Estimated reading time: 5 minutes (Editor’s Note: Today’s article is brought to you by our friends at Poster Guard® Compliance Protection, a division of HRdirect and the leading labor law poster service that gets your business up to date with all required federal, state, and local labor law postings, and then keeps it that way — for an entire year. Enjoy the article!) In the United States, the federal minimum wage is $7.25/hour. It’s been that since July 2009. However, there have recently been a TON of changes to the minimum wage on a state and local level. As of today’s article, 30 stat ..read more

Estimated reading time: 9 minutes By now, I’d like to think that most organizations know about the wave of pay transparency laws that are being enacted around the United States. As of this article, eight states (CA, CO, CT, MD, NV, NY, RI, and WA) have some form of salary transparency legislation. In addition, six cities including Cincinnati, Jersey City, and New York City have adopted wage transparency laws.  But recently, I read an article in the Foley & Lardner LLP newsletter that caught my attention. It was about pay transparency laws applying to current employees. So, I reached ..read more

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes There’s never a good time, but I want to talk about a difficult subject today. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 392 workplace homicides in 2020. There were also 37,060 nonfatal injuries resulting from an intentional injury by another person. Organizations – and especially their employees – should not have to deal with this.  Organizations need to have policies with zero tolerance for workplace violence. They need to educate employees on what to do if they are subject to or witness workplace violence. Human resources department ..read more

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes A few years ago, I published an article on “Everything HR Needs to Know about Artificial Intelligence”. I hope you’ll check it out. The purpose of the article was to explain what artificial intelligence (AI) is and how it might be used by HR departments. Since then, we continue to see articles about advancements in AI. The most recent being focused on ChatGPT, an AI chatbot.  We’re not going to do a deep dive into ChatGPT today, but with all these new technologies, it’s important for organizations to think about how AI might integrate with their operatio ..read more

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes A couple of weeks ago, I asked the question “How do you address your boss in a conversation with them?”. Thank you to everyone who took the time to respond. I don’t know that the results are surprising. My takeaway from this poll was that the way we address others is important. It can have an impact on organizational culture. For example, the work environment where everyone refers to each other as Mr./Ms. LAST NAME is going to be very different from the workplace where people have office nicknames. I could see this being important to share during the re ..read more

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes I received an email press release recently with the headline “A professor who has reviewed thousands of job references says former bosses do not honor corporate policy.” It’s an interesting read worth checking out. The article reminded me that individuals and organizations need to think about their role in the employment reference process.  Just to be clear, I don’t view employment references the same as background checks. A background check is often related to the job. For example, if I’m applying for a position that will involve driving a company vehic ..read more

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes (Editor’s Note: Today’s article is brought to you by our friends at HRdirect, a trusted source for employee-related compliance, administration, and motivation tools. They serve as a one-stop shop to make employee management easier. Enjoy the read!) A few weeks ago, I published an article about the differences between staffing and scheduling. This is an important distinction because organizations can have the right number of employees – and the best performing employees – but if they’re not showing up at the right times, the operation will be a disas ..read more

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes Today’s reader note touches on something we haven’t mentioned much on HR Bartender – HR’s responsibilities when it comes to retirement planning.  Hi! I work at a medical group in Kentucky. Over the past couple of years, I – along with all my colleagues – have been messed with by our HR department. Millions of dollars went missing even though the money was withheld from our paychecks for our retirement accounts. Now, all our W-2s are messed up. HR sent a corrected W-2 but it’s still incorrect.  I found you because I am trying to find a place to repo ..read more

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes Recently, I was sent a press release that listed the top seven career categories that post the most remote work. They include marketing, finance, customer service, and human resources. It got me thinking about remote work and finding a remote opportunity. While many organizations are asking employees to return to onsite work, even if it’s just a few days a week, many employees are looking to make remote work their norm. In a survey from the SHRM Research Institute, 48% of employees said they would “definitely” seek a remote position for their next job. T ..read more

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes Mr. Bartender and I recently took a little road trip which involved an overnight stay in a hotel. One of the great things about today’s travel environment is that you can pre- check-in and tell the hotel when you plan to arrive. They can also tell you in advance if they cannot honor a request for early check-in. All happens via an app. Easy peasy. Right? While we didn’t ask for an early check-in, you can probably see where this is going. When we arrived around 4p to check-in, we were told our hotel room wasn’t ready. And the hotel has no idea when it will be ..read more