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Now Is the Time for HR to Become a Business Leader

By Seth Kahan HR’s responsibility to recruit and develop the right team of leaders is critical to business success—shirk that responsibility at your peril, says consultant Seth Kahan, author of Getting Change Right: How Leaders Transform Organizations from the Inside Out. This article is an excerpt of Kahan’s coming book, Getting Innovation Right, due out […]

Leadership Training Creates Competitive Advantage, Career Paths

The company’s CEO believes that, ideally, Convergys “leaders should spend 50 percent of their time coaching employees for performance,” Handy says. Consistent with that philosophy, the company piloted a third leadership program this spring. The day-long Leader as Coach program is geared toward managers at the director level and above. If you are looking for […]

How Would a Court Rate Your Safety Training Programs?

“Brendan” worked for a chemical company for 30 years before he was injured. A mechanic, Brendan was hurt when he and another employee tried to replace three broken drive belts on a blending blower. Three fingers on Brendan’s right hand were injured when they were pinched between the drive belt and a pulley. The incident […]

Here we go again: dealing with political discussions in the workplace

by T. Harold Pinkley As election season heats up, we thought it would be worthwhile to remind you about important issues to consider when you’re dealing with discussions about politics in the workplace. We hope our readers will relate to the experiences of Gertrude, the fictional HR director featured in this article. The phone call […]

The 3 Key Criteria for Choosing Your Payroll Auditor

Lambert, who offers payroll training as “The Payroll Advisor,”says that you can’t give payroll auditing over to just anyone who’s free.  There are three points that are critical for choosing the auditor.  1. Not the Person Who Does the Job First, says Lambert, you want someone other than the one who does the job to […]

How Will the Election Affect Health Care Reform?

Eye on the Election For today’s topic—likely changes to health care reform after the election—we turned to BLR legal editor Jessica Webb-Ayer, J.D., editor of the Benefits Compliance Advisor online newsletter and the benefits manual Benefits Compliance: Strategies for Plans, Programs & Policies. Although health care reform (also known as the Affordable Care Act or […]

Suggested HR Metrics for Significant C-Suite Impact

Yesterday’s Advisor discussed the C-Suite and HR metrics; today, suggested metrics for different functions. Again, our insights come from the all-HR-in-one website, HR.BLR.com. Here are suggested metrics for various HR functions: Metrics for the Recruiting Function Time to fill a vacancy Quantity and quality of applications based on recruiting source HR cost per hire Voluntary/involuntary […]

Pension Rights Group Seeks Temporary Freeze on Lump-sum Retirement Payouts

As a growing number of large U.S. companies announce plans to “de-risk” their traditional defined benefit plans to lower their pension obligation and retiree distribution costs, the Pension Rights Center called for a moratorium on such actions until Congress can look into the risks these strategies pose to workers and retirees. On Oct. 17, Verizon […]

California vs. federal travel pay

Travel pay poses a significant risk for wage and hour claims since the line between employer time and employee time can easily blur. With employees commuting to and from the workplace; to and from jobsites; and to and from hotels, airports, and conferences, the line between personal time and work time isn’t always clear. The […]

Internal Fraud—How to Audit for Common Crimes

Lambert, who offers payroll training as “The Payroll Advisor,” says that if you are doing an audit, might as well audit for fraud as you go. She’s found a lot of fraudulent behavior that way. Auditing for Fraud Payroll fraud is defined as “anything that uses payroll to take money from the company in a […]