Author: Wendi Watts

Brains on Fire: Igniting Powerful, Sustainable, Word of Mouth Movements

HR Hero Line editor Wendi Watts reviews Brains on Fire by Robbin Phillips, Greg Cordell, and Geno Church, finding useful insight into engaging both employees and customers. Do your customers and employees love you? Do you love your customers and employees? Most HR people would readily admit that a large number of their employees are […]

Hot List: Bestselling “Business Life” Books on Amazon.com

Amazon.com updates its list of the bestselling books every hour. Here is a snapshot of what is hot right now, this Monday morning, June 6, in the “Business Life” section of the “Business and Investing” category. 1. Critical Thinking: Tools for Taking Charge of Your Professional and Personal Life by Richard Paul and and Linda […]

Making the Most of the Hand You are Dealt

No Regrets: Making the Most of the Hand You’re Dealt

Last week, I attended the funeral of a good friend’s father. He was a man who was quite obviously loved by his family and friends. At the service, they displayed pictures of him during happy times with his wife, children, and grandchildren. The people who spoke at the funeral talked about a caring, generous man […]

Decisionmaking in Employer Pension Plans

By Lyne Duhaime and Ross Gascho If your company is both the sponsor and administrator of a pension plan in a Canadian province other than Quebec, you should take note of the recent Ontario Court of Appeal decision in Re Indalex. Although the case deals with competing claims in insolvency and deficits in wound up […]

And the Beet Goes On

In the words of the incomparable Monty Python troupe – now for something completely different. With the season over and Michael departed, I decided that, rather than review a rerun, I’d share some thoughts about one of the putative candidates to replace Michael. I’ve decided to focus on the character we all love to hate, […]

Looking for I-9 form

I Spy Missing I-9s — What Should HR Do?

by Steve Jones Q: My company recently conducted an I-9 audit and found that we are missing approximately a dozen I-9 forms. I don’t know if they were accidentally purged, filed incorrectly, or never completed. Can we ask the affected employees to fill out another I-9? If so, do we ask them to backdate it […]

Profit at the Bottom of the Ladder

In her book Profit at the Bottom of the Ladder: Creating Value by Investing in Your Workforce, Canadian researcher Jody Heymann analyzes hundreds of interviews with front line employees to C-suite executives and concludes that your company can profit more from improving worker conditions than cutting wages, benefits, and other workforce expenses. As an example […]

Employee Can’t Invade Privacy of Another Employee

By Ian Campbell and Justine Connelly The evolution of privacy rights in the Canadian workplace continues. In recent months we have updated you on court and labor arbitration decisions that have commented on employee privacy rights. An individual employee tried to take her rights one step further when she sued another employee for invasion of […]

Michael’s Goodbye

Tonight’s episode, a rerun of Part 1 of Michael Scott’s goodbye, had, unfortunately, limited employment law relevance.  But one thing did stand out — Gabe’s relentless pursuit (or re-pursuit) of Erin. Gabe demonstrates well the dangers of office romances. Gabe’s inability to cope with Erin’s decision to dump him has Gabe hounding Andy to stay […]

U.S. Supreme Court Building

Supreme Court: Arizona Immigration Law That Targets Businesses Is Valid

Thursday, May 26, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Legal Arizona Workers Act (Act), an Arizona employment law that allows the state to sanction employers that knowingly or intentionally employ “unauthorized aliens.” The first provision of the Act punishes certain employers that hire unauthorized aliens by suspending or revoking their business licenses. The second provision […]