Tag: news

What Is the Role of Reinforcement in Effective Training?

Content and delivery are not necessarily to blame when training fails to drive long-lasting behavioral change. More often, the blame rests with a lack of reinforcement back on the job, says Mike Ryan, senior vice president of Marketing and Strategy for Madison Performance Group (www.MadisonPG.com). “Training is a key business imperative, but the long-term results […]

New Tennessee law prohibits local mandates on pay, benefits

by Kara Shea On April 11, Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam signed into law a bill prohibiting local governments from mandating health insurance benefits, leave policies, hourly wage standards, or prevailing wage standards that deviate from existing requirements of state and federal law as a condition of doing business with or within the jurisdiction of the […]

Job programs, misclassification initiative among DOL budget priorities

The U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) new budget request pushes programs to help veterans and the long-term unemployed while continuing priorities from previous years, including efforts to fight misclassification of workers as independent contractors. The DOL’s fiscal year 2014 budget requests $12.1 billion in discretionary funding—money Acting Labor Secretary Seth D. Harris said will be […]

H-1B visa cap met in first week

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that it reached the statutory H-1B visa cap of 65,000 for fiscal year 2014 during the first week of the filing period. This is the first time since 2008 that the cap has been met during the first week. The H-1B program allows U.S. businesses to employ […]

Obama urges swift confirmation of new NLRB nominees

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), crippled by a January court ruling against two recess appointees, has the potential to get back to full strength if the Senate confirms nominations President Barack Obama made April 9. Previous attempts to fill the NLRB have failed over congressional opposition to Board actions and Obama’s nominees. On April […]

Are Difficult Trainees Having a Negative Effect on Your Training?

“The biggest goal as an instructor is to get difficult people on board and to minimize the impact they might have on others,” says Pluth, whose firm has coined terms for some of the most common types of difficult participants: The Latecomer, The Know-It-All, The Introvert, The Socializer, The Confused, and The Sleeper. She recommends […]

Portland, Oregon, latest to adopt mandatory sick leave law

by Calvin L. Keith Portland, Oregon, has become just the fourth U.S. city to require that employers provide sick leave. The new ordinance goes into effect January 1, 2014. Here is a brief summary. Who is covered? Any employee who works more than 240 hours per year in Portland is covered. The law includes anyone […]

Is Training the Right Solution for a Performance Problem?

Asking many questions before selecting or designing a training program can help determine whether training is the right solution for a performance problem or whether there is an underlying, nontraining issue that needs to be addressed, says Dave Basarab, a training and evaluation expert and author of Predictive Evaluation (www.davebasarab.com). “Separate what training can provide […]

H-1B visa deadline looms

by Elaine Young Employers wanting to hire foreign workers through the H-1B visa program need to be ready to file petitions with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) on April 1. U.S. businesses use the H-1B program to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise in specialized fields. The first […]

Colorado civil union law means change for employers

The Colorado Civil Union Act, which takes effect May 1, requires changes in employer-provided insurance plans and makes changes to the state’s workers’ compensation law. Effective for plans issued, delivered, or renewed on or after January 1, 2014, a party to a civil union may cover his or her partner as a dependent. Employers providing […]