Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
Under California wage and hour law, computer software professionals can qualify for overtime exemption if they meet certain duties requirements and are paid a specified hourly rate, set annually based on inflation rates by the state Department of Industrial Relations. On Jan. 1, 2007, the minimum hourly rate for exempt computer software professionals will be […]
Turnover is disruptive, but also expensive. See how much it costs with this complimentary downloadable cost calculator … and then, show your boss. Recently, Daily Advisor reported that surveys are showing employee retention as one of the top two concerns of HR professionals. (The other is regulatory compliance.) If you have been begging top management […]
Supervisors need to learn to “talk the talk” as job interviewers. Here’s a tool to teach them what to say … and not say. However much we may surround it with applications, resumes, and tests, hiring is a very human transaction. In the end, it usually comes down to two people… the hiring manager and […]
To retain your best employees, identify them, communicate with them, and find out what makes them leave. In so doing, you’ll find how to make them stay. Retention of trained employees has been a problem since they wrote the old song, “How You Gonna Keep’Em Down on the Farm,” but these days, it’s a particularly […]
By BLR Founder and Publisher Bob Brady BLR’s CEO ponders improving communications at our company (and yours,) and asks for your help in a way that can benefit all concerned. Every year for the last 10 years, we’ve surveyed our employees about their jobs and the company—an attitude survey. To a very distressing degree, the […]
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 […]
If you want to effectively train supervisors on legal hiring, don’t just show them or tell them, but do both! If you’ve tried training your supervisors on HR and found that some just never catch on, perhaps you’re not properly accommodating their “learning styles.” For as educators will tell you, some people learn best by […]
Conducting employee performance appraisals can be a challenging process. And even if you’ve been successful in getting your managers to take the time to do the appraisal, there still could be some bumps in the road with the appraisal meeting itself.
The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers California, has ruled that insurance adjusters for Farmers Insurance Exchange qualified for the administrative exemption from overtime, according to the standards under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. In so ruling, the appeals court threw out a $52.5 million judgment awarded by a federal trial court […]
The IRS has increased the standard mileage rate commonly used to reimburse employees for business use of a car to 48.5 cents per mile, up from 44.5 cents in 2006. The new rate will apply to miles driven beginning January 1, 2007. Employers who use the IRS standard mileage rate to reimburse employees may deduct […]