Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
This topic provides guidance on how to handle compensation issues in a way that attracts and retains the best talent and advances the strategic goals of your business. You get news and tips on what’s going on nationally and in the states, and updates on changes in regulations, possible governmental action, and emerging compensation trends.
Voters in Washington state and Maryland will weigh in on whether same-sex marriage should be legal in their states. Employers in these states — as well as those in adjacent states where same-sex marriage is not legal — would be wise to monitor developments and use the upcoming months to prepare for any possible changes […]
Special from Atlanta–SHRM Annual Conference and Exhibition “I’m on a worldwide crusade to abolish merit increase base pay systems,” says consultant John Rubino. “They are demotivational.” Rubino, who is founder and president of Rubino Consulting Services in Pound Ridge, New York, offered his suggestions at the 64th SHRM Annual Conference and Exhibition, going on this […]
The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on June 25 to decide whether an employee health plan is subject to equitable limits when it demands reimbursement of benefits paid to care for a covered employee who also recovers money from third parties. A 2011 ruling on this issue by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals troubled […]
And the second rule of auditing: Be sure that management is willing to make corrections if infractions are found. If your own audit shows failure to comply, and especially if you haven’t taken steps since the audit to correct the situation, your audit can quickly turn from a helpful tool to a damaging exhibit in […]
In yesterday’s Advisor, we covered audit areas for compensation and preemployment issues. Today, we’ll look at employment and termination issues, and we’ll introduce a unique checklist-based audit system. Job descriptions. For all positions, you should have up-to-date job descriptions that accurately reflect the job duties. Make sure that the job descriptions identify all essential functions […]
Oswald, CEO of BLR, offered his thoughts on performance evaluations and bell curves in a recent edition of The Oswald Letter. Here’s my colleague’s point, Oswald continues. Our performance evaluation system includes ratings of outstanding, exceeds expectations, meets expectations, needs improvement, and unsatisfactory. As a company, we expect the distribution of the appraisals to be […]
Most of the plans the IRS has checked for compliance with the grandfathering requirements of 401(k) money purchase pension plans had acted appropriately, says the agency’s Employee Plans Compliance Unit. However, some plans made reporting mistakes on their annual Forms 5500. The 401(k) Money Purchase Pension Plan project is a study the EPCU conducted to […]
After two years of implementing health reform’s “insurance mandates,” American businesses are now thinking about unraveling the arrangements they put in place to respond to it, in the waning days before the U.S. Supreme Court decides on the constitutionality of the individual mandate. Health reform is going to pose compliance challenges for American businesses whether […]
Plan administrators must distribute funds even when there is a dispute between an estate and an ex-spouse who waived beneficiary rights, says the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. It recently ruled in Kensinger v. URL Pharma, 674 F. 3d 131 (March 20, 2012) that a decedent’s estate could directly sue the recipient of ERISA-governed […]
A Cautionary Tale—How Many Zeros? One juror explained the simple system his jury had used to determine the amount of punitive damages they would award: they started with one dollar, and added a zero for each thing they thought the employer had done wrong. The total added up pretty fast. How do employers get into […]