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Hiring

Miami makes list of sprawling job markets

08/11/2009

Miami placed seventh-worst in a Brookings Institution study that ranks cities by how spread out their employment centers are. About 62% of Miami jobs are located more than 10 miles from the city center …

Preventing identity theft: 6 steps to protect employees’ data

08/11/2009

Employers have a duty to protect their employees from identity theft. The federal Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act (FACTA) says employers that negligently or purposely let employees’ personally identifiable data fall into the wrong hands can face fines of up to $2,500 per infraction. Here are six tips on developing a data security strategy:

What plaintiff’s lawyers don’t want HR pros to know

08/11/2009

Want to know how to get under the skin of the lawyers who represent employees? Ask one. They won’t all cop to what sinks their cases, but attorney Whitney Warner did. Learn what she fears most when staring down an employer in court.

Security gives gov’t hiring edge in hard times

08/08/2009

Local, state and federal agencies could have a key edge over corporate America during a recession: job security. In a CareerBuilder survey of more than 2,900 workers, 88% said they were interested in public-sector jobs. Their reasons:

Downside of providing a recommendation on an employee’s social media page?

08/07/2009

Q. An employee has asked me, as his direct supervisor, to provide him a recommendation on his LinkedIn page. He’s a good employee and I don’t see any harm in granting his request. Are there any risks?

Court: We won’t micromanage hiring decisions

08/06/2009

The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that an employee who was passed over for a promotion can’t later use the poor performance of the person who got the job to prove the decision was discriminatory. The case shows that courts are willing to let employers make mistakes; they won’t micromanage hiring and promotion decisions.

Hiring independent contractor? Be prepared to document that he’s not an employee

08/06/2009

A recent federal court decision means you’ll now have to go the extra mile to prove that your worker is an independent contractor, not an employee. Advice: Take steps to document exactly why you believe someone is an independent contractor when you begin using his or her services.

N.Y. has the best of sprawl … and the worst of sprawl

08/06/2009

In a Brookings Institution report titled “Job Sprawl Revisited: The Changing Geography of Metropolitan Employment,” the New York/Long Island/Northern New Jersey metropolitan area ranked second in the country (just behind Virginia Beach, Va.) with 34.8% of its jobs located within three miles of the city center.

Interviews: The legal way to ask 5 risky questions

08/04/2009
Job discrimination claims are running at record-high levels in the past two years. Way too many problems start when hiring managers ask the wrong questions during job interviews. Here’s how to ask five key questions without risking a hiring discrimination charge. (Plus 16 questions no one should ever ask.)

Supreme Court rules in firefighter ‘reverse’ discrimination case

08/04/2009

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the city of New Haven, Conn., violated the rights of white and Hispanic firefighters who took promotion exams when it refused to use the test results to promote the highest scorers. The court ruled that the city could not use “[f]ear of litigation alone” to justify rejecting the results simply because the test appeared to have a disparate impact on another minority—namely the black firefighters who took the test.