• The HR Specialist - Print Newsletter
  • HR Specialist: Employment Law
  • The HR Weekly

Compensation & Benefits

Basing pay on past salary alone may spark a legal claim

04/01/2006
Issue: Employers often set new hires’ wages, in part, based on salaries at previous jobs.
Risk: A new court ruling says you could run afoul of the Equal Pay Act …

Don’t let applicants use your job offer to earn a raise

04/01/2006

Most of your job candidates sincerely want the job. But others may simply try to use your offer as a tool to negotiate a higher salary from their current bosses or other potential employers. Try to determine early on whether job candidates are just using you as a bargaining chip. You can save lots of time by dismissing candidates who were never truly interested …

How to cope with seriously ill employees

04/01/2006
Login Email Address Password I forgot my password To continue reading this page, become an HR Specialist Premium Plus member today! Your subscription includes: Ask the Attorney: Answers to your HR legal questions Compliance Guidance: Access to 7,000 HR news articles, updated daily, sorted by state State-by-State: Summaries of HR laws in all 50 states […]

Smaller organizations: Promote your size in recruiting

04/01/2006

A CollegeGrad.com survey of 500 recent college graduates asked, "Which size company you’d most like to work for?" The response: 70 percent favored small to midsize companies …

Fighting a unionization effort: do’s and don’ts

03/01/2006

Union membership has fallen dramatically in recent decades, but the labor movement is far from dead. The biggest change: In 2005, the breakaway "Change to Win" movement seized control over one-third of the powerful AFL-CIO’s unions. Change to Win lured the unions away by promising to shift the focus from political activism to organizing as many U.S. employers as possible. Is your business next? …

Play it smart by aligning yourself with the CFO

03/01/2006

Corporate pressures now call for closer ties between HR and top finance. Winning the CFO as an ally can help earn funding for HR projects, and your strategy smarts will draw attention. Take steps to cultivate the relationships and learn the numbers he or she thrives on …

Take Employees’ Pulse With Low-Cost Online Surveys

03/01/2006

Web-based surveys let you collect employee feedback on everything from benefits to where to hold the holiday party. Online surveys are cheaper and easy to administer. Here are some of the best online survey sites …

Who pays the tax on gift cards given to employees?

03/01/2006

Q. We plan to give gasoline gift cards to employees as incentives for picking up additional shifts. Are these cards taxable? Can we, the employer, simply pay the employee’s portion of the taxes? —T.M., Pennsylvania

More States Push Workplace Conscientious-Objector Laws

03/01/2006

State legislatures in about 20 states are actively considering legislation that would provide new legal protections to health care employees who refuse to provide care that conflicts with their personal beliefs …

EAP phone therapy is legit, but choose vendors wisely

03/01/2006

EAP-provided telephone counseling is controversial but becoming more common. Still, quality varies among vendors. Screen potential teletherapy providers carefully using the following six questions …