• The HR Specialist - Print Newsletter
  • HR Specialist: Employment Law
  • The HR Weekly

Retention

Virtual call center cuts turnover, boosts productivity

12/01/2009

Customers who phone the call center at Ascend One, a debt management company in Columbia, Md., are likely to talk to an employee who’s dressed in pajamas. Since 2006, the organization has allowed its call center employees to work from home, and about half of them—300 or so—have accepted the offer.

Employee recognition: Have you hugged your employees today?

11/18/2009

You might think that recognition is about the rewards you give employees for long years of service or for retiring after a notable career. It’s really not. Recognition is about employee engagement. And employee engagement starts with employer engagement. How you treat people today is going to determine whether your valued employees stay with you when the financial crisis is over.

As boomers gray, Minnesota employers could see silver lining

11/02/2009

With so many companies focused on downsizing to contain costs in a down economy, many employers have failed to prepare for a pending change that will significantly alter workforce demographics. Beginning in 2011, the first of the baby boomers will turn 65. As the rest of the roughly 70 million baby boomers follow, we’ll see a major shift in the age of our society—and our workforces. This shift will have a significant impact on employers.

What do workers want? Studies show staff/boss disconnect

10/23/2009

Sometimes it seems like supervisors and employees work in entirely different places. Several recent studies show that bosses and front-line employees have widely varying views about their organization’s priorities, morale, compensation and benefits. Here are seven key flashpoints:

8 lessons you can learn from the fed’s top agencies

10/13/2009

Set aside any notions you might have that the federal bureaucracy is inherently dysfunctional. In fact, Uncle Sam’s best agencies have a thing or two to teach private-sector employers. Here are eight lessons employers can learn from the biennial agency-by-agency ranking of federal employers by the Partnership for Public Service and American University’s Institute for the Study of Public Policy Implementation.

What’s Working: 8 unique employee benefits programs

09/28/2009

Here’s a collection of creative employee benefits programs, excerpted from our Compensation & Benefits newsletter: 1. Expectant and new moms get help from co-worker "buddies." 2. Shopping-spree contest helps boost sales, morale. 3. Cash advances help workers dress for success. 4. Employee committees choose company wellness programs. 5. Company pays employees to leave their cars at home. 6. Deployed workers get full pay, benefits and care packages. 7. Medical firm picks reality TV star as its "wellness ambassador." 8. British firm pays for "Botox leave."

9 ways to cut costs with strategic work/life & flex benefits

09/04/2009

Amid layoffs, furloughs, pay cuts and frozen salaries, most organizations are holding onto their work/life benefits during the recession. And some of them are using flextime, telework and other employee favorites as cost-cutting strategies. Here are nine ways your organization can make strategic use of work/life benefits to cut costs, save jobs and pump up employee morale during the recession.

Adopt 5 HR best practices to weather the recession

09/04/2009

During a recession, every organization seems to face its own unique HR challenges, and that’s leading to creative solutions and new ways of thinking. Here are five best practices that can help comp and benefits pros make changes that contribute to their organizations’ survival.

Pass your own health care reform with these 4 best practices

09/04/2009

Don’t depend on comprehensive health care reform to significantly cut the cost of the health insurance benefits you provide to employees. Many of America’s best companies have found that a few best practices do a remarkably good job of improving employee health and controlling health care expenses. Here are some of the best practices in health benefits used by America’s best employers.

Can you learn HR lessons from Washington? Yes, you can

08/31/2009

First, set aside the stereotype that the federal bureaucracy is inherently dysfunctional. Sure, it’s got plenty of faults. But Uncle Sam’s best-run agencies can actually teach private-sector employers a thing or two about HR. Here are eight lessons employers can learn from the biennial agency-by-agency ranking of federal employers: