Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
There are dozens of details to take care of in the day-to-day operation of your department and your company. We give you case studies, news updates, best practices and training tips that keep your organization fully in compliance with ever-changing employment law, and you fully aware of emerging HR trends.
This economy has hit our small retail Insurance Agency hard, we laid off an employee May ’08, another at the end of ’08, cut wages—by 15%—last May (’09) and have done many other things to cut our expenses. Unfortunately we need to lay off three more employees next week … two of the three we […]
When employers are changing or adding new policies, do they have a to give employees advance notice? If so how many days and where would I find it in writing?
Only a year and a half into wellness programming, the Mall of America already has seen a wellness “buzz” and health care savings that may be the result of its employee wellness initiative. Susan Amundson, HR director of the mall’s 900-employee workforce (that’s just mall employees–about 12,000 more work in the stores), acknowledges that while […]
Amazon.com updates its list of the bestselling books every hour. Here is a snapshot of what is hot right now, this Monday morning, September 14, in the “General” section of the “Business and Investing” category. 1. Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell. The author of The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make […]
Thinking about “friending” your boss on Facebook®? You may want to reconsider. According to a recent survey, nearly half of executives are uncomfortable being friended by employees they manage (48 percent) or their bosses (47 percent ). Social networking is invading the office. The issue used to be, “Which friends will I ‘friend?’” But what […]
Since Congress returned from its recess this week, all eyes and attention have returned to health care reform. A framework for a potential bipartisan health care reform bill was made public this week. And President Barack Obama addressed a joint session of Congress, outlining his plan for health care reform, though Republicans generally remain wary […]
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced on September 4 that it will perform comprehensive safety inspections at nearly 4,000 high-hazard workplaces. These inspections are part of OSHA’s Site-Specific Targeting 2009 (SST-09) program, which helps direct enforcement resources to the types of workplaces that have the highest rate of injuries and illnesses. OSHA will […]
What are the chances that you can ever erase an e-mail? No chance, says Attorney Matthew Effland. When you send e-mail, it’s saved in many places, most of which you can’t access. For example, Effland says, your e-mail is likely stored in: Your computer’s cache and e-mail outbox, Your e-mail service provider’s computers and/or corporate […]
It used to be easy, says Attorney Matthew Effland. If you spotted someone reading on the job, you just told them to go back to work. Now, they have headphones on—are they listening to an audio conference on HR compliance, music that relaxes them, or a digital book? Unfortunately, you are going to have people […]
By BLR Founder and CEO Bob Brady Readers Don’t Agree About New Haven Firefighters Tests? Two weeks ago we ran my column about the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in the New Haven firefighters’ case. (The justices overruled lower court decisions, holding that the city was wrong when it refused to use the results of a […]