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The Picket Line

The strike continues and it doesn’t look like it is going to end any time soon. Indeed, one blog reported yesterday that negotiations are actually going backwards! To make matters worse, it looks like several actors are honoring the picket line. I think we might be going without our beloved “Office” for several more weeks. […]

The No-Match Letter Controversy: Do We Really Want to Lose These Employees?

By Catherine Leonard, BLR HR EditorJust my E-pinion There’s been great controversy over the scheme to use Social Security’s No-Match Letter process to help the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) force the firing of illegal immigrant workers. The scheme is on hold for now, but not the controversy. Here’s one BLR editor’s e-pinion. What’s […]

Hire the Best People You Ever Worked With (Part 2)

How do you train supervisors to recruit the best people (and do all the other things like appraisal and discipline and dealing with change and reducing turnover)? Here are some hiring tips, and an introduction to a 10-in-1 training program that educates supervisors and managers in all the basic HR skills. In the last Advisor, […]

The Starbucks Experience: 5 Principles for Turning Ordinary into Extraordinary

HR consultant and author of 13 bestselling business books Carol A. Hacker reviews the book The Starbucks Experience: 5 Principles for Turning Ordinary into Extraordinary by Joseph A. Michelli. Review highlights book’s examination of how Starbucks gets their employees to deliver excellent customer service. The Starbucks Experience: 5 Principles for Turning Ordinary Into Extraordinary is […]

Employment Law Tip: Workers’ Comp Costs Down—Are You Getting the Best Deal?

Last week, California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner announced that insurers’ workers’ compensation costs have plummeted by 70 percent since the workers’ comp reforms of 2003 were implemented—and as a result, pure premium rates will remain unchanged for now. Poizner noted, though, that insurers should continue to pass on the cost savings to businesses in the […]

Expense Reimbursements: IRS Raises Mileage Rate for 2008

The Internal Revenue Service has increased the standard mileage rate commonly used to reimburse employees for business use of a car to 50.5 cents per mile, up from 48.5 cents in 2007. The new rate will apply to miles driven beginning Jan. 1, 2008. Employers who use the IRS standard mileage rate to reimburse employees […]

Want Great Candidates? Follow Winston Churchill’s Lead, says Top Business Leader

About 85% of HR managers say they’ve hired people not suited to the work environment, says a recent survey. But one business leader says he has the three secrets to finding “the best people you’ve ever worked with.” It appears that, in spite of advances in Internet job posting, computerized résumé tracking, and electronic résumé […]

Biometric Hand Scanners vs. Religious Beliefs: What Does the Law Say?

by Daniel Pugen McCarthy Tetrault Biometric hand scanners vs. religious beliefs: What does the law say? In Canada, employers must accommodate their employees’ religious beliefs to the point of “undue hardship” for the employer. But what if you don’t consider an employee’s religious beliefs “mainstream”? That doesn’t matter, according to a recent decision by an […]

Ontario Adds Holiday to Celebrate Families; Other Provinces May Follow

by Daniel Pugen McCarthy Tetrault Following its recent re-election in October, the Ontario provincial government led by Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty established a new public holiday called “Family Day.” The holiday falls on the third Monday in February each year. Ontario joins the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan in creating a public holiday in February. […]