B&H Foto and Electronics Corp. has agreed to pay $4.3 million to settle a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) complaint alleging the company violated federal law by discriminating against Hispanic workers.
Performance reviews are as constant as "death and taxes," Stephen Parker, senior vice president for BlessingWhite, Inc. told attendees at NY HR Week on April 18. But Parker said that there really is a purpose to the madness--it's to "unleash performance" and "fuel employees with motivation."
Las Vegas, Nevada--Employers with staff in different industries and regions of the world should not be mandating a single, uniform performance-management system across the entire organization. While a few companies, such as Toyota, have been successful with this kind of approach, many others have foundered when they tried to do it, said Jocelyn Berard, managing director of DDI Canada, at the Society for Human Resource Management's Global Conference last week.
Fewer than half of workers say managers take performance reviews seriously, and even fewer employees say they receive constructive feedback, according to a survey by Adecco Staffing North America.
March Madness could cost employers as much as $3.8 billion in lost wages this year, according to an estimate by Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc., an outplacement consultancy.
Two recent surveys indicate that there is room for improvement for managers to link pay with performance, offer career development, and provide coaching and feedback to employees.
When asked about the most frustrating aspects of their jobs, the greatest number of middle managers--47 percent--cited compensation issues, followed by balancing work and personal time, according to a survey by Accenture.
A federal judge has certified as a class-action a lawsuit alleging FedEx Corp.
discriminated against workers on the basis of their race in its pay, promotions,
and performance-review practices, the Associated Press reports.
Performance appraisals may be time-consuming and something few people enjoy,
but they are worth the effort from a legal and a human resources perspective,
according to Tom Makris, an employment attorney with Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw
Pittman, and Rhoma Young of the HR consulting firm Rhoma Young
& Associates.
