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reality

White-Collar Applications for Virtual and Augmented Reality

Virtual reality (VR) was once thought of by many as a tool primarily for recreation, entertainment, and gaming. But as the technology has improved and the marketplace has become more familiar and comfortable with it, the potential value of VR and the related augmented reality (AR) to the broader economy has become more apparent.

family

Employee Focus: How to Help Employees Return from Parental Leave

Employees returning from parental leave, whether that’s maternity/paternity leave or Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) leave, often have a unique set of needs to ease their transition back into working full-time. This is important for employers to be cognizant of, not the least of which is to reduce the incidence of employees leaving the […]

Amazon

Prime Day Walkout: An Exercise in Collective Action or a Publicity Stunt?

Amazon recently made headlines for two reasons: First, it expanded its Prime Day, a special sale on many Amazon products for Amazon Prime members, to 2 days for the first time. Although that may be good news for customers, it means even more work for Amazon’s employees, many of whom have been complaining of poor […]

Facebook Post Lands HR Manager in Hot Water

Building on its reassertion that Title VII doesn’t cover sexual orientation, the federal appeals court in New Orleans recently ruled there is no protection for employees who complain about perceived sexual orientation bias either. An HR manager who posted her opinions on Facebook about a man trying on a dress—and was subsequently fired for unsatisfactory […]

Training

It’s Time to Disown Traditional Training

The workplace has changed drastically over the last decade. New technologies allow us to be more flexible about where we work, and the rise of the gig economy has created an extended workforce of freelancers, sales representatives, and other roles that don’t fall directly within the company setting.

payroll

No, Henny Penny, the Sky Isn’t Falling: EEO-1 Pay Data Portal Goes Live Soon

Back in March, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., set off a firestorm in the employer community when she reinstated the so-called EEO-1 Component 2 pay data reporting rule. The rule was implemented by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) during the final year of the Obama administration, but just before it was to take […]

pension

Pension Buyout Transactions Soared to Highest Levels in 30+ Years

Total sales of U.S. single-premium defined benefit (DB) pension buyout products soared above $4.7 billion in the first quarter, the highest pension risk transfer (PRT) sales in that period in more than 30 years, according to data from the LIMRA Secure Retirement Institute. That level is more than triple the value of the previous first-quarter […]