Category: Benefits and Compensation

Many companies are making major decisions about their compensation programs without even running their plans by HR, says Attorney Lisa Van Fleet. You can’t let the financial people make those decisions, she adds. Yesterday’s Advisor featured Van Fleet’s advice for dealing with deferred compensation changes. Today we’ll get her specific recommendations about compensation decisions, and […]

 “Every day,” says attorney Lisa Van Fleet, “we get asked things like, ‘How can we eliminate our match? What if we change our benefits program midyear? How do we manage a reduction in force? How do we put together severance pay packages?’” Times have changed for every company. Since the economic downturn, not surprisingly, most […]

If you reclassify employees after a self-audit, you’ll likely face some tough questions, especially about back pay. Attorneys Allen Kato and Saundra Riley recently offered tips on how to respond. But first, here is Kato’s third option for dealing with reclassification (see yesterday’s issue of the Advisor for the first two). (The attorneys are associated […]

If you are doing more with less (and who isn’t?), employees are putting in extra hours, and exempt workers are likely to question whether they’re really exempt from overtime. It’s probably wise to do a self-audit, but is it wise to include employees in the process? If you do include employees in the exemption audit, […]

Budgets are stretched tighter than drumheads—is there still a way to work in a wellness program? National Employee Health and Fitness Day is next Wednesday, and that makes this a great time to focus on wellness objectives. Readers of the Advisor are well aware that wellness programs work and can produce strong returns on investment […]

Surveys consistently show that managing Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) issues is one of the most time-consuming—and annoying—areas HR professionals tackle. BLR’s experts at Compensation.BLR.comshare answers to some of the trickier questions they get. Q. The law defines a health condition as serious if the employee is treated by a healthcare provider for more […]

Ah, healthcare costs. If you’ve changed carriers, deductibles, and co-payments more times than you care to remember, you may be discouraged. Take heart, says Jill Madison, there’s a better place to look for savings. Madison is managing director of Consulting Services at Craford Benefit Consultants. Her comments appeared in a white paper on BLR’s all-things-compensation […]

Even with the best of metrics, you’re not home free, says Attorney James P. Greene. Once top management starts in on your stats, you won’t likely escape unscathed. Be prepared to be hit with these common “gotchas.” Greene, a member of the Ann Arbor, Michigan, office of the law firm Dykema Gossett, and director of […]

As we come to the end of this tumultuous year, it might be a good time to ponder your worth as an HR manager. Today’s Advisor gives you some statistics from BLS and BLR, to get you started. The federal government’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) provides a wealth of data on salaries for HR […]

Following a drop of more than 2,000 points in the Dow Jones Industrial Average in early October, we surveyed our readers to find out whether employers were revising their pay increases planned for 2009. Between October 24 and October 29, we received 518 responses. Below are the results of the survey. (Read the full story […]