.

Having worked with HEC before, I was excited to reconnect. While I initially used HEC for HR consulting and salary information, I discovered even more services. Our consultant, Stacey, has been invaluable—she reviewed and edited our employee handbook and conducted an HR Practices Review to ensure compliance. HEC’s training resources, including virtual sessions on Managing Conflict and online Sexual Harassment Training, have been excellent. They also facilitated our Employee Engagement Survey, providing insights we couldn’t achieve alone. HEC has truly elevated our HR efforts, and I’m grateful for their expertise.

I see Hawaii Employers Council as being a tremendous resource, especially for small to medium sized companies in Hawaii and especially for a company like Koloa Rum who's on a neighbor island, the island of Kauai. The availability and access to industry experience, expertise and skill is vitally necessary for companies such as ours.

As part of our commitment to our employees and enhancing our workplace experience, we collaborated closely with Dawn Mitchell of Hawaii Employers Council’s Surveys and Compensation Services to develop a tailored employee satisfaction survey. We were thrilled to get a response rate of over 95%, which yielded valuable feedback that led us to make several improvements. A year later, we worked with Dawn again to conduct a follow-up survey, which reflected a significant improvement in the areas where we focused our attention. We thank Dawn and HEC for their valuable assistance and support in this successful outcome.

Partnering with the Hawaii Employers Council has extended our HR team's capabilities, providing a wealth of knowledge that has truly enhanced our day-to-day operations and large-scale projects. Their expertise and support have been critical to our success by allowing us to focus on strategic initiatives with confidence. Additionally, their survey data has been instrumental in guiding our decision-making processes, ensuring a competitive and equitable experience for our employees. Dawn Mitchell's compensation support is outstanding. We highly appreciate her promptness, expertise, and ability to explain complex matters clearly and in detail.

Our company has partnered with the Hawaii Employers Council since 2001, and I have to say that we are continuously impressed by their service and support.

They have an exceptional team who we rely on for sound advice. Their speedy real-time assistance, on topic seminars, and overall support has helped transform the way we manage our team members.

As an operational, strategic, and administrative professional, it is important to have a reliable, knowledgeable, and helpful professional resource. HEC has consistently been able to meet those expectations and more.

I look forward to our continued partnership and growth together.

For 40 years, Hale Makua Health Services has come to depend on its important business partnership with the Hawaii Employer’s Council. The Council is one of our top strategic partners.

With nearly 80% of our workforce represented by one of three unions, the Council’s assistance with collective bargaining, contract interpretation, and grievance consultation is essential to our maintaining positive labor relations.

With ever changing employment regulations and case law, the Council’s weekly News Digest emails keep me and my team informed about the latest developments in our field. Beyond the information delivered to us, we look to the Council’s HR and labor consultants for advice, guidance, and sometimes just confirmation that we’re on the right track with complicated situations. We appreciate that the HEC consultants have knowledge of Hawaii employment laws, are just a toll-free phone call away, and are located in our time zone.

Recent additions to the Council’s member services, like access to the CCH AnswersNow tools and database, provide critical information that’s been carefully vetted. This saves me time and is much more reliable than an internet search. As a member company on a neighbor island, we appreciate that the Council makes many of its excellent, timely seminars available to us as webinars. And every year we send our new managers to HEC’s Fundamentals of Supervision series of trainings that are offered on Maui.

The salary and benefit surveys prepared by the Council help us ensure that Hale Makua’s total rewards are aligned with our company mission and compensation philosophy. We especially appreciate the industry-specific surveys and data analysis.

If Hale Makua Health Services had to pay separately for consultants, attorneys, trainers, analysts, and paralegals to provide all the services we now receive combined from the Council, it would easily cost four times more than our annual HEC membership dues. The return on investment is easily four to one.

HEC has the resources and knowledge to respond quickly, with high-quality advice, and always with our best interests in mind. There’s never a question of financial incentive driving their actions or advice.

As a small and rapidly growing business, it is so important for us to have an experienced, trusted partner that really knows the ins and outs of HR in Hawaii.

When we tripled our business with the purchase of Coffee Systems Hawaii in December 2018, we had to integrate the teams, and make sure the two company cultures blended together well. HEC helped us by drafting a new employee handbook, specific to our circumstances and were there for us with all the employee on-boarding issues that we faced with acquiring a company larger than ourselves.

We didn’t consider all the complications to having a statewide presence. From working through setting employee travel policies to the issues specific to having employees and independent contractors on neighbor islands that work from home, HEC has also been helpful with understanding how we should think about compensation, benefits and company policies.

They are an invaluable partner. Starting and growing a business in Hawaii is hard, but our HEC membership means someone’s always got our back.

The value of what we receive for what we pay is extraordinary. HEC advice has saved us thousands of dollars on lawyers and consultants. They are always there to talk things through with us, to bounce ideas around, or just to guide us in the intricacies and nuances of hiring and firing. They are there for us every step of the way, and always highly competent and knowledgeable. They are invaluable!

Highway Inn became a member of HEC in 2009 initially to take advantage of its employee handbook benefit. This proved to be more cost effective than other alternatives as the handbook required numerous updates as labor laws continually changed and evolved. Since then, we have also been able to take advantage of HEC's meeting rooms to hold our company's annual training which includes HEC's supervisory classes for our management team and to cover required specific training for all of our employees.

Most employers understand the numerous challenges of owning and operating a business in Hawai'i and need to outsource functions where it makes good business sense. Furthermore, our American legal system has enabled people to file lawsuits that are with or without merit, and ultimately the employer shoulders this additional burden. By utilizing HEC’s resources we are able to stay updated and compliant and be confident that we have managed the risk of lawsuits. Staying informed and out of court will be worth every penny paid in dues.

Hawaii Employers Council has been a great partner for Pūlama Lāna‘i, as well as more than 800 other organizations in Hawaii. We rely on them for expert advice on a variety of employee-relations issues, such as labor and employment law updates, union negotiations, training and development programs, and survey and research information. HEC’s staff is fast, accessible and knowledgeable and we trust them so much that we consider them to be an extension of our own team.