Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
Dealing with the scheduling headaches that can be caused by employees taking intermittent FMLA leave can be a challenge. In fact, dissatisfaction over the use (some would say abuse) of intermittent leave was identified as the “single most serious area of friction between employers and employees seeking to use FMLA leave,” according to a recent […]
Special from Chicago—SHRM Annual Conference and Exposition CFOs are often reclusive and cautious, and HR avoids them in general and knows little about them, says consultant Karl J. Ahlrichs, SPHR. But HR isn’t going to be successful without being able to sell ideas to the CFO. Why is the relationship with the CFO so important? […]
While leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act can be troublesome for any employer, it is particularly disruptive for manufacturers, call centers and health care organizations whose operations depend on fixed schedules, according to a recent ComPsych Corporation white paper. FMLA absences are on the rise, says FMLA Source, a ComPsych company, and some […]
A PowerPoint presentation can help reinforce concepts you convey during training, but the technology can also undermine your efforts—unless you avoid some common mistakes. Here are four to avoid: Don’t use too much text in your slides. If you squeeze too many words onto a slide, the audience may have trouble reading them or may […]
No-fault attendance policies may simplify the administration of attendance issues, but employers should be careful not to count absences protected by the Family and Medical Leave Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act. Otherwise, as a recent court case demonstrates, employers with such point-based progressive discipline policies risk being on the wrong side of an […]
The U.S. Department of Labor has filed a lawsuit seeking back wages and liquidated damages on behalf of a former Staples Contract and Commercial Inc. employee for alleged violations of the Family and Medical Leave Act. DOL filed suit after a Wage and Hour Division investigation found that the employer failed to notify an employee […]
Yesterday’s Advisor featured tricky PTO policy questions from Attorney Katherine Marques. Today, we present her key success factors for PTO, plus we introduce the best way to find compliance violations—before the feds do. Marques, an associate in the New York office of Holland & Knight LLP, offered her PTO tips at a recent webinar sponsored […]
We all love PTO because it’s easier to administer than separate time-off policies, but there are many issues to be clarified before your program runs smoothly and avoids lawsuits, says Attorney Katherine Marques. Unfortunately, to complicate matters, many state laws (and some city laws) cover sick time and/or vacation time, so proceed with caution, says […]
When it comes to FMLA leave tracking, how far back can an employer go before the official FMLA designation? There are several scenarios where it can easily occur that an employee has taken qualifying leave that has not been designated as FMLA leave. Some of these scenarios have simple answers, but others aren’t so simple. […]
As a result of the U.S. Supreme Court rulings on same-sex marriage, employers throughout the United States will have to adjust their benefits plans, policies and documents to accommodate employees’ same-sex spouses for purposes of federal law and regulations. California employers will need to do the same for purposes of state law. On June 26, […]