The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Health Care Reform) has been faced with an onslaught of legal challenges since shortly after it was signed into law on March 23, 2010.  Even before implementation began, numerous lawsuits challenging various provisions of the law were filed throughout the country. 

DON JERRELL
Associate VP

Orientation is one of the first experiences a driver has with your company.  Are you making the most of this opportunity to get drivers on board and excited about their job?

Use of social media is beginning to spread into the hiring process, which can create a new set of risks for your organization. While viewing an applicant’s Facebook profile may supply some useful information to recruiters, in some cases this has opened the door to allegations of discrimination or illegal conduct.  

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. 

Running a good wellness program is more challenging than a lot of people appreciate.  It’s not just about blasting health messages and doing a bunch of activities.  It’s about inspiring employees to change their behavior in a way that impacts their overall health outcomes.  It’s one part psychology, one part mathematician, one part public relations, and a whole bunch of other ingredients that HR and benefits professionals across the country are trying to figure out.

JOHN SIMMS
Vice President

Last week, I was back on the west coast attending the QUALCOMM Vision 2012 Management Conference. One of the highlights of the conference was listening to Richard Stockings, President and Chief Operating Officer at Swift Transportation, and his insightful comments on transformational leadership.

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? 

After our HNI University workshop on branding benefits and benefits communication, we sat down with presenters Mike Natalizio and Harry Gottlieb of Jellyvision to recap some of the highlights from the event.

JOHN SIMMS
Vice President

Last week I was on an airplane heading home from the left coast. We had just reached an acceptable altitude to make use of my electronic equipment.