Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
We’ve recently seen many companies take stands on social issues, such as Nike’s ads last fall supporting quarterback-turned-activist Colin Kaepernick or Dick’s Sporting Goods’ decision to restrict its own gun sales.
Last year the federal Department of Labor repealed the controversial Clinton-era mandatory ergonomics regulations but promised to develop another strategy for reducing workplace injuries stemming from ergonomic problems. Now, rather than apply a single ergonomics standard to a broad range of industries, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration has come up with a new […]
When "they" come to check up on you, whether they’re agency investigators or class-action-minded attorneys, the first stop is the job description. Today we’ll begin our look at three of the fed’s favorite job description checkpoints: ADA, FLSA, and discrimination. From the ADA standpoint, the most important thing the job description does is to delineate […]
In industries with part-time, seasonal, or variable labor demand—such as food and beverage service or event management—employees are often frustrated by the inability to know when they’ll be scheduled to work more than a week or two in advance. Does predictive scheduling cure that?
“Many companies operate with a feudal mentality,” says Jon D. Groussman. They do a great job of protecting their employees “inside the castle”—think how difficult it is to get past a security guard or receptionist. However, they neglect their employees’ safety when they “leave the fortress and cross over the moat.” It often takes a […]
“Every day,” says attorney Lisa Van Fleet, “we get asked things like, ‘How can we eliminate our match? What if we change our benefits program midyear? How do we manage a reduction in force? How do we put together severance pay packages?’” Times have changed for every company. Since the economic downturn, not surprisingly, most […]
One result of the new fee disclosures requirements and retirement plan sponsors’ new duty to ensure reasonable service fees has been increased review of many plans’ provider costs. Through requests for proposals, comparative benchmarking and renewed scrutiny of current providers, plan committees and sponsors are endeavoring to learn if they are paying too much for […]
Even with pay for performance, says consultant Eugene C. Epps, managing partner of EP2S Compensation Solutions, LLC, many companies are promoting the wrong people and granting raises for the wrong reasons.
A federal appeals court will review the temporary injunction blocking new overtime regulations on an expedited schedule that wraps things up even faster than the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) had requested. But it still won’t reach a decision until after President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, and that could mean the end of the overtime rule, […]
COBRA Administrators: No need to order gifts off a wedding registry for soon-to-be-married employees — just print out and present to the couple a copy of the general/initial notice for COBRA continuation coverage, according to COBRA expert Paul M. Hamburger, Esq. Well, before you take this too seriously, some context is necessary. Hamburger, contributing editor […]