Archives

What Does the C-Suite Really Think About HR?

Botwin, founder of SPC Consulting, offered the following tips at BLR’s 2013 Strategic HR Summit held recently in Scottsdale, Arizona. What the C-Suite Thinks HR Does Says “No” Hires and fires Controls with rules and enforcement Generates costs and overhead Gets in the way What HR Really Does Looks out for the company Makes sure […]

New Technology—Taking HR from Smog to Cloud

Seals, a senior partner with Mercer Atlanta, offered her tips at WorldatWork’s annual convention and exhibition, held recently in Philadelphia. The New Model for Purchasing Technology Seals’ chart shows how tech purchasing has changed: The Old Model   The New Model Licensed Business Models Subscribed On-premises Deployment Models In the cloud Customized single tenant Architectural […]

Do Your Employees Know How to Handle Near Misses?

One of the simplest and most direct ways to train is to pose and answer a series of questions about the safety issue. Here’s an example of how this method works for near- miss training. What Is a Near Miss? A near miss is an incident in which property damage and injury could have happened—but […]

FMLA Leave Not a Reason for Discipline or Dismissal, Court Says

Employers must not impose probation on employees for excessive absences that include leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act. To do so is akin to using a disciplinary measure to penalize employees for taking qualified FMLA leave. So ruled the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey as it permitted the FMLA […]

What Can Trainers Do to Work Successfully with SMEs?

“Getting them involved can be very difficult,” she says. Since training is likely not among the SMEs’ job responsibilities, it can be hard to schedule time with them and to get the information you need from them when you need it, Lee explains. She recommends scheduling “kick off meetings” with SMEs to set clear expectations, […]

4 More Things Trainers Should Know About SPCC

Our sister publication, Environmental Daily Advisor, reports from the 2013 National Institute for Storage Tank Management’s (NISTM) recent storage tank conference that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) gave a really detailed, 3-hour review of Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure (SPCC) regulations and best practices. Here are 4 more things I picked up that I […]

Pay Budgets 2013/2014–What’s Really Happening?

Please participate in our brief survey and see how what you are doing stacks up against what other successful companies are doing. We’ll get answers to these questions and more: What is the average merit and general increase for 2013 (at each performance level) What increases are planned for 2014? What are the criteria used […]

What makes a good employee: education, experience, or something more?

It doesn’t seem to make sense: Employers complain of a lack of suitable applicants despite being inundated with a glut of highly educated jobseekers. Applicants are confused, too. A recent study from McKinsey & Company’s Center for Government found that 44 percent of young U.S. jobseekers included in a survey weren’t sure that their postsecondary […]

D.C. insight: federal legislative roundup

by Sophie E. Zdatny Recently, the Employers Counsel Network (ECN) met in Alexandria, Virginia, where several notable speakers stopped by to provide their insights on current developments in the employment arena at the national level and to share their predictions for President Barack Obama’s second term. The first post looked at the personnel turnover at […]

Readers’ Story: Consoling the Cat

Have you ever had an employee miss work only to give you a far-fetched reason for their absence? A recent survey touched on a few odd excuses, like being too distraught after watching The Hunger Games. This SBT reader, who works in the construction industry, had a similar experience. The employee in question had an […]