HR Management & Compliance

Common Managers’ Goofs That Can Sink Your Business


Pass any courthouse and those thuds you hear are companies landing in front of juries because of HR errors by their managers. Here’s a list of some of the most common miscues.


“Loose lips sink ships.”


That was a popular World War II slogan. It was used to caution war workers against carelessly revealing what they did on their jobs to enemy spies.


Well, the battleground has changed, but the consequences haven’t. There are dumb HR-related actions your workers, and specifically your managers, can do that can sink your business.


Recently, several sources, including the HRSpecialist website and the Minnesota law firm of Fredrickson & Byron P.A., compiled lists of these miscues, many of which can land you in court. Here’s a digest of their thinking on the most common management employment law blunders, sequenced as we pass through an employee’s life cycle:


–Interview goofs. Simply put, questions on race, national origin, family status, age, and medical condition can’t be asked. The danger is, as an interview warms up, that some seemingly innocent inquiry such as “So tell me about your kids” will drop from the interviewer’s lips. Managers need to focus on questions about the job and how well the candidate can perform it.



Catch your managers’ HR mistakes before plaintiffs’ attorneys and labor department inspectors do with BLR’s HR Audits Checklists. Try it at no cost. Read more.



–Botched background checks. You have a right to know a candidate’s background, but privacy laws control your search, especially if a third party does it for you. Get clearance in writing to call past employers and pass up sources such as MySpace or Facebook to get information. They can tell more than you have a right to know.


–EEO-1 errors, especially as the form has been revised for the first time in 40 years. Make sure whoever fills out these forms is trained on the latest version.


–Exempt/nonexempt classification blunders. FLSA violations are now the U.S. Department of Labor’s top target, and the agency has torpedoed organizations as big as Wal-Mart and IBM. Be sure you’re interpreting the law right. (BLR’s FLSA Self-Audit Guide can help.) Then be sure you apply wage and hour guidelines to bonuses and other comp, not just to regular pay, that nonexempts receive.


–Ignoring employee complaints. Respond to every complaint, investigate every charge, and do both promptly, or resentments may fester. “Most lawsuits are not triggered by great injustices,” says HR Solutions’ Patrick Domenico. “Instead, simple management mistakes and perceived slights start the snowball of discontent rolling … toward the courtroom.”


–Not knowing employment law. Some line managers don’t want to be bothered learning FLSA, FMLA, ADA, and other federal and state employment law. The fact is that they just plain have to. Courtroom experience shows time and again that the famous dictum “Ignorance of the law is no excuse” is absolutely true. Remind them that some violations may carry personal, as well as company, liability.


–Shorting accommodations for workers with disabilities. The government demands that you be “reasonable.” That means reaching a solution workable for both the worker and you. When in doubt, favor the worker.


–Casual handling of agency inquiries. When Uncle Sam or the state asks, be careful in how you answer, and if multiple parties are answering, keep your stories in agreement.



No one can think of everything! That’s why we have checklists. Find dozens in BLR’s award-winning HR Audit Checklists program. Examine a copy, right in your office, at no cost or risk. We even pay return postage! Click for details.



–Retaliation. Recent data show that retaliation is now one of HR’s top worries. It should be, after complaints were made easier to prove by last year’s Supreme Court decision in the Burlington Northern Railroad/Sheila White case. The solution: Just don’t do it. And don’t take actions that could be construed as retaliation, such as discipline soon after a complaint filing, even if the actions are justified.


–Termination trouble. Fired employees usually have little to lose by suing you. And they can win those suits if you can’t show a consistent pattern of poor performance, or if you have disregarded your discipline policy or “papered” the file with a flurry of last-minute warnings on things never a problem before.


–Doubtful documentation. No matter what the action, write it all down, keep it, and keep it objective, balanced, and work-related.


Finally, says attorney Ingrid N. Culp of Fredrickson & Byron, “Employers should periodically audit their employment legal compliance with an experienced attorney under attorney/client privilege.”


(To which we add, BLR’s HR Audit Checklists program can help do the same. See the notice below for information on how to examine it free.)




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