Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals (which covers Texas) recently issued a published decision, a rarity since most opinions are unpublished and therefore can’t be cited to courts as precedent. It was also a per curiam opinion, i.e., a three-judge panel decided the appeal but no particular judge took credit for writing it.
Often, when there are challenges in meeting goals or living up to a team’s or organization’s full potential in a workplace, there usually isn’t only one issue causing the problem. Instead, many factors can contribute to less-than-optimal organizational performance.
Employers today are finding that some roles remain stubbornly hard to fill or difficult to keep filled. Sometimes it’s a lack of applicants. Sometimes the applicants aren’t qualified. Sometimes the applicant makes it through the process, only to turn down the offer or ghost the employer. Such frustrations are commonplace, and they’re driving up the […]
The broad scope of the Fair Labor Standards Act provides seemingly endless opportunities for debate. The fact that the Supreme Court agreed to hear Christopher v. SmithKline Beecham Corp. later this year (a case out of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit involving worker classification) on the heels of its ruling in […]
To ease employees’ concerns about access to their elective deferrals in the event of a financial emergency, an employer may provide for hardship withdrawals in its plan. This can provide some peace of mind during difficult times.
In our latest installment of Ask the Expert, brought to you by the team of industry experts at HR Hero®, we look at a question about best practices for using employees’ photos. Q: Our company has just taken pictures of key employees for use on social media, brochures, and elsewhere. Are we required to get consent […]
As companies continue to recognize the value of diversity and inclusion (D&I), they’re also coming to understand the extent to which systemic biases exist in their hiring and HR infrastructures. Recruitment structures and the individuals within them, despite their best efforts, often favor some groups over others. Something as simple as an applicant’s name or […]
In God’s Favorite Idiot, Netflix puts a new spin on the workplace comedy. The show begins with a seemingly normal midlevel tech employee, Clark (Ben Falcone), getting struck by lightning while searching for his cat. Clark is surprisingly OK and blissfully unaware that strange things are happening around him—stop lights are turning green for him, […]
There’s a huge divide between the whistleblower’s view of a situation and the legal analyst’s view, says attorney Brad Cave of Holland & Hart LLP in Cheyenne, Wyoming—and editor of Wyoming Employment Law Letter. If employers can “put on the whistleblower’s hat,” he says, they may be able to significantly reduce the risk of a […]
When one employee’s son was born, he took 10 days of vacation. Then he took five days of sick leave, and now he has requested FMLA (Family and Medical Leave Act) leave. We didn’t see all this leave coming. Do we have to give him 12 additional weeks of time off, or can we make […]