Category: HR Management & Compliance

There are dozens of details to take care of in the day-to-day operation of your department and your company. We give you case studies, news updates, best practices and training tips that keep your organization fully in compliance with ever-changing employment law, and you fully aware of emerging HR trends.

Survey Says: 21% of Companies Are Litigation Free!

Unfortunately, the headline also means that 79% of companies did experience new litigation last year, according to a survey by the law firm Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P. Here are top findings of interest to HR managers. Fulbright’s Fifth Annual Litigation Trends Survey, billed as the “largest canvas of corporate counsel on litigation and trends,” garnered […]

It’s Called Managing, Not Mangling

In yesterday’s Advisor the “boss whisperer” helped managers get information from subordinates. Today, her tips on how to approach the abrasive manager. The boss whisperer is executive coach Dr. Laura Crawshaw. These tips are from her book, Taming the Abrasive Manager: How to End Unnecessary Roughness in the Workplace. When you present the facts, the […]

Hot List: BusinessWeek’s Best Seller List

BusinessWeek magazine ranks the 15 best selling hardcover and paperback business books in April 2009 and  gives a short summary. 1. Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell. As you’d expect with Gladwell, there are lots of surprises in his explanation of why some people succeed fantastically. Pluck and smarts get less play here […]

Boss Whisperer Tames Abrasive Bosses

You know of the Horse Whisperer, and maybe the Dog Whisperer? Now we’ve got the self-proclaimed boss whisperer—executive coach Dr. Laura Crawshaw. Here are some tips from her book, Taming the Abrasive Manager: How to End Unnecessary Roughness in the Workplace. Crawshaw starts by identifying the five primary behavioral characteristics of abrasive bosses. How many […]

Oh, How I Love a Good Off-Site Meeting

By BLR Founder and CEO Bob Brady Business meetings and business travel have been getting a lot of bad press the last few months, led by the poster child for bad PR, the much-maligned, beaten-and-battered insurance giant, AIG. But BLR’s CEO Bob Brady finds value in getting off-site. Faced with tough economic times, BLR has […]

IRS Issues New COBRA Guidance for Employers

Update Dec. 16: House Passes COBRA Subsidy Extension and Expansion The IRS has issued guidance on the COBRA premium assistance or subsidy provisions of the economic stimulus bill recently passed in Congress. Under the provisions, eligible employees who were involuntarily terminated from their jobs between September 1, 2008, and December 31, 2009, and their qualified […]

Our Telecommuters Are at Work—Or Are They?

Telecommuting allows employees to work part or all of their standard workweek from a remote location, “seamlessly commuting” by e-mail, cell phones, and virtual private networks. (Editor’s note: It’s not always “seamless.”) Telecommuting has evolved from being a convenience to a business strategy to a business necessity. With the high cost of commuting for employees, […]

WAHOO Wins Kudos for HR Department

WAHOO—Work At Home Office Opportunity—is just one example of employee-centered thinking that has helped Mitchell International achieve success. Today’s Advisor looks at how they do it. With an HR mission statement that says, “…we exist to support the organization in achieving its strategic objectives and to ensure that we continue to attract, motivate, and retain […]

EEOC Violated the FLSA? Oops

An arbitrator has ruled that the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) practice of giving comp time to employees who worked extra hours didn’t meet the requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The ruling stems from a 2006 grievance protesting the EEOC’s reclassification of certain investigators and mediators as exempt from overtime under […]