Month: March 2013

EEOC Takes Aggressive Pill from NLRB

We’ve been writing about a newly aggressive NLRB, and now here comes the EEOC. EEOC.gov’s home page now features lawsuit summaries that close with an appeal for wronged applicants or employees to contact the agency and, presumably, join the class of litigants. Here are three typical pleas from eeoc.gov: Texas Roadhouse Litigation “The EEOC has […]

What’s Your (Workplace) Sign?

Think back to the last project you worked on. Now picture your team members. More than likely, your coworkers had different work styles. The question is: How can teams use different workplace personalities to help, not hurt, the collaboration process? An infographic by Mindjet®, a work management software firm, goes beyond the typical “Type A” […]

Are Chimps Better at Teamwork Than Your Employees?

As your managers ponder how to get often uncooperative employees to form productive teams, new research shows that it’s not their management style that’s to blame. It’s that the workers are humans. Research shows that chimps often show better teamwork! A series of trials by scientists found that chimpanzees not only coordinate actions with each […]

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March Madness ‘Office Pool’ for Laid-Off Workers Lets Them Join in Fun

While laid-off workers really miss their paychecks and benefits, downsized employees are down about something else this time of year—missing the March Madness office pool.. However, outplacement solutions provider RiseSmart® is busy collecting brackets of participants in its second “RiseSmart Challenge,” an alternative program that serves as a fun way to help unemployed workers take […]

Employee depression and work accommodation Q&A

Dealing effectively with employees who have depression and work restrictions can be challenging. This is especially true when the doctor’s note implies that an accommodation is needed that seems unreasonable. What can an employer do? In a recent CER webinar, Patricia Eyres gave us some guidance on how employers can react in these situations. Here […]

SMART Goal-Setting—Key to Pay for Performance

Making Sense of Goals and Objectives Neelman offers the following suggestions for making goals and objectives truly helpful: Make performance management an important aspect of a manager’s evaluation. Limit evaluations to critical goals that employees can impact. Three to five goals is usually most appropriate. No more. Goals should enhance the employee’s performance in his […]

Super Safety Training Sessions Part 2: Techniques

To liven up that safety meeting, remember this refrain: Personalize, relate, repeat, rephrase, and for goodness sakes, be enthusiastic! “How do I make my safety training meetings more effective and memorable?” That’s the question our training experts get repeatedly. Yesterday, we began to answer it, using guidance provided in the BLR® program, Safety Meeting Repros, […]

Where’s the Public’s Breaking Point on Exec Pay?

Shareholders are voicing their disapproval over excessive executive pay. HR managers need to know the public’s “breaking point” for each pay element, says consultant Kurt Fichthorn. Fichthorn, who is vice president in the Philadelphia office of the Hay Group, offers the following chart to clarify what employers want and how it compares to what the […]

H-1B visa deadline looms

by Elaine Young Employers wanting to hire foreign workers through the H-1B visa program need to be ready to file petitions with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) on April 1. U.S. businesses use the H-1B program to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise in specialized fields. The first […]

Colorado civil union law means change for employers

The Colorado Civil Union Act, which takes effect May 1, requires changes in employer-provided insurance plans and makes changes to the state’s workers’ compensation law. Effective for plans issued, delivered, or renewed on or after January 1, 2014, a party to a civil union may cover his or her partner as a dependent. Employers providing […]