Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
Just My E-pinionBy Cindy McPherrin Cindy McPherrin, today’s guest columnist, offers her thoughts on the challenges of coping with her suddenly acquired HR responsibilities. (We’d like to hear about the challenges you’re facing as well.) I am the office manager of a two-family owned mid-size design/building firm. We have professional architects, we provide construction management […]
Final countdown for HIPAA privacy compliance. Medical information privacy rules under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) take effect April 14, 2003, for all covered entities other than small health plans, which have an additional year to comply. Under the rules, health plans won’t be able to disclose certain individual health information to […]
Litigation is the ultimate test of the adequacy of an employer’s recordkeeping practices, says attorney Allen Kato of the San Francisco office of Fenwick and West LLP. Of course, the courtroom isn’t the best place to find out that records are inadequate, incomplete, or nonexistent. Record retention is a daunting task for employers because there […]
Employers are increasingly offering paid time off for adoptions, according to a new report from consulting group Mercer. The benefit is likely an attempt to meet the needs of a workforce in which the definition of “family” now includes same-sex parents, the firm said. While employees in the U.S. have access to 12 weeks’ unpaid […]
The IRS standard-mileage-reimbursement rate for 2009 will be 55 cents per mile for all business miles driven, down from the rate of 58.5 cents a mile that was in effect in the second half of 2008. The IRS had made a special adjustment for the second half of 2008 in response to a spike in […]
A SIMPLE IRA Plan Savings Incentive Match Plan for Employees of Small Employers allows employees and employers to contribute to individual employee retirement accounts. As the name implies, it’s a simplified plan geared toward small employers, which means it’s relatively easy to set up and operate, with lower administrative costs than for more complicated types […]
The Employer Resource Institute has announced the winners of the ERI 2006 Great California Workplace Award contest. The Award recognizes California employers of all sizes that have implemented unique, innovative, or exceptionally effective programs that make them stand out.
A new federal court case involves an all-too-familiar scenario. An employer acquired a new business and had to terminate the old workforce. The employer, however, needed to keep some workers around for a few months, so it offered them a severance deal. But when the employer later tried to change the severance terms, it found […]
In yesterday’s Advisor, attorney Edward M. Richters offered some salient truths about going to court. Today, how a typical court appearance might go, and an introduction to the best approach for making sure your managers aren’t begging for a lawsuit. Richters’s comments came at a workplace law symposium sponsored by national employment law firm Jackson […]
New York State will become the sixth state where same-sex marriage is legal on July 24. Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) on June 24 signed the Marriage Equality Act (MEA) into law. Same-sex marriage already is legal in Massachusetts, Iowa, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut and the District of Columbia. The measure goes into effect one month […]