Category: HR Management & Compliance

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.

EFCA Just a Shot Across the Bow? Mike Losey Weighs In

By BLR Founder and CEO Bob Brady Bob Brady picks the brain of longtime SHRM President Mike Losey on the implications of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). Cautious When EFCA was introduced in Congress several weeks ago, unions and their supporters hailed it as the middle class’s salvation, while employers condemned it as the […]

Class Actions on the Rise—Are You Next?

One of the most feared phrases in the HR lexicon is “class action” or how to turn a one-employee small suit into a many-employee gigantic suit. Today we will look at survey data on class actions and at the best tool for preventing them. In yesterday’s Advisor we looked at lawsuit cost data from law […]

H-1B Visas Still Available for 2010

In a remarkable about-face from the past few years, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) announced today that after a week of receiving petitions for H-1B nonimmigrant visas, the 65,000 cap for the coming fiscal year hasn’t been reached. For the past several years, the USCIS has received far more petitions for H-1B […]

United Airlines Forks Out $850,000 in Disability Bias Settlement

An $850,000 settlement was recently announced between United Airlines and the San Francisco office of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the proceeds of which will be paid out to a class of United’s disabled employees. The settlement resolves a case filed by the EEOC alleging that United’s overtime policies disproportionately denied disabled employees opportunities […]

Survey Says: 21% of Companies Are Litigation Free!

Unfortunately, the headline also means that 79% of companies did experience new litigation last year, according to a survey by the law firm Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P. Here are top findings of interest to HR managers. Fulbright’s Fifth Annual Litigation Trends Survey, billed as the “largest canvas of corporate counsel on litigation and trends,” garnered […]

It’s Called Managing, Not Mangling

In yesterday’s Advisor the “boss whisperer” helped managers get information from subordinates. Today, her tips on how to approach the abrasive manager. The boss whisperer is executive coach Dr. Laura Crawshaw. These tips are from her book, Taming the Abrasive Manager: How to End Unnecessary Roughness in the Workplace. When you present the facts, the […]

Hot List: BusinessWeek’s Best Seller List

BusinessWeek magazine ranks the 15 best selling hardcover and paperback business books in April 2009 and  gives a short summary. 1. Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell. As you’d expect with Gladwell, there are lots of surprises in his explanation of why some people succeed fantastically. Pluck and smarts get less play here […]

Boss Whisperer Tames Abrasive Bosses

You know of the Horse Whisperer, and maybe the Dog Whisperer? Now we’ve got the self-proclaimed boss whisperer—executive coach Dr. Laura Crawshaw. Here are some tips from her book, Taming the Abrasive Manager: How to End Unnecessary Roughness in the Workplace. Crawshaw starts by identifying the five primary behavioral characteristics of abrasive bosses. How many […]

Oh, How I Love a Good Off-Site Meeting

By BLR Founder and CEO Bob Brady Business meetings and business travel have been getting a lot of bad press the last few months, led by the poster child for bad PR, the much-maligned, beaten-and-battered insurance giant, AIG. But BLR’s CEO Bob Brady finds value in getting off-site. Faced with tough economic times, BLR has […]

IRS Issues New COBRA Guidance for Employers

Update Dec. 16: House Passes COBRA Subsidy Extension and Expansion The IRS has issued guidance on the COBRA premium assistance or subsidy provisions of the economic stimulus bill recently passed in Congress. Under the provisions, eligible employees who were involuntarily terminated from their jobs between September 1, 2008, and December 31, 2009, and their qualified […]