In yesterday’s CED, Hunter Lott of Please Sue Me fame offered his lawsuit avoidance tips. Today, his advice on legal exposure in 2011, plus an introduction to an upcoming event you won’t want to miss.
What percent of charges did the EEOC drop last year? Lott asks. More than 64 percent. “That’s us!” Lott says. That’s HR making managers properly document. “We should get a $5000 bonus every time a case gets dropped,” he quips.
Lott, a lawsuit avoidance expert and founder of PleaseSueMe.com, offered his tips at the SHRM Annual Conference and Exhibition held recently in Las Vegas.
Start Thinking Backward
In HR, we do things backward, says Lott. For example, we throw a party when someone leaves. How about a stay party? he asks.
And we do an exit interview when someone leaves. Now that the person’s leaving we’re going to be honest with each other? How about being honest while the person is employed? Get rid of exit interviews, Lott recommends.
How about replacing exit interviews with stay interviews? Once a quarter, take the employee to lunch and ask what’s going on, what are we doing right. Happy people don’t sue, says Lott.
By the way, he says, every ‘A’ player that leaves takes two – because they’re so connected. Lott ran into a situation in which a young person had a bad interview on campus. He quickly entered his opinion of the company on his Facebook page: Drop this company, they’re bad news. Unfortunately for the company, he had 400 friends, each of whom had 400 friends, and the recruiter was left high and dry – no one else interviewed.
Your #1 Exposure
What’s your number one exposure? Still wage and hour, says Lott. And the DOL is trying to make it easier and easier for employees to sue. Now, yes, there’s an app for that. DOL wants to empower employees to keep track of their hours and wages.
One of Lott’s attorney colleagues says that wage and hour is “70 percent of my business. It’s low hanging fruit — I make a phone call, the company writes a check, I get 30 percent.”
Get first-hand, practical info on wage/hour and the other pressing issues that affect your workplace —join us for the 2011 California Employment Law Update!
Probationary Periods: Safe or Risky?
Get rid of probationary periods, says Lott. They are a bluff. Employees still have their same rights. At the very least, having a probationary period puts “at will” in play, says Lott.
No-Dating Policy: Safe or Risky?
This generation is going to meet and marry at work, says Lott. Because people are marrying later, childhood sweethearts aren’t getting married any more. HR puts together some strange policies to try to avoid liability. For example, “If you are dating, you have to turn yourself in.”
And then there are the policies against married people supervising each other. Gay partners can supervise each other, ex-spouses who hate each other can supervise each other, but married people can’t.
Get out of policies and procedures that you can’t or won’t enforce. Here’s Lott’s answer; issue a policy that says “Any relationship on or off the job that affects your ability to do your job or our ability to run our business may be a valid reason for firing.”
As Lott says, happy, well-managed people don’t sue. Unfortunately, it’s no secret that one of the primary reasons people leave their jobs is poor management. By developing good managers you can help reduce turnover, improve morale and increase production, and that’s to say nothing of avoiding expensive lawsuits.
It’s Hard To Stay on Top of It All
No-dating policies…wage/hour compliance…flexible work arrangements…twists and turns in the California and federal leave laws. In today’s HR world, there’s a lot to keep track of, to say the least.
You can do some research on your own, but the very best way to keep up with all the changes you need to know about on a daily basis is to attend a comprehensive conference that covers, in depth, all the developments you need to know about.
Fortunately, we know just where you can find such a conference – specifically for California employers!
Coming up quickly next month, the California Employment Law Update conference is widely recognized as the leading California-specific employment law conference for forward-thinking HR professionals, executives, and in-house counsel.
In just two days (or three, if you join us for our in-depth pre-conference workshops), you’ll learn how to protect your organization from lawsuits and penalties and how to create effective, legally sound workplace policies. We’re including sessions on:
- New state and federal laws, regulations, and court cases
- Document verification and privacy
- California wage/hour tripwires
- Leave laws in California
- Harassment, bullying, and retaliation
- And more!
Plus, we’ve got your choice of four in-depth optional pre-conference workshops you won’t want to miss:
- FMLA/ADA compliance in depth
- Social media boot camp for employers
- How to conduct a legal, thorough workplace investigation
- Workers’ comp for HR professionals
Click here for all the details and registration info. November will be here before you know it, so don’t miss out!
If you have any questions about the event, please feel free to email me directly at jcarsen@employeradvice.com. We hope to see you in Berkeley in a few weeks!
Download your free copy of How To Survive an Employee Lawsuit: 10 Tips for Success today!