Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
A colleague recently suggested I read the book, The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t. Maybe I should have asked what his motives were in suggesting that I read this particular book. I didn’t. Some things you just don’t want to know! The book was a New York Times […]
The federal government seems to be fishing around for evidence showing that self-insured health health plans will siphon off healthy lives from state-run insurance exchanges (a cornerstone of reform). On April 26, the U.S. Departments of Labor (DOL), Health and Human Services (HHS) and IRS/Treasury issued a set of questions about the use of stop-loss […]
Yesterday’s Advisor featured the Four Ms of setting good appraisal goals; today, legal pitfalls in appraisals, plus an introduction to a unique leadership training system. Because poor performance is often advanced as the reason for a termination, the performance appraisal system is often the crux of the defense against a wrongful termination suit. Here’s how […]
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has released new guidance related to employers’ use of applicant and employee arrest and conviction information. The new guidance, approved in a 4-1 vote during a meeting on April 25, includes information on how an employer’s use of an individual’s criminal history in making employment decisions could violate the […]
With individual employee claims snowballing into mountainous class actions more and more frequently, it’s no surprise that employers are increasingly requiring mandatory arbitration of employment-related disputes.
By Kevin O’Neill On April 5, 2012, the Supreme Court of Canada said it would hear IBM’s appeal from the British Columbia Court of Appeal’s 2011 decision in Waterman v. IBM Canada Ltd. This important case will likely allow the Supreme Court to re-examine damages principles arising in a wrongful dismissal action. The case raises […]
Ridiculous as it sounds, “they never told me” is a standard defense in employment lawsuits. It plays to the jury’s sense of fairness, and it plays pretty well. ‘Surely They Know What I Want’ Managers and supervisors don’t like confronting their employees about performance problems so they tend to assume that employees are aware that […]
Here are three more of Erdle’s six compensation mistakes. (Erdle is founder of Erdle Compensation Consulting, www.erdleconsulting.net.) [Go here for mistakes 1, 2, and 3] 4. Rewarding Hard Work Typically, you’re not trying to reward hard work, Erdle says; you’re trying to reward an outcome. The reason? Employees can work hard and still not get […]
He typically finds that some employees are paid too little (and likely to jump ship at the first opportunity) while others—whose specialties were desperately needed—make more than they should (and that’s robbing profits). To make matters worse, he says, no one knows which is which. Here are six of the most common compensation mistakes Erdle […]
Beginning in 2014, employers that sponsor health plans will have to watch closely if any employees qualify for a premium tax credit, triggered whenever the employer-sponsored coverage is unaffordable, or does not provide minimum value. On April 26, the IRS requested comments on how to determine whether a health plan provides “minimum value.” It did […]