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Pay Budgets for 2015 (New Survey Results)

Yesterday’s Advisor began our coverage of BLR’s 2014–2015 Pay Budget Survey results. Today, the rest of the results, including 2015 compensation planning. [Go here for 2014 data and the rest of the survey results] 2015 Merit Increases A mere 13.8% (down from 14.1% in 2013) of survey participants have decided and/or approved their pay budgets […]

How Training Can Help a Nontraditional Business Model Succeed

Guest columnist, Ryan O’Connell, confesses at HR.BLR.com® that sometimes it’s necessary to strip away all the preconceived notions about how to succeed in an industry, reshuffle roles, and take an untraditional approach to change things for the better. That’s even true—maybe especially true—in industries as steeped in tradition as winemaking. At NakedWines.com, O’Connell says his […]

Find quiet time alone to think

by Dan Oswald You don’t spend nearly enough time simply thinking. Before you take offense to that statement, consider how much time you spend talking, responding to e-mail, even reading—my guess is that you spend more time doing any one of them than you do thinking. Why do so many people claim they have had […]

Plan Sponsors Must Require More from Managed Account Providers, GAO

More needs to be known about managed account services for retirement plan participants and the role employer plan sponsors play in offering them, according to a report released on July 29 by the U.S. Government Accountability Office. Because these services differ from investment options provided within 401(k) plans, yet can serve as a qualified default […]

Employer Faces More Fees as 11th Circuit Affirms $126K COBRA Penalty Award

A federal appeals court not only affirmed a ruling that an employer/plan administrator must pay more than $126,000 in penalties and legal costs for intentionally violating COBRA notice requirements, it also held that about $2,460 in expenses excluded from the legal award should be revisited by the lower court. The case is Evans v. Books-A-Million, […]

Are You Ready to Train for a Nontraditional Business Model?

Sometimes it’s necessary to strip away all the preconceived notions about how to succeed in an industry, reshuffle roles, and take an untraditional approach to change things for the better. That’s even true—maybe especially true—in industries as steeped in tradition as winemaking. Typically, there are three groups involved in winemaking: The winemakers, The distributors, and […]

2014-2015 Pay Budget Survey Results in; How Do You Compare?

Highlights of the survey: 18.2% of respondents are awarding merit increases (averaged across all employee types) of up to 2.5% in 2014 and 46.1% are awarding increases of more than 2.5% 21% of survey participants awarded an increase of 2.51–3% for “Meets requirements” and 12.9% awarded that amount for “Exceeds requirements.” The biggest challenge for […]

Believe It or Not—These People Make a Decent Living Wage!

On Married with Children, Al, the main character, was always complaining that being a shoe salesman was a lousy paying, degrading job. You can’t afford nice things or live in a nice house, and it’s hard to keep up with the Darcys. But imagine working for a shoe store where you actually can afford nice […]