Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
Amazon.com updates its list of the bestselling books every hour. Here is a snapshot of what is hot right now, this Monday morning, July 26, in the “Work Life Balance” subsection of the “Business Life” section in the “Business and Investing” category. 1. The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key […]
Eliminating a participant option to switch to a defined benefit plan from a defined contribution offering does not violate ERISA anti-cutback provisions, even if participants’ accrued — but unclaimed — benefits are reduced. The recent ruling in Andersen v. DHL Retirement Pension Plan (Case No. 2:12-cv-00439-MJP WL 5389141, U.S. Dist., Western District of Washington Nov. […]
A 56-year-old facilities coordinator who claimed her performance review was downgraded to justify her termination has been awarded $517,077 in damages. Dion Woodward sued Kaiser Foundation Hospital in Los Angeles for age discrimination after she was fired and allegedly replaced with a 38-year-old. Woodward worked for Kaiser for 31 years and claimed she always received […]
By Robert BowenJust My E-pinion Today’s guest columnist, an SPHR-certified former lieutenant colonel, shares how he’s learned to make good use of “command” and “compassionate” people strategies. Robert Bowen, SPHR, Lt. Col. (Ret.), is the HR career coach at HumanResourcesCoaching.com. As human resources professionals, we often find ourselves “switching hats” between two distinct day-to-day roles: […]
Employee background checks are used by an estimated 92 percent of organizations in one form or another before hiring someone. They can be quite useful, but employers should be careful because the EEOC has been cracking down on illegal use of background information. Are you aware of what you should and shouldn’t be doing with […]
If you’ve fully complied with federal law, your job is not done. Your state probably has laws that overlap, or even conflict with, the federal laws. Here are the issues where that’s most likely to happen. Ever hear of the ‘toggle’? It’s a maneuver most HR professionals execute every day—jumping between state and federal law […]
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has issued a new rule aimed at clarifying when the “reasonable factors other than age” (RFOA) defense can be used in claims filed under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA). The rule is to be published in the Federal Register on March 30. A statement from the EEOC […]
Reducing the risk of data breaches requires assessing your company’s vulnerabilities, then addressing them with policies, procedures, training and agreements. The media tend to focus on external hackers, but “the real culprits for most our clients are internal,” according to employment law attorney Robert Fitzpatrick. Employee data breaches can be classified into the deliberate and […]
By Keri Bennett When a long-service costume designer was dismissed following a workplace harassment investigation, a British Colombia arbitrator found the company’s no-hire ban for all future productions to be excessive, since there was a lack of progressive discipline. Despite finding that the fired employee had engaged in longstanding and widespread harassment of junior employees, […]
Whenever someone with a disability applies for a job, you must consider whether a reasonable accommodation would permit the person to do the work. Unfortunately, it’s not always easy to know when you’ve done enough and when you should do more. And while going the extra mile to accommodate a disabled applicant can benefit everyone, […]