Day: July 10, 2013

When You Should NOT Negotiate and Other Expert Tips

Yesterday’s Advisor featured expert Douglas McCabe, PhD’s tips for successful negotiations. Today, more of his tips, plus an introduction to the new, affordable training system, TrainingToday®. McCabe, who is professor of management at the McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University, offered his negotiating tips at the BLR® HR Strategic Summit, held recently in Scottsdale, Arizona. […]

Chicago Sleeps Off Stanley Cup Celebration

Sporting events have been known to take a hit on companies. Some employers dread the Super Bowl, March Madness, and the World Cup. From gambling, to bandwidth issues, to increased absences, sporting events can be a serious disruption to businesses. The latest to learn this lesson—Chicago. According to CBS Chicago, the Blackhawks’ Stanley Cup victory […]

Reader’s Story: Toilet Talk or Dirty Seat? Clean It Up

Bathrooms have been the setting of many Strange but True! tales. From applicants taking telephone interviews on the toilet, to ex-employees swiping tissue paper, bathrooms bring out some bizarre behavior. This week, we’re sharing a reader’s story about how HR had to clean up a messy issue. “We had a female employee that was urinating […]

Don’t ‘Bare Arms’ in My Workplace, Warns Judge

You’ve heard of the “fashion police,” but now a judge is critiquing what attorneys wear in his courtroom. And the dress code he prefers may not be considered fashion-forward. If you watch the news or talk shows, you know that short-skirted sleeveless dresses, especially in bright colors and worn with killer heels, are what’s hot […]

Is OSHA a Defense to an ADA Discrimination Claim?

What happens when OSHA compliance gets in the way of ADA compliance? For example, what happens if an employer fires someone (with proper process and documentation, of course) for unsafe behavior, only to discover that this person had an undisclosed medical condition that was causing the behavior? The medical condition qualified as a disability, which […]

10 Bad Employer Habits for Your Compensation Strategy

10 Bad Habits for Your Compensation Strategy Ten bad compensation habits to avoid: The "peanut butter" approach. Avoid always spreading money evenly across employees. "Keeping your top employees and rewarding and nurturing them and engaging them is the opposite of the peanut butter approach. With low merit budgets, this becomes harder, but we can differentiate […]

IRS Formalizes One-year Delay in Reform’s Reporting and Penalty Rules for Employers

An official announcement on transition relief for employers from information reporting requirements under health care reform, as well as on the delay of key provisions of the employer play-or-pay mandate, was issued July 9 in Notice 2013-45 from the U.S. Department of the Treasury and IRS. In unofficial announcements last week on the White House and U.S. […]

What Changes Lie Ahead in Business Skills Training?

“Skills Mismatch: Business Acumen and Strategy Execution” studies the relationship between business skills and organizations’ ability to execute strategy, the critical skills needed at different levels of leadership, and trends in business skills development through 2018. The survey, which is based on responses from more than 300 senior corporate leaders, was conducted by The Economist […]

DOL Sues Staples for Alleged FMLA Violations

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 […]

Discretionary Versus Non-Discretionary Incentive Pay and Bonuses

As we all know, the FLSA requires us to pay overtime pay when it is due, and the base pay rate must include all payments for that time period in question—including incentive pay and bonuses paid during that time. But is that always the case? Actually, the answer is no. It’s true that most incentive […]