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Fiduciary Duties Are Myriad, So Safeguards Matter

Monitoring the performance of service providers, making required disclosures to participants and beneficiaries, keeping good records and filing reports with the government are just a few of the important functions a fiduciary must ensure are properly executed, an enforcement official at the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration unit told a group of […]

Employers starting to see resume gaps as not so bad after all

Employers once considered a gap in employment as justification for tossing a résumé on the rejection heap. Workers deciding to leave promising careers were thought to lack drive. Plus, while they were on a break, the workplace was changing, leaving them out of the loop and behind the times. But a growing number of employers […]

Performance Appraisals: Do’s and Don’ts from the Real World

Makris, senior counsel at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, and Rhoma Young of the HR consulting firm Rhoma Young & Associates offered tips for ensuring that performance appraisals are used legally and effectively. Their suggestions came in a recent BLR®/HR Hero® audio conference. From a legal perspective, performance appraisals are important because they can help defend […]

Supreme Court: Time Steelworkers Spent Donning and Doffing Protective Gear Is Not Compensable

On Jan. 27, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that time U.S. Steel Corp. employees spend donning and doffing protective gear is not compensable under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The ruling affirmed a 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision in Sandifer et al v. U.S. Steel Corp. (No. 12-417). Sandifer dealt with whether time steel workers spent […]

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Can Flex Work and Training Opportunities Help End Gender Inequality?

Did you know that companies that offer flexible work and training opportunities have four times as many female CEOs as companies that don’t?1 Research also indicates that companies that offer flexible work and training opportunities are better at retaining talent and allowing female employees to be productive and successful and to flourish.2

The CEO: Chief Engagement Officer: Turning Hierarchy Upside Down to Drive Performance

Ralph Gaillard reviews the book The CEO: Chief Engagement Officer: Turning Hierarchy Upside Down to Drive Performance by John Smythe. Review highlights book’s discussion of employee communication and engagement. Employee engagement, the workplace phenomenon that propels employees to become passionate about their work, their employers and the company’s long-term objectives, is all the rage right […]

Train ’em up

If you’re a poor soul who’s followed enough of my posts to spot patterns, you’ll spot one here. Maybe I’m a broken record, maybe I’m simple-minded, or maybe I really like baseball.  Baseball speaks to me. The U.S. is still a blip in the long course of human history. We cobbled together our identity from […]

Failure to Pay Correctly—#6 on the List of Lawsuit Magnets

[Go here for failures 1 to 5.] 6. Failure to Pay Correctly Yes, it’s the pay thing. Zandy’s danger zones are: Misclassification (exempt vs. nonexempt) Timesheets (in & out) Meetings (mandatory and unpaid?) Off-the-clock (off-duty helping on-duty) Travel Bonuses (discretionary vs. nondiscretionary) The good news is plaintiffs’ lawyers are unlikely to take a case if […]

EEOC sharing employers’ position statements with charging parties

by Leslie Silverman Employers should be aware that the position statements they submit to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) are now far more likely to end up in the hands of the employees who filed those charges and their attorneys. The agency has instructed all of its 53 field offices to release respondents’ position […]