Employee onboarding is the getting-to-know-you period for a new worker and his or her employer. And it's as much about the employee getting to know the
employer as it is about the employee learning how to do a job!

Bare-bones employee onboarding offers little more than training on immediate job tasks. During strong employee onboarding, however, an employer may cover benefits, the firm's fiscal health, and department organization, along with giving the new employee a big dose of culture and values. It's an opportunity to give new hires "the big picture" of what a company is all about, and onboarding helps new employees figure out where they fit into that big picture.

JODI MATHY
Post Loss Specialist 

The cliche that "rules are meant to be broken" really doesn't apply to rules about workplace safety. Policies are in place to keep workers safe and your business running as efficiently as possible. What's more, rules about safety help control risk and costs for your firm!

This guidance is considered temporary, but will apply until the DOL releases other regulations or guidance. 

For an employer-sponsored wellness program to hit a home run, two factors must be in place. First, the program must address wellness issues important to your unique employee population. Second, the incentives for participation must be just right.

Starting May 7, all employers will be required to use a revised Form I-9, the employment eligibility verification document completed for every new hire. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced the change to the I-9 employment eligibility form in early March.

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) encourages worksite wellness programs to become part of the national public health strategy.

Walk into a Starbucks on any day of the week and you will more than likely have trouble finding a free table. Laptops cover the table tops and suit jackets drape the chairs. Their owners, while sipping their lattes, are also hard at work. New technology and internet programs have allowed for an entirely new way of working, which presents many challenges for the HR world.

Technology is rapidly changing the way we live and work.  Along with this shift comes many new emerging issues in HR, in part because the Fair Labor Standards Act and other major employment laws haven’t kept up with the pace of change. 

The social revolution is changing the business world completely, but there is still a great deal of grey area about what employers can and can't do.  How do you manage what employees post to personal pages on sites like Facebook and Twitter?  Can your policies control what your de facto “brand ambassadors” can say, or is this a violation of their rights to free speech?  If employees post negative content about the company, can you ask them to take it down? 

RENEE KUHS
Compliance Attorney, HNI

While the Second Amendment protects the right of the people to keep and bear arms, Wisconsin recently expanded this to include carrying concealed weapons.  Beginning November 1, 2011, employees that have a license to carry a concealed weapon may legally take their handgun to work in Wisconsin.  The first thing on the minds of many HR and Safety Managers is how this affects their business and workplace policies.  Is your organization bulletproof?