Most Popular

New workplace safety and environmental crime initiative will use cross-enforcement

by Cole Wist If an employer skimps on safety protections for its workers, will it also ignore environmental protections? The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) think so.  Tag-team approach The DOL and the DOJ are teaming up under a new Worker Endangerment Initiative to investigate and prosecute worker […]

Get Your Safety Committees Committed!

Does this scenario look uncomfortably familiar? If so, here are several actions you can take to get your safety committee excited, involved—and committed—to complementing and strengthening workplace safety and training. Safety Planning If you don’t already have a safety program, or you have one but need to update it, you can use your safety committee […]

interns

Turning Interns into Full-Time Employees: A Q&A with Claudia Johnson of Addison Group

Your company just spent the entire summer preparing interns for the real world of work by teaching them institutional knowledge and showing them how your company goes about doing business. Instead of wasting your time with job ads and social media searches, employers and L&D professionals would be wise to tap into this newly minted […]

No Excuses HR: Social Media + Healthcare

By Bryan Wempen and William Tincup How is social media changing HR? Bryan Wempen and William Tincup, SPHR, find out in a revealing conversation with Jay Kuhns, SPHR, vice president of human resources at All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida. Wempen and Tincup are hosts of DriveThruHR, a daily talk radio blog that focuses […]

While America Aged by Roger Lowenstein

HR Hero Line editor Wendi Watts reviews the book While America Aged: How Pension Debts Ruined General Motors, Stopped the NYC Subways, and Bankrupted San Diego, and Loom as the Next Financial Crisis by Roger Lowenstein. She argues that this book is particularly relevant and important in light of the current economic crisis and how […]

Benefits on the Web: Why Companies Should and Why the Excuses They Use Not to Aren’t Relevant

by Jennifer Benz, Benz Communications A benefits-enrollment system on the Internet and information on a corporate intranet are not sufficient to engage employees and improve adoption rates in the age of social media. Companies need to get their benefits information to the decision maker, which isn’t always the employee, and make sure the information is […]

Religious Accommodation Requests—Deal Delicately, But Deal

Requests for accommodation on religious grounds are often tricky—What’s a belief? What’s a religion?—but they‘re going to come up and you’ve got to deal with them. Attorney Regina Petty has tips. Petty offers the following suggestions to help employers reduce the risk they will be accused of refusing to accommodate a sincerely held religious belief […]

age discrimination

Did Termination of Financial Administrator Violate the FEHA?

A semiconductor company hired a 33-year-old accounting manager not long before it terminated its 59-year-old financial administrator as part of a reduction in force (RIF). The administrator sued, claiming unlawful age discrimination. The trial court granted the company’s motion for summary judgment (dismissal without a trial). In an unpublished opinion, the court of appeal affirmed.