Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
Consider the following two scenarios: A male employee requests extended leave to provide at-home care to a sick child. Instead of evaluating the request based on his eligibility for leave, the employer questions why the child’s mother can’t care for her. A qualified female employee with two preschool children is considered a “poor fit” for […]
You might think the law’s behind you when you discipline workers, but human factors can change the equation. Employment-at will is a bedrock concept of American business, allowing employers, with few exceptions, to fire anyone, at any time, for any legal reason. No documentation is legally required. But take that concept too literally and you […]
by Susan W. Kline With winter weather upon us, including snowy and icy road conditions, employers are faced with the prospect of lost time when employees can’t or don’t report to work because of inclement weather. Not only do absences due to bad weather reduce productivity, but they also raise a number of issues about […]
You can’t … and you shouldn’t want to … just terminate problem employees. There’s a better way. Here’s how to train on it. Attendance problems. Poor job performance. Safety violations. Abuse or theft of company property. If you’ve got problems like these at your workplace, you’re far from alone. But more important than knowing that […]
Our management has asked me to explore the possibility of outsourcing substantial parts of our HR function. (They’re not singling us out—other functions are doing the analysis, too). How can we tell what to outsource, and to whom? — Tammy, HR director in Cupertino
The 5th anniversary of that tragic September morning reiterates how important it is to plan for emergencies. Here are some of the basics. With the 5th anniversary of 9/11 approaching, there’s again discussion about whether anything could have lessened the extreme loss of life on that terrible day. Although the terrorists are ultimately to blame, […]
Years ago, the California Supreme Court opened the door for workers to bring high-stakes lawsuits claiming employers induced them to take jobs based on false promises about the position or the company’s health. Since then, employees have filed a steady stream of claims alleging employer fraud in the hiring process—and many have won multimillion-dollar verdicts. […]
A law enacted several years ago permits employees to use up to one-half of their accrued sick leave to attend to the illness of a child, parent, spouse or domestic partner. Now new legislation, S.B. 1471, signed by Gov. Davis, makes it illegal for an absence control policy to count sick leave taken under […]
Although you’re required to determine the legal status of all workers you hire, you can get hit with discrimination complaints and fines if you ask for excessive documentation or single out particular groups, such as immigrants. And a spate of employer prosecutions by the federal Department of Justice for violation of a little-known rule involving […]