Tag: BLR

Karma in the C-Suite: What Goes Around …

Oswald, CEO of BLR, offered his thoughts on karma and leadership in a recent edition of The Oswald Letter. Here’s what he said: “Have the courage to say no. Have the courage to face the truth. Do the right thing because it is right. These are the magic keys to living your life with integrity.” […]

Why Employee Engagement Matters

Employee engagement is very important in ensuring transfer and retention of knowledge. That’s because employee engagement: Drives customer loyalty, which creates business profitability; Aligns the goals and concerns of the employee base with those of the organization; Makes use of discretionary time; and Transforms “just a job” into an important part of the individual’s personal […]

℞ for Your PBM: ‘Here’s what we’re willing to pay …’

Haas, who is vice president of Wells Fargo Pharmacy Consulting, spoke to BLR about the problem of generic drug pricing. To attack the problem, Haas and his team at Wells Fargo created a unique procurement strategy. “About 4 years ago, we listed every generic drug—and there are about 2,750 of them—by their specific identifying codes. […]

Play or Pay? IRS issues Q&A on ACA

In the case of most employers, these requirements will be simple to implement, Simon says. But in the case of employers that are on the borderline of being covered or on the borderline of providing minimum essential and affordable healthcare coverage, the requirements can become very technical. Some of the questions and answers are presented […]

FUN with One: Effective Safety Training for a Safety Department of One

Effective and fun safety training is possible even for the safety director of a small company, who manages to deliver quality, cost-effective training that lives up to his company’s slogan “Safety Always.” For Jerry McGlynn, safety director for McWilliams Electric Co., bringing training in-house was a strategic decision. The family-owned business of about 90 employees […]

Flex Report: Innovations, Impacts, and Challenges

Who Has Access to Flex Options? In the financial services companies questioned, professional-level and non-exempt staff usually have access to the same array of both regular flexible work arrangements (including flextime, telework, compressed workweeks, and part time) and occasional flexibility (shifting work hours on a daily basis or just occasionally, occasional work at home, and […]

Don’t Overlook Introverts in Your Training Prospects

Lawyer-turned-author Susan Cain admits she’s an introvert and has encountered some challenges because of it. But she firmly believes that introverts have important contributions to make to U.S. business that employers usually aren’t aware of. That’s because employers have been trained, says Cain, to seek out extroverts. Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World […]

You Could Get Sued for Lack of Adequate Training

In the case of Freitick v. SMS Rail Lines, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania had to determine whether the company was negligent and, if so, whether negligence caused the employee’s injuries. In addition, the court had to decide whether the employee knew before the accident that he was required to […]

Could You Get Sued for Not Providing Adequate Training?

A worker, who was not wearing work gloves when he was injured, sued his employer, claiming that the employer did not instruct him that wearing leather gloves was a mandatory safety precaution. The employee started working for SMS Rail Lines in February 2006 as a boom truck operator and railroad track laborer. As required, he […]

Have You Been Trained to Seek Out Extroverts?

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking is Cain’s most recent book (Crown, 2012). In it, she describes the rise of extroverts, in what she calls “the culture of personality.” She refers to earlier examples, like Dale Carnegie, but her most compelling example is the Harvard Business School (HBS), where, […]