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‘I Didn’t Know You Wanted Me Here Every Day!’

Yesterday’s issue emphasized the necessity of sharing your attendance expectations with employees. Here are the key points that BLR’s popular 10-Minute HR Trainer suggests you stress in employee training on attendance. 1. Employer Expectations Regarding Attendance Regular attendance is a requirement of every employee’s job. It is important because: High absenteeism rates reduce productivity. Absenteeism […]

Recruiting Online—Your Website or Mine?

What’s the best approach for online recruiting—outside websites or your own career site? We turn to HR Hero’s Technology for HR guidebook for tips on achieving online success. Recruiting on the Internet It is not an overstatement to say that the internet has totally revolutionized how people find jobs. If you are not currently using […]

Recent Big-Ticket HIPAA Settlements Drive Home Need for Organizational Commitment

By David Slaughter, JD, Senior Legal Editor The month of July saw two hospitals reach multimillion-dollar Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) privacy and security settlements with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Each case began with that most mundane of data breaches, the stolen laptop, but once HHS investigators started […]

Family And Medical Leave: Court Says Employers Must Notify Workers How “12-Month Period” For Leave Entitlement Will Be Calculated; 3 Practical Steps

Employees who qualify for federal family leave may take up to 12 workweeks of leave within a 12-month period. An employer may choose one of four methods to measure the 12-month timespan, such as a calendar year or a rolling 12-month period. Now, a new ruling from the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals demonstrates […]

Retirement Plans: New Rule Regarding Stock Diversification Notice Penalties

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) has published a final rule clarifying the penalty that may be imposed on a plan administrator for failing to provide a written notice to participants and beneficiaries of their rights to diversify the portions of plan accounts that are invested in the employer’s publicly traded […]

Survey shows how employers plan to handle upcoming holidays

Everybody enjoys a day off on a special occasion–especially if it’s a paid day off–and employers realize the benefits of offering such perks to employees. Employers may question, though, whether they’re handling holidays in the best way. The recent BLR Holiday Practices Survey provides insights on a variety of holiday practices. Major holidays The survey […]

Bias Charge Filings Skyrocketed in 2007

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced last week that discrimination charge filings in 2007 shot up 9 percent over 2006, and pregnancy bias filings reached an all-time high. The EEOC reports that it received 82,792 complaints from private-sector workers nationwide last year, which was the highest volume since 2002 and the largest annual […]