Be prepared! It is likely employers will soon be required to report their workplace injuries and illnesses electronically, and your establishments information will be used as a comparison for your performance against others in the industry. Hotel Business Review, Kathleen Pohlid, sums up the proposed OSHA rule.

Would you be interested in knowing the workplace injuries of your competitors? Are you comfortable with the public having access to your establishment’s workplace injuries and illnesses? Get ready as this will likely happen soon.

Last year, OSHA issued proposed rule changes which will require large employers, with 250 or more employees, to electronically report their workplace injuries and illnesses to OSHA...

While opponents of e-cigarettes continue to debate the affects of the vapor and the chemicals in the liquid vaporized to produce the vapor, a new twist involving e-cigarettes is developing. Employers Beware! It may be time to develop and implement an employee policy banning the use of e-cigarettes during working hours. BLR and Jay Starkman give us a glimpse of the evolving subject in this article.

In our lifetime we have seen many states ban smoking in public and/or indoor locations. Only until now has the debate about smoking included what is considered smoking for purposes of the law. The recent development of electronic cigarettes (or e-cigarettes) is changing the smoking landscape and is creating a new issue for employers to consider.

E-cigarettes are battery powered and tobacco-f...

As technology becomes more sophisticated, so do the many crimes associated with it. Whether you’re a large institution, a small retailer, or an individual, you are susceptible to data breaches. If your company data is breached, in most cases, you are required to provide notice. BLR, Holly Jones, guides us through state laws, and when you are required to provide notice.

What are you required to do once you discover that your company’s data has been breached? Nearly every state has a security breach law, under which you are required to provide notice. In this article, we discuss state laws and when you are generally required to provide notice about a data breach.

In this article, we cover topics such as who needs to be notified of a security breach and what the notice should include.

S...

A robotic bellhop? A robotic room service attendant? Technology continues to escalate and amaze us at the same time. The Wall Street Journal summarizes Botlr’s capabilities and how it may change the hospitality industry in this fascinating article.

Robots are driving cars, cleaning kitchens and fighting wars. Now they are bringing room service in hotels.

A robot shaped like the R2D2 character from “Star Wars” is roaming the halls of Starwood’s Aloft hotel in Cupertino, Calif., delivering late-night snacks and complimentary toothbrushes to guests in their rooms.

The machine, called Botlr, is a prototype made by Santa Clara, Calif., startup Savioke. The company began developing Botlr a year ago with the goal of freeing up hotel staff from the routine deliveries they do every day...

The constant advancement in technology today is somewhat like raising children. Something new everyday, which usually requires safety and protection, the advancements multiply quickly, and they’re gone before you know it. Today’s gadgets even talk back to you. World class technology is here to stay and so are the new innovated  wearable devices. The time to prepare for wearable technology is NOW! Stephen Erf and Heather Egan Sussman bring to Employers, the best practices to stay ahead of the risks.

More than a decade ago, “dual use” devices (i.e., one device used for both work and personal reasons) began creeping into workplaces around the globe...

If you are an HR professional or part of a management team, chances are once you post a job opening, you are inundated with countless applications and resumes, many of which don’t quite possess the credentials you desire. Relief may be on the way. BLR updates us with a program through the WIOA aiming to prepare jobseekers with the skills employers are seeking.

Federal officials are hoping that federal job-driven training initiatives will equip jobseekers with in-demand skills and then match them with employers looking for skilled labor.

An earthquake in Napa Valley, flash floods in California, Nevada, and Arizona, and hurricanes off the coast of Baja, California. If an emergency occurred tomorrow, would you be ready? Have you identified the hazards likely to affect you and your business? Do your employees know how to handle the crisis? If you don’t have a preparedness program in place or have not updated it recently, now is the time!  Five main steps to develop and update an effective plan are outlined and summarized below by FEMA. 

Businesses can do much to prepare for the impact of the many hazards they face in today’s world including natural hazards like floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes and widespread serious illness such as the H1N1 flu virus pandemic...

Your well-balanced, active, and healthy employee takes the day off to have a routine medical checkup. Chances are you think little of it. The next thing you know, you’re discussing long term medical leave with the employee. This is just one of the many scenarios that can arise with employee medical leave. Hotel Executive and Fisher and Phillips, LLP help balance the legal duties of an employer while accommodating the multiple and legal employee leave scenarios.

Have you ever scheduled an early-shift employee to cover for a late-shift employee who has just taken medical leave? The covering employee probably was not excited to have to work that extra shift...

Whether you’re new to HR or an HR Director, many HR professionals would agree that is has become a unique challenge to address the ever-changing federal and California laws and regulations. You’ll benefit from reading a recent California Supreme Court ruling BLR brings us.

To the dismay of employers, the California Supreme Court has ruled that employees who aren’t authorized to work in the United States, or “unauthorized aliens,” may nonetheless sue their employers for violations of the state Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA)—even if they used false documents to obtain their jobs. The court did, however, limit the remedies they can recover under the law.

Unauthorized worker files FEHA action

Have you taken the necessary steps to protect your employees who are traveling for business and to manage your costs? With business travel on the rise, both nationally and globally, the potential for increased employee exposures and their costs has become an essential component of risk management today. Risk and Insurance gives us insight into the growing risks and how to manage them. 

Business travel is increasingly becoming riskier for employers and employees.

Despite the proliferation of technology enabling communications today, face time — not Facebook — remains one of the most important tools for attracting and retaining both customers and employees.

This post-recession realization — that sitting across a table and looking someone in the eye is what drives business — has re...