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Twin Cities top Forbes list for working mothers

08/12/2010
Minneapolis-St. Paul’s low crime and unemployment rates nudged the Twin Cities past Washington, D.C., and Boston to gain the top spot on Forbes magazine’s best city for working mothers list.

6 ways to engage workers as outlook brightens

08/11/2010
In a Robert Half International survey, employees rated “working for a stable company” and “having a strong sense of job security” as the two most important factors about their work situation. Robert Half District President Brett Good suggests that organizations should leverage that new desire for stability during the hiring process. Here are six ideas from the survey that might work for you:

Don’t ban staff use of social media–exploit it

08/11/2010
Matt Kaiser, VP of NAS Recruitment Communication, encourages employers to create policies and procedures to help employees take advantage of social media. “Your employees are going to be the best way to build your powerful employee brand,” said Kaiser. “Give employees advice on what to do—not just what not to do.…”

Cooler ICE: Feds take different approach to verification

08/10/2010
Every employee needs a Form I-9 on file to establish his or her identity and legal work status. Now the Obama administration is pushing hard to get employers to adopt the online E-Verify employment eligibility verification system. Learn what this shift means for your HR shop.

Supreme Court expands time to sue over policies with disparate impact

08/06/2010
There may be a ticking time bomb lurking in your employment policies and practices. It may go off at any time, when you least expect it. During its most recent term, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that employers can be held liable upon the use of employment practices that have a disparate impact on employees, no matter how long ago the challenged practice was adopted.

Cloud over working mothers in Sunshine State

08/06/2010
Forbes magazine has just published its list of the best cities in the United States for working mothers. Florida fared poorly, largely because of low rankings for three of the state’s largest metro areas: Jacksonville, Miami-Fort Lauderdale and Orlando.

Waiver in handbook prevents contract formation

08/06/2010
Make sure your employee handbook includes a disclaimer specifying that the handbook is not a contract. Then have employees sign that disclaimer, acknowledging that they’ve read it. That way, you won’t accidentally create an employment contract.

4 tips for getting max ROI from salary surveys

08/05/2010
When reviewing salary surveys to determine fair pay rates for your employees, follow these tips from Beverly Dance, founder of Dance Consultancy, who spoke at the recent SHRM annual conference in San Diego:

Employers: Schedule a health reform checkup

08/04/2010
Health plan decisions that employers will be forced to make in a few years—such as whether to keep coverage or drop it and pay a fine—will be influenced by decisions you’ll make this year and next, says Michael Aitken, SHRM’s director of government affairs. “It might be a wise investment right now to sit down and do some modeling.”

How to safely handle calls for references, recommendations

08/03/2010

The unemployment rate has been hovering between 9% and 10% for more than a year. Some of those unemployed people probably once worked for you—and they would probably love to list you as a reference. That means it’s time to make sure you have policies on how to handle reference-check calls.