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Work / Life Issues

Employees’ kids in the workplace: To ban or not?

08/01/2007

A participant in the Forum section of our HR Weekly e-letter (www.theHRSpecialist.com/weekly) complained of the “constant, low-grade distraction” of employees’ children in the office—particularly in summer. He posed this question: “Is it best to ban employees’ kids from the workplace?” Here are some of the comments from other HR professionals …

Women in HR: Boost your career by writing your own annual report

07/31/2007

The bad news: You don’t earn as much as your male counterparts. And no one wants to hear you ask for a raise. The good news: You can reinforce "Brand You" by writing a personal annual report. Here’s a six-question template …

NJ Senate bill puts paid family leave on the horizon

07/01/2007

The Senate Budget Committee approved a bill May 24 that would grant paid family leave to the employees of most New Jersey businesses …

Mothers and other caregivers get EEOC protection

07/01/2007

The EEOC just issued guidelines stating that one’s status as a family member can’t be considered in employment decisions. The agency says the guidelines address “family-responsibility discrimination.” They draw on earlier theories about so-called “gender-plus” discrimination …

Don’t wait for emergency to make flexibility routine

07/01/2007

If you think your work/life effort is complete so long as your organization helps its employees with child care, elder care and flexible work hours, it might be time to update your definitions. Work/life programs bring value not only to employees but also to organizations. If you’ve got a good one, chances are you’ll see benefits the next time your company faces an emergency …

Creative benefits help employees with cancer stay on the job

07/01/2007

Employees living with cancer increasingly are staying on the job, thanks to benefits like flexibility and intermittent, short-term disability insurance …

Recruiting & Retaining: 6 Real-Life Examples of Successful Programs

06/01/2007

Turnover among female employees at New York-based KPMG has declined by 22 percent in the past three years. One big reason: The KPMG Network of Women, or KNOW, helps female staff with professional development

Are your policies biased against employee caregivers?

06/01/2007

If you’ve never heard of “family-responsibility discrimination,” or FRD, you soon will. This subset of sex discrimination is a form of gender bias brought by employees who claim they were treated unfairly because they fulfilled caregiving roles for children or elderly parents

Survey: Men Upset About Female Co-Workers’ Flex Time

06/01/2007

Remind managers that approvals for flex-time requests should be gender-neutral. A new Adecco survey shows that men believe that moms at their workplace are given special treatment when it comes to flex time …

As Same-Sex Unions Spread, So Do Job Protections

06/01/2007

New Hampshire last month voted to give same-sex couples the same legal rights as other couples, making New England the first region in which every state provides some sort of protection for the civil unions of same-sex partners …