The Salt Lake Tribune recently published an interesting article on domestic violence. The article included a side bar article (from the Family Violence Prevention Fund, www.endabuse.org) on the significant problems this issue poses for employers: (1) 94 percent of corporate security directors surveyed rank domestic violence as a high-security problem at their companies;

"Stay in school.” “You need to understand the value of an education.” “Where will you be without an education?” Ah, the words of Mom and Dad still ring in the ears of many. Mom and Dad may not have gotten everything right but they certainly understood the relationship between education and earning potential.

I read with interest a series of articles posted on Workforce.com this week related to contingent workers. Specifically contingent worker hiring trends and the legal risks associated with how a company manages and treats independent contractors, or contingent workers vs. employees. In the process I learned a new term: Permatemp, defined as a contingent worker that has been in their position for an extended period of time functioning and appearing as an employee of the company where they are placed. Government labor statistics do not specifically track independent contractors but rather lump them in with all contingent workers, a category that includes the staffing industry and temporary help. According to a Government Accountability Office report, there were 42.6 million contingent workers in the U.S. as of 2005—almost a third of the entire workforce. What has happened over the past 20 years is that companies have embraced the temporary worker model as a way to get work done using trained staff paid by a 3rd party and not classified as employees. Hiring, payroll, and any benefits the contingent worker receives such as vacation, sick time, or a 401K plan are the responsibility of the hiring agency. Typically agency-provided benefits, if offered at all, are significantly less than those provided to full and/or part time employees of the company where the contractor is working every day. The model allows companies to increase or decrease their workforce with more flexibility based on the needs of the day and not incur the expensive overhead of training and employee benefits such as medical insurance or paid vacation or retirement plans. What these companies discovered is that many of the contractors were very good at their job and fit in with the corporate culture so when one project ended they kept them around for another, and another, and another. Soon they had phone extensions, access to company networks, security badges, email addresses, a fixed work location, and were included in company social functions, etc. For all intents and purposes they acted and appeared like employees of the company.

Various government officials testifying recently before Congress have claimed that employer misclassification of workers is costing federal, state and local governments billions of dollars in lost tax revenues each year. The witnesses have asserted that because of employer desires to save costs, the number of independent contractors has grown to almost eight percent of the workforce, or 10.3 million workers. Witnesses asserted that many of these workers should have been classified as employees.

Remember that an employer typically must comply with the employment laws of the states where its employees live and work. Many states now actively regulate the employment relationship. Here are some recent examples of new employment laws passed by states.

The new Apple iPhone is finally here. For bleeding edge technology buffs with $500-750 burning a hole in their pocket I say go for it. Test it out. Let me know how it works and when all the bugs are worked out and it costs $299 I’ll still pass. I’m simply one of the few holdouts that look upon this technology as a ‘leash and collar’ that straps us to work 24/7 and is fast afflicting a generation of workers with the so-called ‘CrackBerry’ addiction. The term CrackBerry is a play on words merging the predominant wireless email device brand, BlackBerry and the highly addictive illicit street drug, crack). The lure of wireless devices is creating an addiction among some e-mail users, with experts comparing their behavior to that of drug or alcohol abusers. Afflicted users soon become conditioned to constantly have their antennae tuned in to hear the sound that tells them they have a new message which validates that they are indispensable and the need to respond immediately is vitally important. But the problem may not just be the 'users'. It may also be the employers if they provide the mobile email device and expect an employee to be connected and available at all hours. If being connected to employees 24/7 sounds like an employer's dream come true, think again: according to a Rutgers University Camden researcher, employers who encourage non-stop work connections via technology may wind up with liability for encouraging addiction among their staff.

As the fire season gets underway across the nation, we inform you that the United States House of Representatives has passed a bill requiring employers to provide unpaid leave to workers who volunteer as fire fighters and emergency medical workers. The bill requires leave of up to fourteen days when such persons are responding to major emergencies or disasters. Employers may ask for verification of the emergency response. The legislative measure now goes to the Senate.

What day is this? It's been somewhat of a blur. I can't believe these past 4 days in Las Vegas at the 59th Annual SHRM Conference and Exposition have passed so quickly. It's been a rewarding experience both from a marketing and an HR practitioner point of view. I met and talked to hundreds of people and had many interesting and enlightening conversations on the topics of employee performance management and compensation administration. If you haven't been to a SHRM conference I highly recommend it. The entire management, organization, content and scheduling of the event was first rate. The energy of the attendees was contagious. I spent the majority of my time walking the tradeshow floor and meeting people while in the HRN booth. Here are a few of my more 'expo-centric' observations.

Some employers use consumer reports or credit checks in considering applicants for employment or when evaluating current employees for promotion, transfer, or termination. However there are considerable federal (e.g., the Fair Credit Reporting Act—FCRA) and sometimes stricter state legal requirements that must be met when using such reports.

As healthcare insurance costs continue to skyrocket, benefit administrators are searching for ways stop the bleeding from company coffers while still offering employees affordable coverage options. This frequently results in a company changing insurance carriers every couple of years. The result has been employees are often asked to choose from an ever increasing array of completely different, and wide ranging healthcare plan choices. HMO, PPO, HSA, HRA, PCP, in network, out of network, formulary, co-pay, deductibles, etc., there are now so many choices and considerations that effectively communicating information so employees can make informed decisions is the top open enrollment challenge HR administrators face today. Simply put, the more choices, the more information needs to be communicated to employees. You would think that given the importance to both the personal bank account and the welfare of ourselves and our dependents that taking the time to read and understand HR provided healthcare benefit info would be a priority during the open enrollment period. Guess again. Most employees - 63% - spend 30 minutes or less to make benefits decisions, and spend about 0.8 hours to research their options before buying - compared to 6.8 hours for a car and 1.3 for shoes (source: MetLife).

The cleanliness of the office refrigerator and kitchen (or lack thereof) tends to prompt a lot of comments by employees. Most of us think that it’s “the others” who are the slobs. But just how clean is your desk?