Walmart is standardizing its patchwork employment policies to offer all its store and warehouse workers paid sick leave. The changes are a nod to the increasing number of local and state governments requiring employers to offer some time off for sick days. But the retail giant is simultaneously cracking down on no-show workers by cutting […]
How to shrink the pay gap
Requiring companies to report on the pay disparity between male and female employees has the power to shrink such gaps, according to a recent study. The researchers, who examined two groups of Danish companies, found that salary gaps declined by 7% over five years at firms that were required to report on their disparities. The […]
Employers need to address carers
Employers underestimate how hard it is for staff to balance work and caregiving duties, according to a new study from Harvard Business School researchers. The study found almost three quarters of U.S. workers have some caregiving duties: 32% have left a job because they couldn’t balance both; more than 80% say their caregiving duties prohibit them from optimal […]
Jackson Lewis issues benefit advisory on meal deductions
Notice 2018-76: Taking a Bite Out of the Business Expense Deductions for Meals, Entertainment The Notice explained that, under Code Section 274(k), no deduction is allowed for food and beverage expense unless the expense is not lavish or extravagant under the circumstances and the taxpayer or an employee of the taxpayer is present at the […]
IRS releases notice about 2017 Moving Expenses
IRS issues tax notice https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/irs-issues-tax-notice-daniel-bloom-sphr-ssbb/?published=t
Thank you for the memories
Take a trip back in time to May of 1991 at the Anatole Hotel for the Worldwide ERC’s National Relocation Conference. During that event two events took place which would shape my work for over a quarter of a century. The first was the suggestion from a member of the ERC staff that based on […]
TLS Continuum Part 87: Processes Gone Awry
First of all, let me extend my regrets for not keeping better in touch but I and my family have been fighting this bug that is flying around. Not the flu but close to it. It sucks to be under the weather. This past week has been filled with more irony then I would want […]
TLS Continuum Part 86: 5 ways to bring business skills to the classroom
We constantly read in the media and hear our elected officials espousing that our schools are in turmoil. However, if we bring the TLS Continuum and its associated business skills to the school environment we can counter these messages of gloom and doom. So how do we make that happen? Map your processes Both from […]
New I-9 form goes live today
The federal government’s new I-9 form for employment verification goes live today. Further information can be found at https://www.uscis.gov/i-9
Department of Labor changes the playing field
U.S. Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta today announced the withdrawal of the U.S. Department of Labor’s 2015 and 2016 informal guidance on joint employment and independent contractors. Removal of the administrator interpretations does not change the legal responsibilities of employers under the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act, […]
Beware the Cycle of Doubt
Projects fail when support dwindles due to shifting organizational priorities, changes in leadership, and distrust of information. Karen Brown et al discuss to reverse the cycle of doubt in an article in the Spring 2017 issue of the MIT Sloan Management Review. Read the full article at http://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/protect-your-project-from-escalating-doubts/
Annual VEVRAA Hiring Benchmark is 6.7 Percent
Today the 2017 Annual Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA) hiring benchmark was updated on the VEVRAA Benchmark Database. The benchmark – 6.7 percent – is effective March 31, 2017. Contractors who adopted the previous year’s national benchmark of 6.9 percent after March 4, 2016, but prior to this announcement, may keep their benchmark […]
TLS Continuum Part 80: Don’t Ask. Don’t Tell
This blog post does not refer to the former government policy regarding sexual orientation in the military. Rather this refers to a vital part of the TLS Continuum and the voice of the customer. We can’t improve our processes without the input from our customers. However it does no good for you to ask the […]
TLS Continuum Tip of the Week
If you change the process, the old standard of work becomes obsolete
TLS Continuum Part 78: Obstacles are pathways to Opportunities, Not a Dead End
Let me begin with a few premises. Whether we are talking about our personal lives or your business workplace, everything we do is based on a process of some type. Each process is constructed of a series of steps, which lead us to the end result. The second premise is that although we would like […]
TLS Continuum Tip of the Week
Crowds are only wise when the group has access to everyone’s individual information. Think organization for crowds. Jonah Berger “Invisible Influence.
