Tag: procedures

The IRS is helping businesses cut their transportation costs but, even better, businesses are helping employees cut their costs as well. Shout hallelujah! It’s finally here. The annual IRS business mileage cost adjustment, which takes effect every January 1. This year, it’s an unusually large change. Your company can now deduct 4 cents a mile […]

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 […]

So you think you’re safe because you document every employment action? Read this lawsuit-losing list of common errors and see if you’re “guilty” of any of them. You’ve been sued by a former employee, and now you’re facing the music in court. You’re not worried, though. At your side is a briefcase of documentation showing […]

The scariest thing this week may not be what can happen on the streets, but what can happen around your personnel files. With Halloween this week, ghouls and goblins are all around us. But it doesn’t take a special day for mischief-makers to show up in the workplace. And the trouble they can cause goes […]

Your right to do electronic monitoring, like many other management actions, is regulated by state law as well as federal. Here’s how to know what your state allows. You’ve been tipped off by a competitor, who’s also a friend, that someone in your organization is offering her your secret information in exchange for a job […]

What rights do bosses have to monitor their workers’ communications, especially when sent through the new technologies? The answer (as usual) is: It depends. Warren the Worker hunches over his desk, positioning his body to block any view of his computer screen. Whenever you or other managers are near, he quickly minimizes the image, leaving […]

It’s a lot easier to have the human resources policies and procedures you need when you don’t actually have to write them. Here’s the way around having to do it. A recent Daily Advisor article bemoaned the fact that so many companies create human resources policies and procedures manuals and then never use them. “The […]

Open your Human Resources Policies and Procedures Manual for a fresh look and you may find you’ve opened up your whole organization. If you’re like most companies, chances are good your company has a human resources policies and procedures manual. Unfortunately, they’re equally good that that once-vital human resources policies and procedures manual hasn’t been […]

The Constitution protects the freedom to practice religion. Employers must honor this right while balancing the needs of the business. Here are some guidelines for doing both. In virtually every religion, there are significant days on the calendar that dictate religious observance. For example, next Monday, October 2, is Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, […]

Once, the law counted only extreme job sanctions, like termination, as retaliation. Now the definition is far broader. What you … and your managers … need to know. The Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railroad was involved in a train wreck recently. No, not the physical kind, the legal kind. In a unanimous 9-0 decision, […]