Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
Good hiring practices can help you find and keep the best candidates, and can even help keep you out of court. A key part of this is making sure your employment ads are accurate and non-discriminatory. Before placing a help wanted notice in a trade publication or a local paper, evaluate it with the following […]
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that the cap has been reached for H-2B work visas for the final six months of 2006. The H-2B visa program allows employers to request foreign workers to fill a one-time, peak-load, intermittent, or seasonal need for labor when no workers are available in the local […]
Suppose employees who must be in shape for their jobs play a game of pickup basketball to cut loose after work. They figure it’s a good way to stay fit for their physically demanding positions, and it is. But does that mean that if someone gets injured in the game, workers’ comp benefits will kick […]
We’re a fairly small company, so good working relationships are key for us. I think family entanglements in the workplace complicate things; can I legally impose a “no-spouse” rule? — Anonymous
We dutifully do our performance appraisals, but the information they generate doesn’t seem to be very meaningful. We want to feel more confident about our appraisal system because we rely on it for our compensation program. Do you have any suggestions?
I understand that under the Americans with Disabilities Act, we shouldn’t make an offer of employment until we have done all our other evaluative processes. For example, we should say the offer is contingent on passing a physical. But our hiring managers put pressure on us to get the offer out before we get a […]
Our VP of HR wants me to evaluate whether we should consider applying “salaried nonexempt” status to some of our nonexempt employees. I’m having trouble nailing down exactly why a company would choose to do this, and also, how it would work. I understand that the employees still get overtime, so what’s the point? — […]
For the first time in four decades, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has made big changes to the EEO-1 Report, which provides the government with workforce profiles by ethnicity, race, and gender, divided into job categories. According to the EEOC, the new format “recognizes the shifting demographics of today’s workplace” and will provide […]
In a series of cases in recent years, the California Supreme Court has discussed the circumstances under which an employee of an independent contractor can sue the hirer of that contractor for work-related injuries, rather that just collect workers’ compensation benefits. Now the high court has further clarified when you can be sued for damages […]
When Joshua Josephs applied for a service tech position with Pacific Bell Telephone Co., he checked “no” to the job application question, “Have you ever been convicted of, or are you awaiting trial for, a felony or misdemeanor?” Josephs was hired for the position, which required him to install and repair phones unsupervised in homes, […]