Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
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.
Last week, California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner announced that insurers’ workers’ compensation costs have plummeted by 70 percent since the workers’ comp reforms of 2003 were implemented—and as a result, pure premium rates will remain unchanged for now. Poizner noted, though, that insurers should continue to pass on the cost savings to businesses in the […]
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that Dec. 26, 2007, is the deadline for employers to begin using the revised Form I-9, which was released several weeks ago. This is the form that all employers must complete for new hires to verify eligibility to work in the United States. As of Dec. […]
Amazon.com updates its list of bestselling business books hourly. Here is a snapshot of what books were hot this morning — Monday, December 4. 1. The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein. The neo-liberal economic policies—privatization, free trade, slashed social spending—that the Chicago School and the economist Milton Friedman have foisted […]
Our facility has numerous hazards; chemical, physical—you name it, we’ve got it. We train our workers on handling and avoiding them, but what about our visitors? I’ve been tasked with tightening up our visitor safety program. What suggestions do you have for me? — Caroline C., HR Manager in Los Angeles
Governor Schwarzenegger signed a new law on October 9 granting military spouses unpaid time off from work to ensure that military families can spend time together when the service member is on leave from deployment. The law took effect immediately. Here’s what you need to know.
A few of my employees want to make up some time they missed, but the makeup time would end up being overtime, which I can’t pay. Is there a provision in the law that covers this situation?
If we fire an employee, do we have some extra time to get the final paycheck to him or her?
We’ve had two bad hiring experiences in which we found out later that candidates misrepresented certain areas of their background. Now, we want to improve our background checks. What can you recommend? — Isabella, HR Staffing Specialist in Oakland
We have a retail establishment with several branches, and as part of the branding of the stores we want all of our salespeople to wear the same look—khaki pants and a long-sleeved, button-down blue shirt with white pinstripes. Someone told me that requiring a “look” is the same as requiring a “uniform” and that we’d […]
We have been challenged by an employee who claims that all employees get a “grace period” of seven minutes before they can be reprimanded and docked any pay when late for work. For example, if the shift starts at 8:00 a.m. and the employee arrives at 8:07, the employee should be paid for the seven […]