Author: David Slaughter, JD, Senior Content Specialist, Legal

AOL Debacle Highlights Need to Maintain HIPAA Privacy Practices

Although sponsors of group health plans have had their hands full sorting through the still-changing Affordable Care Act requirements, the recent uproar involving AOL CEO Tim Armstrong is a stark reminder of the need to stay vigilant on HIPAA privacy — even as companies wrestle publicly with health care costs. As has been widely reported, […]

Census Bureau’s First-Ever Report on Education/Training Credits

The Census Bureau has reported that in fall 2012, more than 50 million U.S. adults, or one in four, had obtained a professional certification, license, or educational certificate apart from a postsecondary degree awarded by colleges and universities. Among the adults included in the report, 12 million had both a professional certification or license and […]

Working as a Team—Tough … but Essential

The other day my 19-year-old daughter told me, “It takes teamwork to make the dream work.” I’m sure she didn’t come up with that on her own, but it was new to me. Dan Oswald, CEO of BLR®, offered his thoughts on teamwork in a recent edition of The Oswald Letter. Teamwork is defined as […]

Recognition and Retention—5 T’s to Success

As we leave the recession behind, the hot button for HR is going to be retention, says consultant Ronald Katz. HR will have to focus on holding on to your most valuable assets and then on getting the highest effort out of them. Voluntarily Give Their Discretionary Effort Some employees do just enough not to […]

9 Things You MUST NOT Include in Your Documentation

Do not include the following in your documentation, says Wobst: Personal opinions. Rumors or speculation about the employee’s personal life. Theories about why the employee behaves a certain way. (Don’t practice psychiatry without a license.) For example, don’t call an employee “crazy.” Instead, document behaviors. Legal conclusions. (Don’t practice law without a license.) For example, […]

Don’t Make Any of These 10 Mistakes

Most of the money and time companies spend on training is wasted, says John Tschohl, president of Service Quality Institute and author of Achieving Excellence Through Customer Service. That’s because the majority of companies use outdated training ideas and boring training methods. He says that over the years in his work in the training field, […]

Training Credited with Efficiency Gains

Facing high sales attrition, slow time-to-quota for newly hired sales reps, and too few sales reps achieving quota, SuccessFactors turned to its Learning Team in early 2012 to rectify the situation. By the end of 2012, the team’s efforts had already paid off. Overall sales attrition had dropped by 80 percent compared to new sales […]

Do You Make Any of These 10 Training Mistakes?

Most of the money and time companies spend on training is wasted, says John Tschohl, president of Service Quality Institute. That’s because the majority of companies use outdated training ideas and boring training methods. “Training that is poorly presented goes in one ear and out the other. It’s no wonder employees don’t change their attitudes […]