Category: Benefits and Compensation

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.

Incentives or Disincentives? More Mistakes That Send Salespeople Packing

McAnally is president of SalesComp America, in Andover, Massachusetts. Killer #7. Design Comp Plans That Don’t Match Company Goals [Go here for mistakes 1 to 6.] Nobody’s going to be happy with the sales force if compensation plans don’t match up with company goals. Say you’re trying to launch a new product that is much […]

Pay Never Goes Down? Another Bad Habit

In yesterday’s Advisor, we featured the first three of Stacey Carroll and Al Lee’s “bad compensation habits.” Today, more bad habits, and an introduction to a unique FLSA audit system that detects problems before the feds do. Carroll is Director of Professional Services and Education at Payscale, Inc.; Lee is Director of Qualitative Analytics. Their […]

How to Incentivize Your Best Salespeople … to Leave

Is your sales compensation program actually sabotaging your results? It probably is, if it’s guilty of the frequently committed faux pas detailed below. They’re from Alan McAnally, sales consultant and president of Andover, Massachusetts-based SalesComp America, in an article on the company’s website. We’ve abstracted the gist of these sales force killers here. Killer #1. […]

The Top 5 Compensation Habits to Kick

Most HR managers only have a few bad compensation habits, but they’re hard to break, say experts Stacey Carroll and Al Lee. In today’s Advisor, their “Top 5” bad habits in compensation. Carroll is Director of Professional Services and Education at Payscale, Inc.; Lee is Director of Qualitative Analytics. Their remarks came at a recent […]

‘Out of Control’ Employee Screaming Profanities Loses out on COBRA Due to Gross Misconduct

Although the COBRA statute never defined gross misconduct — leaving it up to the courts — no dictionary is needed when an “out-of-control” employee screams profanities at and makes seemingly threatening hand gestures toward another employee, saying she would “get” hers. This behavior was “so manifestly so outrageous and extreme as to constitute gross misconduct,” […]

A Shorter Commute Can Be Very Accommodating under the ADA, 2nd Circuit Says

Perhaps employers have been mistaken in assuming they never have to worry about a worker’s commute when accommodating a sickness or disability. In certain circumstances, an employer may be required to assist with an employee’s commute, the 2nd Circuit says in a recent opinion (Nixon-Tinkelman v. New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene). […]

Don’t Follow HR Policies of ABC’s New ‘Pan Am’

Rigorous Inspections for Employee Attire Prior to flight, the female employees file into a beauty inspection where their attire is inspected — one woman is singled out for a torn stocking and must borrow a pair from a co-worker. Each is also required to pass a weigh-in, and must attest to the fact that she […]

Please Sue Me? Teach Your Managers the YouTube Test

It used to be the ’60 Minutes Rule,” but lawsuit avoidance expert Hunter Lott now encounters people who say 60 Minutes, what’s that? So he advocates the ‘YouTube Rule”—don’t do anything in the office, he says, that you wouldn’t want to see on YouTube. Lott, who is a popular speaker and consultant and owner of […]

Based on Latest HHS Data, Young Adults Should Love Health Reform

Health care reform may be responsible for a rise in partisan bickering, but what is also rising is the number of young adults with health insurance — 1 million more since last year,  according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). In the first quarter of 2011, the percentage of adults between […]

Feds Team Up With States to Increase Heat on Employee Misclassification

Using independent contractors is a way to avoid paying unemployment, Social Security and Medicare taxes, overtime and  benefits. However, if an employer is found liable of misclassifying an employee in tandem with committing wage and hour violations, DOL may fine the employer, and the employer may be assessed back wages and taxes. The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) […]