Category: HR Management & Compliance
There are dozens of details to take care of in the day-to-day operation of your department and your company. We give you case studies, news updates, best practices and training tips that keep your organization fully in compliance with ever-changing employment law, and you fully aware of emerging HR trends.
Short Takes: School Functions
BusinessWeek’s Paperback Bestseller List
BusinessWeek ranks paperback business books that are the most recent bestsellers. 1. Blink By Malcolm Gladwell (Back Bay Books $15.99) 2. J.K. Lasser’s Your Income Tax2008 By The J.K. Lasser Institute (Wiley $17.95) 3. What Color Is Your Parachute? By Richard Nelson Bolles (Ten Speed Press $18.95) 4. A Guide to the Project Management Body […]
Health and Safety: Are There First-Aid Standards That Apply to Our Workplace?
We had an accident in the office last week, and we didn’t have a trained person around to attend to the injured employee. It looks like there might be a lawsuit attacking our accident and injury preparedness. In any event, the incident brought up the issue of how much first-aid skill we need to have […]
Employment Contracts: Could I Be Entering into ‘Implied Contracts’ Without Knowing It?
We fired an employee, thinking he was “at will,” but now he claims we made an oral promise that he could be fired only for cause. We’ll fight this one in court, but how do we keep from having misunderstandings like these? —Martin B., HR Manager in San Francisco
FLSA Class Action Overtime Suits—Are You Next?
If you don’t do an FLSA wage and hour audit, someone else will, says attorney Tom Makris. And it won’t be just the government. These days, it could be a potential business partner … or even your banker. It started with mergers and acquisitions, says attorney Tom Makris. Now it’s spread to far more routine […]
Hiring: Is It a Good Idea to ‘Google’ Applicants?
I recently returned from a meeting where one expert recommended doing a Google search on applicants as part of the evaluation process. He said you often find very interesting things about people, especially if they blog or have their own website. Someone else thought it might be an invasion of privacy, and others objected that […]
Blackberries at the Beach: Are Exempt Employees the New Wage Slaves?
By BLR Founder and CEO Bob Brady BLR’s founder and CEO explores the “Blackberries at the beach” phenomenon—the expectation of 24/7 availability even when on vacation. Do nonexempts need to be paid? Are exempts modern day wage slaves? At BLR’s last Employment Law Update conference, several speakers talked about the issue/problem/phenomenon of the “BlackBerry® at […]
WSJ’s Top Small Workplaces: How Teamwork Helps
In yesterday’s Advisor, we listed common traits of The Wall Street Journal’s 15 top small companies. Today we’ll explore one of those traits—teamwork—taking our cue from a unique BLR resource, Managing an HR Department of One. For many of the top small workplaces, teamwork is an important part of the structure and atmosphere. Why is […]
Is Bullying Doing More Harm than Harassment?
Bullies may be causing more harm in your workplace than sexual harassers, according to a new study, “Outcomes of Aggression and Harassment.” Although both bullying and harassment have negative consequences, the study concluded that employees who experienced various types of workplace aggression—bullying, incivility, or interpersonal conflict—were more likely to quit their jobs, be less satisfied […]