Most Popular

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 […]

The Results of Our HR Metrics Best Practices Survey Are In!

Our HR Metrics Survey, conducted in April 2015, sought to find out how metrics are being employed in the field of human resources. Everyone knows that the C-suite loves to see hard data—which HR arenas (and what aspects of them) are the most measured? How are metrics used to gauge recruiting success? What metrics were […]

New York

Pay Me: New York Real Estate Company Uses Its Handbook as A Shield Against Liability

Employee handbooks are recommended for several reasons, including that they set forth key company policies. Well-written handbook policies state how compensation will be addressed and who has the power to bind the company. In a recent case, the Appellate Division, 1st Department, held that a company’s handbook was enough to defeat an employee’s claim to compensation based on oral promises.

ERISA

Court Supports Plans’ Freedom to Craft Own Process for Beneficiary Designations

Beneficiary designations, and disputes over them, can be a disproportionate drain of time and other resources spent by administrators of tax-qualified retirement plans. The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) does not prescribe a particular manner by which participants in ERISA-covered plans must designate their beneficiaries.

culture

The Real Shapes and Sizes of ‘Company Culture’ (Part 1)

A company’s culture is the personality of an organization from the perspective of its employees and includes things like the company’s mission, expectations, and overall work atmosphere. Whether it’s officially documented, symbolized in the business logo, or merely an unspoken but understood definition, culture determines a company’s overall environment.

minimum wage

Minimum Wage Increases Take Effect: What Employers Need to Know

On July 1, workers across Maryland and Washington, D.C., saw changes to their minimum hourly rate. As workers continue to contend with the affordability crisis, two counties in Maryland and the District of Columbia are three of the more than 20 states and localities to increase the minimum wage this summer. While Maryland’s statewide minimum […]

tech

Business Continuity Training: Developing a Mitigation Plan

Every business faces certain existential risks: a data breach for a tech company; a major malpractice lawsuit for a healthcare provider; the emergence of an aggressive, well-funded competitor; etc. Identifying and training to mitigate those risks is the process of business continuity planning.

Getting Strategic in 2016

By Holly Jones, JD, Senior Legal Editor Yesterday we heard from BLR® Senior Legal Editor Holly Jones, JD, who had some excellent tips on getting your goals strategically oriented for 2016. Today, more from Jones on setting and accomplishing strategic goals, posters in the workplace, and other HR housekeeping. Refinable Goals Refinable goals are those […]

bias

Unconscious bias training helps fuel diversity efforts at industrial gas company

Despite a strategy to promote an inclusive culture in your organization, unconscious bias could be undermining your efforts. That is why some companies proactively address unconscious bias through training.  Take Praxair, Inc. This global industrial gas company worked with a third-party training vendor in Fall 2014 to create content for “Unconscious Bias to Conscious Inclusion,” […]