TrendWatchers

A series of U.S. Supreme Court decisions in the past two years has helped to clarify what employers and workers can expect regarding the application of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in the workplace. In 2002 alone, there were four decisions that will probably have a profound effect on...

In recent years, there's been a paradigm shift in the realm of employee benefit programs, especially among U.S. and UK companies. Increasingly, employers are serving as "brokers" of flexible benefit programs. This development has bolstered the popularity of voluntary benefits, ushered in the concept...

Companies have spent the last couple of years cutting costs, but sooner or later they reach the point of diminishing returns, a time when they're cutting into muscle rather than trimming fat. That's when they've got to put greater emphasis on innovation, which is one of the primary ingredients for...

A lot of HR professionals are walking a very thin rope these days, struggling to find the right balance between retaining talent and controlling labor costs. It's no mean trick, especially with their bosses nudging them along, demanding that they figure out ways of somehow boosting the bottom line.Th...

The relentless pounding of healthcare cost increases is growing worse. For the third year in a row, workers' health insurance costs in 2003 are likely to swell by double-digit percentages. Meanwhile, experts are saying the whole system is facing a crisis, the resolution of which is hard to envision...

If your organization is struggling with restructuring and employee morale issues these days, then at least take some comfort in the fact that you're not alone. Not by a long shot.That's one of the initial findings from a new HRI survey in which we asked respondents to "list the top three issues,...

Among U.S. corporations, a trend toward moving back-office operations to other nations has emerged. If this trend continues, it could have major implications in critical areas such as cost containment, service quality, and customer relations. It may also cause an outcry against sending U.S. jobs to...

By many measures, today's version of capitalism has served developed nations well, continuously ratcheting up average living standards and generating technological advances that would have awed previous generations. But some business thinkers are convinced that the current system is becoming...

Employers may want to keep a sharp eye on the temporary staffing industry. First, movement in this industry is a leading economic indicator, giving them a heads up on how tight the overall labor market may become. Second, when the economy further improves, many of the first workers hired back will...

Human resource outsourcing often seems like a locomotive bearing down on HR, forcing it to either move fast or get out of the way. But the truth is that HR professionals are guiding the outsourcing process to a great extent, helping to determine its current and future course.HR outsourcing has...