Most Popular

’Tis the Season for Religious Accommodations

The holiday season is the busiest time of year for many employers. It’s also when you’re flooded with time-off-work requests for religious observancnes. What are your obligations when it comes to accommodating the requests? The answer is important, considering the costs associated with getting it wrong. According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), employers […]

What Tiger Woods’s Foot Can Teach Employers About Managing Employees’ Medical Conditions

Golfing icon Tiger Woods had to withdraw from the Masters tournament in Augusta, Georgia, last week due to a painful foot condition called plantar fasciitis, which causes a stabbing pain in the heel or foot. Video footage shows Woods limping during his third round of play after reaggravating the condition while competing in the tournament. […]

talent

Identifying Employee Training Needs

Anyone reading this post already agrees with the notion that training and development for employees is extremely important. But the devil is really in the details, and no detail is more important than understanding exactly what your training requires.

The Five Laws that Cause Contingent Worker Challenges

Cooper chairs the labor and employment practice group at law firm Garvey Schubert Barer in Portland, Oregon. Her tips came at a recent BLR-sponsored webinar. Here’s Cooper’s quick rundown of the five legal arenas where you may be exposed to “joint employer” liabilities with contingent workers: 1. Wage and hour laws. While the temp agency […]

Encouraging an Ownership Mentality in Your Employees

Ownership is a concept that is often difficult to engrain in employees, particularly junior or newer employees. It’s easy for employees to catch a case of not-my-jobism when they haven’t been taught the importance of ownership. This is a problem in any business environment, but it can be particularly damaging when it impacts customers. For […]

coaching

Why Employee Coaching May Be Your Best Strategy

In the new Coaching Employees For High Performance report, it was found that 71% of employees who took advantage of learning opportunities were more motivated. What’s even more encouraging, 64% felt more equipped to do their job, 55% felt empowered, and 48% felt ready to take on more responsibility. As you can see, the power of employee coaching goes far beyond learning something new. Here are more real benefits to this training trend.

4 New Trends in Job Recruitment in the Wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic

More than a year after the COVID-19 pandemic upended the nature of work as we knew it, it’s no surprise that there has also been a transformation in how people are recruited and hired for work. As a cascade of layoffs in hard-hit sectors flooded the labor market with job candidates and as other fields […]

merger

The “Soft” Side of Effective Mergers

Mergers are an integral part of business life. They represent an important tool for corporate success by, among other things, helping companies diversify, add complementary offerings, and remain competitive through effective scaling. But having advised senior executives in transition for 20 years, I also regularly hear stories about how difficult it is to successfully merge […]

Saving

IRS Delay in Implementing New Mortality Tables Affects Pension Liability Valuation

The Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) delay until 2018 of implementation of updated mortality tables for pensions gives defined benefit (DB) plan sponsors some extra time to prepare for significant changes tied to increased participant longevity. But the delay also may affect pension liability valuation in up to three ways, according to investment consulting firm Cambridge […]