Day: August 1, 2014

Variable Pay—What’s Working? What’s Not?

Variable pay. Pay for performance. Simple concepts but difficult in practice. What’s happening in the real world? What are your competitors up to? Help us find out! Please participate in our brief survey and see how what you are doing stacks up against what other successful companies are doing. We’ll get answers to these questions […]

Employer Faces State-law Claims After False Promise Causes Beneficiary to Skip COBRA Coverage

A former employee left with more than $13,000 in unpaid medical bills after his employer retroactively terminated his employment and health benefits can sue for state-law claims, a federal district court ruled. The individual alleged that while he was hospitalized, the employer said his expenses would be covered. Thus, he did not elect COBRA coverage. […]

Executive Order creates new compliance requirements for federal contractors

On July 31, President Barack Obama signed an Executive Order “to promote economy and efficiency in procurement by contracting with responsible sources who comply with labor laws.” The order will apply to new government contracts worth more than $500,000, and according to a White House fact sheet, it will be “implemented on new contracts in […]

Edginess About Ebola Points to Need for Pandemic Preparation

An outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in Africa is causing concern in the United States, as the medical community and various organizations watch to see if the outbreak will be contained, or will spread globally. Although this situation is occurring thousands of miles away, it is a good reminder for businesses in the United […]

Variable Pay—What’s Working? What’s Not?

Please participate in our brief survey and see how what you are doing stacks up against what other successful companies are doing. We’ll get answers to these questions and more: Who’s providing what incentive pay types for which employee groups? How effective is each type of variable pay at motivating employees? What are the three […]

Give Your Training a Helping Hand

Trainers might inadvertently send the wrong message based on their “hand behaviors” (i.e., how they hold their hands and what they do with them during training), says Guila Muir, a trainer of trainers, facilitators, and presenters and author of Instructional Design that Soars: Shaping What You Know into Classes that Inspire (www.guilamuir.com/kite-book). “The good news […]

Project management: HR’s guide to getting the job done

The human resources department can take a lesson from Benjamin Franklin. It was that bespectacled founding father who is credited with uttering a famous quote that should be the guide for HR professionals embarking on any new project. “When you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”  Cara Parker, owner of CParker Consulting, Inc., a […]