Archives

Ethics in the Workplace: Not Always Black and White

Ethics in the workplace aren’t always black and white. Sometimes the issues are obvious and we can easily see when a company is – or isn’t – acting ethically. Other times, actions we may not associate with ethics really can become ethical considerations. This is very important for companies to consider because ethical values set […]

Part-Timers Have Rights? I Don’t Think So

For guidance, we turned to Compensation.BLR.com®. What Is Considered ‘Part-Time’ Employment? There is no federal law that defines the term “part time” or specifies the number of hours an employee must work per week to be considered part-time as opposed to full-time. Many employers classify part-time employees as those who regularly work fewer than 30 […]

Are Your Employees Trained to Cope with the Aftermath of Workplace Violence?

The material in today’s Advisor is adapted from BLR’s 10-Minute HR Trainer session, “Coping with the Aftermath of Workplace Violence.” Take Care of People First The first step in the aftermath of workplace violence is to take care of employees. Contact families of injured employees, stay in touch, and help them with insurance and workers’ […]

Dos and Don’ts of Resolving Conflict in the Workplace

Resolving conflict in the workplace is a skill that HR managers need to have because conflict will always arise. In this article, we’ll take a look at the reasons why conflict arises and some dos and don’ts for resolving conflict in the work place. Conflict arises because employees: Have different points of view. Communicate to […]

Think You’re in HR? You’re Actually in Sales

Special from Chicago: SHRM Annual Conference and Exposition We’re all salespeople, whether our title says sales or not, says business guru Dan Pink, and that’s probably more true of HR people than most others. Fortunately, he adds, sales isn’t what it used to be. Pink’s best-selling titles include Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates […]

Q&A on Recordkeeping for Employee Personnel Files

Maintaining employee records can be a time-consuming and arduous task. What pre-employment files should be kept in employee records? Should supervisor notes be included? Are electronic versions of mandatory records acceptable? These questions and many more were addressed by Jason Ritchie in a recent BLR webinar. Here’s a selection of the questions and answers. Q. […]

Exempt employees in California: The administrative exemption

Exempt employees in California are those who are not subject to overtime pay for hours worked in excess of 8 in a day or 40 in a week. Since these employees are not being paid overtime, it may be tempting to classify as many employees “exempt” as possible, but they must meet strict requirements to […]

Marking Anniversary, Feds Call ADA Amendments ‘a Promising Start’

Federal courts are off to “a promising start” in issuing rulings under the ADA Amendments Act according to the National Council on Disability, an independent federal agency. NCD says that recent rulings are a substantial improvement over pre-amendments decisions in achieving the broad scope of coverage that Congress intended. That finding is part of an […]