employment
EEOC wins religious discrimination case against Abercrombie, says Supreme Court
A few months back, we posed the question “What obligations do businesses have when it comes to avoiding religious discrimination?” Well, the Supremes have spoken: in a 8-1 vote, the Supreme Court declared that employers must accommodate prospective employees’ religious affiliations “if the employer at least has an idea that such accommodation is necessary.” Even…
Read MoreFAA’s changes to traffic controller hiring ‘puts the safety of our skies at risk’
The Federal Aviation Administration has been under investigation over the past six months after it made changes to its hiring policies in order to promote diversity in its air traffic controller hiring. Many are now concerned that the changes in the requirements for air traffic controllers are not stringent enough, and can put those who…
Read MoreHiring managers: Avoid these questions when interviewing
new study from Career Builder and Harris Polls shows that 20 percent of hiring managers have asked job applicants illegal interview questions, whether inadvertently or intentionally. Similarly, one in three managers don’t know what kinds of questions are illegal to ask during the interview process. Which begs the question, do YOU know what kinds of…
Read MoreApril 2015 employment: surge in business, health care jobs
a release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 223,000 new jobs were added to the U.S. workforce in April, primarily in business, health care and construction. The unemployment rate remained steady between March and April, hovering around 5.4 percent of the population (about 8.5 million people). Of the new positions available, 62,000 of them are…
Read More‘Provocative’ study shows hiring bias for college STEM jobs favors women
new study by PNAS regarding women applying for STEM tenure-track positions shocked researchers when it was discovered that, based solely on resume comparisons, women were preferred for tenure-track university jobs 2:1 over male candidates with identical qualifications. This held true among every STEM field in the study — biology, engineering and psychology — with the exception…
Read MoreVEVRAA hiring benchmark drops again
revised regulations implementing the Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act, effective April 2014, require federal contractors to develop an annual hiring benchmark for protected veterans. This benchmark must be based on either (1) the national percentage of all veterans in the civilian labor force; or (2) a five-factor analysis taking into account various veteran and contractor…
Read MoreWhat types of background checks can employers conduct?
Criminal background checks Criminal background checks are common in employment situations in which the employee will have access to company financial information or will be working with vulnerable populations. Oftentimes, a company will reconsider hiring the person if they are applying for a position related to a previous felony conviction. In order to conduct criminal…
Read More3 ways businesses can benefit from drug testing
see improvements in your company by drug testing, from a former human resources manager and director. Find better workers. When word gets around that your company conducts drug tests, you’re automatically able to screen out potential employees that won’t be able to pass drug tests — because they are less likely to apply for jobs…
Read MoreState marijuana legalization brings up new questions in hiring
is actually legal — it creates a confusing situation. Should an applicant be denied a job in another state because he or she utilizes a drug that is legal in the state in which he or she resides? One problem is that THC — the active ingredient in cannabis — can stay in the body…
Read MoreMarch 2015: unemployment rate steady
According to a news release from the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate has not changed since February, continuing to hold steady at 5.5 percent, or 8.6 million unemployed individuals. In March, 126,000 new jobs were added to the workforce, way down from the previous monthly average of 269,000 new jobs…
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