Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
It sounds like a trick question. Guess whose employees are growing a garden? It just couldn’t be, but it is—the workers at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)! Agency employees across the country are growing gardens and distributing the harvest to food banks and shelters. “USDA created the People’s Garden Initiative 3 years ago, and […]
We hear a lot in the news these days about the historically low unemployment rate, but one figure we don’t hear about nearly as much is the labor force participation rate—the ratio between the size of the labor force and the size of the overall population for that age group, often grouped by cohort (i.e., […]
A jury in Manhattan, New York, has awarded $11.2 million to the former general manager of Leona Helmsley’s luxury Park Lane Hotel. The worker claimed he was fired because his is gay. Former manager Charles Bell charged that Helmsley embarked on a campaign of harassment against him—and ultimately discharged him after just four months on […]
The following is a list of the bestselling hardcover business books as ranked by the New York Times on February 8. 1. Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell. hy some people succeed — it has to do with luck and opportunities as well as talent — from the author of Blink: The Power […]
Amazon.com updates its list of bestselling business books hourly. Here is a snapshot of what books were hot this morning — Monday, November 26. 1. Personal History by Katharine Graham. This candid and insightful autobiography tells the story of Katharine Graham’s personal struggles as a daughter, wife and mother and her professional triumphs as she […]
To avoid FLSA trouble, be careful of misclassifying employees, making improper deductions, denying breaks, and allowing nonexempts to work “off the clock.” Dell Computers built its success on operating numerous call centers, where customers could phone in and buy their systems direct from the manufacturer. Now the way Dell runs those centers is under attack. […]
Single and family premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance rose an average of 4% in 2015, according to the recently released Kaiser Family Foundation/Health Research & Educational Trust (HRET) 2015 Employer Health Benefits Survey.
Last year, a computer hacker broke into the Rancho Cordova-based Stephen P. Teale Data Center, a California personnel database. The hacker gained access to the names, Social Security numbers, and payroll information of over 200,000 state government employees. Unfortunately, this wasn’t an isolated occurrence—identity theft incidents are making the headlines almost daily.
Get ready now for an aggressive NLRB; meanwhile, get your ADA house in order, say panelists at BLR’s Advanced Employment Issues Symposium (AEIS). Good news? It’s not too late to act.
Defending against an employee’s claim for overtime that you didn’t even know they had worked can be frustrating and expensive. And if you lose, you could be on the hook for up to three years of back overtime plus penalties. We’ll review a recent case involving a Fresno employer who managed to win this type […]