TLS Continuum Part 74: I want it and I want it now
I want to apologize in advance for some of what I have to say in this segment of the TLS Continuum Blog series may make you uncomfortable. If we look at society as a whole, we find that our lives seem to be surrounded by the need for instant gratification. Earn an MBA and expect […]
TLS Continuum Part 71: HR TLS Continuum Reading List
Lately I have been asked about a reading list of titles that can be accessed to learn more about the components of the TLS Continuum. Over the next seven segments I will provide you with a list of titles that appear within my personal process improvement library. The first part will deal with the area […]
TLS Continuum Tip of the Week
Major obstacle to process improvement is management buy in and acceptance
TLS Continuum Part 70: It is the process not the end result
Think about your organization carefully and what do you see? Whether you are a manufacturing operation or a service organization you each have the same basis for the success or failure of your organization operation. That basis is a collection of processes that are unique to your individual corporate culture, visions and missions. The problem […]
TLS Continuum Part 69: TLS Continuum, Innovation and Society
A couple of weeks ago I posed in the weekly blog whether you are transactional or transformation based. While I contended that the new climate we are in mandated that you shift your focus from being totally transactional focused to being transformational focused, the events of the past week tells me that to some degree […]
TLS Continuum Part 67:The question for the day: Transactional or Transformational?
If we look back in time, we find that whether you call it HR or personnel it has always it seems been our job to put out fires. It has always been our job to be the go to person when a problem needs to be resolved. That means that we respond to a given […]
TLS Continuum Part 64: What Works? The Customer Experience
In this final installment in this four part series we have reached the step, which the TLS Continuum looks at the Six Sigma segment of the process. We have to this point looked at the problem, developed our metrics and the voice of the customer, and introduced potential solutions to the organization and the stakeholders. […]
TLS Continuum Part 60: A New Perspective in the TLS Continuum
I have written extensively in this blog series about the power of the TLS Continuum in your organization. Like most of you I read the professional media and books to stay on top of what is going on in our industry. Every now and then you come across a concept which changes your whole focus […]
TLS Continuum Part 51: It is not acceptable in society, it is not acceptable in the workplace
Turn on the news or read the newspaper and you will see stories about teenagers complaining that they are being bullied in the schools, on the streets etc. These stories bring about almost immediate consternation from the public in the form of twitter posts, Facebook posts etc. In every case the predominant message is that […]
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced today that it has voted to release for public input a proposed enforcement guidance addressing national origin discrimination under Title VII
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced today that it has voted to release for public input a proposed enforcement guidance addressing national origin discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. EEOC’s enforcement guidance documents express official agency policy and explain how the laws and regulations apply to specific workplace […]
TLS Continuum Part 49: To measure or not to measure that is the question
Every day in every organization management from the boardroom to the C-Suite is demanding that we produce metrics to determine how the organization is functioning. The common demand is that we measure something. In his book Six Sigma: The Breakthrough Management Strategy Revolutionizing the World’s Top Corporations, Dr, Mikel Harry tells us that a) we […]
TLS Continuum Part 48: Dangers of Complacency
Imagine a scenario where everything moves along smoothly with no problems. Imagine you have the power to wave a magic wand and every problem solves itself. For many members of management this the way they face reality. They forget the process is called Continuous Process Improvement. We do not have processes that just move it […]
EEOC Releases final rules on wellness and ADA, GINA
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) today issued final rules that describe how Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Title II of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) apply to wellness programs offered by employers that request health information from employees and their spouses. The two rules provide guidance to […]
TLS Continuum : Process Improvement equals experimentation equals failure
As I read the literature out in the market I see wide responses to organizational problems with the usual suspects. We resolve performance issues by cutting costs. We resolve performance issues by cutting human capital spend. We resolve performance issues by cutting overhead. Here is the problem, without experimentation we will not find the true […]
DOL releases new FMLA Guide
Department of Labor today announced the release of a Guide to FMLA along with new required poster. Guide can be found at http://www.fmlainsights.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/311/2016/04/FMLA-Guide-for-Employers.pdf
TLS ( Theory of Constraints-Lean-SIx Sigma) Continuum Tip Of the Week
Solutions must be evidence-based, so confirm your usage of the right metrics for the problem
TLS Continuum of the Week
Strive for agreement not crowdthink. Thinking through push for one view is not improvement #TLS Continuum
TLS Continuum: The Dangers of Assumptions
Those of you who have followed this blog since the Blogger days in the early 2000’s know that there are two topics I have strongly avoided in this space – one is religion and the other is politics. And yet the current political climate provides clear evidence of the dangers of assumptions in our lives. […]
5 Problems Renters Run Into and How to Solve Them: A Guest Blog from Porchlight Rentals
5 Problems Renters Run Into and How to Solve Them When on the search for a rental, the last thing on your mind is all the little things you may not be thinking of. During the rental and relocation assistance process, we’ve solved many issues that may come up. PorchLight Rental brings light to the […]
TLS Continuum : What do we mean by process ownership?
