Archives

Ensuring the Ongoing Strength of Canada’s Retirement Income System

By Lyne Duhaime There are lots of recent activities in the pension field at the federal level in Canada. The government’s actions in the past 12 months constitute the most important reform of federal pension laws since the 1980s. Here’s a quick overview. It started on January 9, 2009, when the government of Canada released […]

Summer Hiring Season—Child Labor Myths Busted

In yesterday’s Advisor, we busted 11 myths about wage and hour. Today, we tackle myths about child labor—particularly appropriate with summer hiring season approaching—and we take a look at a unique FLSA audit guide. [Go here for Myths 1-11.] Myth #12—There is no restriction on hours of work for workers age 14 and over. Busted. […]

Hot List: Bestselling “Organizational Behavior” Books on Amazon.com

Amazon.com updates its list of the bestselling books every hour. Here is a snapshot of what is hot right now, this Monday morning, May 17, in the “Organizational Behavior” section of the “Business and Investing” category. 1.Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard by Chip Heath and Dan Heath. The authors of Made […]

Overcoming Language, Hearing Obstacles for Safety’s Sake

By Jason Bohanan Communicating with employees is essential to the health of any business. Daily communication between management, supervisors, and front-line employees helps keep every aspect of the business running, from planning meetings to ensuring everyday assignments are completed. Unfortunately, no method of communication is perfect. Communication breakdowns, such as lost memos and unchecked voicemails, […]

Gender Identity Protection Resurfaces in Federal, Local Laws

By Lorraine Yeomans Recent actions by President Barack Obama’s administration and a flurry of new local laws are reviving discussion on the issue of gender identity (sometimes also referred to as gender expression) discrimination. Since 1993, when Minnesota adopted the first state law protecting against discrimination based on gender identity, employers have been doing their […]

Unexpected Demographics of the 2007-10 Downturn

A Wall Street Journal analysis of recent data sets reveals unexpected characteristics of current employment losses. The last 10 years have seen an increasing parity in employment among men and women, but because the majority of women came into the job market later, it was expected that layoffs — following a last-in/first-out pattern — would […]

Asian Harassment Based on African American Racial Slurs

The New Jersey Division on Civil Rights (DCR) recently issued a probable-cause finding against an employer and its owner. The owner admittedly used the “n” word in the presence of an Asian employee who has a biracial child and a black fiance. Facts In February 2008, Shi-Juan Lin started working as a bookkeeper and secretary […]

Wage and Hour Mythbusters

Wage and hour should be the easiest job in HR, but there are a surprising number of misconceptions, and there is a surprising amount of misinformation being disseminated by savvy-sounding "experts" wandering the Internet chat sites. Cruise HR on the Internet, and you’ll be stunned. Mixed in with accurate answers are other answers—all delivered with […]

What I Learned from My Own Mistakes

In the movies the leading man often was portrayed as the strong, silent type. A man of few words, but those words carried a lot of weight. Think Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry muttering, “Go ahead.  Make my day.” But as I was reminded recently, in business being a man of few words isn’t such […]

How To Keep Former Employees Quiet

“Rant sites” are one of the darker aspects of social media—they’re where people go to air their grievances in a public online forum. And if someone has just left your company under less-than-optimal circumstances, the focus of their rantings could well be you.