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8 Threats and Traps for HR in Today’s Legal Environment

Trying to comply with the myriad of HR-related laws is tricky enough, but recent developments have opened the door to new legal hazards, says attorney Kevin Troutman. And there’s no grace period—be in compliance now or face time-consuming and costly investigations and litigation. Troutman, who is a partner in the Houston office of law firm […]

A Healthy Workplace Is a Happy Workplace

In yesterday’s Advisor, guest columnist Dan Colgan shared a few ideas on taking a holistic approach to wellness and a few programs that can help. Today we present more from Colgan on events that can help boost the health (literally) of your company.

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Disability Discrimination in the Workplace Costs Employers

It’s no secret that discrimination, harassment, and retaliation claims based on disability cost employers plenty—and it’s not just the dollars awarded in damages (although, admittedly, some jury awards are eye-popping). It’s the expense of litigation. It’s the time employers must spend defending claims. It’s the bad publicity for the company. It’s the damage to employee […]

Workplace Investigations: Remove Bias and Ignore Your Gut

As an HR manager, you’ve almost certainly had to do a workplace investigation. Employee A makes a complaint, saying that employee B did such and such. You talk to employee B, and he or she says that no such thing happened or it happened very differently. How do you measure who is credible and who […]

Bringing Babies to Work

Recently was the first time that a baby has been allowed on the Senate floor, when Senator Tammy Duckworth brought her newborn to work.

Ask the Expert: Should Employee Be Paid for Enrolling in Benefits?

One of my clients has an employee who is requesting compensation for time spent enrolling in benefits using his/her personal time. The employees have limited access to computers since they work in a production area. The employer will have a computer set up for employees to use during the week of open enrollment. However, employees […]

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Don’t waste your life thinking about what could have been

by Dan Oswald May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears. —Nelson Mandela Life is full of choices. Some big, some small. Every day we are faced with choices, and once we decide between Option A and Option B, we head down a new path. What occurs after we make the choice is a […]

Correctly Classifying IT Employees As Exempt or Non-exempt

by Kara Shea I’m often asked to give advice about whether employees are exempt from the overtime requirements of federal law. I have to say that it’s a pretty easy call about 70 percent of the time. But then there’s that troubling 30 percent of jobs that give my clients (and, truth be told, yours […]

How to Promote Discretionary Effort at Work

When a business hires an employee, it typically provides a job description that has a set of responsibilities and expectations. Similarly, during regular performance reviews, employees are evaluated based on how well they met certain criteria. These are the baseline requirements of the job. But we have all seen employees who go above and beyond […]