Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
Think you don’t have to worry about retention in a down economy? Many experts suggest it’s especially important these days, particularly for the employees you value most. Today’s Advisor explores how one company uses a tiered recognition approach. Effective employee recognition is timely and meaningful, says Tommy Lee Hayes-Brown, AIC, a certified recognition professional and […]
PEDs (portable electronic devices) may truly be productivity boosters (although managers watching employees texting, Twittering, and gaming may not be so sure). But they are also potential carriers of critical information about customers, employees, and the company itself. Yesterday’s Advisor covered 10 policy issues surrounding PEDs. ( Go here to see them.) Today, we continue […]
James Stevens, a former inventory clerk at a Vons store in Simi Valley, alleged that manager Laura Marko had harassed him and other employees by making sexually explicit comments. Then, after Stevens complained, Marko falsely told people that Stevens was a pervert, and that he was calling her home and harassing her. Vons interviewed six […]
PEDs—portable electronic devices such as laptops, PDAs, pocket drives, and memory cards—are in your office by the dozens. Are they putting confidential data at risk? Generating unexpected overtime? Destroying productivity? It’s time for a separate PED policy. First, courtesy of our sister newsletter, the Safety Daily Advisor, let’s consider the various laws that relate to […]
Just My E-pinionBy Brian Jones Guest columnist and management consultant Brian Jones shares a lesson he learned from comedian Conan O’Brien about “ordinary greatness.” One of the side effects of my constant travel schedule is arriving at hotels in new cities late at night. Unable to sleep, I turn on the TV. Late-night TV is […]
As part of the new stimulus package, many workers will be seeing a little extra cash in their paychecks beginning this month—in the form of a reduced federal income tax withholding called the Making Work Pay Tax Credit. For employers, this means that payroll calculations need to be adjusted to ensure that the lowered withholding […]
The federal stimulus package contains a COBRA premium subsidy for employees who are “involuntarily terminated” between September 1, 2008 and December 31, 2009. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has recently published guidance for employers on what an “involuntary termination” is for the purpose of determining which employees should be sent the required COBRA subsidy notices. […]
With everything else you have to do, keeping up with changes in the law can be difficult—especially in California.
The best questions always come from our CEA subscribers—the ones toiling away in the HR trenches. During each month we’ll reprint some of the questions they’ve put to our editors, and the answers we’ve provided. Here’s one that many employers have wondered about: What are the pay requirements when a non-exempt employee is on-call by […]
Yesterday’s Advisor considered harassment complaint systems. Today, we cover who takes complaints, offer a sample complaint form, and discuss one additional key element—training. Who should handle harassment complaints? The people designated for this task should be people viewed as credible, objective, sensitive, and trustworthy. Note that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) says any complaint […]