Month: April 2013

Social Media Octopus—The 8 Tentacles That Can Grab You Unawares

Attorney Trainor is BLR’s Senior Managing Editor, HR; Bruce is editor of the HR Daily Advisor. Tentacle #1—Sourcing and Recruiting with Social Media It’s clear that social media is rising as a method of recruiting, and some employers are enjoying great success. However, when you use only one source for finding candidates, there’s always the […]

Promos, but no privacy…

Litigation Value: Unknown Last night’s episode of The Office gave the characters their first glimpse into their upcoming documentary. Surprisingly, this seems to be the first time any of them contemplated that the world (literally) will be able to see their personal and professional antics that have entertained all of us for the past 10 […]

Training and Development in 2013–What’s Really Happening?

Training and development are the drivers of retention and engagement—key HR priorities for 2013. What’s happening with training and development in the real world? What are your competitors up to? Help us find out! Please participate in our brief survey and see how what you are doing stacks up against what other successful companies are […]

Applicants seeking answers: What’s an employer’s obligation to job seekers?

by Tammy Binford The tough job market of recent years has brought employers a flood of resumes and applications. The volume can be overwhelming in the HR office, but behind all those appeals for employment are real people—usually anxious and sometimes desperate people—who crave information about where they stand in the process and when a […]

BLR’s 2013 perks survey results

From health insurance to stock options to paid vacation, employees love perks. They can help in efforts to recruit the best applicants as well as retaining and engaging your top performers. Recently, BLR surveyed 1,493 HR professionals about the types of perks they offer employees. Paid holidays is the number one perk provided by the […]

Congress Sees Self-funded Health Plans’ Financial Strength

Companies that self-fund health benefits are larger than companies that fully insure health benefits and their solvency is just as good as companies that fully insure, a government report required by the health reform law indicates. The reform law requires reports on the prevalence, solvency and quality of self-funded plans, with the stated goal of […]

Fiduciaries Cited for Overreliance on Investment Consultant Advice

Fiduciaries of 401(k) plans were reminded by a recent court decision that it’s best not to accept financial consultants’ investment advice for a retirement plan’s assets without careful scrutiny. At the same time the case, which raised other issues important to managing defined contribution plans, resulted in several rulings in the plan sponsor’s favor. Facts […]

First Rule of Safety: Know Your Job

Knowing how to perform a job properly includes knowing how to do it safely. To protect themselves and their coworkers, new employees have to get to know their jobs inside out. In fact, OSHA requires it. The General Duty Clause says that employees must “comply with occupational safety and health standards” and all OSHA rules […]

Can Employees Agree to Waive Overtime?

Yesterday’s Advisor reviewed how to calculate the “regular rate” of pay. Today, can you waive overtime rights, plus an introduction to BLR’s unique 10-minutes-at-a-time training system. Here are some little-known facts about overtime. Actually, it’s not so much that they are little known as oft ignored. Agreements to Waive Overtime Barred Employees may neither waive […]