27-06-2012, 04:50 PM
Top 10 Best Practices in HR Management For 2011
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Introduction
The role of Human Resources is changing as fast as technology and the global
marketplace. Historically, the HR department was viewed as administrative overhead.
HR processed payroll, handled benefits administration, kept personnel files
and other records, managed the hiring process, and provided other administrative
support to the business. Those times have changed.
The positive result of these changes is that HR professionals have the opportunity to
play a more strategic role in the business. The challenge for HR managers is to keep
up to date with the latest HR innovations—technological, legal, and otherwise.
This special report will discuss the top 10 best practices in HR management for
2011—in other words, how HR managers can anticipate and address some of the
most challenging HR issues this year. This report will give you the information you
need to know about these current HR challenges and how to most effectively manage
them in your workplace.
Paid Leave Initiatives
Since 2007, a growing number of states and at least one city have passed laws to
allow employees to have or use paid leave for family and medical needs. For
example:
California has become the first state to provide paid time off for workers to provide
care for a child, spouse, parent, or domestic partner with a serious health
condition, or to bond with a new child (newborn, adopted, or foster care
child).
The District of Columbia entitles employees covered by the District Family and
Medical Leave Act to paid sick and “safe” leave for use under certain circumstances.
Maryland law requires that employers with 15 or more employees that provide
paid leave allow employees to use their paid leave (sick, vacation, or compensatory
time) for the illness of an immediate family member.
Washington state has passed a law (currently scheduled to become effective
in October 2012) requiring paid family leave, administered under a state-run
insurance program. Under the law, employees are entitled to up to 5 weeks’
paid family leave because of the birth of a child, in order to care for the child,
or because of the placement of a child with the employee for adoption.
New Jersey provides eligible employees with up to 6 weeks of temporary
disability benefits while taking leave under the state family leave law or the
federal FMLA to care for a family member with a serious health condition
or to care for a newborn or newly adopted child during the first 12 months
The In Loco Parentis Rule
In its first Administrator’s Interpretation addressing the Family and Medical Leave
Act (FMLA), the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) discussed the issue of nontraditional
families and the in loco parentis qualification under the federal law. It is a
fact of life that children today might have more than two parents, fewer than two
parents, parents of the same gender, and any variety of other parental arrangements.
following birth or placement for adoption.
Family Leave Rights
Under the FMLA, an eligible employee can take a job-protected, unpaid leave of
absence for up to a total of 12 workweeks in a 12-month period for:
The birth or care of a newborn
The placement of a child for adoption or foster care
The care of a child with a serious health condition
Covered children include the child of a person standing in loco parentis to that
child. The FMLA does not require a legal or biological relationship with the child.
Who Stands in Loco Parentis?
So which employees who don’t have a legal or biological relationship with a child
are nonetheless entitled to family leave related to that child? According to the
recent DOL Administrator’s Interpretation, the FMLA regulations define the term “in
loco parentis” to include those individuals with day-to-day responsibilities to care
for and financially support a child (DOL Administrator’s Interpretation No. 2010-3).
The interpretation explains, however, that the regulations don’t require an
employee who intends to assume parental responsibilities to establish that he or
she provides both day-to-day care and financial support for that child to stand. For
example, an employee who provides day-to-day care for an unmarried partner’s
child, but who doesn’t financially support the child, would be entitled to take leave
to care for that child in the case of a serious health condition. Employers should
apply the same standard to requests for leave for the birth of a child and to bond
with a child within the first 12 months after birth or placement.