The top 10 mistakes employers keep repeating

Today is Groundhog Day, which, because of the eponymous Bill Murray movie, has become synonymous with repeating the same mistakes over, and over, and over…

In that spirit, I thought we’d take a look at the 10 biggest mistakes that employers keep making.

In no particular order:

EEOC proposed significant pay equality changes to EEO-1

If your company has 100 or more employees, you should be very familiar with the federal government’s EEO-1 survey. The EEOC requires that you annually complete and file this form, which requests demographic on your employees, broken down by protected classes and job categories.

Last Friday, the White House made a game changing announcement about the information it proposes you submit in your EEO-1 filings.

WIRTW #398 (the “doorbell” edition)

Someday, Donovan will comb through the archives of this blog and ask, “Dad, you sure wrote a lot about Norah’s music. What about mine?”

So, in the name of equal time and equal pride, I bring you Zombie Fried Chicken, with Donovan on keys (and big sis on drums), doing the White Stripes “My Doorbell.” (Donovan’s song intro, by the way, was totally spontaneous and improvised, and purely adorable).


Here’s the rest of what I read this week:

Consensus starting to form around reasonable reporting rules for off-the-clock overtime pay

It’s been a few years since the 6th Circuit held, in White v. Baptist Memorial Hosp., that an employer is not liable for unpaid overtime if the employee fails to follow an established, reasonable process for to report uncompensated work time.

Yesterday, following the logic of White, the 5th Circuit reached a similar conclusion:

Guest Post: Social Business and HR, Part 2

By Mike Wise

First, thanks again to Jon Hyman for the chance to write on a different but related topic – Social Business. As I mentioned in Part 1, I’m finding that a surprisingly high percentage of HR folks have not yet tapped into the incredible power of the Social Web. Perhaps this series will be helpful, at least at a high level. Feel free to question or comment in the Disqus form at the end of the post.

In Part 1 of this 3-part series on Social Business, the subject was Online Reputation Management. In this Part 2, the focus will be on Social Business and Internal Communications. We will finish the series in Part 3 with a look at the 3 R’s - Recruiting, Recognition, and Retention and how Social Business amplifies those efforts.

DOL doubles down on joint employment under the FMLA

Yesterday, we looked at the DOL’s recent guidance on joint employment under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Simultaneously with its FLSA guidance, the DOL also published guidance on joint employment under the FMLA, and it’s definitely worth you time.

The federal assault on joint employment continues

First it was the NLRB. Next it was OSHA. Now, the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division is taking its turn cracking down on joint employment.

Last week, the WHD launched a microsite entitled, Joint Employment under the FLSA. Most notably, this site included the publication a new Administrator’s Interpretation, which picks up the NLRB’s liberalized joint employer standard by relying on indirect or potential control, in addition to actual control, as the lynchpin of joint employment.