Month: November 2009

Recognition: The Secret to Retaining Top Employees

How much does employee turnover cost American business each year? According to the DOL, about $5 trillion, says Mike Byam, author of The WOW! Workplace. Fortunately, he adds, effective recognition strategies can help keep turnover at bay. Byam, who is managing partner at the employee recognition firm The Terryberry Company, offers eight keys to successful […]

House Health Reform Bill’s Impact on Employers

Update Dec. 16: COBRA Subsidy Extension Provisions Likely to Be Enacted As Part of DOD Appropriations Act By Ashley Gillihan and John Hickman Last week Nancy Pelosi (D-California), the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, released a 1,990-page health care reform bill called the Affordable Health Care for America Act. The bill is a […]

Top 5 Employee Recognition Myths

The biggest obstacle to building an effective employee recognition strategy is false assumptions, says Mike Byam, managing partner of the Terryberry Company, an employee recognition firm. His five myths appear in his new book, The WOW! Workplace. Myth #1. "They’ll Think I’m a Softie’ Byam’s first myth is that if you go out of your […]

Employers Need Understanding of Canadian Work Permits

By Lesli Sheinberg and Isabelle Dongier When do foreign workers need to obtain a Canadian work permit? The rules often are misunderstood, and that misunderstanding can lead to complicated situations for employers and foreign workers. Sometimes the workers learn of the work permit requirement only upon arrival in Canada, and that can result in many […]

How to Halt ‘Pattern Absence’ Abuse Under FMLA

Once employees are certified for intermittent FMLA, the Monday-Friday absence pattern begins, and there’s nothing you can do, right? Not so, says HR Manager Barbara Dahlen. Yesterday’s Advisor featured Dahlen’s tips for managing intermittent leave abuse. Today, she tackles pattern absences. Dahlen, who manages HR at Bellefontaine Habilitation Center in St. Louis, asked her audience […]

Hot List: Bestselling “Business Motivation” books on Amazon.com

Amazon.com updates its list of the bestselling books every hour. Here is a snapshot of what is hot right now, this Monday morning, November 2, in the “Business Motivation” section of the “Business and Investing” category. 1. Presenting to Win: The Art of Telling Your Story, Updated and Expanded Edition by Jerry Weissman. Teaches presenters […]

‘I’ve Learned How to Manage Intermittent Leave Abuse’

Has anybody out there had problems with intermittent leave? HR manager Barbara Dahlen asked. Her audience’s response at the recent SHRM Annual Convention and Exposition in New Orleans was loud and long. “Oh, yes!” It took her a couple of years to figure things out, she says. “You can’t fix intermittent [leave] abuse overnight. But […]