Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
by Andy Rodman Q As part of my company’s diversity efforts, I would like to reach out to some disability advocate groups to try to fill a few vacant positions. I’m afraid that by doing so, I may be opening up the company to reverse discrimination claims under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Are […]
by Allison B. Wannop It is undeniable that the American workforce is getting older or, shall we say, more mature. In The Aging U.S. Workforce, the Stanford Center on Longevity estimates that by 2020, workers 55 and older will make up a quarter of the U.S. labor force, up from 13% in 2000. As the […]
By Holly K. Jones Q We administer a voluntary leave program through which workers can donate paid leave to their colleagues to obtain necessary medical treatment. Recently an employee asked to use the program to seek substance abuse treatment for alcoholism. This isn’t the type of treatment we had in mind when we established the […]
A quest to find and hire the best applicants prompts many employers to look for ways to quickly eliminate all but the most promising candidates. When online job postings unleash a flood of applications, many employers turn to software that includes personality testing as a way to reduce the amount of valuable time needed to […]
by Matthew A. Goodin In addition to allowing disabled employees to sue their employers for discriminating or refusing to provide reasonable accommodations, both federal and California law allow disabled persons to sue businesses and places of public accommodation for failing to comply with a myriad of accessibility requirements, such as having wheelchair ramps or the […]
Many businesses find it appropriate to implement a dress code to ensure that everyone within the organization dresses appropriately and to a companywide standard. But the way an individual chooses to dress is a very personal decision, and an employee’s choice of clothing is one that can involve many factors, including the cost of the […]
by Michelle Lee Flores There is clear agreement that substance abuse—whether it’s alcohol, prescription drugs, or illegal drugs—adversely affects employers and their businesses. Some estimate the loss of productivity for U.S. employers has been as much as $200 billion annually! General concerns for safety at work, injuries on the job, theft, loss of employee morale, […]
by Cathleen S. Yonahara An employee was placed on paid leave because of his medical symptoms. When he was subsequently fired, he sued for disability discrimination. The employer prevailed at the trial court level but lost before the appellate court. The crux of the case was whether the employer “regarded” the employee as disabled even […]
by Nikki Hall and Eugene Park HR professionals regularly implement employee discipline and are adept at navigating the waters of reasonable accommodations for disabled employees. Mingling those two issues, however, can sometimes pull an employer in opposite directions when it’s responding to, for example, a chronically tardy employee suffering debilitating side effects from medication or […]
by Kara E. Shea Did you know the fastest rising category of claims filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is claims based on disability discrimination and/or failure to accommodate disabled employees? This isn’t surprising given that, under the expanded Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), virtually any nonminor/nontransitory impairment may be considered a qualifying […]