Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
By Kyle Emshwiller If you’ve worked long enough, you’re bound to have a few strange but true stories about the workplace. From outrageous interviews to shocking coworker behavior to audacious exits, we’ve heard many over the years. Here are a few readers’ stories: Bathrooms—We were surprised to see how many readers had strange workplace tales […]
by Mark I. Schickman Too often, the workplace is viewed as a zero-sum game ― a win for an employee or loss for the boss, every savings for the company obtained from an employee concession. The political parties are playing it the same way; either employers pay more or workers get less ― nobody suggests […]
Market pricing is critical for most every organization, says consultant Michael Strand. Without it, you’re likely to underpay (and lose your best workers) or overpay (and lose your profitability). Strand, owner of consultancy HR Dynamics Inc., offered his seven steps to successful market pricing at a recent webinar hosted by BLR/HRhero. 1. Identify Positions to […]
By Kyle Emshwiller A 110-year-old woman had been receiving a $36 monthly pension for her husband’s military service. Her husband, a WWI veteran, had died in the 1970s. The woman’s son told NBC News that he applied for a higher veteran survivor benefit amount in 2008. Earlier this year, with the help of a state […]
As an employer, you might think that there’s a clear difference between taking part in casual conversations with your employees versus receiving notice of an impending FMLA leave. After all, dropping hints in the lunchroom about ailing parents, sick kids or personal health issues doesn’t qualify these days as giving official leave notification, does it? […]
A company owner and another manager are not fiduciaries as defined by ERISA and the contributions they failed to make to their employees’ pension plans were not plan assets, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled. This decision supports the premise that individual company officials who serve only as conduits for employees’ payments to […]
The standard industry fare level rates that employers will use to calculate the value of trips taken aboard company aircraft during the second half of 2012 were issued Aug. 14 by the U.S. Department of Transportation. The rates have increased about 4 ½ percent from those that were in effect for the first half of […]
Employee documentation can be HR’s secret weapon. It can be used as part of a defense strategy should you ever be faced with a discrimination or retaliation lawsuit, for example. Any labor and employment attorney will tell you that one of the keys to being able to defend—or even prevent—litigation rests in sound HR documentation […]
Woods is a shareholder in the Greenville, South Carolina office of law firm Ogletree Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, PC. His remarks came at BLR®’s annual National Employment Law Update. Employer’s Failure Allows FMLA Claim To Go Forward The Story: A newspaper receptionist, who was allegedly fired for violation of her employer’s attendance policy, had […]
Yesterday, we looked at a case involving an employee who claimed to want to return to work but submitted a note from his doctor stating that he was “totally incapacitated.” Today, the conclusion of the case, courtesy of attorney Nancy N. Lubrano of the Irvine office of Carothers DiSante & Freudenberger LLP.