Month: September 2014

Michigan Governor Celebrates Labor Day with Unusual Worker

In his Labor Day remarks, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder said, “Let’s also look to the future and commit to prepare the talent of tomorrow.” Was he referring to a very unusual “worker” who was with him as he led 30,000 state residents in walking across the famous Mackinac Bridge on the holiday?

Colorado employers have new official employment verification form

Colorado employers now have an official form from the state Division of Labor that should be used to verify that all employees hired after October 1 are legally eligible for employment. Colorado law already requires all public and private employers to verify and document the legal employment status of all employees hired after January 1, […]

Diversity—It’s Hard to Achieve More Than Lip Service

Achieving workplace diversity isn’t easy—even for global powerhouses like Google. “We’re not where we want to be when it comes to diversity,” Google observes in a January 2014 demographic report, which reveals that 70% of Google’s employees are male and 61% are white.

Do You Know What Your OSHA Training Requirements Are?

For the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the most important goal of occupational safety and health training is the long-term reduction of injury and illness among workers. The immediate effectiveness of training is measured through inspections, test scores, surveys, and observing how workers demonstrate the task they have learned. Long-term effectiveness is measured by […]

Robots to Take Over Fast-Food Industry

Next time you’re at McDonald’s®, it may be a robot asking you if you want fries with your order. As the war on minimum wage rages on, fast-food companies are looking for cheaper ways to deliver service. Instead of driving up the cost of a double cheeseburger to help pay their employees’ salaries, fast-food industries […]

A blooper of historic proportions

Downton Abbey recently made headlines with what some are calling “the water bottle seen around the world.” In an uncropped version of a publicity photo, Lord Grantham and Lady Edith are seen standing in front of a stately mantel upon which a bottled water is perched looking hilariously out of place. Turning an amusing blooper into […]

OSHA seeks more comments on injury and illness tracking

by Judith E. Kramer The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has extended the comment period for the proposed rule to improve tracking of workplace injuries and illnesses. Comments will be accepted through October 14. The proposal, published on November 8, 2013, would amend the agency’s record-keeping regulation to add requirements for the electronic […]

Survey Reveals Training Needs and Trends

Job skills training was the number one training need identified by participants in a recent survey, and leadership/supervisory skills training is a close second. Also, 22% chose job skills as their top training need, while more than 20% pointed to leadership/supervisory skills. Other training needs include compliance training (12%), safety training (6.5%), better training materials […]