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Holiday bonuses may cause FLSA headaches

by Kara E. Shea Many employers provide bonuses to employees this time of year, including everything from holiday turkeys to annual longevity pay. However, employers that play Santa must be mindful that under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), some bonuses may require additional overtime pay to nonexempt employees. Payments that affect overtime First, […]

Making Managers Manage

Surely one of the most frustrating things about HR is managers who won’t manage. HR sets up its policies, practices, and systems and then managers don’t follow through. Some don’t care, some can’t, and some just don’t have the backbone to make tough calls. One thing’s sure—when things go South, HR’s going to catch the […]

Are Employees on Leave Talking and Texting? (FLSA)

[Go here for risks 1 to 5.] 6. Fair Labor Standards Act Risks For exempt employees, employers must pay the full salary for any workweek, regardless of the number of days or hours worked. Therefore, if an exempt employee is on an unpaid leave of absence and uses an electronic device to check or respond […]

Train Managers to Resist Retaliation

How can you keep your managers out of the retaliation danger zone? First of all, they have to recognize the danger zone (go here for yesterday’s danger zone list), and then they need to know to contact HR before taking action. Keeping Managers Out of the Danger Zone Are you in the danger zone? If […]

HRCI Responds to Reader Questions, Announces Two New Certifications

HR Daily Advisor: You have two new certifications—HRBP (HR Business Professional) and HRMP (HR Management Professional). I understand these are mostly for foreign HR people—can you give me some details? HRCI: The HRBP and HRMP are for HR professionals who work outside of the United States and have mastered their country’s HR practices and regulations. […]

Hang on Loosely … Or You’re Gonna Lose Control

Oswald, CEO of BLR, offered his thoughts on “loose” control in a recent edition of The Oswald Letter. Look “manager” up in the dictionary, Oswald says, and you’ll find it described this way: “a person who has control or direction of an institution, business, etc., or of a part, division, or phase of it.” There […]

Ignoring the Basics Can Lead to HR Failures

In yesterday’s CED, we offered tips for managing the basics of HR legal issues. Today, the rest of the tips and an introduction to a California-specific resource for your employee handbook policies. Once again, a tip of the CED hat to attorneys John K. Skousen and Christopher J. Boman, partners at the Irvine office of employment law […]

It’s all about attitude

by Dan Oswald I happen to live in the country music capital of the world, Nashville. So at least a couple of country stations have been programmed into my radio. This morning on my drive to the office, I was listening to one of the stations when a Travis Tritt song titled “It’s a Great […]

Small Merit Budget? Carve-Outs Let You Differentiate Performance

Yesterday’s Advisor offered the first 6 of 9 factors necessary to make pay for performance real. Today, three more factors, plus an introduction to the all-compensation-in-one-place website, Compensation.BLR.com. 7. Make Merit Matter [Go here for factors 1 to 6.] Of course, one of the problems with merit pay has been that we’re mostly working with […]

The 11 E-Info Risks—Realistic and Legal Policies

Beachboard, who is a shareholder in the Los Angeles office of employment law firm Ogletree Deakins, details the risks in today’s Advisor. He made his comments at the SHRM Annual Conference and Exhibition held recently in Atlanta. 1. Leaks of Company Information The risk of unwanted disclosures is at the top of CEOs’ worries, says […]