Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
House Republican efforts to postpone, block and repeal Obamacare were key reasons for the federal government-shutdown crisis, under which 800,000 federal employees stayed home beginning Oct. 1. The House Republicans, whose opposition to Obamacare paralyzed spending bills, demanded that the administration acquiesce on two demands: postpone the “individual mandate” that individuals have federally approved minimum […]
We’ve had two bad hiring experiences in which we found out later that candidates misrepresented certain areas of their background. Now, we want to improve our background checks. What can you recommend? — Isabella, HR Staffing Specialist in Oakland
Getting good results from an employee wellness program requires a continuing organizational commitment and understanding of what motivates individual employees, wellness expert Brad Cooper told a recent Thompson Interactive webinar. He warned of some common wellness program pitfalls. One is a “check-the box” approach — such as setting up a biometric screening and distributing a […]
Several food-processing plants across the country have been in the news as they grapple with the requests of increasing numbers of Muslim workers seeking religious accommodations. Three disputes — all at meatpacking plants — centered on prayer breaks, especially important at Ramadan. During that month (which varies from year to year because it’s set on […]
The feds estimate that 70 percent of employers are not in compliance with the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). “That’s a gross understatement,” says William J. Anthony, Esq. He suspects that it’s more like 95 percent that are not in compliance with either federal or state laws on wage and hour matters.
The management landscape is littered with HR-related traps for unwary new supervisors or managers, and the stakes are too high to let them “learn by doing.” Here’s a tool to train them with minimal effort on your part and theirs. Last issue we talked about supervisors and managers who tried to be good supervisors, but […]
In response to the highly publicized corporate accounting scandals involving Enron, WorldCom and a host of other companies, President Bush recently signed into law the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, creating tougher new rules for auditing and financial disclosures at publicly traded companies and for protecting shareholders’ interests. The new law also has some serious implications—including both civil […]
This should come as no shock, but people don’t like to get fired. And when they do get fired, they look for someone else to blame. Guess who? “You fired me because I’m X (fill in the blank with the name of a protected class).”
After several years of employees being required to meet a very high standard to have their cases heard by a jury, that may be changing in the long term. The U.S. Supreme Court recently cautioned federal judges to be careful in the rules of evidence and legal standards for employment discrimination. The Court’s opinion offers […]