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Compensation & Benefits

Breast-feeding: The next employment right? Some in Congress want the feds to follow states

10/01/2006

If Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) has her way, employers would have to comply with yet another federal employment entitlement: the right to breast-feed or express milk for infant feeding. Her bill would make it illegal to discriminate against breast-feeding moms and would give tax incentives for companies to establish sanitary places for employees to breast-feed …

Domestic violence and employees: Your role, Responsibility

10/01/2006

Domestic violence isn’t always domestic. It comes to the workplace as lost productivity, excessive absenteeism, employee depression, increased health costs and, in the worst-case scenario, as violence at the workplace …

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

Latest Low-Cost Perk: Helping employees land child care

10/01/2006

With so much absenteeism linked to child care issues, more U.S. employers are offering employees access to new Web sites that help solve a common dilemma: finding a good, reliable babysitter …

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" …

‘Cool’ music company creates transition plan for new moms

09/01/2006

Detroit-based music company, Handleman Co., hosts impromptu concerts in the lobby and gives free CDs to employees. Such perks landed the firm on a list of 60 "Cool Places to Work" in Michigan. But cool wasn’t cutting it for the company’s working moms, who wanted more flexibility after having babies …

Part-Time Employees Earning Full-Time Benefits

09/01/2006

Starting this year, Kent, Wash.-based Recreational Equipment Inc. (REI) began offering some full-time benefits to their part-time employees. That’s no small change because the retailer employs nearly 4,000 employees who work fewer than 20 hours a week at 82 stores. But it gives the company a competitive advantage in recruitment and retention, says Jeff Johnson, director of compensation and benefits …

Prepare to disclose more details on exec compensation

09/01/2006

Public companies must start providing a clearer picture of their top executives’ total compensation in accordance with new Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rules released in late July …

Lead your organization toward globalization: 6 steps

09/01/2006

With more organizations reaching their tentacles into far-flung places, HR is being called to respond. Key indicator: Employers are spending more time searching for talent, specifically people who can and will work and succeed in other countries …

Employees going to college? Help with tuition, career path

09/01/2006

It’s back-to-school time, and not just for children. Many of your employees—and would-be employees—will enroll in college classes this fall. And while those courses will make employees more competent and promotion-worthy, they’ll also wreak havoc on their schedules, both at work and at home …