Author: Heather Hunt

Do Your Workers Know How to Prevent Heat Illness?

In 2005, a dozen California workers died of heat illness—a toll that resulted in the promulgation of the nation’s first heat illness prevention regulation. In 2009, California/OSHA conducted more than 3,400 inspections at worksites considered “high risk” for heat illness. The agency shut down 16 worksites that posed an imminent heat hazard and issued nearly […]

IRS Issues Info on Exchange Eligibility, Penalties and Subsidies

The IRS has issued final/temporary and proposed rules, and a raft of guidance and draft forms related to reporting requirements for employers and individuals under health care reform. The rules and guidance are designed to help individuals and businesses calculate both their penalties if they don’t have health coverage, and subsidies, if they are eligible, […]

Looking for Great Talent? Look for Potential

The cover article in the June issue of Harvard Business Review is titled “The Big Idea: 21st-Century Talent Spotting.” Since all of us as managers are constantly on the lookout for talent, the title, of course, grabbed my attention. The author, Claudio Fernández-Aráoz, a senior adviser at a global executive firm, boldly claims that potential […]

When Internships Lead to Employment

With roughly one-in-four employers recruiting entry-level workers from the pool of current and former interns, it is more important than ever for college and university students and recent graduates to perform well in these employment proving grounds, says a press release from Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Inc. Unfortunately, many of those involved in summer internship […]

No More HR Terrorism

How is HR a terrorist? HR tends to use the law as a hammer, Sackett says. “No, you can’t do it; it’s against the law.” A better approach is, “Yes, you can do it, but we put ourselves at risk for an expensive and prolonged lawsuit.”  You be the CEO’s risk advisor; he or she […]

CEO: Here’s What I Wish HR Would Do!

How did we get to this point? Sackett (www.timsackett.com) asks. He says, “Check out the graphics below. Don’t try to read them, just glance and ask whether your CEO wants to look at them.” (Sackett offered his tips during the recent SHRM annual Conference and Expo in Orlando.)   Really pretty charts… are we adding […]

Termination Danger—4 More Sins

Boss: Documentation, schmockumentation; this guy’s a poor performer and I want him gone today. The trouble with this scenario—terminating with no backup evidence of poor performance—is that there is usually documentation that shows good performance. Typically, since the person hasn’t been terminated before, his or her performance reviews read “good” or “satisfactory.” Now, this is […]

Train New Supervisors on These 5 Rules

New supervisors and managers try to do the best job they can, but their good intentions often backfire. Instead, they lay the groundwork for expensive lawsuits. The solution is training, training, and more training, but where do you start? New supervisors are overwhelmed by their new responsibilities. They have to forge new relationships with people […]