For Chronically Ill Employees, Balance Compassion and Business
It’s one of HR’s most difficult dilemmas—how to balance your compassion for a chronically ill employee with your legitimate business concerns.
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Supreme Court Upholds Healthcare Reform Law
By Jessica Webb-Ayer The wait is over: The U.S. Supreme Court has decided that the massive healthcare reform law (also known as the Affordable Care Act, or ACA) enacted in March 2010 is constitutional. So what happened, and what does this mean for employers? Read the Supreme Court’s decision on Health Care Reform The most […]
Mutual Fund Companies Tend to Favor Own Funds in 401(k) Menus
Who has the most influence on an employer’s 401(k) retirement plan investment menu — you as the plan sponsor? Participants? The company’s ERISA attorneys or investment committee? Chances are, it’s the plan’s mutual fund manager. A new study from two U.S. university business professors and an economist for the U.S. Federal Reserve concludes that fund […]
Halloween Week’s Scariest Possibility for Business: Data Breach
The scariest thing this week may not be what can happen on the streets, but what can happen around your personnel files. With Halloween this week, ghouls and goblins are all around us. But it doesn’t take a special day for mischief-makers to show up in the workplace. And the trouble they can cause goes […]
“Family Responsibility Discrimination”–A New Frontier?
If you’re not yet familiar with the term “family responsibility discrimination” (FRD), get ready—chances are, you’ll be hearing it a lot in the future. Although related to both sex and pregnancy discrimination, the term encompasses the broader idea that employers are biased against new parents/primary family care providers.
Random Alcohol and Drug Testing in Safety-Sensitive Positions
By Rachel Ravary and Philippe Lacoursière McCarthy Tetrault Earlier this year, we reported on the decision of the Alberta Court of Appeal in Chiasson v. Kellogg Brown & Root (see the January 22, 2008, blog entry titled Ruling helps Alberta employers defend preemployment testing challenges), which upheld an employer’s right to perform mandatory preemployment alcohol […]
ERISA = Every Ridiculous Idea Since Adam
by Brandon Long It’s rumored that President Ronald Reagan once referred to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) as “Every Ridiculous Idea Since Adam.” ERISA serves important purposes in our society, but it also presents tremendous challenges and potential liabilities for good-intentioned employers that merely want to provide nice benefits to their […]
Retailer Reaches Settlement Over Discriminatory Criminal Background Screening Policy
Target Corporation, the second-largest discount store retailer in the United States, has reached a settlement with the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund (LDF) and the law firm of Outten & Golden LLP to resolve allegations that the company’s overly broad and outdated criminal background check policy discriminated against African-American and Latino applicants.
’Tis the Season … to Do Right by Employees and Customers
Among other things, having a manager who cares about them as people is part of being happy at work. So when I heard about Liberty Bottleworks, I figured it must have a pretty satisfied workforce. Here’s the story, from a recent edition of The Oswald Letter. It seems that over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, the […]
How Effective Onboarding Can Have a Lasting Impact on Your Company
If you’re approaching onboarding as a quick way to get forms signed and mandatory trainings completed, you’re missing out on a boatload of benefits. Sure, there are operational tasks that have to be completed when a new employee starts. But a thoughtful onboarding program can provide so much more. Effective onboarding can deliver results that […]