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Does Your Orientation Training Program Need Review?

New hire orientation is the first step toward employee retention. A formal and well-developed new employee orientation program not only impacts the new hire but also the organization as a whole—both directly in terms of productivity, employee referrals, and retention, and indirectly, as far as employee satisfaction, culture, and safety. These can provide significant return […]

Are Tattoos Taboo in the Workplace?

It’s going to be a challenging year for HR (well, aren’t they all?). In today’s Advisor we’ll take a look at three levels of concern—policy HR issues like technology, health care, and social media; basic HR issues like wage/hour threats; and strategic HR issues like losing your high potentials because your Boomers aren’t retiring. Technology […]

Avoid All Appearance of Sexism in Training—and Other—Employment Decisions

Today’s Advisor contains a guest column that first appeared on HR.BLR.com, called Lessons from JPMorgan Chase’s $1.45 million EEOC settlement. By Jamie A. LaPlante In a much-publicized case, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) obtained a $1.45 million settlement on behalf of female employees who worked in JPMorgan Chase’s Columbus, Ohio, office. The EEOC alleged […]

Expedited union elections: The Canadian experience

By Brian P. Smeenk Many Canadian provinces have in recent years transitioned to an expedited union certification vote system. Votes typically take place within five or 10 business days of a union application. From the perspective of Canadian employers, this is better than the previous “card check” system that was in place in most jurisdictions […]

Steps to take toward gender equality

by Dinita James In the mid-1970s, I wore an ERA bracelet in support of ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). I also had a button that displayed only two numbers and a symbol ― 62 ¢. The 62 cents signified the then-current national average of women’s earnings for every dollar earned by men. Some […]

Rise in religious bias claims forces analysis of a multitude of sins

by Rodney L. Bean Claims of religious discrimination are on the upswing, leaving many employers scrambling to avoid liability for failing to properly manage the complicated interplay between faith and work. Of all the classifications protected under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, religion perhaps presents the most diverse range of issues […]

Untouchable? Disciplining employees for disability-caused misconduct

by Nikki Hall and Eugene Park HR professionals regularly implement employee discipline and are adept at navigating the waters of reasonable accommodations for disabled employees. Mingling those two issues, however, can sometimes pull an employer in opposite directions when it’s responding to, for example, a chronically tardy employee suffering debilitating side effects from medication or […]

Practical Examples: FMLA to Care for Children 18 and Above

My 20-year-old daughter has been put on bed rest because of her high-risk pregnancy. I am the only one available to care for her. Can I take FMLA leave for this reason? Maybe. In order to take FMLA leave to care for your adult daughter, she must be incapable of self-care due to a disability […]

The 5 Hoops—FMLA Leave over Children 18 and Older

First, the child must meet the FMLA definition of a “son or daughter.” Second, the child 18 years of age or old must be “incapable of self-care.” Third, the incapability for self care must be because of a mental or physical disability at the time FMLA leave is to commence. Fourth, the child must have […]