Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
If you’re a recruiter or hiring manager for an industry that’s not all that glamorous, such as waste sanitation, how do you attract candidates to your company? What special perks do you offer to get people in the door?
How can employers protect themselves and reduce the likelihood of retaliation claims when disciplining or terminating an employee who has previously filed a workers’ compensation claim? If a claim of retaliation is feared, what evidence will help prove the employer acted legally? Avoiding Retaliation Claims: Tips When Terminating a Prior Workers’ Compensation Claimant Most employers […]
Business Week ranks business books that are the most recent bestsellers and provides a short summary. 1. Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell. As you’d expect with Gladwell, there are lots of surprises in his explanation of why some people succeed fantastically. Pluck and smarts get less play here than such matters as […]
In perhaps one of its boldest moves, on December 11, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) overturned existing precedent and held that employees have the right to use their employer’s e-mail system for Section 7 concerted activity, including union-organizing activities, during nonbusiness hours. The decision obviously affects employers’ policies on employee e-mail use. As background, the […]
Qualifying lifetime annuity contracts in July 2014 became another option for defined contribution plan sponsors to offer to assist with retirement income security when the U.S. Treasury Department and IRS issued final regulations allowing them. Now, plan sponsors and participants near retirement age face some confusing choices when considering whether QLACs are right for their […]
In May 2025, the Trump administration’s U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) published guidance saying that it would stop enforcing a Biden-era rule—one that had rescinded a rule created during the first Trump administration—on the factors distinguishing independent contractors from employees. Although the Biden-era rule remains “on the books” for now while the DOL considers replacing […]
A prescription drug’s ability to prolong life is a top factor health plans are using when fixing benchmark prices for drug reimbursement, followed by the drug’s ability to improve the patient’s quality of life, health care stakeholders said at an April 15 briefing hosted by the Alliance for Health Reform. Steven Pearson, MD, MSc, president […]
On October 6, the Trump administration released two interim final rules that will vastly expand the availability of exemptions to the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) rules requiring employer coverage of contraceptives. The ACA requires employers and insurers that offer group health plans to employees to cover certain approved contraceptive methods—at no additional cost to employees—or […]
In a BLR webinar titled “Depression and Other Mental Illness Under New ADA: Accommodation Practices for HR,” Susan G. Fentin and Ronald Schouten tackled the sensitive issue of handling depression and other mental illnesses that employees may face. This issue can be complex because employees are often reluctant to ask for help, the symptoms of […]
Over the past 20 years, employers have increased and decreased benefits strategically in response to the needs of the workplace and employees as well as to economic and technological changes, according to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) 2016 Employee Benefits Survey report.