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Winter Season Wrap-Up: What Were Your Favorite SBTs?

Spring is finally here! With winter behind us, we are taking a look back at the most shared Strange but True! articles of the season. Employees’ Tardy Excuses Get Weirder: You Won’t Believe #2 Daughter’s Facebook Post Wrecks Father’s Discrimination Suit Employee Takes It on the Chin for Refusing Boss’s Personal Grooming Request ‘CEO’ Simplifies […]

Techies Ban Tech Presentations; Go Web and Electricity Free!

Who could be more cutting-edge high tech than physicists such as those working on the Large Hadron Collider? Yet, for presenters at Fermilab’s LHC Physics Center Forum, PowerPoint® slides have been banned, in favor of white boards and a marker! What is going on here? The Forum wanted to change its meetings “from monologues to […]

Update on the Ultimate Dead-End Job—Literally

Last year, HR Strange but True! reported on a call for applicants by Dutch organization MarsOne to staff a trip to Mars. Well, according to Yahoo! News, it looks like the “hiring process” is still progressing and has become the subject of a short film, “Mars One Way,” featuring five of the “applicants” and why […]

April 25 date set for Northwestern football union vote

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has scheduled an April 25 union representation vote for Northwestern University football players. Spokespersons in both the Chicago and Washington, D.C., NLRB offices confirmed that the April 25 date has been set but didn’t have more information such as which players will be eligible to vote and when results […]

What Changes Are Employers Making to Retirement Benefits?

Changes Contemplated Our survey shows that 9.8% of employers plan to add or make changes to their 2015 retirement benefits package, 64.9% of employers have no additions or changes planned, and 25.3% are not certain at this point in time. For those that are planning to add or make changes to their retirement benefits, 27.4% […]

Hireright Infographic: Meet the Robots Reading Your Résumé

This infographic from Hireright breaks down how applicant tracking systems (ATSs) weed through hundreds, if not thousands, of résumés to find the right candidate for a position. Some candidates and recruiters argue that an ATS can overlook qualified applicants simply due to oversights in résumé form and structure. This is true. However, knowing how an […]

Retirement Benefits? Results Are In! Survey Says …

86.6% of the employers responding to our 2014 survey offer either a 401(k) or 403(b) retirement savings plan to employees. 60.3% of the employers responding to our survey that offer a 401(k) or 403(b) plan to their employees also provide a matching contribution. 41.4% of employers match employee contributions dollar-for-dollar. 31.3% go 50 cents on […]

Keeping policies legal: Don’t ban employees from talking about pay

It’s tempting for employers to put rules in the company handbook informing employees that they are prohibited from discussing wages and benefits with coworkers. Such policies often warn employees that violators will be subject to discipline up to and including termination.  But who’s really in trouble because of that kind of policy? The employee polling […]

Treasury Department finalizes rule on hiring women, minorities

by Judith E. Kramer The U.S. Treasury Department has issued a final rule requiring that any entity that enters into a contract with the department make good-faith efforts to include minorities and women in its workforce. The new rule goes into effect April 21. The requirement grows out of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, which states […]

Train Your Employees to Be Leaders

John Wooden led the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Bruins to 10 NCAA basketball championships in 12 years and, among other accomplishments, has been named America’s “Greatest Coach of the 20th Century” by ESPN. He also wrote or co-wrote several books, including Coach Wooden’s Game Plan for Success: 12 Lessons for Extraordinary Performance and […]