Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
While male-female sexual harassment cases still predominate, same-sex and other forms of harassment are a growing trend. And often, there’s no sex involved. When the term “sexual harassment” comes up, many people might think of scenes from the movie “9 to 5.” In that classic film, an overbearing, over-leering boss (played by Dabney Coleman) constantly […]
In a tight labor market, you need to stay aware of what compensation and benefits your competitors are offering. Here’s a way to do it … at the click of a mouse. Yesterday’s Daily Advisor detailed a study by the Charlton Consulting Group on how employees greatly underestimate the cost of benefits to employers. The […]
Surveys show workers greatly underestimate your cost of providing their benefits … and that there’s one “bennie” they won’t give up, whatever the cost to you or them. Health insurance … life insurance … disability … vision care … dental … the list goes on. Did you ever wonder where the idea of having employers […]
You’re sitting in your favorite HR juke joint, crying into your beer over the pain and heartache your employees have caused you this week. After a few cold ones, solving the world’s HR problems begins to look simple. Then, as you near that moment of perfect clarity, the lights come up and the bartender shouts, […]
Not unlike an annual employee performance evaluation, an HR or employment law audit provides an objective means to measure the effectiveness of HR functions with respect to productivity, efficiency, and morale, among others. As a risk-management tool, an audit can identify obsolete or ineffective practices and flag compliance issues. In fact, employment practices liability insurance […]
Tonight’s episode serves as a good example of team building exercises gone wrong. Very wrong. But, believe it or not, Michael’s efforts to enlighten his staff about Kelly’s Indian culture was not the worst example of “team building” I’ve ever seen. It was a close call, but the award for “worst team building exercise” belongs […]
By BLR Founder and CEO Bob Brady Two computer programmers sharing a single keyboard? Hey, it works, says our CEO as he reports on a novel form of job sharing. Computer programmers have the reputation of being loners who sit in their cubicles, hunched over their keyboards, headphones on their ears, silent and oblivious to […]
FMLA, already a complex law, may soon get more so. Here’s a program that explains the law now and is designed to keep you informed about how it may differ in the future. As yesterday’s Advisor story on the burgeoning “father-friendly workplace” movement illustrated, the pressure on business to allow employees greater work/life balance is […]
A jury in Phoenix has awarded $287,640—including $250,000 in punitive damages—in a religious discrimination suit against Alamo Car Rental brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The EEOC charged Alamo with post-9/11 backlash discrimination on the basis of religion when it fired a Somali customer sales representative in December 2001 for refusing to […]
Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that employees who complain of pay discrimination under Title VII, the federal antibias law, must file a claim with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) within 180 days of the discriminatory pay-setting decision, rather than within 180 days of the employee’s last paycheck. This decision was good news for […]