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, October 4, in the “Organizational Behavior” section of the “Business and Investing” category. 1.Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard by Chip Heath and Dan Heath. The authors of Made […]
The management landscape is littered with HR-related traps for unwary new supervisors or managers, and the stakes are too high to let them “learn by doing.” Here’s a tool to train them with minimal effort on your part and theirs. Last issue we talked about supervisors and managers who tried to be good supervisors, but […]
We reported in September on a federal appeal court ruling that Xerox Corp.’s pension plan improperly calculated lump-sum distributions from cash balance retirement accounts, resulting in lower benefits for certain employees who left the company between 1990 and 1999. Now Xerox has agreed to pay $239 million to settle the lawsuit, ending speculation over whether […]
If you and your employees are looking for valuable ways to donate to the Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, a new program launched by the Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service may help you out. In particular, the agencies have announced a program for employees to donate leave in exchange for employer cash […]
May is Healthy Vision Month, a good time to remind your employees of your vision-related benefits and eye protection and safety measures, as well as precautions they can take to maintain their own eye health. Unfortunately, says the Vision Council, the modern day workspace is far from “eye-gonomic,” and day-long use of computers, combined with personal use […]
Our nation seems to have reached a tipping point in favor of the job hunters, who can now be more selective than ever before. In fact, the best of the best get snatched up in less than 2 weeks, and it’s frustrating hiring managers to no end. A whopping 96% of executives tasked with recruiting top talent say they […]
After 10 years of debate, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued a national ergonomics standard that covered 102 million workers and took effect in January. But the much-criticized rule—which some said would cost businesses more than $100 billion per year—has now been scrapped by Congress, within weeks of President Bush’s taking office. And the […]
Things are getting really busy, and now employee A wants FMLA leave, B has jury duty, and C needs an accommodation. It can be frustrating, but employees have rights, and it’s foolhardy to challenge them. In yesterdays’ Advisor we began covering 10 essential steps for avoiding employee lawsuits. Here are steps 5 through 10: Step […]
A new law taking effect in Hawaii on January 1 prohibits prospective employers from requesting or considering a job applicant’s wage or salary history as part of an employment application process or compensation offer.
The nation’s high court has unanimously ruled that workers with employer-sponsored health insurance can’t sue their health maintenance organization (HMO) in state courts when their HMO won’t cover a recommended treatment. The decision is generally being hailed as good news for employers who provide health benefits.