Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
(Updated Dec. 4, 2009) by Douglas R. Chamberlain When facing financial difficulties, employees often look to their retirement plans as a possible source of needed funds. Many plans offer participant loans or permanent withdrawals, the latter generally on a hardship basis. However, plan loans and withdrawals can jeopardize the employee’s retirement benefits, and both are […]
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says more than 2.5 million people went to emergency departments, and about 200,000 were hospitalized due to vehicle crashes in 2012. Indeed, crashes remain the leading cause of employee fatality. What can you do to reverse this trend? Start with training on essential information. According to […]
President Bush has signed the Pension Protection Act of 2006 into law, which overhauls pension funding rules, clarifies cash balance plan rules, encourages automatic enrollment in 401(k) plans, and much more. The law spans a massive 907 pages, and we describe some of its key provisions here.
Deloitte, LLP, which was named “#1 Private Company for Leadership Development” by Chief Executive magazine early this year, sponsors a variety of competitions that provide learning opportunities for college students and bolster the firm’s recruiting efforts. In January, a team of University of Wisconsin students went up against eight finalist teams from other colleges and […]
What's an employer to do when there is ample documentation to terminate an employee, but the employee has recently engaged in a protected activity? For example, what if the employee files a workers' compensation claim or takes FMLA leave in close proximity to performance issues? This presents a real timing dilemma for employers: Doesn't it look retaliatory to terminate the employee immediately after the protected activity?
The other day I heard about a company that provides fake references for job applicants, renters, and others. And from what I understand, the length it goes to in order to “lie” on behalf of its clients is unbelievable—even if the references it provides are believable.
Market-based compensation utilizes salary survey data to evaluate an organization’s pay levels and can make them more, or less, competitive depending on the organization’s compensation philosophy—a framework within which compensation decisions are made.
We hear a lot about the need to attract working mothers to the workforce and what types of benefits companies should be offering this demographic in order to stand out among the competition. Yet, we hear little about how to attract working fathers.
In a previous post, we talked about the decision companies face in classifying workers as independent contractors—those who receive a 1099 for tax purposes—and traditional employees who receive a W2.
As you know, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was signed into law in 2002 to tighten corporate financial reporting protocols. Its overall purpose is to encourage companies to improve their audit requirements and to protect investors by improving the accuracy and reliability of corporate disclosures. Since its implementation, there has been much controversy regarding the efficacy of […]