labor lawAdivision of labor law center

HR professionals or owners are faced with my conflicting HR questions or situations everyday and how to solve the issues can vary depending on who you ask.  Many business owners or HR professionals often ponder the same question, “Is there an agency or source where I can go to get guidance or assistance on these HR issues?”.  Well now there is a solution!  www.HumanResourceBlog.com is now available for any HR professional to come and share their thoughts, questions, or issues and to openly discuss the situation or issue at hand.  Where else would you be able to go to find a community or center that has professionals sharing your same common problems and also having suggestions for you to possibly consider.  Like they say, two brains is better than one.  In this particular case, it’s two professionals better than one! 

www.HumanResourceBlog.com has a goal to build a community strictly for HR professionals all across the states to be able to post and receive answers from actual professionals in the same situation or have the knowledge to possibly guide you to answer.  State laws vary from state to state.  If your organization operates in multi-states, this is the place for you.  www.HumanResourceBlog.com does not limit the answer to any particular state or topic.  It does not have boundaries and/or limitations in the state the question is deriving from.  If you are seeking an answer to your HR question, www.HumanResourceblog.com will be the solution!

Answers are posted daily from Real HR experts that are emailed the questions instantly.  There is no automation to the postings of answers.  The website is strictly for owners, HR professionals, supervisors  and managers to post their HR related issues, questions, or concerns.  Post your questions today! The web site is not intended for employees to post employee related questions. 

Come join and lets build an HR Community together.

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The Labor Department is joining hands with a 205,000 member strong human resource managers’ association to open up job opportunities for the disabled.

Minnesota workers with disabilities will benefit from the alliance. The policy agency within the Labor Department is the Office of Disability Employment Policy, or ODEP. The private group is the Society of Human Resource Managers, or SHRM.

Opportunities for the disabled may have increased in the past few years, but society is still not getting the full benefit of disabled workers’ talents, says ODEP. The new alliance will push recruiting and hiring of this relatively untapped talent through the help of research and education. The teamup will specifically look not only at education but also at training, technical assistance, communication and outreach. The partnership is the first of its kind for ODEP.

A wide range of resources is being brought together through the teamwork between the Labor Department and the human resources managers. SHRM, founded in 1948, has more than 550 chapters, and counts members in more than 100 countries around the world. With its 205,000 members, it is the largest human resource professionals’ association in the world. ODEP is relatively new, dating back to 2001. Under Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao, authority was delegated and responsibility assigned to the assistant secretary for disability employment policy. It remains part of the U.S. Department of Labor.

The two forces, SHRM and ODEP, have worked together before, but informally. This makes it official.

“This alliance,” says Roy Grizzard, Assistant Secretary of Labor for Disability Employment Policy, “formalizes the relationship we have had with SHRM,” adding that it benefits SHRM as it “serves its membership with resources ODEP brings to the table and offering ODEP the opportunity for broader contact with human resource professionals.”

The partnership is also expected to open up a national discussion about employing disabled workers, among them Minnesota workers with disabilities.

Human resource directors in Minnesota, employers of small companies—be prepared to report your new hires. Anyone who has been in the business of managing and hiring people probably is used to having to deal with the Minnesota state labor law that requires all employers to report information on all of your new hires.

But when it comes to new employers, or people new to the human resource function of a company, perhaps they do not know what they are in for. And I am not saying that what you are in for is a boat load of trouble. On the contrary, the Minnesota state labor laws on new hire reporting, as are most states, are pretty flexible on how you have report. The only thing that isn’t flexible is that you do have to report.

So how can new employers get over the so called hump and be prepared for all of their new hire requirements. First, the key to being prepared is to be organized. The first thing perhaps you need to do is set up an employee file system, so you can keep track of your forms that your give and have signed by all new employees.

These can include the compensation summary form, the direct deposit form, the employment application of course, the referral form, the substance testing consent form, the receipt of employee handbook, and basically any other form that you would give to an employee on their first day or two of hiring.

All of these forms will have the required information that you need to report to the state for the new hire labor law. You need the info ready to go, because you have 20 days from the employee’s first day of work to report the new hire info to the state of Minnesota.

The Minnesota (MN) Department of Human Resources is a fundamentally important role player in our day to day lives. This department of our government plays a significant role in our day to day lives in that it provides for our work force enabling us to find jobs as well as to insure that businesses maintain the a good, fair and safe place for us to work. Yet, there is much more to it than just that. The department is also relatively involved in the creation of new jobs as well as monitoring and providing for unemployment.

In that regard, they have several programs in place to aid those throughout the state that need help in qualifying for employment. For example, the Minnesota Department of Human Resources provides for One Stop Career Centers which are funded programs that aid by providing all necessary benefits that a person needs to get the employment that the deserve. In addition, there have been 887 million dollars in funds set aside for Job Training and Dislocated Worker funds which also help in providing the necessary skills that are needed. In addition, career development is at the forefront of these programs.

In Minnesota, the unemployment rate has been considerably falling over time. In March of 2004, the unemployment rate was at 5 percent, a relatively high number. As of July of 2006, that rate has been lowered to 3.6 percent. In comparison, it is important to note that the national unemployment level is currently at 4.8 percent. In addition, since the end of the year of 2003, there have been almost 120,000 jobs created within the state, as per the Minnesota Department of Human Resources information. This is information that we all should know so that we can effectively take advantage of it through the long run.