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Oh [no], Canada!

Unless you’ve been under a rock for the past couple of weeks, you’ve probably heard about Toronto’s crack-smoking mayor, Rob Ford. No, I don’t mean that term in the figurative sense or as a commentary on some outlandish political policy he has chosen to pursue. I mean it quite literally, as Rob Ford admitted in […]

Live Generously: Being in Business to Help Others

While he was in Birmingham, Alabama, visiting his daughter at college, business and leadership blogger Dan Oswald saw a local newspaper with the headline “Live Generously: How three Gardendale teenagers hope to change lives with new business.” Oswald, CEO of BLR, shared his thoughts about the article in a recent edition of The Oswald Letter: […]

Employees Must Prove Disability in Spite of Lower ADAAA Bar

While the ADA Amendments Act made it easier for employees to show that they have a disability, it did not eliminate the requirement, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled in Neely v. PSEG Texas, No. 12-51074 (5th Cir. Nov. 6, 2013). Facts of the Case Jeffrey Neely worked as a control-room operator […]

Live Generously: Being in Business to Help Others

Oswald, CEO of BLR, shared his thoughts about the article in a recent edition of The Oswald Letter: The article caught my attention for a number of reasons. I love the “Live Generously” lead. I just think it’s a great concept. Add to it the teen and business angles, and I was hooked. The article […]

Clarifying OSHA’s Annual Training Requirements

“Wherever OSHA standards require that employee training be conducted ‘at least annually,’ OSHA interprets that to mean that employees must be provided retraining at least once every 12 months (i.e., within a time period not exceeding 365 days),” says David Galt, managing editor—safety, with BLR®—Business & Legal Resources (www.blr.com). This annual training need not be […]

vaccine

Common question of the season: Can employees be required to take a flu shot?

It’s flu season, a time when every cough and sneeze can strike fear into the hearts of both employees and employers. Nobody wants to come down with a coworker’s case of flu, and employers needing all hands on deck don’t want significant numbers of workers out sick. Therefore, some employers—particularly those in the healthcare field—mandate […]

Governor signs Hawaii’s Marriage Equality Act of 2013 into law

by Paul M. Saito Governor Neil Abercrombie has signed into law the Hawaii Marriage Equality Act of 2013, which defines marriage in Hawaii as between “individuals without regard to gender.” Hawaii is the 15th state to give same-sex couples the right to marry. The law goes into effect December 2. A special session of the […]

Administration Loosens Individual Mandate to ‘Un-cancel’ Policies

The Obama administration on Nov. 14 proposed an administrative fix to allow individuals and small businesses losing coverage to keep their plans for another year. The fix was necessary in part because many people who lost coverage: (1) could not enroll for coverage on reform-mandated state-based health insurance exchanges due to problems with the government’s […]

Yahoo embraces stack ranking of employees as Microsoft abandons it

As Microsoft is washing its hands of a controversial employee performance appraisal practice, Yahoo is reportedly adopting it. Stack ranking systems—also known as forced ranking or forced distribution—require managers to rank their employees from best to worst, apply the rankings to a bell curve and use the results to determine pay as well as who […]

Make the Best Use of Your Training Tools

Thorough and effective employee training is recognized as a major key to achieving not only compliance with OSHA and other regulations but also the protection of the company’s assets and the workers themselves. Therefore, the managers, supervisors, and safety professionals involved in the training effort should seek to find and use the best tools for […]