Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
The IRS has just given you a hand in better enabling your employees to establish health savings accounts (HSAs). The IRS on Aug. 30 issued Announcement 2011-59, which includes a list of entities the IRS has approved to serve as nonbank trustees and custodians of HSAs. Under Code Section 223, which sets the rules for […]
The IRS’ “to do” list includes writing up a notice on cell phone substantiation and finalizing guidance on debit cards used with qualified transportation fringe benefits (QTFBs), according to its 2011-2012 priority guidance plan published Sept. 2. Smart Cards The IRS lists 29 items under the heading, “executive compensation, health care and other benefits and […]
With just two weeks to go until the new season begins, I wanted to make sure we give proper attention to another potential candidate for Michael’s position (once Robert California vacates it and proceeds to rule the Company and then the world) — Kelly Kapoor. She has gone through a number of transformations since slapping Michael […]
Retirement plan administrators do not have the authority to conclude that a domestic relations order (DRO) is not qualified because it is based on a “sham” divorce, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided July 18, 2011. The 5th Circuit stated that a key ERISA section “does not authorize an administrator to consider or […]
The sponsor of a self-funded health plan cannot escape its responsibility to ensure that only fully eligible people are enrolled. Illustrating this maxim is a self-funded plan’s sad quest to recover gigantic sums from health providers for services it paid on behalf of a non-beneficiary. The plan paid more than $1 million in claims for a […]
“We’ve looked at hundreds of companies’ plans,” Dolmat-Connell says “I guess if you could boil it down, there are three key pieces of advice.” (Dolmat-Connell is president and CEO of compensation experts DolmatConnell, & Partners in Boston, Massachusetts.) First of all, he says, make sure you don’t have uncapped plans. Second, make sure you balance […]
A job description need not account for every task that might ever be done. Here are the most critical components of a good job description.Heading Information
An employer violated the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) by firing five employees who complained on Facebook — off-hours — about their jobs, an administrative law judge for the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) held. So the employer must do penance by rehiring them and making them whole for any loss of earnings and other […]
In yesterday’s Advisor, Sir Richard Branson riffed on HR and management. Today, Arianna Huffington and Michael J. Fox echo some of Sir Richard’s ideas and add a few of their own. Huffington (of Huffington Post fame) posits three basic instincts in the pursuit of happiness—survival, sex, and power—and adds a fourth—doing something for others. That […]
Employment law attorney Mike Maslanka explains how a specific passage in Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching: A Book About the Way and the Power of the Way influences the way he writes. If you’re going to be writing something, take a look at Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching: A Book about the Way and the […]