Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
Writing job descriptions that are compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is tricky. In your efforts to be clear, you can also be exclusionary. Here are tips for handling this delicate duty. Take, for example, the requirement to be “able to walk” around the office. That language would be unnecessarily exclusionary if the […]
By Brian P. Smeenk Drug and alcohol testing has long been a sensitive subject in Canada, especially in safety-sensitive workplaces. A recent 128-page arbitration decision by a leading Canadian arbitrator may have put to rest many of the remaining questions about what kinds of policies will be enforceable in Canada and what they should contain. […]
A majority of Americans agree that lifestyle choices such as smoking and exercising directly affect the cost of their health care, yet 44 percent do not think they should have to pay for health care. What gives? A recent survey revealed that employees do see a connection between their behavior and their health, and they […]
Amazon.com updates its list of the bestselling books every hour. Here is a snapshot of what is hot right now, this Monday morning, March 16, in the “Business Life” section of the “Business and Investing”category. 1. How I Made My First Million on the Internet and How You Can Too!: The Complete Insider’s Guide to […]
An “impressive array of medical, fitness, employee assistance, wellness, and work/life options” garnered the Prudential Financial Companies a prestigious HR Best Practices Award from the New Jersey affiliate of SHRM. Here’s how they managed it. Wellness: From Asthma to Weight Loss K. Andrew Crighton, vice president and chief medical officer for Prudential Financial Companies, shared […]
At 20 percent of the population, people with disabilities are America’s largest minority group. “They carry a second distinction of being America’s most invisible population,” says Wayne McMillan, president and CEO of Bobby Dodd Institute (BDI), an Atlanta-based nonprofit providing career services and job training for the disabled. “Instead of an uproar,” he says, “their […]
Just having a diversity program won’t instantly solve all your problems. “Diversity is not simply a means to an end, but rather, an ongoing journey that evolves over time,” says Jennifer Melton, an EEO/diversity management consultant for F&H Solutions Group, an affiliate of Ford & Harrison LLP. “The idea that the implementation of these initiatives […]
Several food-processing plants across the country have been in the news as they grapple with the requests of increasing numbers of Muslim workers seeking religious accommodations. Three disputes — all at meatpacking plants — centered on prayer breaks, especially important at Ramadan. During that month (which varies from year to year because it’s set on […]
An interstate trucking firm has agreed to pay $2.4 million and provide other remedial relief to a class of women to settle a major sex discrimination lawsuit filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). According to the EEOC, beginning in 1997, PittOhio Express, Inc., denied a class of qualified female applicants employment as truck […]
The Bureau of Labor Statistics recently issued a report on women’s earnings in 2007. According to the report, women who were full-time wage and salary workers had median weekly earnings of $614, or about 80 percent of the $766 median for their male counterparts. That ratio has grown since 1979 (the first year for which […]