Month: October 2017

pagan ritual

Forced Pagan Ritual Ends in Discrimination Lawsuit for Virginia Employer

With a shortage of Catholic priests—and younger priests not looking at the task too favorably—there aren’t too many people left who will perform an exorcism. Whether you believe in demon possession or not, one thing is certain: The task is definitely not something for HR professionals! A recent lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court […]

ACA

9th Circuit Faults Retiree Plan’s Disclosure of Lifetime Maximum

A federal appeals court recently confirmed that the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) prohibition of lifetime benefits maximums does not apply to retiree-only group health plans. However, the court ruled, the plan had failed to disclose this adequately as required by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). The case is King v. Blue Cross & […]

ADA

7th Circuit Reins in Medical Leave as ADA Accommodation

Employers often struggle with the Americans Disabilities Act’s (ADA) requirement to provide leave as a reasonable accommodation for an employee with a disability.  How much leave is required?  Is it ever okay to terminate an employee who requests leave?  In a recent decision, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals provides some solid answers to employers […]

contract

Arbitration: Exotic Dance Club Makes One Sidestep Too Many

An enforceable arbitration agreement can lead to a streamlined and more expeditious resolution of issues on an individual, rather than a classwide, basis. It’s important for employers to know how to enforce a valid arbitration agreement and how to avoid losing your ability to enforce such an agreement. A recent case is a cautionary tale […]

transparency

The ‘Power of Positive’: A New HR Method from Sports Coaches

When, earlier this year, Boston Celtics’ new addition Kyrie Irving (who was at the time a point guard for the Cleveland Cavaliers) stated during the course of a podcast that he is a firm believer that the Earth is flat, social media and news outlets went into a frenzy. Even middle school students began challenging […]

Small Business Owners Lack Confidence in Their HR Function

According to a new survey from Paychex, a leading provider of integrated human capital management solutions for payroll, HR, retirement, and insurance services, 21 percent of small business owners lack confidence in their organization’s ability to keep current with HR compliance.

Women in Business: Fighting to Get to the Top

There are 74.6 million women in the civilian labor force – almost 47 percent of U.S. workers are women. When it comes to education, women are more likely than men to have earned a bachelor’s degree by age 29 (34 percent of women vs. 29 percent of men). Women also own close to 10 million […]

Critical Interviewing Basics

In yesterday’s Advisor, we gave some tips on how to get an interview started on the right foot and how to present the organization to the applicant during the interview. Today we’ll provide some more tips, this time focusing on the next parts of the interview: learning about the applicant and closing the interview.

Be sure your people know “why” they’re important

by Dan Oswald Viktor Frankl was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist as well as a Holocaust survivor. His experiences in the German concentration camps gave him a unique perspective on the importance of purpose in a person’s life. While in the concentration camps, Frankl lost nearly everything. His father and mother died in the camps, […]