Author: Heather Hunt

Are Your Employees Trained to Cope with the Aftermath of Workplace Violence?

The material in today’s Advisor is adapted from BLR’s 10-Minute HR Trainer session, “Coping with the Aftermath of Workplace Violence.” Take Care of People First The first step in the aftermath of workplace violence is to take care of employees. Contact families of injured employees, stay in touch, and help them with insurance and workers’ […]

Dos and Don’ts of Resolving Conflict in the Workplace

Resolving conflict in the workplace is a skill that HR managers need to have because conflict will always arise. In this article, we’ll take a look at the reasons why conflict arises and some dos and don’ts for resolving conflict in the work place. Conflict arises because employees: Have different points of view. Communicate to […]

Think You’re in HR? You’re Actually in Sales

Special from Chicago: SHRM Annual Conference and Exposition We’re all salespeople, whether our title says sales or not, says business guru Dan Pink, and that’s probably more true of HR people than most others. Fortunately, he adds, sales isn’t what it used to be. Pink’s best-selling titles include Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates […]

Q&A on Recordkeeping for Employee Personnel Files

Maintaining employee records can be a time-consuming and arduous task. What pre-employment files should be kept in employee records? Should supervisor notes be included? Are electronic versions of mandatory records acceptable? These questions and many more were addressed by Jason Ritchie in a recent BLR webinar. Here’s a selection of the questions and answers. Q. […]

Exempt employees in California: The administrative exemption

Exempt employees in California are those who are not subject to overtime pay for hours worked in excess of 8 in a day or 40 in a week. Since these employees are not being paid overtime, it may be tempting to classify as many employees “exempt” as possible, but they must meet strict requirements to […]

Marking Anniversary, Feds Call ADA Amendments ‘a Promising Start’

Federal courts are off to “a promising start” in issuing rulings under the ADA Amendments Act according to the National Council on Disability, an independent federal agency. NCD says that recent rulings are a substantial improvement over pre-amendments decisions in achieving the broad scope of coverage that Congress intended. That finding is part of an […]

Same-gender Marriage Debate Continues in the States

Employers still have to contend with plenty of uncertainty regarding employees’ same-gender spouses, regardless of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in U.S. v. Windsor (No. 12-307, June 26, 2013). That decision may have declared Section 3 of the federal Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional, but it was a narrow ruling that left divergent state laws […]

Do You Train Supervisors to Be ‘Caring’?

From familiarizing supervisors with federal and state employment law to keeping them updated on the company’s policies and procedures, trainers must manage multiple training priorities—often on a limited budget. It can be easy to overlook a “soft” topic, such as training supervisors and managers to demonstrate care for employees and to build positive relationships with […]

HR Trends Survey Results in–How Do You Compare?

Over 300 HR practitioners participated in the survey. Other findings include: More than  two-thirds use social media for recruiting at least some of the time (Respondents offered 25 other ways their HR departments are using social media.). 41 percent say the top HR person is a full member of the executive (C-suite) team. 54 percent […]

Take Your Dispute Back to Saudi Arabia

A former U.S. Navy commander, who was recruited to work as a flight instructor in Saudi Arabia, said he was forced to sign an employment agreement after he arrived in that country. He also claims his passport was confiscated, he was assigned to poor living conditions, and he worked in an unsafe environment. Boeing International […]