The HR Hero Line you are seeing today isn’t exactly what we had planned. But by noon on what is now being called “Bloody Monday,” we knew we needed to address the fallout from so many job cut announcements, which were then followed on Tuesday by possibly the worst unemployment report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in decades.
The numbers are so stunning it’s hard to comprehend them. They cut across all industry sectors and come from businesses that seemed to have solid business models and desirable, even necessary, products and services. To help put the numbers in perspective, picture one of the bigger college or professional football stadiums or basketball arenas you’ve ever seen. Fill it to capacity, and that’s about the same number of job losses that were announced on Monday alone — some 75,000.
Even if your company isn’t one of the businesses making these layoffs, there’s a good chance they might be your customer, vendor, or otherwise have a significant connection to your company, and their job cuts may end up trickling down to yours.
So, for this issue of HR Hero Line, we have pulled together a number of resources to cover many of the challenges that employers must deal with in the face of this news. Below are previous HR Hero Line articles about the economy and its affects on employers and tools to help employees avoid legal problems.
Feature articles and tips
- Sour economy, political changes could create perfect storm for employment-related lawsuits
- Legal issues when reducing employees’ hours, wages
- Payroll deductions that don’t affect exempt status
- Avoiding legal pitfalls during RIFs and when reducing workers’ hours
- Telecommuting: What employers need to know about managing offsite workers
- Downsizing: Plan ahead to avoid trouble
- Risks, benefits of using contingent workers
- Reducing personnel costs and helping workers have work-life balance
- Downsizing: 7 steps to help employees cope
Questions and Answers
Employment Law Cases
- Retirees win right to sue for fund mismanagement
- Laid-off workers win some discrimination lawsuits, lose some
Canadian Employment Law
- Jobless rate rises in Canada, too
- Challenging times in Canada present opportunities for creative solutions
- Creative ways to cut labor costs in Canada: Furloughs and work sharing
Tools for HR and business professionals
- Free HR Hero white paper: 5 alternatives to a RIF
- What’s your HR IQ on terminations
- Audio Conference: Firings and layoffs in ’09: Legal lessons for employers
- Audio Conference: RIF communication for HR: How to make the best of a tough situation
- HR Executive Special Report: Reducing risk in reductions in force (RIFs)
- State-by-state comparison of 50 employment laws in all 50 states, including plant closings, health insurance continuation, final paycheck, payout of vacation and sick leave, and unemployment compensation