Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
There are dozens of details to take care of in the day-to-day operation of your department and your company. We give you case studies, news updates, best practices and training tips that keep your organization fully in compliance with ever-changing employment law, and you fully aware of emerging HR trends.
To ensure that individuals who join [Company Name] are well qualified and have a strong potential to be productive and successful employees, it is [Company Name]’s policy to investigate the backgrounds and employment references of applicants. In addition, [Company Name] may conduct background investigations when employees are being considered for promotions or transfers, or in […]
What legal right do bosses have to monitor their workers’ communications, especially when sent through new technologies? The answer (as usual) is: It depends. Yesterday’s Advisor briefed you on the subject of electronic surveillance of your employees. We summarized the pros and cons of looking at your employees’ e-mails, instant messages (IMs), and other communications, […]
Recently, Lynn Noyes, a permanent software developer at temp agency Kelly Services in Nevada City (near Sacramento) won a massive $6.5 million verdict when a jury found that Noyes’ manager failed to select Noyes for promotion because she lacked certain religious beliefs held by that manager. Evidence in the case showed that the manager also […]
Employment law attorney Michael Maslanka reviews the book It’s Our Ship: The No Nonsense Guide to Leadership by Captain D. Michael Abrashoff. Standard book on how to manage transforms to inspiration for HR to fight corporate bureaucracy. The title of It’s Our Ship: The No-Nonsense Guide to Leadership, another in the series by Captain D. […]
When it comes to electronic surveillance of employees, as the TV ad says, “Just because you can do it, doesn’t mean you should.” Most companies now have the means to conduct electronic surveillance of their employees’ at work, since so much that employees do passes through company computer networks. But should you peek? Susan Heathfield, […]
In sensitive HR discussions with employees, some of your managers will do best working from a script. But don’t try to write one until you’ve gotten the appropriate written policies backing it up. Yesterday’s article on the proper handling of terminations gave tips on what management personnel should and should not say in these circumstances. […]
Amazon.com updates its list of bestselling business books hourly. Here is a snapshot of what books were hot this morning — Monday, August 18. 1. Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson. Following a 1993 climb of Pakistan’s treacherous K2, the […]
Nearly 90 percent of discrimination charges are discharge-related. The reasons are obvious: Terminations cause hard feelings, create economic need, and destroy feelings of loyalty, says today’s expert. What can HR do? Expert James W. Bucking, partner and co-head of the Employment Department at Foley Hoag LLP in Boston, blogging on HR FactFinder, offers 10 tips […]
By BLR Founder and CEO Bob Brady BLR’s founder agrees that commitment is crucial for business success, but questions whether HR managers can be “commitment coaches” for upper management. In a recent column in Workforce Management, Gershon Mader and Josh Leibner, consultants with Quantum Performance, Inc., wrote about “commitment” (not the kind that women look […]
Effective August 15, Louisiana will join a growing number of “red” states that have limited employer policies banning guns from the workplace. Under the new law (Senate Bill 51), employers may not prohibit employees from storing “lawfully possessed” firearms in their locked personally owned or leased vehicles while parked on company property. The new law […]