Category: Benefits and Compensation

This topic provides guidance on how to handle compensation issues in a way that attracts and retains the best talent and advances the strategic goals of your business. You get news and tips on what’s going on nationally and in the states, and updates on changes in regulations, possible governmental action, and emerging compensation trends.

Ruling on Reformation Opens More Adjustments of Plan Terms

A federal appeals court agreed with a retirement plan plaintiff that he did not have to show “actual harm” to seek a retirement plan reformation after alleged inadequate communication about a change in his former employer’s defined benefit plan. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with Geoffrey Osberg and other plaintiffs in Osberg […]

Time and Attendance Automation=Efficiency + Engagement

What can be gained with technology and integration? In a word, efficiency and productivity, says Mansfield. An employee asks for a day off. The request is logged, and the manager is alerted and reviews the request. If approved, the information gets onto the schedule and to payroll. If necessary, qualified substitutes are found. Time Management […]

SIIA Chief Testifies on Pro-reform Threats to Self-funding

On Feb. 26, SIIA’s CEO and president Mike Ferguson testified before a House panel to make it clear that skirting the ACA is not the reason companies and institutions self-insure, contrary to what pro-reform elements in the federal government may believe. The decision whether to self-fund is based on risk tolerance, understanding of legal liability, […]

Automation—Best of Breed Out, Integration In

Best of Breed Out Most companies started out their transition to HR automation by going “best of breed”; that is, finding the best time tracking system, the best payroll system, and so on, but now that’s not the way to go, says Lombardi. Now employers want integration of all these processes plus integration with business […]

‘Thinking About Retirement?’—Danger or Diligence?

Can You Ask About Retirement Plans? Can you ask older employees about their retirement plans? Yes, if you are careful, says BLR® Senior Legal Editor Joan Farrell. But push too hard and it starts to look like age discrimination. If an employer has a legitimate reason, like workforce planning or succession planning, it’s not a […]

‘Thinking About Retirement?’—Danger or Diligence?

Can You Ask About Retirement Plans? Can you ask older employees about their retirement plans? Yes, if you are careful, says BLR® Senior Legal Editor Joan Farrell. But push too hard and it starts to look like age discrimination. If an employer has a legitimate reason, like workforce planning or succession planning, it’s not a […]

Can You Terminate Those with the Highest Salaries?

While salary level may be a legitimate factor in determining which employees to lay off, it cannot be the determining factor if it adversely affects older workers, says Tinnin, who is a partner with Tinnin Law Firm in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and editor of New Mexico Employment Law Letter. In 2005, he adds, the U.S. […]

And the Oscar for Employee Excellence Goes to …

    Oswald, CEO of BLR®, offered his thoughts on recognizing excellence in a recent edition of The Oswald Letter. Now let me put that in perspective for a moment. The Academy was formed in 1927, with the state of California granting its charter as a nonprofit organization on May 11 of that year. Films […]

Key Questions for Compensation Audits

What Is Written? Start with the written documents, says Kleinman. What written documents relate to compensation? Who has them? Who wrote what and when?  What do they say? For example: Plan documents Structures Policies Pay parameters Hiring/Bonus boundaries (approval levels, etc.) How’s Turnover? What turnover levels is the organization experiencing? Functional turnover is created “intentionally,” […]

Notre Dame University Denied Contraception Injunction

The 7th Circuit in a 2-1 ruling refused to grant a preliminary injunction to Notre Dame University, which would have freed the university from participating in reform’s requirement to provide contraceptives at no cost to all women. In so doing the court criticized the university’s argument that signing an EBSA Form 700 — expressing objections to the contraceptive […]