Employer Telephone Seminars - Training Resources

Telecommuting: The Next Wave of Wage and Hour Litigation ...employers offer their employees the opportunity to work from home either on a regular or temporary basis. While the flexibility of a telecommuting arrangement can benefit both the employer and the employee, allowing a nonexempt employee to work at home can lead to a minefield of wage and hour issues that you must carefully navigate to avoid potential liability. As telecommuting has become more  more...

Satisfying OFCCP's Internet Applicant Rules ...n of an Internet applicant and the revised guidance gives employers additional direction and assistance into this new and growing area of employment issues. Moreover, the OFCCP has initiated a systematic process for monitoring adherence to the Internet Applicant Rule. This teleconference will review the new and expanded OFCCP guidance and provide you with a greater understanding of what is  more...

Do's and Don'ts for Internal Investigations of Employment Issues ...employer will want to investigate and, if necessary, remedy reported discrimination or harassment. In some states, a prompt investigation is legally required. This teleconference will provide you with valuable and practical advice on planning and conducting internal investigations, and assessing how to respond once the investigation is completed. Human resource professionals, business owners  more...

Limited Medical Programs: How Employers Are Using Them to Control Health Care Costs ...employers are hitting road blocks in cost saving measures. We are at a point of office visit co-pays approaching $50, prescription drug co-pays of $50 to $100, deductibles exceeding $2,000 for in-network benefits, and more and more premium cost shifting from employer to employee. Employee's are finding it hard to afford the per pay premiums and coupled with huge out-of-pocket expenses, this  more...

Dealing With Employees Who Have Been Charged With a Crime ...sOne of the most perplexing problems that can confront an employer arises after the employer discovers that one of its employees has been arrested and charged with a crime. Under our legal system, the familiar mantra is that an arrested person is 'innocent until proven guilty'. So, what can an employer do to address situations where an employee has been arrested or has been charge or  more...

Taxation of Gifts, Prizes, Bonuses and Awards ...employers are looking to provide benefits to employees with the least cost, both to them and employees. Gifts and prizes can be a good yet inexpensive way to boost morale, unless employers and employees alike fail to understand the tax consequences and end up with an unintended and unwanted tax bill. This teleconference will explain the tax consequences of gifts, prizes and other awards to  more...

Recognizing and Addressing COBRA ...ty of a tax subsidy of their COBRA premiums. Actually the employer fronts the money for the majority of the COBRA premium and receives a tax credit off of their payroll taxes. Important questions such as: Who is eligible for the tax subsidy? How does that money flow? What communications must be provided? What are the new election and notice time lines? Every letter must change! Human resource  more...

Conducting Background Checks ...employers are recognizing the benefits that can be derived from conducting background checks on both current and prospective employees. While background checks can be an effective tool for weeding out questionable employees, legal limitations on how such checks can be performed (and how the resulting data discovered can be used) must be understood or otherwise an employer will find themselves  more...

Mental Illness and the ADA ...h claimed mental conditions creates unique challenges for employers attempting to comply with the ADA. What mental impairments does the ADA protect? How does the employer know of these often invisible disabilities and of the employee's need to accommodate the condition? How does an employer accommodate conditions that cause employees to violate work rules or request treatment? May an employer  more...

Lawful Hiring ...Employers must navigate a minefield of complicated and, in some cases, conflicting laws that affect the hiring process Discrimination claims often arise out of the hiring process. The new U.S. Supreme Court decision in Ricci v. DeStefano, 557 U.S. ___ (2009) shows how an employer (the New Haven Fire Department in that case) can violate discrimination laws when taking steps to attempt to achieve  more...

Social Networking in the Workplace: Policies, Monitoring and Discipline Issues ...nation of trade secret information and lost productivity, employers have been slow to adopt and disseminate policies for appropriate usage of these web sites. Thus, employees are left to guess at what kind of conduct is permissible online; and, without effective policies in place, employers may be opening themselves to liability on a host of issues. It is therefore crucial for employers to  more...

Don't Bet the Company: Understanding and Avoiding Class Actions in Labor and Employment Law! ...ees may show up early or stay a few minutes late, but the employer is responsible for paying overtime for this work, even though it was never authorized and the company may even have a policy against it. Once a plaintiff's lawyer gets hold of the case, the company may have to pay for all that back-pay at an overtime rate, plus attorney's fees. Or, as in one case, the company had unpaid  more...

