Month: October 2009

Comp Decisions Are Urgent, but Take Your Time

Many companies are making major decisions about their compensation programs without even running their plans by HR, says Attorney Lisa Van Fleet. You can’t let the financial people make those decisions, she adds. Yesterday’s Advisor featured Van Fleet’s advice for dealing with deferred compensation changes. Today we’ll get her specific recommendations about compensation decisions, and […]

Reducing Deferred Compensation? Careful …

 “Every day,” says attorney Lisa Van Fleet, “we get asked things like, ‘How can we eliminate our match? What if we change our benefits program midyear? How do we manage a reduction in force? How do we put together severance pay packages?’” Times have changed for every company. Since the economic downturn, not surprisingly, most […]

Excellence Not Perfection

The other day a friend of mine suggested I type “excellence vs. perfection” into the Google search box and see what came up. When I got back to my office, I did exactly as he had suggested. The very top organic search result was a link to the site www.boodrow.com/boodrow4/perfection.htm, which had a list that […]

Addressing Employees’ Religious Beliefs and Practices in the Workplace

by Brian R. Garrison Most employers know that federal and state civil rights laws prevent them from discriminating against employees on the basis of their religious beliefs and practices. But when you hear the phrase “reasonable accommodation,” you usually think of your duty under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to accommodate an employee with a […]

Breastfeeding Employee Entitled to Equal, Not Preferential, Treatment

The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans recently addressed a case in which the employee alleged violations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA). The dispute arose when the employee claimed she was given insufficient break time to express breast milk following the […]

Document Employee Behavior Today to Avoid Lawsuits Tomorrow

by Eric B. Topel Charles “Slip” Shod has been employed by your company for more than two years, during which time you have received repeated complaints from vendors about his performance. In your capacity as a member of human resources, you begin reviewing the other matters on which Slip has been working and determine that […]

Might Doesn’t Make Right, Dwight

This week’s episode — “The Promotion” — had nothing to do with advancement in the workplace. In fact, the only thing it promoted was how to get fired. When the episode ended, I identified five Scranton employees whom David Wallace should discharge if he wants to minimize potential liability: Dwight. He opened the episode fantasizing about placing Jim […]

Simple Rewards Program Yields 48% Drop in Absenteeism

Just My E-pinionBy Nicole Capehart, HR Manager, American Realcorp Use short-term rewards to reap long-term benefits, says HR manager Nicole Capehart. She has achieved a 48% drop in absenteeism for essentially the cost of a few dozen donuts. Fresh out of college with my new degree in hand, I took my first HR job, ready […]