Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
Each January, HR Hero conducts an online survey about health insurance and retirement benefits offered by our readers’ organizations. Most of the questions are similar each year and provide a good comparison to previous years. The one thing that changes is the essay question. And this year, boy did we hit a nerve with that […]
Author and talent management expert Carol A. Hacker writes about her book “The High Cost of Low Morale . . . and What to Do About It.” She offers tips from her book for reducing employee turnover. The U.S. Department of Labor estimates that the average cost of one turnover is 30 percent of the […]
by Derek Knoechel In 1990, a 21-year-old woman was caught shoplifting. She then pleaded guilty to a charge of theft, receiving a conditional discharge. Some five years later, she applied for a position with the Montreal police force. So began a 13-year legal odyssey culminating in a Supreme Court of Canada decision (Montréal (City) v. […]
Business Week ranks business books that are the most recent bestsellers and provides a short summary. 1. Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell. As you’d expect with Gladwell, there are lots of surprises in his explanation of why some people succeed fantastically. Pluck and smarts get less play here than such matters as […]
Update: U.S. Senate has passed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and it has been sent to President Barack Obama. He is scheduled to sign the bill into law on Jan. 29, 2009. In one of its first major employment law actions of the year, the U.S. House of Representatives has passed legislation that will […]
Each January, HR Hero asks its readers about the benefits their company plans to offer in the new year. With the changes in the economy and employers looking for ways to cut expenses, will they be reducing benefits or passing more of the cost of them on to employee? Take the survey and we’ll report […]
by Donald D. Berner and Forrest T. Rhodes The election of Barack Obama as the next president, coupled with the Democratic Party’s increased majority in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, is certain to bring changes. The Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), which President-elect Obama and Democratic congressional leaders vow to pass in […]
by Gary Fealk There has been a push in recent years to provide homosexual, bisexual, and transsexual individuals with protection against discrimination, including discrimination in the workplace. There is even proposed federal legislation, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), on the horizon that may pass in the next session of Congress. Certain states have enacted discrimination […]
The current term of the U.S. Supreme Court provides a reminder that the drafters of the U.S. Constitution deliberately created a tension between continuity of law and responsiveness to changes in the majority’s wishes. We are on the cusp of a complete change in administration, with the likelihood of substantial changes in both statutory regime […]
(Updated April 2009) by Boyd Byers Writer Sebastian Junger coined the phrase “perfect storm” to describe the simultaneous occurrence of different weather phenomena that combine to create a powerful nor’easter (a storm blowing from the northeast). Is a confluence of cultural, economic, and political events whipping up a perfect storm for employment law claims? Many […]