Five Great HR Articles You Should Be Reading This Week (02012016)

1) SHRM: Proposed Rule Discourages Participation in Wellness Programs

“It takes two to tango with a wellness program: The employee or spouse volunteers medical information, and in return, gets a meaningful health assessment. This does depend on a person agreeing to participate, though, and incentives are one way to get an employee’s or spouse’s buy-in.

However, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has set out a proposed rule that will make the provision of incentives to spouses difficult, according to Jan. 28 comments from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).

The comments were in response to an Oct. 30, 2015, proposed rule on the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) and spousal incentives. The proposed rule outlined caps on incentives for participation in wellness programs.”

2) Does your incentive system encourage rule-breaking?

Company regulations don’t mean much when employees are cultured to act outside the rules to get results, writes Bill Barnett. “This is two-faced compliance, where we say we comply and tell our managers to ‘behave,’ and then give them incentives to look the other way,” he writes. Behaving is difficult, especially in regions where graft remains rampant, but bribes and other payments bring considerable risk even if they are considered part of the culture. – Read More

3) Don’t blame employees for their low morale

If employees are struggling with low morale, leaders need to reflect on their contributions. Consider whether you need to adjust your attitude, whether you’re handling feedback appropriately and whether you’re doing enough to inspire your team. – Read More

4) How Automation Will Change the Way We Work

“Automating tasks from a business perspective makes things more efficient,” says Sybll Romley, a member of the Society for Human Resource Management’s Technology and HR Management Special Expertise Panel who has spent years in the HR field. “But we have to make sure we’re not making things efficient at the expense of the customer experience.” And, from an HR perspective, “if you’re doing it at the expense of your culture and business, there’s a risk in that, too,” she says. – Read More

5) Glassdoor list cites top perks for workers

“Panda Fridays” at the World Wildlife fund and Airbnb’s annual travel stipend were among the perks cited by Glassdoor in its most recent list of companies with the best employee benefits. The list also included PricewaterhouseCoopers’ program for reimbursing student loans and REI’s policy of offering workers “Yay Days” for outdoor activities. – Read More

Submit a Comment Cancel reply