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Hot List: BusinessWeek’s Best Seller List

BusinessWeek magazine ranks the 15 best selling hardcover and paperback business books in November 2009 and  gives a short summary. 1.The 50th Law by 50 Cent, Robert Greene. Succeed by conquering your fears. 2. Bounce Back: Overcoming Setbacks to Succeed in Business and in Life by John Calipari with David Scott. Kentucky’s basketball coach on […]

News Notes: New Prevailing Wage Regulations

Prevailing wage laws are designed to protect local workers from seeing their pay decline due to government contracts going to the lowest bidders. They require contractors on public works projects to pay employees the region’s prevailing wage. Until now, the formula used to determine the prevailing wage generally turned out to be union scale, often […]

Effective Wellness Programs Combat Worker Burnout

Seventy percent of U.S. office workers and managers report working more than 40 hours a week, and the majority consider the office the most productive place to get work done. But employers need to take action to ensure it remains an inspiring, motivating environment. This, according to the second annual Workplace Index conducted by Staples […]

Leadership Practices that Work Regardless of Company Size

From Dan Oswald: As a way to honor the individuals who have taught me critical life lessons about people and business, I’ve invited several to write guest columns to run in this space over the next few weeks. Today’s voice of experience is provided by a mentor whose business acumen and people skills have guided […]

Background checks for employment: How California laws differ

Conducting background checks for employment requires employers to strike a balance between getting enough information to make an informed hiring decision and not overstepping the boundaries into areas that might infringe upon employee privacy. Additionally, as with many other employment laws, California has specific rules that are stricter than the federal regulations—California employers need to […]

Drug Policy Should Require Workers to Inform You When They’re Impaired

Drug Policy Should Require Workers to Inform You When They’re Impaired In light of California’s new law legalizing medical marijuana use discussed in the accompanying story, now is a good time to take a look at your current drug and alcohol policies to make sure they cover situations where your employees’ work could be affected […]

Workplace Violence: New Case Gives Employers a Tool to Ward Off Tragedy; Restraining Orders Now Easier to Obtain

On July 8, 2003, a worker at a Lockheed Martin Mississippi aircraft parts plant gunned down 14 coworkers, killing five. On August 27, 2003, a disgruntled former employee opened fire at a Chicago auto parts warehouse, killing six former coworkers. These tragedies are just a fraction of the workplace violence incidents—which include the spillover of […]

How Health Plans Help Providers Convert to Quality & Value Models

Health care providers need help moving to value-based reimbursement and adopting accountable care models, and insurers and health plans often provide the best support, health plan executives told a recent conference. They discussed best practices for helping providers adopt value based pay and outcome-based reimbursement on April 11 at the World Health Care Congress in […]

PBGC Wants Thoughts about Missing Participants

The U.S. Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation may start providing new services to help plan sponsors spend less time identifying, locating and corresponding with missing plan participants. The agency is seeking public comment until Aug. 20 on several aspects of administering a missing participants program when terminating individual account plans, according to a June 21 Federal […]