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Happy Birthday, Jesus

Employment law attorney Justin Pierce tackles the tough question of whether an employer should allow an employee to hang a “Happy Birthday, Jesus” sign in his office. Q Last year at Christmas, one of our employees, we’ll call him “Bob,” put up a small sign in his office that read “Happy Birthday, Jesus.” A non- […]

Diversity a Goal for New OPM Deputy Director

Boston-native Christine M. Griffin has taken over the number two spot at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM). One of her top tasks will be to help OPM Director John Berry increase the diversity of the federal government, which he has called one of his top long-term goals. Before being appointed to the position […]

Help, They Made Me a Supervisor—Part 2—What to Do

Help, no kidding. New supervisors are in for a great ride, but if you don’t train them well—and fast—they’re going to crash and burn. Here are tips and news about a new audio conference especially for new supervisors. Last issue we posed 9 problem areas for new supervisors and promised that today, we’d offer some […]

An Invitation to Share Your E-Pinion with a Few of Your Colleagues (About 155,000, Actually)

How many times have you had strong feelings about something in HR that you wanted to share with your colleagues? Well, here’s your chance to do it. If you’re a regular reader of this column, you know it’s usually written by BLR’s founder and CEO Bob Brady. Bob’s “e-pinions” have crisscrossed the wide world of […]

HRAs Not the Only Way to Start a Wellness Program

Health risk assessments and biometrics, while an important source of wellness data, are not always the best place to start when implementing a wellness program, a wellness expert said in a Thompson Interactive webinar. “Think through your culture and what you’ve been doing,” said Brad Cooper, CEO of US Corporate Wellness. Many companies started with […]

Employment Law Tip: Keeping the Focus During the Holidays

According to the results of a new poll by Accountemps, most employees get distracted and are less productive during the holiday season. The poll included responses from HR, finance, and marketing executives at the country’s 1,000 largest companies. Forty-four percent of executives polled said their employees are less productive the week before a major holiday, […]

Global Healthcare Benefit Costs Trending Higher

The cost of employee healthcare benefits around the globe is trending higher, driven largely by the higher cost of hospital and inpatient services, medical technology, and the overuse of services, according to a survey of medical insurers by Willis Towers Watson, a global advisory, broking, and solutions company. The Willis Towers Watson Global Medical Trends […]

South Dakota Voters Just Say No to Medical Marijuana

By Jane Pfeifle Though a similar measure was narrowly defeated in 2006, this year South Dakota resoundingly rejected Initiative 13, which called for the legalization of medical marijuana. As a result employers can breathe a sigh of relief because the measure raised numerous questions about how they might be called on to respond to employees […]

Give Your People a Cause They Can Believe In

The United States won its freedom in the Revolutionary War when a ragtag army made up of state militias from the colonies defeated the mighty British Empire. How could this have happened?