Latest News from ORC Networks

One of the most important roles a diversity officer plays is to help senior leaders appreciate the value of diversity and inclusion and commit to their own set of D&I goals. Although business leaders may have an intellectual grasp of the general business case...

Nita Beecher, chair of workplace compliance and the employment law and litigation group at Mercer, formerly ORC Worldwide, gives her expert take on the Dodd-Frank Act in Diversity Executive this month. According to Nita, there has always been a little competition...

Elena Kagan, President Obama’s second appointment to the Supreme Court was approved by the Senate Thursday.  The Democratic-led Senate voted 63-37, to confirm the former Harvard Law School dean as the fourth female justice in U.S. history.

ORC Senior Vice President Frank White is quoted in three articles that cover the recent approval of OSHA reform legislation by the House Labor Committee. The articles appear in EHS Today, and two publications from the...

The 24th June meeting of the Global Diversity Forum was the largest meeting in its history since the network launched in 2006. The meeting drew a global audience from over 40 organisations in the...

Vince Cable, the Skills Secretary, has proposed that bright children from poorer homes should benefit from better access to the UK’s top universities through reserved places.  His proposals raise the possibility of quotas for state school children and a...

Beginning in 2012, Singapore employers will be required by law to offer reemployment to workers who have reached the current statutory retirement age of 62. Rather than raise the retirement age, the government has formulated this legislation as a more flexible way to...

Figures released by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) show a significant rise in the number of part-time workers in the UK as more people are forced to take on shorter hours or not work at all, and the differing impact on other groups of workers.

A member was interested in the EEO and Diversity efforts of US companies with overseas operations. They were trying to determine how companies with overseas operations handle concepts such as EEO and Diversity and corrective action/discipline; how they impose/monitor...

Many a diversity officer has had to deal with a senior executive who makes offensive remarks, touches people inappropriately, telegraphs disrespect for certain kinds of people, or discriminates outright.  More often than not, he or she doesn’t understand what...

Closing the Gap on Unfair Pay

Employers need to act now to make sure their pay practices don’t discriminate; ORC Worldwide can help

The following attachment is a primer that can aid in helping your workplace accommodate the visually impaired.  The article provides pertinent definitions, guidelines for interaction with the visually impaired, technology suggestions, and resources...

On June 16th the Wage and Hour Division of the Department of Labor issued a new interpretation that the statutory provision does not excuse an employer’s failure to pay an employee for time spent donning and doffing protective equipment that is “required by law,...

Craig Jones, Director Diversity at Barclays Wealth, is a member of ORC's Vanguard Network and Global Diversity Forum. He...

The $250 million in punitive damages that Swiss pharmaceutical Novartis has been ordered to pay to plaintiffs in a class action lawsuit is a record for U.S. gender discrimination verdicts, and it may end up being small...

On June 10, 1963, President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act. When the Equal Pay Act passed, women earned, on average, 60 cents for every dollar earned by men. Today, women in the...

As many human resources professionals in the U.S. know by now, recent federal activity has increased employers’ compliance responsibilities. In last month’s Sightlines, we reviewed many of these changes, including the passing of the...

The OSHA Listens forum, along with other steps being undertaken and considered by OSHA, are encouraging signs that the agency is willing to engage more meaningfully with its stakeholders in the policy and program development process. Deepening stakeholder engagement with...

The financial hardships experienced by so many people during the last couple of years have hit minority communities the hardest, not only with increased unemployment, but indirectly in terms of health care, education, life expectancy and community safety. The problems...

Two of our Global Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion staff, Deirdre Golden and Mary Martinéz, recently shared ORC’s latest research and best practice advice,“Diversifying Organisation Leadership: Getting Focused and Getting Results” at the Diversity and Inclusion...

On 20 January, the Global Workplace Compliance network held its third webinar focusing this time on Asian employment trends and what U.S. employers need to know about employment law in India, Korea and China. The session was moderated by Jacqueline Scott of...

Employee engagement across working life

As companies struggle to meet the challenges of the recession, HR and business commentary is highlighting the importance of employee engagement; the key to business success is motivated employees within a...

According to a recent study by the ISACA (formerly known as the Information Systems Audit and Control Association); a global organization focusing on the security of information systems, employees who dabble in social networking...

The ScotusBlog mentioned three points which it felt had been overlooked in the coverage of the Kagan nomination and which it believes might shift votes in the confirmation process.  First, Elena Kagan signed a letter in 2005 strongly protesting Sen.