Month: January 2011

Accommodation Doesn’t Prevent Corporate Reorganization

By Jennifer Shepherd and Gulu Punia It’s a common question. A Canadian employer is restructuring and an absent employee is affected. Can the employer fire the employee if he or she is on disability or other leave? A recent Federal Court of Canada decision, Tutty v. MTS Allstream Inc., has confirmed that the answer is […]

Go Undercover to Find Out What’s Really Happening in HR

In yesterday’s Advisor, we introduced the Undercover HR Boss. Today, more of what we think you’ll find if you go undercover, plus an introduction to the extraordinary one-stop website, HR.BLR.com. ‘Punch out and then finish up, OK?’ Wage/hour management seems easy but it often is not. As one expert says, “No company is 100 percent […]

Give Yourself Time

A bystander watched as a young commuter put on a last minute spurt but still missed the train. “If you’d run just a bit faster, you’d have caught it,” the observer sympathized. “No,” the young man gasped. “It wasn’t a case of running faster, but starting sooner!” People who don’t allow themselves extra time to […]

Serving Internal Customers

There is no doubt that a strong service strategy is important to the success of any business. Most organizations believe that employees deliver excellent customer service. But a good service strategy begins with good service to internal customers—your fellow workers in other departments. To begin planning—and training—for excellent service, it is important to understand what […]

Avoid Dangerous Terminations

According to the Society for Human Resource Management, 16 percent of all workplace violence is a result of firings. Employers who are adept at preventing such incidents know that steps must be taken long before the termination occurs. In other words, a firing should never be a surprise to the employee. A regular performance review […]

The Checklist Manifesto

I had been thinking recently about the importance of a good “to do” list, so when I stumbled upon the Atul Gawande’s book The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right. I decided it was fate and bought a copy. Now I must admit, I had not heard anything about the book despite the fact […]

In Praise of Checklists

This week, instead of posting on his own blog, Dan wrote a book review of The Checklist Manifesto for the Resources for Humans blog.  Here’s an excerpt. “I had been thinking recently about the importance of a good “to do” list, so when I stumbled upon the Atul Gawande’s book The Checklist Manifesto: How to […]

Undercover HR Boss—What Will You Find?

Most HR managers can’t go undercover like the “Undercover Bosses” on television (people are likely to recognize the person that hired them), but that doesn’t mean you can’t do a little thinking about what you’ll find. Here’s what we think you’d discover in a week undercover: Unaware Managers You’ll probably find a lot of supervisors […]

It’s All Greek to Me

Litigation Value: No immediate employment law liability. Under the applicable statute of limitations in Pennsylvania, however, Andy’s seminar invitees would have up to two years in which to claim personal (digestive) injury caused by Kevin’s “off the rails” motivational display. The Scranton Business Park was a busy place last night, with a number of visitors spending time […]

Health Insurance and Health Care Reform Survey Results Are In

Each year, HR Hero surveys readers about your organizations’ benefits packages. Because 2010’s health care reform laws created sweeping changes in how businesses offer health insurance to workers, this year our January survey focused only on health insurance and health care reform. According to the survey, an overwhelming majority (96.46%) of you work for organizations […]