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Bulletin: Final Rule Addressing Stock Diversification Notice Penalty Issued

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration has published a final rule clarifying the penalty that may be imposed on a plan administrator for failing to provide a written notice to participants and beneficiaries of their rights to diversify the portions of plan accounts that are invested in the employer’s publicly traded securities. […]

Hiring: Should We Accept Video Resumes?

In our hiring training, we’ve told our managers to avoid information that is not job related, especially when it has to do with protected characteristics. But we still get a lot of details we shouldn’t know about in other ways. Some applicants send pictures with their e-mailed resumes and others send video resumes. What do […]

Terminating Employees: Neutral Investigation Helps Defeat Discrimination Charges

Richard King was a valued United Parcel Service (UPS) supervisor in Redding for more than 30 years, until he was fired for falsifying an employee’s timecard. King contended in a lawsuit that the real reason for his termination was disability bias. But now a California appeals court has dismissed King’s suit—and the case is a […]

5 Topics for HR Strategic Planning

The following are five important topics to help you do strategic planning to improve your company’s HR functions and put those plans into action. Audit your policies and practices with the Employment Practices Self-Audit Workbook Planning to succeed The essence of strategic planning for any organization is (1) the identification of desired goals and objectives […]

Union Card Checks and Neutrality Agreements

by Robert Vercruysse and Gary Fealk Labor unions may be on the decline, but they’re once again ramping up organizing efforts, especially in stronghold states. More and more unions are seeking to avoid the traditional National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election process and are requesting employers to enter into card-check and neutrality agreements. HR Guide […]

Hiring: What Are the Pitfalls of Hiring Internet Applicants?

Just in the past year, we’ve started doing almost all of our hiring through online sources. In some ways, it works very well, but I’m becoming increasingly concerned that we’re sort of losing control of what was a pretty solid commitment to diversity. Are we exposing ourselves to discrimination and affirmative action problems by recruiting […]

Women’s Appreciation

LITIGATION VALUE: 1,000,000 + The “women’s appreciation” meeting was a bad idea that was poorly executed. I’m not saying that Dunder Mifflin cannot or should not recognize the achievements of its female employees. It should. I just think that the meeting shouldn’t be announced by saying “I know the crap out of women” and should […]