Author: William Hoffman

Employee Suit Evaporates Because No FMLA Rights Denied

The decision in Quinn v. St. Louis Co. illuminates a fine line for employers. While eligible workers must be granted unpaid time off for qualifying serious health conditions under the FMLA, the court showed that interference must have material consequences – such as actual denial of time off – for employees to make a convincing […]

Incentives or Disincentives? More Mistakes That Send Salespeople Packing

McAnally is president of SalesComp America, in Andover, Massachusetts. Killer #7. Design Comp Plans That Don’t Match Company Goals [Go here for mistakes 1 to 6.] Nobody’s going to be happy with the sales force if compensation plans don’t match up with company goals. Say you’re trying to launch a new product that is much […]

Pay Never Goes Down? Another Bad Habit

In yesterday’s Advisor, we featured the first three of Stacey Carroll and Al Lee’s “bad compensation habits.” Today, more bad habits, and an introduction to a unique FLSA audit system that detects problems before the feds do. Carroll is Director of Professional Services and Education at Payscale, Inc.; Lee is Director of Qualitative Analytics. Their […]

How to Incentivize Your Best Salespeople … to Leave

Is your sales compensation program actually sabotaging your results? It probably is, if it’s guilty of the frequently committed faux pas detailed below. They’re from Alan McAnally, sales consultant and president of Andover, Massachusetts-based SalesComp America, in an article on the company’s website. We’ve abstracted the gist of these sales force killers here. Killer #1. […]

Top 10 Hiring Mistakes Made By California Employers

Given the recent state of the economy, most employers have been more concerned with how to conduct effective layoffs than with avoiding mistakes in the hiring process. Yet as the economy gradually (if fitfully) shows signs of improvement, companies need to prepare to hire again. Are you ready?

The Top 5 Compensation Habits to Kick

Most HR managers only have a few bad compensation habits, but they’re hard to break, say experts Stacey Carroll and Al Lee. In today’s Advisor, their “Top 5” bad habits in compensation. Carroll is Director of Professional Services and Education at Payscale, Inc.; Lee is Director of Qualitative Analytics. Their remarks came at a recent […]

OSHA to Disgruntled Employees: Blow the Whistle!

The U.S. government is sharpening its whistleblower protection program, hiring and training more OSHA agents to cultivate employee complaints against their companies. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) wants to increase the number of “whistleblower managers,” who work with disgruntled employees to dig up dirt on companies for alleged violations of workplace laws. Their work […]

‘Out of Control’ Employee Screaming Profanities Loses out on COBRA Due to Gross Misconduct

Although the COBRA statute never defined gross misconduct — leaving it up to the courts — no dictionary is needed when an “out-of-control” employee screams profanities at and makes seemingly threatening hand gestures toward another employee, saying she would “get” hers. This behavior was “so manifestly so outrageous and extreme as to constitute gross misconduct,” […]

A Shorter Commute Can Be Very Accommodating under the ADA, 2nd Circuit Says

Perhaps employers have been mistaken in assuming they never have to worry about a worker’s commute when accommodating a sickness or disability. In certain circumstances, an employer may be required to assist with an employee’s commute, the 2nd Circuit says in a recent opinion (Nixon-Tinkelman v. New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene). […]