Controlling Health Care Costs With Self-Funded Plan Options ...employer must answer when deciding to switch from a fully insured health plan arrangement to a self-insured arrangement. The speaker will cover different self-insured health plan options, for example, preferred provider, HMO, health savings accounts and health reimbursement arrangements. The importance of choosing a third-party administrator based on factors beyond just the per person  more...

Paid Sick Leave Update: Policies and Procedures in an Evolving Workplace ...employers voluntarily provide their employees with paid sick leave. Increasingly, however, states and localities are dictating that employers allow employees to use these voluntarily-provided paid sick leave benefits for reasons beyond those covered by the employer's program. In some cases, states and localities have begun to mandate that employers provide employees with a minimum paid sick  more...

Smoking Discrimination in the Workplace: On and Off the Clock ...sent more frequently than nonsmokers, a growing number of employers have implemented programs to minimize the number of smokers in its workforce. These employer programs range from offering quit smoking programs to refusing to hire smokers and even terminating smokers. Privacy advocates argue an employer's interest in the smoking habits of applicants and employees ends at the employer's  more...

Presenteeism: Measurement and Intervention Issues for Employers and Health Plans nProductivity is fast becoming an even more vital issue to the business world. Presenteeism, or work loss due to underlying health conditions when individuals remain at work, is one important facet of productivity. One study found that approximately 6 percent of a global company's total compensation (salaries, wages and all benefit costs) were lost due to presenteeism. Work site wellness programs  more...

Why Is This Guy Still on My Health Plan? ...employers overlook but which has the potential to create significant exposure - that is, failing to coordinate a company's leave policies with the eligibility and termination provisions of its benefit plans. This results many times in inactive employees (inactive usually because of a disability or other leave of absence) lingering on employer's health and other benefit plans (dental, group  more...

Internal ERISA Audits: Getting It Right Before the Government Shows Up nEmployee benefits plans are subject to a large number of requirements imposed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act and by other laws such as the Internal Revenue Code. Failure to comply with these complex and ever-changing requirements could lead to substantial penalties or even the meltdown of the plan. This teleconference will highlight a number of these requirements and show you how  more...

Handling Federal Garnishments from Receipt to Termination ...employer at one time or another has received a garnishment, whether for taxes, child support or general creditors. Failing to follow garnishment laws can be very costly for employers, and thus it is critical to carefully follow the requirements of any garnishment. This teleconference will explain the different kinds of garnishments under federal law and their use and limitations. It will  more...

Effective Exit Interviews ...employers are always looking for ways to improve employee relations, attract new employees and retain the ones they have. But how do you know what to do to improve if you don't know what employees are looking for or why they are leaving? n nImplemented properly, a good exit interview program can provide an employer with a host of valuable information that can be used to improve its employee  more...

Employee Retaliation: Supreme Court Update ... the workplace today sends waves of concern throughout an employer's organization. Most recent court decisions recognize retaliation claims in nearly all areas of employment law and find adverse actions in a variety of circumstances, beyond demotion and termination, for purposes of upholding such claims. Most significantly, the U.S. Supreme Court recently determined in CBOCS West, Inc. v.  more...

Using Medical Certifications to Minimize Employer Liability: FMLA, ADA and Workers' Comp ...ertifications has proven to be a valuable tool to protect employers from liability under the ADA, the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1994, and state workers' compensation statutes. But the legal landscape for managing employee health issues has had many changes in recent months. Amendments to the ADA took effect January 1, 2009. The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act also takes effect  more...

Payroll Recordkeeping: What You Need to Know ... and its requirements as to the records to be kept by the employer regarding wages, hours and other items, as specified in the Department of Labor recordkeeping regulations. Discover what is required for both exempt and nonexempt employees, including how long the records must be maintained. Home-workers, employees working under certain specified pay arrangements, employees to whom lodging or  more...

Employee Discipline for Conduct Outside of Work ..., you will learn the legal rights and responsibilities of employers in disciplining employees for conduct outside of work. You'll hear about recent legislation and court cases involving some of the hottest topics in employment law, including employee discipline for blogging, web-based "employer trashing," workplace dating and extramarital affairs, and physical appearance such as weight, tattoos  more...

Curbing Unauthorized Overtime ...fits Year after year, one of the most challenging tasks employers face is keeping track of the hours their nonexempt employees work and correctly paying any required overtime premium. When unauthorized overtime occurs, labor costs skyrocket, and businesses face a budgeting nightmare. And when employees perform compensable work off the clock, the potential overtime liability for an employer  more...