Category: HR Hero Line
HR best practices, employment law tips, news and analysis, Q&As, and lessons learned from the courtroom.
We’re deep into spring, the time when cubicle-bound employees may be planning their escape and vying for prime spots on the time-off calendar. Or maybe they’re so busy with the daily grind that they don’t even dream of walks on the beach or majestic mountain views. When it comes to time off, HR professionals deal […]
Today’s workplace is facing a classic good news-bad news scenario. It’s good news that hiring shows signs of picking up. But if recent surveys are any indication, that good news hasn’t made much of a dent in the bad news – that more workers than ever are experiencing rising stress levels. The 2013 Work Stress […]
by Amanda Shelby The U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) recently issued Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) regulations became effective on March 8. Although the new regulations don’t radically change the landscape of the FMLA, they do contain some significant modifications. What do you need to know to ensure that your policies and practices are […]
No one wants to get burned by hiring a bad apple, so it’s common for employers to conduct background checks to lessen the chance of bringing a dishonest employee into the workplace. But as hazardous as it is to have shady employees, it also can be dangerous to step out of line when checking people […]
by Timothy P. Brechtel and Ricardo X. Carlo As if you didn’t have enough to worry about as healthcare reform heads toward full implementation in 2014, the new whistleblower protection provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) may present a trap for unsuspecting employers looking to cut costs by tweaking their workforces. Under ACA Section […]
by Reggie Gay Say you have a nonexempt salaried employee who will be working an extra six hours each week for additional training for her position. The extra hours will result in overtime hours each week. However, the employee is requesting comp time in lieu of overtime pay. Is it OK to let her track […]
As graduation season looms, college seniors are deep into the job hunt, hoping they have the skills and qualities necessary to find a landing place in the workforce. With the economy showing signs of recovery, many employers are hoping to land the best and the brightest of those new grads. But they don’t want just […]
by Elaine Young On March 8, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) released the long-awaited new Form I-9 and its accompanying M-274 employer handbook. Employers were required to start using the new form on March 8, but USCIS is allowing a 60-day grace period in which the old forms (dated 02/02/09 and 08/07/09) will be […]
by Michael P. Maslanka With the Final Four on Saturday and the NCAA national championship game on Monday night, basketball has been much in the news. And not far behind those stories is the unfolding saga of the Rutgers basketball program. Two articles by The New York Times writers Kate Zernike and Steve Eder, “Rutgers Tries […]
by Tammy Binford The tough job market of recent years has brought employers a flood of resumes and applications. The volume can be overwhelming in the HR office, but behind all those appeals for employment are real people—usually anxious and sometimes desperate people—who crave information about where they stand in the process and when a […]