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.

5th Circuit Rejects Disability Discrimination Claim Based on Alcoholism

An employer wasn’t liable to a former employee who alleged he was terminated because of a disability, his alcoholism, the 5th Circuit recently decided. Although the appeals court didn’t directly address whether alcoholism qualified as a protected disability when it upheld a New Orleans-based district court ruling, the opinion offers guidance on how employers can […]

Employee Benefit Considerations From ARPA: All Things COBRA

The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA) became law in March. The $1.9 trillion stimulus package contains a mix of benefits, tax credits, programs, and subsidies in response to the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. Among the ARPA’s provisions are several related to COBRA. Let’s take a closer look.

Human and Machine: How to Elevate the Role of HR and Promote Worker Autonomy

According to our favorite science fiction films and novels, artificial intelligence (AI) will play a major role in contributing to our dystopian future, right? Well, I’m here to tell you there’s some serious misunderstanding here. In reality, AI has the potential, when done right and created ethically, to change how we work and collaborate for […]

Employee Appreciation Tips

We’ve all seen the headlines: Recruiting at the moment is complex at best. Employers are trying to ramp back up now that more and more people are vaccinated from COVID-19 and returning to some semblance of normal, and this is causing significantly increased competition for talent. When hiring is difficult, employers have to remember to […]

10th Circuit Decision May Affect Work-From-Home Requests After Pandemic Ends

As COVID-19 vaccinations increase and states ease pandemic-related restrictions, many employers are beginning to plan for employees’ to return to the office. But not all workers may want to return, and some might ask to work remotely because of ongoing concerns about the virus in light of underlying health conditions or simply a fear of […]

How HR Challenges Are Shaping the Healthcare Industry

I am sure all of us are aware that employees are a company’s most significant asset. This is true across all industries, especially when it comes to health care, for which one needs highly trained professionals. Because medical professionals are responsible for others’ lives, meeting the needs of this workforce is extremely important and no […]

Optimism Bias

Popular culture is awash with overt and subconscious messages instructing us to think positively. From children’s stories about the “Little Engine that Could” and his mantra of “I think I can. I think I can” to self-help books for adults professing the genuine, mystical power of positive thought, the message is clear: It’s positive to […]

OSHA

OSHA Focuses Enforcement Efforts on Higher-Risk Workplaces Amid Pandemic

On March 21, 2021, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) published a national emphasis program (NEP) to focus its enforcement efforts on preventing employees from contracting COVID-19 and protecting those who report unsafe working conditions. In general, an NEP is a method by which OSHA temporarily focuses its resources on a specific danger or […]

meeting

What Does a Hybrid Work Model Look Like?

One of the bright spots of the COVID-19 pandemic is how it allowed—really, forced—many companies to reconsider their attitudes toward and policies around remote work. While many trailblazing companies had for years offered the ability to work remotely as a much-sought-after perk for their employees, the majority were wary of giving employees that kind of […]

In an Age of Remote Work, Is a Happy Workforce a Distant Dream? Let AI Give You a Hand

I was recently talking to a college student who had joined an extremely popular multinational corporation. It was his first job after college, and naturally, he needed to be onboarded and trained. Like a lot of us, he was working from home, so he did not meet his supervisor or team in person. It was […]