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The Value of Soft Skills for Job Applicants

Even in a favorable job climate for applicants, it’s still important to be able to stand out from the competition. Applicants and recruiters always place a lot of focus on the skills, experience, and other qualifications that show up well on paper—i.e., résumés and cover letters.

3 Problems with Hiring and the Presidential Election

The road to the 2016 U.S. presidential election officially began last week with the Iowa caucuses. Having grown up in Iowa, I have experienced the caucus process first-hand. It’s an interesting process that has a real grassroots feel to it, and it can produce some very interesting results that are often difficult to predict. If […]

Retirement Plans: You Could Be Sued If You Don’t Tell Workers About Changes You’re Considering But Haven’t Yet Adopted

When changing retirement plans, employers sometimes don’t notify employees until all the details are in place. But a new case makes it clear that if you don’t let workers in on your plans earlier, you could face an expensive lawsuit. Employer Enhances Early Retirement Benefits In a workforce reduction, IBM offered workers two early retirement […]

To build or not to build? That’s the inclusion question

by Brad Federman Typically, an organization employs inclusion efforts because it notices there’s a morale issue within a certain group or within the organization as a whole, a legal challenge has been filed against the organization, or there has been an effort to organize a union. Unfortunately, many inclusion or diversity efforts fail because they […]

Congress Approves Expanded Disability Bias Protections–Get Ready for the Changes

Last week, Congress approved important legislation, the ADA Amendments Act of 2008 (S. 3406), to amend the Americans with Disabilities Act to provide broader protections for disabled workers and turn back the clock on Supreme Court rulings that Congress deemed too restrictive of disabled employees’ rights. President Bush is expected to sign the Act, and […]

Escaping the ‘Incredible Pain’ of Retaliation

Retaliation cases are an “incredible pain,” says Michael Faillace. “They are the 21st century weapon for plaintiffs’ lawyers who have no case.” Retaliation claims are growing, notes Faillace, and it is no wonder—employees with baseless claims can make their retaliation claims stick. “You just don’t want to be in front of a jury on one […]

Arizona Voters Approve Medical Marijuana

By Dinita L. James, Gonzalez Law, LLC By a slim margin, Arizona has become the 15th state in the nation to allow the use of marijuana for medical purposes. Proposition 203, or the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act, trailed by about 6,000 votes in early election night returns. Yet, after 10 days of counting early voter […]

Start EX Early: Humanize the Candidate Experience

It’s easy to forget that every employee hired into your organization was once a candidate applying for a new job opportunity. These applicants chose your company over hundreds of others in the hopes of starting a new career journey. And it’s a jobseeker’s market today.

Equalizing Pay for Long Shifts and Short Shifts

Let’s say you have some employees who work long, 12-hour shifts and others who work traditional eight-hour shifts. The 12-hour employees work four shifts one week (48 hours), then three shifts the second week (36 hours) and another three shifts the third week (36 hours). This 4-3-3 schedule would be repeated every three weeks, resulting […]