Recently added articles from HRMagazine:
Executing strategies for a new way of doing business.(From the CEO)(Letter to the editor)
Jun 01, 2009; ... As we all know, these are not times for timid leaders. The phrase itself is a contradiction in terms--anyone without the courage to respond quickly and decisively to the challenges we face in these critical times cannot truly be called a leader. A firm hand at the helm is what ...
Exercise care when cutting costs.(From Readers)(Brief article)(Column)
Jun 01, 2009; ... Any HR professional who is not looking at return on investment (ROI) and how to cut department budgets to help their company's bottom line does not deserve the coveted "seat at the table." [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] I agree with almost everything that senior writer Rita ...
Michelle's Law worth any hassles.(From Readers)(Brief article)(Column)
Jun 01, 2009; ... I was disturbed that the discussion of the new federal "Michelle's Law" that protects the health benefits of seriously ill college students ("Executive Briefing," February) was presented only in terms of "headaches and costs" incurred by employers, despite the acknowledgment that fewer ...
Immigration agents will target employers.(HR News)
Jun 01, 2009; ... Federal agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have a new target for investigating workplace violations of federal immigration law--employers. Under enforcement guidelines issued April 30, ICE investigators will concentrate on building cases against businesses suspected of ...
Pandemic planning is business as usual.(HR News)(Brief article)
Jun 01, 2009 ... The first responses to the swine flu outbreak this spring were just business as usual for many HR professionals. Bonnie Daniels, SPHR, GPHR, vice president of human resources at MiTek Industries Inc., said HR professionals had dealt with other scares--such as SARS and the avian ...
Most employers underestimate health impact on productivity.(HR News)(Survey)(Brief article)
Jun 01, 2009; ... Poor health among workers is far costlier to U.S. employers than they realize, impacting profitability and undercutting the nation's over-all productivity, according to a study published in the April 2009 issue of the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. Researchers analyzed ...
Have cutbacks peaked?(HR News)(Statistical table)(Survey)(Brief article)
Jun 01, 2009 ... <Pre> The majority of companies are not planning cost-cutting actions for the next 12 months. Have already made change and No changes made do not expect to make furtheror expectedchanges ...
HR focuses on current employees.(HR News)(Survey)(Brief article)
Jun 01, 2009 ... Business leaders looking for a way out of the economic black hole are expanding their health care strategies, reducing their recruitment of top talent, and initiating layoffs or downsizing, according to a Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) survey that asked HR professionals about ...
Tired of the recession? You're not alone.(HR News)(Editorial)
Jun 01, 2009; ... With a daily diet of news about layoffs, foreclosures, bankruptcies, bailouts, and cutbacks large and small--from no raises to no bonuses to fewer flavored coffees in the break room--it's no wonder morale is in free fall with the economy. This dispiritedness is called recession ...
Run a meeting by walking.(Briefs)(Washington University)(Conference news)(Brief article)
Jun 01, 2009 ... Forget walking the talk. Instead, put your foot down at your next meeting--one step at a time. Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis are urging managers to hold walking meetings or "meetings on the move." About 40 percent of Americans are couch potatoes, according to the U.S ....
Moderate internet surfing aids productivity.(Briefs)(Report)(Brief article)
Jun 01, 2009 ... Surfing the Internet--in moderation--for fun at work raises an employee's productivity, according to a recent study from the University of Melbourne in Australia. It allows a worker to reset his mind after completing one task and improves ...
Happy hour can create workplace unhappiness.(Briefs)(Brief article)
Jun 01, 2009 ... Employees who don't attend happy hour functions could be undermining their careers. "When we had to let people go, it was easy for us to let someone go who we really didn't know that well outside of work" vs. someone who had participated in events outside the office, said ...
OSHA flags high injury and illness rates.(HR News)(Occupational Safety and Health Administration)(Survey)(Brief article)
Jun 01, 2009 ... Thousands of employers around the United States received letters from the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in April, warning that their employee illness and injury rates were more than twice the national average. Managers at more than 13,500 workplaces ...
More than $1 million awarded for lead hazard.(HR News)(Occupational Safety and Health Administration)
Jun 01, 2009; ... The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) recently ordered a construction contractor to pay more than $1 million for willful violations of the Occupational Safety and Health Act's (OSH Act) Lead in Construction Standard. E. Smalis Painting Co. was faulted for not ...
EEOC settlement reflects challenges of English-only policies.(HR News)(Jose Zazueta v Royalwood Care Center )(Case overview)
Jun 01, 2009; ... The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) on April 14 settled a Title VII lawsuit against a company that enforced an English-only rule solely against Hispanics. "What was strange was that the rule was only targeted at Hispanics. Tagalog was openly spoken," said ...
Employees, employers out of SYNC on retirement issues.(HR News)(security srategies into retirement planning)(Survey)(Brief article)
Jun 01, 2009 ... More than half of all surveyed employees are interested in receiving retirement-related advice in the workplace, according to MetLife's 7th Annual Employee Benefits Trends Study. Only 21 percent of employees reported achieving or being on track to achieve retirement savings goals. But more ...
Defined benefit pension plans reflect poor economy's effects.(HR News)(Survey)(Brief article)
Jun 01, 2009 ... Multi-employer defined benefit (DB) pension plans are showing the effects of the economic recession. A survey from the nonprofit International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans reports that the number of multi-employer pension plans less than 80 percent funded has quadrupled from a year ...
Suspending the 401(K) match: issues to weigh, pitfalls to avoid.(HR News)(Brief article)
Jun 01, 2009 ... During the first three months of 2009, more than 80 major employers publicly announced plans to reduce or suspend their 401(k) contributions. According to an alert from Mercer, contribution suspensions are particularly common within industries hit hardest by the economic downturn, ...
In a dither over Twitter? Get a policy.(HR News)
Jun 01, 2009; ... First, learn the lingo: What is Twitter? Are you a follower? What's a tweet? Twitter is the fastest growing social networking site. A "follower" is a person who has elected to receive Twitter messages, or "tweets," from a particular author through Twitter.com. People who are ...
Penalties for health privacy violations increase.(HR News)
Jun 01, 2009; ... A section of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) increases enforcement of the Privacy and Security Rules of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). The changes, delineated in Title XIII of the ARRA, known as the Health ...