Archives

Attorneys Offer Tips to Avoid Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) Lawsuits

Leading attorneys say you can stay dry in a rising tide of FLSA lawsuits by auditing your exempt/nonexempt classifications and maintaining a strict policy against improper deductions from pay. If you’d like your company to join the ranks of Wal-Mart, Starbucks, Radio Shack, and IBM, that’s easy to do. No, not in making stratospheric levels […]

Wage and Hour: Labor Commissioner Proposes Rules for Employee Expense Reimbursement

The California Labor Code requires employers to repay employees for all necessary expenditures employees incur in performing their jobs. However, the law doesn’t provide guidance as to what precisely must be reimbursed and at what rates, or whether paying an increased salary or commission satisfies the reimbursement requirement. Now, the labor commissioner has issued proposed […]

Orient Your Supervisors Toward Better New Employee Orientation

“Orientation has a direct impact on future productivity, performance, and job satisfaction. And you (the supervisor) play a key role in the success of the orientation process.” These words are from BLR’s training program, Audio Click’ n Train: New Employee Orientation: A How-To for Supervisors. Both formal studies and common sense prove that they’re true. […]

New Employee Orientation: How to Do It Right

Future job performance and retention start with the very first day on the job, say two HR experts. Here’s how to make that day, and what follows, worthwhile. Remember your first day on the job? A bit terrifying, wasn’t it? Even if you came from a similar position, there were new people to meet, new […]

Some further thoughts from “Branch Closing”

There is a right way to announce a reduction in force to employees. Going around the office muttering phrases such as “do your work while you still can” or “it doesn’t matter, we’ll be gone in a few weeks anyway” under your breath isn’t it. In the real world, a company planning a RIF should […]

Branch Closing

LITIGATION VALUE: $150,000 in defense costs — unless (and that is a big unless) the WARN Act applies. Call me crazy, but announcing “we’re screwed” is not the best way to tell employees that the Company is closing down its branch. Not only does it create turmoil among the employees, but it comes nowhere close […]

Google’s Hiring Practices: Are They Dumbing Down … Or Wising Up?

By BLR Founder and CEO Bob Brady Google has shifted its hiring criteria from “rocket scientists” to team players. The question is ‘Why?’ Google, which has the reputation of hiring only the smartest of the smart (perfect SATs, “A” list colleges, highest grades), may be “dumbing down.” According to newspaper reports, it is relaxing its […]