Tag: Compensation

Crusade to Eliminate Base Pay Merit Increase

Special from Atlanta–SHRM Annual Conference and Exhibition “I’m on a worldwide crusade to abolish merit increase base pay systems,” says consultant John Rubino. “They are demotivational.” Rubino, who is founder and president of Rubino Consulting Services in Pound Ridge, New York, offered his suggestions at the 64th SHRM Annual Conference and Exhibition, going on this […]

Could Comp Audit Be Damaging Exhibit #1 in Court?

And the second rule of auditing: Be sure that management is willing to make corrections if infractions are found. If your own audit shows failure to comply, and especially if you haven’t taken steps since the audit to correct the situation, your audit can quickly turn from a helpful tool to a damaging exhibit in […]

Audits: Only Surefire Way to Root Out Problems

In yesterday’s Advisor, we covered audit areas for compensation and preemployment issues. Today, we’ll look at employment and termination issues, and we’ll introduce a unique checklist-based audit system. Job descriptions. For all positions, you should have up-to-date job descriptions that accurately reflect the job duties. Make sure that the job descriptions identify all essential functions […]

Bell Curve, or Everyone’s Excellent?

Oswald, CEO of BLR, offered his thoughts on performance evaluations and bell curves in a recent edition of The Oswald Letter. Here’s my colleague’s point, Oswald continues. Our performance evaluation system includes ratings of outstanding, exceeds expectations, meets expectations, needs improvement, and unsatisfactory. As a company, we expect the distribution of the appraisals to be […]

Head-in-the-Sand Management, Dead-in-the-Water Defense

A Cautionary Tale—How Many Zeros? One juror explained the simple system his jury had used to determine the amount of punitive damages they would award: they started with one dollar, and added a zero for each thing they thought the employer had done wrong. The total added up pretty fast. How do employers get into […]

What Can Be Excluded from the ‘Regular Rate’?

Yesterday’s Advisor discussed types of compensation that must be included in the “regular rate” and the subsequent recalculation of overtime that must be done. Today, the five types of compensation that generally do not have to be included in when calculating the “regular rate” of pay, plus news of a timely webinar on pay practices. […]

Disasters: Payroll, Benefits, and Alternative Worksites

Exempt Employees and Disasters Exempt employees are generally paid their normal amount if the workday is shortened. Docking, or reducing pay of exempt employees who are scheduled to work, but who do not because of an emergency, may affect the employees’ status of being exempt from overtime, because, by docking, you are treating them like […]

Can You Pay Different Hourly Rates for Different Work? (Sure, but …)

Employees who do two different types of tasks may be paid different hourly rates during the workweek. Or, an employee may work in two or more different positions during the same workweek at different rates of pay. But how do you calculate the overtime? The general rule is that all hours worked in all positions […]

What Does it Take to Be Successful? Ask an Expert

Oswald, CEO of BLR, offered his thoughts on business success in a recent edition of The Oswald Letter. If you want to learn how to throw a great curve ball, Oswald continues, ask someone who throws a wicked curve ball. If you want to know how to bake the perfect chocolate cake, talk to the […]

Hurricanes, Tornados, and Wildfires: Who Gets Paid When You Close?

If a company opens two hours late because of a snowstorm, should an employer pay employees who show up earlier because they didn’t hear the announcement? What time does the workday end when employees are given the option to go home because an incident such as a gas leak forces evacuation of the building? What […]