Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
Once we hire an employee, we provide full medical, dental, and vision insurance coverage to the employee, spouse, and children. Are we able to request marriage certificates and birth certificates for eligible family members for the purpose of insurance benefits? We have found that employees will often list nonrelatives for insurance benefits (e.g., a boyfriend, […]
Our last issue talked about how “mental minefields,” as defined by the consultant McKinsey & Company, erode corporate health and prevent sustained growth. Let’s see if those minefields attack wellness efforts as well. Yesterday’s Advisor detailed five factors spelled out by consultant McKinsey & Company that foster “corporate health” (sustained growth) and three “mental minefields” […]
Even as the IRS announces it plans to issue guidance on the use of smartcards with qualified transportation fringe benefits, public comments on such guidance include allegations of impropriety from one vendor. The IRS asked for input on whether it should issue such guidelines (see related story) last May. Thompson Information Services requested copies of […]
The IRS, taking pity on drivers fueling up at increasingly costly pumps, has upped the mileage reimbursement rate to 55.5 cents per mile for all business miles driven from July 1, 2011, through Dec. 31, 2011. This is an increase of 4.5 cents from the 51 cent rate in effect for the first six months […]
“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again,” goes the old saying. Heeding that advice, legislators recently introduced two new bills that would expand employee protections under the Fair Labor Standards Act, recycling similar bills that failed in past sessions of Congress. One bill, introduced in both houses of Congress, would extend FLSA coverage […]
Margaret Rivera, AstraZeneca’s senior manager of diversity, helps oversee 16 successful employee network groups. Here are her tips for making such affinity groups work: 1. Don’t force it. “Companies . . . should understand that the most successful employee groups often start out as grassroots organizations — they are volunteer organizations,” she counsels. 2. Make […]
On Feb. 5, 2007, San Francisco’s controversial paid sick leave law went into effect. Under the new law, all employees working in the City and County of San Francisco accrue paid sick leave at the rate of one hour for every 30 hours worked, up to a maximum of 72 hours (or 40 hours for […]
BusinessWeek ranks paperback business books that are the most recent bestsellers. 1. Blink By Malcolm Gladwell (Back Bay Books $15.99) 2. J.K. Lasser’s Your Income Tax2008 By The J.K. Lasser Institute (Wiley $17.95) 3. What Color Is Your Parachute? By Richard Nelson Bolles (Ten Speed Press $18.95) 4. A Guide to the Project Management Body […]
There is a lot of important new legislation affecting the workplace that Gov. Davis has signed into law. As the final hour for approving legislation approached, the governor vetoed bills to increase workers’ comp benefits, boost unemployment payments, expand leave for family and medical care, ban secret monitoring of employee e-mail and computer records, and […]
A federal jury in Baltimore has socked Federal Express Corporation with a $108,000 verdict for violating the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by failing to provide a deaf employee with a reasonable accommodation.