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HR Management

Gear up for minimum wage hike: Notify workers, check budget

10/01/2006

Make sure you’re ready for the state’s minimum wage increase, which takes effect Jan. 1, 2007, and will affect about 430,000 Pennsylvania workers …

Can you tell an HR assistant whom to socialize with?

10/01/2006

Q. I’m the HR director of a 45-employee company and have one assistant. Due to the firm’s growth, I’m considering giving my assistant more responsibility. My concern: The assistant is very friendly with about 10 other employees. Two are her roommates. What’s to stop her from divulging information to her friends? I have said nothing to her about my concerns yet. What can I express to her without overstepping her legal rights? —M.I., New York

Draw attention to your perks during ‘Work & Family’ month

10/01/2006

Supporting a balance between employees’ work lives and personal lives "is in the best interest of national worker productivity." At least that’s what Congress declared in 2003 when it decreed that October shall be deemed "National Work & Family Month" …

Adapt ‘Management by Walking Around’ for the HR World

10/01/2006

Paul, an HR professional, walked into the accounting department, glanced into a cubicle and noticed an employee on the verge of tears. "Is everything OK?" Paul asked. That triggered a flood of complaints about her boss, her child care problems and the lack of advancement opportunities in the company. Paul would never have uncovered those problems if he’d been sitting behind his desk, waiting for emergencies to come knocking …

Screen teleworkers before sending sensitive data home

10/01/2006

Allowing employees to work from home can be a boon for employers trying to increase productivity and keep talented employees from leaving for more flexible jobs. But this flexibility can present an increased risk of fraud, theft and legal action if you keep personal information about employees or customers on your computer network …

Web site helps managers evaluate telework requests

10/01/2006

The key to making telework and flextime part of an organization’s everyday business practices is making sure managers understand them, says Kathryn Oliver Kadilak, work/life program manager at the U.S. Department of Justice …

‘Learning center’ offers free classes, advancement potential

10/01/2006

Employees at Choice Hotels International’s headquarters in Silver Spring, Md., can take advantage of the company’s Learning Center, a high-tech training facility that offers about 50 classes a year in computer and supervisory skills, time management, communication, writing and decision making …

 

New DOL resource helps workers plan for retirement

10/01/2006

One simple, inexpensive way to help older employees plan for their retirement years: Point them to a new 44-page booklet from the U.S. Labor Department, Taking the Mystery Out of Retirement Planning …

Go After ‘In-House Hackers’ Using State and Federal Law

10/01/2006

The so-called paperless society ushered in by the computer age may mean fewer file cabinets and storage rooms full of paper records, but storing company records on hard drives has its own set of problems …

Apply personal touch to firings; don’t use e-mail

10/01/2006

Everything is done by e-mail these days, but the American worker still isn’t ready yet to be fired that way …