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Health Insurance and Health Care Reform Survey Results Are In

Each year, HR Hero surveys readers about your organizations’ benefits packages. Because 2010’s health care reform laws created sweeping changes in how businesses offer health insurance to workers, this year our January survey focused only on health insurance and health care reform. According to the survey, an overwhelming majority (96.46%) of you work for organizations […]

Employing Minors: DOL Releases Final Rules on Restrictions for Teen Workers

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has published final regulations that implement changes to some teen worker employment rules. Effective Feb. 15, the rules expand protections for minors working in certain industries and performing certain tasks. Note that California’s child labor rules generally incorporate the federal regulations.

May We Require Masks or Telework to Fight the Flu?

Yesterday’s Advisor featured the EEOC’s advice for avoiding ADA problems when preparing for swine flu. Today, we’ll get the agency’s advice about work practices, and an introduction to a special program for smaller HR departments. Here’s more from the EEOC’s Q&A: During a pandemic, may we require our employees to adopt infection control practices? EEOC: […]

Put Sharks in Key Positions for 2010

Yesterday’s Advisor featured six of consultant Jon Gordon’s tips for reenergizing employees in a down economy. Today, we’ll look at three more of his suggestions (including one about sharks) and a New Year’s Resolution Special—a webinar all about how you can be a better boss in 2010. [Go here for tips 1 through 6 ] 7. Teach […]

Is AI Recruiting Discrimination Inevitable?

In yesterday’s post, we discussed the idea that using artificial intelligence (AI) or big data in the recruiting process doesn’t eliminate problems with discrimination and bias. Perhaps counter-intuitively, these methods can actually emphasize bias if we’re not careful because the machine doesn’t know any better. It can only assess the (often imperfect) traits it is told to […]

Hot List: New York Times Bestselling Paperback Business Books

The following is a list of the bestselling paperback business books as ranked by the New York Times on February 16. 1. Suze Orman’s 2009 Action Plan by Suze Orman. Managing your money in hard times. 2. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell. How and why certain […]

Tap Into Generational IT Insight

M. Lee Smith Publishers’ President Dan Oswald comments on the generational divide that most companies are experiencing in relation to technology and offers five tips for how employers can harness the know-how and insight of their younger employees. I recently handed a newspaper column written by Financial Times columnist Luke Johnson to my 18-year old […]

IRS Proposes Rule on Reimbursed Entertainment Expenses

Employers that pay advances, allowances or reimbursements to employees for work-related entertainment expenses — including taxpayers who, in turn, get reimbursed by their clients for such expenses — have until Oct. 30 to comment on a proposed regulation IRS published Aug. 1. The proposed rule clarifies who — among the employer, its client and an […]

Des Moines Returns to Self-funding Health Benefits After 8-year Hiatus

 Here’s a testament to the power of lower stop-loss attachment points. The City of Des Moines returned to self-funding health benefits for city employees, after an eight-year hiatus, the Des Moines Register reported today. The city council approved the move in a unanimous vote. The primary reason: Stop loss with far lower attachment point: previously […]

Retirement Plans: Should Employers Advise Their Workers on 401(k) Investment Options?

With the enactment of the Pension Protection Act of 2006 (PPA), plan sponsors were given a freedom they didn’t have before. The legislation, which William Arnone of Ernst & Young calls “the most far-reaching legislation impacting benefits since ERISA,” enables plan sponsors to offer employees investment advice without exposing themselves to liability for the outcome […]