Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has finalized a rule that permits employers to coordinate retiree health benefits with Medicare or comparable state benefits, without running afoul of the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA).
Too often, managers avoid giving honest evaluations. Maybe they fear causing hurt feelings or maybe they don’t know what to do, but the result is the same—a lost lawsuit. The solution? The two Cs—Clarify and Coach. You know you should be coaching Terry, but you’re busy, and Terry’s doing OK. Well, OK is overstating it, […]
If termination is necessary, let it be a group decision, say the experts. That approach will hold up strongly against legal challenges. Here’s why: First, specialized input. As we mentioned in yesterday’s Advisor, specialized members of the management team, like the HR manager, are in a better position to judge the appropriate action to take. […]
Employers must give employees written notice of their possible right to take an Earned Income Tax Credit on their federal tax returns, as required by a new California law, A.B. 650, that took effect on January 1. The new provision applies to all employers and employees covered by California’s unemployment insurance law.
There’s nothing like a termination to get the “l’m-going-to-sue!” juices flowing. People want someone to blame, and, guess what? It’s not going to be them. Ill-considered and hasty terminations spell lawsuit time after time. And most of those lawsuits are avoidable—if you know what to do. Yes, you may win the lawsuit. But, unfortunately, once […]
I’m trying to get a wellness program going in our company but I can’t seem to get top management to “get it.” Can you help out by outlining why wellness is important— something even our VPs can understand?— Stephen P., Manager of People, San Francisco
Note: There is no E-pinion today as we’ve reorganized the week a bit to deal with the holiday. Bob Brady will return next Friday with an E-pinion on how to handle pay increases for new employees who do outstanding jobs. As we saw in yesterday’s Advisor, new technology has generated a string of issues in […]
We’re having a devil of a time figuring out precisely how to pay our nonexempt employees when they travel. If they travel by air and stay overnight, do we start paying as soon as they leave their house for the airport? Then let’s say the plane lands at 7 p.m., they go to the hotel, […]
Cell phones, BlackBerry®, PDAs, iPod® devices, personal laptops, and flash memory sticks—they’re in your workplace, perhaps by the dozens, but are they posing more dangers than you know? Our experts sort it out. Especially now that gift-giving season has come and gone, you are probably seeing them in your workplace … gadgets! Everything from iPods […]
One compliance gray area for employers under the family and medical leave laws concerns the notice employees must provide when they need to take leave. Of course, the easiest situation is when an employee fills out a leave request form and gives you a medical certification supporting the need for leave. But as a recent […]