Month: April 2013

Assessing Your Sales Compensation Strategy: Dashboard Considerations

How can you measure the effectiveness of your sales compensation strategy? The goal is to craft sales compensation plans that motivate team members to perform strongly. To measure this, you need hard, quantifiable proof that the return on investment (ROI) truly aligns with your organization’s overall sales compensation strategy. Many companies create sales dashboards to […]

HRCI Special Edition: Hope Among Chaos

By Archana Mehta Fighting a deadly disease affecting millions of people — including far too many children — is inherently challenging. Adding political and cultural turmoil complicates the mission. Fortunately for millions of people in Africa, the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation has a remarkable team of HR professionals committed to overcoming those challenges — […]

Travel Time Pay: When Must An Employee Be Paid For Commute Time?

Travel time pay can be a tricky thing to master, and the issue is fraught with risk since travel-related issues in particular pose a significant risk for wage and hour claims. One question that comes up a lot is whether or not time spent traveling to work is considered compensable work time. The FLSA established […]

ROI of Sales: 3 Approaches You Can Use

Yesterday’s Advisor featured consultant Joseph DiMisa’s comp design challenges for 2013. Today, how to make selling comp a little easier by using concrete ROI measures, plus an introduction to an upcoming free webcast on strategic HR. DiMisa, who is senior vice president, Sales Force Effectiveness, at Sibson Consulting, outlined eight design challenges during a recent […]

DOL Helps Plans Find How MAP-21 Changed Liability Calculations

New guidelines from the U.S. Department of Labor help defined benefit plan sponsors see and report exactly what’s changed for their calculation of pension plan liabilities under Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act requirements. Several changes to ease funding requirements for DB plans arrived with the start of MAP 21’s transportation reauthorization […]

Can Individual Managers Be Held Liable for Wrongful Discharge? The Answer May Surprise You

By Jonathan Mook Virtually all states recognize a common law tort claim of wrongful discharge in violation of a state’s established public policy. In most instances, a lawsuit alleging such a claim is brought solely against the plaintiff’s former employer. But may a suit be brought not only against the employer, but also against the […]

H-1B visa cap met in first week

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that it reached the statutory H-1B visa cap of 65,000 for fiscal year 2014 during the first week of the filing period. This is the first time since 2008 that the cap has been met during the first week. The H-1B program allows U.S. businesses to employ […]

If California employer loses employee payroll records, what happens?

What happens if an employer loses their payroll records or other basic employee records in California? Basic records include things like payroll records, employee benefit plans, trusts, collective bargaining agreements, incentive plans, employee contracts, all employee notices, etc. Many laws require maintenance of these basic records. But how long must they be kept? And what […]

Do Your Employees Need Stress Management Training?

Whatever the cause, and however it manifests, workplace stress continues to be a problem—one that can cause reduced productivity, an increase in accidents, and a spike in costs. Stress Stats The American Psychological Association (APA) observes, “While stress levels appear to be balancing out, they remain high and exceed what Americans consider to be healthy.” […]

‘Trainee’ Informed She’s Not Entitled to Minimum Wage, Overtime

A salon in Queens will pay more than $5,000 to a manicurist after allegedly telling a worker she was a “trainee” and not entitled to minimum wage or overtime. The employer also informed the woman she would have to pay a deposit to work at the salon. According to a press statement by New York […]