Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
by Dan Oswald It’s the evening of September 11, 2016, as I write this, the 15th anniversary of the attacks on our country that resulted in 2,996 deaths. If you’re like me, you remember both the horrific and the heroic from that day. I’ll never forget the scenes of destruction that resulted from the cowardly […]
The Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974 (VEVRAA) is one of many laws that applies specifically to organizations that contract with the federal government.
One key difference between health savings accounts (HSAs) and health flexible spending accounts (FSAs) is that in some circumstances HSAs can reimburse Medicare and other insurance premiums; health FSAs cannot. Recent guidance from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in Information Letter 2017-0004 confirmed this fact.
Marijuana is becoming increasingly common in our society and in our workplace. Though medical marijuana has been legal since the Compassionate Use Act of 1996, the legalization of recreational marijuana has increased the number of times employers encounter situations with employees who are using or have used marijuana.
Religion is defined broadly under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII) to include all aspects of an individual’s belief, observance, and practice. Religion includes unorganized religions and less common systems of belief so long as there is a sincere and meaningful belief in a God.
Most employers understand that they should discourage the use of subjective criteria to make hiring, advancement, and severance decisions. However, many supervisors still insist that they must consider subjective criteria because factors like “attitude,” “initiative,” and “reliability” simply can’t be made objective. True or false? Let’s break it down. Every employee undoubtedly has certain tasks […]
Gender discrimination in the workplace has been a topic of discussion for decades. The Equal Pay Act of 1963 theoretically means that men and women must be paid equal amounts (a primary concern when it comes to gender-based discrimination), yet hiring discrepancies and pay discrepancies remain—so this topic continues to be in discussion at the […]
Last year, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), a division of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), issued a directive related to federal contractors’ compliance with Executive Order 11246. In conjunction with a variety of federal statutes, Executive Order 11246 prohibits federal contractors and subcontractors from discriminating against job applicants and employees on […]
Over the past 6 months, businesses have had to transform how and where people work at a pace none of us could have imagined just a year ago. As we shift from initial crisis to planning for the next normal, we have an opportunity to reshape a future that is closer to what we know […]
by T. Harold Pinkley Participating in last year’s Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia—an event that involved several groups usually identified as the “alt-right,” along with groups protesting the marchers—has proven to have unforeseen and unintended consequences, including job loss, for some of the people involved. This article examines how you can or should […]