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HR Management

Counter refusal to participate in diversity training

08/30/2024
Recently, we have seen an increase in lawsuits from workers who believe that being forced to participate in any kind of diversity training violates their Title VII rights. Now a federal appeals court has tossed out one such case. The court concluded that the worker’s refusal was unreasonable and his claims meritless.

Can you make access to drugs contingent on meeting health goals?

08/22/2024
According to a recent survey, one of the biggest headaches for HR professionals in charge of planning employee compensation and benefits is dealing with the increasing cost of new drugs designed to treat common medical problems like diabetes and obesity. According to the report, 44% of those surveyed ranked specialty drugs as their top health-care management challenges.

Rules mean nothing without enforcement

08/22/2024
Rules that aren’t enforced may get you in bigger legal trouble than none at all because a jury can point to your rules as evidence you knew your legal obligations but chose to ignore them.

AI ethics: Use our sample policy

08/22/2024
Artificial intelligence in the workplace is here to stay. Without some ethical guideposts on its use, however, you may have just let a monster into your workplace. The EEOC and the Department of Labor have already dealt with some of the issues as legal compliance matters. But there’s more, because you can be legally compliant but still use AI in an unethical way.

BE HEARD Act may signal big employment-law changes

08/19/2024
With polling showing a neck-and-neck race to win the presidential election, employers should start paying attention to what the HR landscape may look like after a new president is sworn in next January. Congressional Democrats have begun introducing bills that spotlight policy priorities that may affect employers.

By the numbers: Workers’ comp claim causes and effects

08/19/2024
The most common workplace accidents account for the most expensive workers’ compensation claims, according to a new report by Travelers, the nation’s largest workers’ comp insurer.

Here’s what the EEOC’s lawyers are focusing on this year

08/12/2024
Despite the looming election and Supreme Court decisions that could eventually curtail the influence of federal agencies, the EEOC continues to push an aggressively pro-employee agenda, and it’s committed to filing lawsuits against employers that violate anti-discrimination and anti-harassment laws.

Feel free to ban offensive political memes and comments

08/12/2024
As the election nears, your employees are going to bring some of their political opinions to work. It’s your job as a responsible employer to keep the workplace free of harassment. You can and should train employees to interact civilly with one another, even those with different political views.

Good as the real thing? Verify electronic signatures

08/09/2024
Your employee handbooks and other employment documents may exist only in electronic form. That means acknowledgments testifying that employees have received and read those docs must be “signed” electronically, too. While nearly all jurisdictions recognize the legality of electronic signatures, it’s vital for you to have a system to authenticate that such a signature was really executed by a particular person.

SHRM announces shift to “I&D” and faces community backlash

08/07/2024
In a press release, SHRM declared it would adopt the acronym “I&D” (inclusion and diversity) instead of “IE&D” (inclusion, equity and diversity—also known as DE&I or DEI), effectively removing the explicit mention of equity from its primary framework. The decision has angered many HR professionals.