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Try these top 5 low or no-Cost benefits

10/16/2007

The unemployment rate is down again, and employees are saying they want more money to stay put. Maybe it’s time to brush off some of the low- or no-cost benefits we used back in the late 1990s to attract and keep good employees.

Is it time to stop tracking employees’ vacation time?

10/09/2007

Plenty of companies use paid time off banks in lieu of rigid leave plans that designate a specific number of days for vacation, sick and personal time off. Now newer leave plans are going even further, doing away with the concept of tracking leave time altogether. Weigh the pros and cons when deciding whether unlimited leave is right for your organization.

NC officials launch 40% more wage investigations since 2003

10/01/2007

State examiners looking into wage-and-hour violations at North Carolina businesses opened 7,665 investigations in 2006. That’s an 18% increase over the previous year and a nearly 40% increase from 2003 investigation levels, according to the North Carolina Labor Department’s 2006 annual report …

You can pro-Rate bonuses based on FMLA leave time

10/01/2007

Does your organization offer a bonus plan that rewards workers for their productivity? If so, be sure to avoid a surprisingly common mistake that’s tripped up many Indiana employers: incorrectly structuring the bonus plan—or making deductions from bonuses—in a way that violates the FMLA. A new Indiana court ruling shows how an organization can legally pro-rate an employee’s bonus …

How to put a stop to FMLA leave abuse

10/01/2007

Q. I suspect one of the employees in our office is abusing his FMLA leave because he always seems to call off work at the end of the week or around holidays. What options are available to us to deny his suspicious leave requests? —E.L. …

Religious accommodations

10/01/2007

Q. An employee of ours is requesting a personal day off for religious observance. He is salaried and has exhausted all vacation and personal time. Are we required to give him the day off? …

How to prevent employees from abusing PTO leave

10/01/2007

A reader of our e-mail newsletter, HR Weekly, recently posed this question to the e-letter’s Q&A Forum section: “We allow employees to take paid time off (PTO) in hourly increments, but they often use PTO when running late in the morning or for unexpected ‘appointments.’ How can we get a rein on our PTO leave?” …

Act fast on FMLA leave requests—Delay triggers a violation

10/01/2007

If you don’t train supervisors to immediately forward all FMLA requests to the HR office, you may find your organization on the losing end of an FMLA-interference lawsuit. An important new court ruling shows it doesn’t matter whether the employee’s FMLA leave request eventually is approved …

Stay competitive by aligning benefits with staff expectations

10/01/2007

An organization’s HR professionals and its employees don’t always see eye to eye when it comes to benefits. The Society for Human Resource Management’s “2007 Job Satisfaction Survey Report” revealed some good examples …

3-Month ‘Future Leave’ Helps Retain Employees

10/01/2007

Employees at Accenture, a management consulting company, can take three months off—for any reason—and their jobs will be waiting for them when they return. As part of the company’s Future Leave program, which grants unpaid leave of up to three months with continued benefits, supervisors don’t even ask why the employee wants to take the time off …