Author: Jane Meacham, Contributing Editor

State Regulators Find Inconsistencies in Broker-dealer Disclosure Practices

A survey by an association of North American state and provincial securities regulators that found numerous inconsistencies in how broker-dealers disclose fees to customers adds weight to calls from federal regulators for service providers to furnish fee guides to employer retirement plan sponsors. “[W]ide disparity among firms in the way fees were disclosed” was reported […]

Have Your Leaders Learned These 6 Leadership Lessons?

A recent Gallup poll shows that only 30 percent of Americans are actively engaged at work. According to Gallup’s chairman and CEO, fully 20 percent of American employees are actively disengaged because they have “bosses from hell that make them miserable.” In turn, these employees “roam the halls spreading discontent.” But wait—there’s good news. According […]

Creating a Sales Compensation Philosophy

“When we’re talking about sales compensation objectives, we define them as the five ‘rights.’ We want the sales people to sell the right product to the right customer at the right price at the right profit and at the right time. Unfortunately, many companies don’t get this right.”

Include Customer Harassment in Your Harassment Training

According to a recent article on HR.BLR.com, you might want to incorporate a recent court case, which involved accusations of ongoing sexual and racial harassment by a customer, into your training on harassment. For the details of the case, click here. What the court said The appeals court majority reversed on the hostile work environment […]

Gaming the System—PA Sin Number Seven

Yesterday’s Advisor featured the first 6 of our 10 sins of performance appraisers; today, we present the rest of the sins.    [Go here for sins 1 to 6.] Sin #7. Gaming the system “John’s work is just OK, to be sure, but I need to give him a big raise to keep him, so […]

Does Your Harassment Training Include Harassment by Customers?

One court recently decided that an employer can be held liable for harassment from customers. The court in this case concluded that “an employer is liable under Title VII [of the Civil Rights Act of 1964] for third parties creating a hostile work environment if the employer knew or should have known of the harassment […]

The 10 Sins of Performance Appraisers

Performance evaluation—it’s hard to get it right, but, unfortunately, it’s easy—and expensive— to get it wrong. We’ve identified the 10 most common mistakes of managers and supervisors who conduct performance appraisals. We call them the “10 Sins.”   Sin #1. Failure to set meaningful goals “Well, Sandy, I think we did fairly well this year, […]

Out of PTO, Can’t Deduct, What Can You Do?

Here’s how to approach the situation: First, if it is important for the employees to be in the office during consistent work hours, make sure that is explained in a written policy. If the policy does not yet exist, create it if this is critical to your business. Make it part of the employee handbook […]

When Exempt Employee Has No PTO, Takes Time Off

PTO helps to bridge the gap between being required to pay salaried employees their full salary in a given workweek (even if they don’t work a full workweek), while also balancing how much time off can be taken without it becoming a problem. Employers often find themselves in a conundrum, however, over how to handle […]

CMS: Waiting Periods on Essential Benefits May Be Discrimination

Employer-sponsored health plans and insurers got a double dose of compliance advice on May 16 from the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services in the form of a set of Frequently Asked Questions. The first FAQ clarifies that insurers in the individual and small group market may not impose waiting periods on specific essential health benefits. […]