In last week’s post we asked the question, who really is your process subject matter expert? In this week’s post I want to take the discussion to another view of the question. If we have assumed who the process SME is within your organization, then what are their obligations to the organization? Deming in his […]
TLS Continuum Tip of the Week
While your beliefs and opinions have value, Process improvement requires evidence based metrics that are verifiable. #TLS Continuum
TLS Continuum Part 39: Who really is your process Subject Matter Expert?
As I have stated earlier I am currently in the process of reading Michael Rother’s Toyota Kata. In the book the point is made as to who should be the one who is considered the SME of the process within the organization. The problem is that the author’s response to the question is quite different […]
Be careful what you wish for
A segment of the corporate world thought they had the perfect solution to avoid the requirements of the Affordable Care Act by limiting employee hours to under 30 hours a week. Now, according to the Employment law firm Fisher and Phillips, a New York based Federal Judge has allowed a case to move forward which […]
TLS Continuum: But I don’t understand the correlation?
Over the course of this series of blog posts, and most recently the last couple of weeks, we have stressed that the TLS Continuum requires the creation of a new normal in the organization. It calls for a new form of corporate culture. But where is the correlation between the TLS Continuum, Change management and […]
Does your CEO know what is killing your organization?
Do you know how to find the non-value added activities that the CEO is missing? Join us to learn a whole new perspective on being the critical HR Business partner that you need to be. Resolve that lingering HR problem by applying a new methodology to problem solving by coming to Orlando, FL April 14-15, […]
TLS Continuum: Change is Hard
Change is hard, and we understand that. It is never easy but at times there is no recourse. Those of you who have followed this blog since 2006 when we began know that there are two topics I never discuss – Politics and Religion. But when we look at the current political turmoil that has […]
TLS Continuum: Are You Bankrupt?
Trust me I am not trying to delve into your personal affairs. What I am asking is your organization in financial trouble? I am asking for a reason unrelated to a full investigation of your organization’s finances. I have had to cancel two training sessions in the past week due to the fact that the […]
TLS Continuum: I Know my Organization and We are Waste Free
How many times have you heard this from a department manager or even from top management? Everyone thinks they are basically running a tight ship but under the surface lies this scary monster we call waste. It is right under our noses and we choose to ignore it for whatever reason. Some are subtle nuances […]
EEOC releases 2015 enforcement actions report
The EEOC today released the summary report of actions by the agency during 2015. The report shows that the major categories of actions were: Retaliation: 39,757 (44.5% of all charges filed) Race: 31,027 (34.7%) Disability: 26,968 (30.2%) Sex: 26,396 (29.5%) Age: 20,144 (22.5%) National Origin: 9,438 (10.6%) Religion: 3,502 (3.9%) Color: 2,833 (3.2%) Equal Pay […]
TLS Continuum Tip of the Week
If you have established a standard of work for a given HR process and you vary from that standard of work you have created waste.
Victoria, sorry you can’t go back to Kansas
Over the past several weeks I have talked about change and by this I mean real change. It is a change that has rocked the very essence of the organization that you work for. It is change that has created a new corporate normal characterized by a new corporate culture unlike anything you have experienced […]
TLS Continuum Tip of the Week
You can’t expect to solve organizational problems when you believe it is not your job to do
EEOC Actions
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) today made public a proposed revision to the Employer Information Report (EEO-1) to include collecting pay data from employers, including federal contractors, with more than 100 employees. This new data will assist the agency in identifying possible pay discrimination and assist employers in promoting equal pay in their […]
TLS Continuum Part 33: Its Not My Job
Let me begin this week’s blog post with a question: Who do you work for? I know it sounds like a weird question, but I want you to stop for a moment and think about your answer. I am not a betting man but I bet I can predict most of your responses. The vast […]