Month: November 2010

How Current Are Your Job Descriptions?

As the economy picks up steam and hiring activity increases, it’s particularly important for employers to take the time to update their organizations’ job descriptions. “I’ve never run into anyone who likes writing job descriptions,” says Martin Simon, legal editor at HR.BLR.com (which is run by ERI’s parent company). “But these tools, sometimes called position […]

Supervisors Are Scared of Discipline—How to Help

Supervisors don’t like confrontation, says Dennis A. Davis, Ph.D. Fortunately, there are ways to help your supervisors dispense discipline without creating tension for them or problems for you. Davis is the director of client training for the national law firm of Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, P.C. His remarks came during a recent audio […]

Who’s Working for You – And In What Capacity?

Yesterday, we reviewed the first 5 factors of the “Borello test,” which California courts use to determine whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor (click here for yesterday’s issue). Today, we’ll look at the remaining 6 factors and tell you about a wage/hour resource you won’t want to be without. 

Employees Fired for Facebook Postings

By Maria Giagilitsis It’s becoming more and more clear that an employee’s use of social networking websites such as Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace may lead to justifiable discipline by an employer. On October 22, 2010, the British Columbia Labour Relations Board released its decision in West Coast Mazda (d.b.a. West Coast Detail & Accessory Centre) […]

Accommodating Mental Illness

By Alix Herber and Hadiya Roderique In Canada, employers have a duty to accommodate individuals suffering from a disability to the level of undue hardship. In the case of an employee with a physical disability, it often can be relatively straightforward to identify accommodations that can be implemented. In contrast, the accommodation of mental illness […]

Subject: Employee Referral Programs—Win-Win for Employees, HR

In yesterday’s Advisor, we covered ROI and best practices for employee referral programs. Today, more on making such programs successful, and an introduction to the unique one-stop HR solutions center, HR.BLR.com. Today’s tips come from human capital solutions company CareerBuilder® and it’s recent publication, Referral Madness—How Employee referral Programs Turn Good Employees into Great Recruiters […]

Amazon Editors’ Best Business Books of 2010

The editors at Amazon have picked their favorite business and investing books for 2010. Here are the top 10. 1. The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis. The sequel to #1 best-selling Liar’s Poker examines the issue of who understood the risk inherent in the assumption of ever-rising real estate prices, a […]

2010 Elections — a Game Changer in Congress

by David S. Fortney and J. Robert Brame Editors, Federal Employment Law Insider The historic 2010 elections for the 112th Congress will significantly alter how Washington operates. The Republicans gained more seats than during any election since 1948, and we now move forward with a politically divided government following two years of Democratic control of […]

Employee or Independent Contractor?

Under the wage orders, “to employ” means to “engage, suffer, or permit” someone to work for you. Sound confusing? It can be. The simplest approach is to assume that any person who does work for you that is part of your company’s business (who does some part of the work necessary to make the goods […]

Disability Etiquette: A Primer

The Disability Access Office in San Antonio, Texas, has published The Disability Etiquette Handbook. The handbook, which is on the web, covers a variety of issues. We thought we’d give you a sample. Reception Etiquette Greeting someone with a disability often makes a person without a disability awkward and uncomfortable. That doesn’t make you a […]