’Tis the season … when merriment sometimes gets the better of good HR sense. Here are a few tips to help companies stay out of hot water at the annual holiday party. Invite the “better halves.” Holiday parties are synonymous with alcohol, and while there are many ways a company can reduce its risk, a non-traditional (yet highly effective) option is to invite employees’ … [More]
Manage Energy, Not Engagement
After 20 years of trying to get it right, few organizations truly understand employee engagement or have failed to see its improvement in their company. And yet, there are organizations that have increased engagement — but find their employees are drained and depleted. What causes this “engagement paradox”? It’s simple. Managing engagement turns out to be just another drain … [More]
Criminals Have a Plan to Steal Your Money. What’s Your Plan to Keep It?
Cyber criminals have become more sophisticated than ever. Thwarting cyber thieves begins with awareness and education — for business owners and everyone in their organization. Common Scams and Ways to Defeat Them “Our bank account was compromised … please wire your payments here, instead.” A trusted vendor sends an email with new wire instructions, claiming that their bank … [More]
Equity Crowdfunding Comes to Arizona
Arizona’s new crowdfunding law, which is intended to give small companies in the local Arizona economy greater access to capital, took effect on July 3, 2015. Arizona joins a growing number of states that have recently enacted laws permitting some form of equity crowdfunding. For startups and other emerging growth businesses that may not have ready access to traditional sources … [More]
Multicultural Marketing and a Changing Mainstream
Without doubt, the multicultural market in the United States is an increasingly powerful consumer. Research by Geoscape, the leader in business intelligence across the multicultural market, shows Hispanics currently represent 18 percent of American households but were responsible for nearly half of the growth in consumer spending from 2013 to 2014. Between Asian-American and … [More]
New Labor Rules Are Reason for Risk Assessment
The National Labor Relations Board has, historically, focused on the unionized part of the National Labor Relations Act, but the act has always covered non-unionized employees as well — and this is where the current NLRB is especially focused. The NLRA’s “mutual aid and protection” component is what the NLRB is using to greatly expand its realm of authority. According to Joe … [More]
Distracted Driving Is an Employer Issue
Distracted driving is a potential minefield for employers, due to a liability issue that many misunderstand. “A common mistake is to think, ‘If it’s the driver’s equipment, we don’t have any responsibility.’ That is not so,” says David Lewis, CEO of HR company OperationsInc, noting, “The courts have emphatically said that if a person is performing work for your firm, and at the … [More]
New Labor Rules Spur Uptick in Union Activity
Recent years have seen tremendous evolution in labor law — more than in preceding decades, according to Joe Clees, a shareholder in the Phoenix office of Ogletree Deakins and a past chair of the Employment and Labor Law Section of the Arizona State Bar. It is, however, a realm that is particularly susceptible to change, says Clees, explaining that change is based on the party … [More]
A New, More Secure Payment Method
“It’s been something that’s been in the works for quite some time now,” says Scott Shedd, referring to the upcoming switch from traditional credit and debit cards to EMV cards. Shedd is the information security consulting manager for WGM, an IT company located in Scottsdale that analyzes technology risks and compliance. The noticeable difference between a traditional card … [More]
Sweepstakes Offers: Legal Promotion or Illegal Gambling?
Many businesses look to hold sweepstakes, raffles, poker tournaments and other contests for marketing purposes. They don’t realize that these activities can amount to illegal gambling. “Gambling” generally means risking something of value for a chance to win a prize. With only limited exceptions, it is against the law for an Arizona business to benefit from gambling. … [More]
Good Data Saves Lives
One thousand people die every day due to medical error. This shocking revelation at a Senate hearing last year put medical error at the No. 3 position for cause of death in the United States. Electronic health records (EHRs) are seen as part of the solution to this problem but their implementation comes with its own set of problems. “It’s in its early stages and is not … [More]
Uber-Local: ‘Vicinity Magazine’ Launches
Knowing what is happening, what restaurants are offering, where live music is being performed and what deals are available in “my” vicinity is the concept of the new uber-local, uber-hip Vicinity magazines. The publications, website and mobile app are designed to inform readers and users as to all that is going on in their immediate area in the categories of dining, events, … [More]
Secure Against Internal as well as External Breaches
Diligence against cyber security breaches is as much an issue of internal processes as external threats. In fact, the breach Home Depot so publicly suffered last year was enabled through a pfishing scheme whereby hackers first gained access to a third-party vendor that had access privileges with Home Depot. In the recent survey “Privilege Gone Wild 2” by global cyber … [More]
3-D Print for Medical Use
3-D printing is making a big impact in medical applications. Not that the technology is new — W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc., among others, has been using 3-D printing for decades. It was used to make models and prototypes, says Eric Miller, principal and co-owner of Phoenix Analysis & Design Technologies, which provides 3-D printers and 3-D printing services and is … [More]
Do You Have a Noble Purpose? Or Do You Just Sell Stuff?
If someone asked your employees, “What’s the purpose of your business?” how would they answer? If the majority of your people believe that the primary purpose of your business is to make money, you’re on the road to mediocrity. It sounds harsh, but it’s true. Consider Monster.com. Monster was originally founded on the belief that helping people find jobs was a noble … [More]
Balancing on the Internship Tightrope
Summer is traditionally a hot time for internships. For companies looking to bring on interns, the most important consideration is whether to make it an unpaid internship or a paid one. From the legal standpoint, “It’s a relatively new area of law that is just catching fire across the country,” says Lindsay Leavitt, an attorney in the Phoenix office of Jennings, Strouss & … [More]
Knowing Our Market
From entrepreneurs to housewives, everybody benefits from having a bit more information about how their hometown stacks up. WallletHub has conducted two studies that compare our community to others nationally in the areas of diversity and culture — giving consumers and businesspeople a glimpse into how we perform on many key data points. Running a good business or starting … [More]
File this Under: The Complexity of Managing Personnel Documents
This article has been updated. Please click here to read the updated article. The basic management of personnel files used to be pretty simple: Collect some basic information and stick the files on a shelf somewhere. Today, the matter of collecting and storing private employee information is not as simple, even with the available option of going digital. For example, … [More]
