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.

Is a Counteoffer a Lose-Lose Proposition?

Yesterday’s issue presented best practices for making counteroffers. But a lot of experts think counteroffers won’t solve the retention problem. We’ll see why, and also look at an extraordinary problem-solver that could help avoid the whole issue. As stated in yesterday’s Advisor, best practices for making counteroffers include digging to find out why the employee […]

Retaliation: Ninth Circuit Rules on ‘Cat’s Paw’ Liability; How to Ensure That One Supervisor’s Bias Doesn’t Taint Another’s Decisions

In an old fable, a monkey convinces an unwitting cat to scoop out chestnuts from a burning fire. As the cat gathers the chestnuts one by one—and burns its paws in the process—the monkey, unbeknownst to the cat, eagerly gobbles them down. Borrowing from this story, courts have used the term “cat’s paw” to describe […]

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t

M. Lee Smith President Dan Oswald reviews the book Good to Great by Jim Collins. Review highlight’s books theories on leadership, people (employees), discipline, and technology in business. Of all the business books I’ve read throughout my career, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t has had the greatest influence […]

Counteroffers: Effective Retention Tool, or Display of Desperation?

Ghosts and goblins bedevil the children this Halloween week, but it’s retention that bedevils HR managers. Will counteroffers help retention? In this two-part article, today’s experts say yes, tomorrow’s say no. Retention is once again raising its head as the bugaboo of HR managers. You think you’ve got things settled and then suddenly your best […]

Discrimination: EEOC Alerts Employers to Email Scam

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is warning employers about a “phishing” email circulating to companies that purports to be from the federal agency regarding a harassment complaint. The bogus email contains a computer virus that may harm a recipient’s computer if the user clicks on the referenced link or downloads the attached file. […]

‘Standard Annoyance Time’: Hidden Hassles for HR Abound

Most people are happy to gain an hour’s sleep when we go from daylight saving back to standard time on November 4. But HR managers have to brace for a double hassle. Come 2 a.m., Sunday morning, sleep an extra hour, everyone, unless you work the night shift. Then you’ll probably have to work an […]

Ethics or Mismanagement: What Would You Do to a Lying Employee?

By BLR Founder and CEO Bob Brady BLR’s CEO discusses lies, good deeds, and what his organization did about both, then asks for your solution to the issues this story raises. Do you ever read the popular newspaper column, The Ethicist? It’s an advice column focused on ethical issues. This is certainly something that our […]

Take as Much Vacation, Sick Leave, and Family Time as You Want!

Will it soon be a “best practice” to let employees choose how much vacation, personal leave, and sick leave to take? If it is, there’s a place where you’ll find out about it. In our last issue, we talked about Best Buy’s ROWE (Results Only Work Environment) program, which allows employees to decide where and […]

Best Buy Breaks All of the HR Rules: ‘It Works,’ They Say.

Just when we thought we had the rules of the workplace down, is it time to eliminate them? We’ll tell you about a company breaking rules – and living to tell about it. Tired of the 9-to-5 rat race and the “cubicle lifestyle”? You might consider applying for a job at Best Buy, Inc. The […]