Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
Think you have the right of free speech in the office? You’re making the classic fourth-grade mistake, say Amy Epstein Feldman and Robin Epstein, authors of the new book, So Sue Me, Jackass. Attorney Feldman is a nationally syndicated legal correspondent and general counsel of the Judge Group, Inc. Epstein is a writer and professor […]
Your best bet for boosting wellness in the New Year might just be a flexible scheduling program. Employees like the flexibility, and management likes the productivity and coverage. And the cost is minimal. Best wishes for the New Year from all of us at HR Daily Advisor. Once viewed as strictly an employee "perk," flexible […]
“Flexible work arrangements provide enhanced employee performance while offering an inexpensive and effective way to motivate and retain top talent,” says Rose Cook, president of FlexPro Staffing in Eagleville, Pennsylvania. What Is Meant by ‘Flexible Work’? Simply put, flexible work arrangements are alternate arrangements or schedules that differ from the traditional workday and workweek. Flexible […]
Companies that are characterized by a diverse, respectful, and dignified workplace invariably enjoy the benefits of improved employee morale, higher productivity, larger market share, and a strong bottom line. And that’s good news, because your organization IS going to be characterized by diversity–demographics alone guarantee it. But as we saw in yesterday’s Advisor, addressing diversity […]
Most organizations these days believe that "diversity" produces better results. But things get tricky when it comes to diversity training. It’s easy to do significant legal damage, especially with "let-it-all-hang-out" sessions . One of the favorite moves of diversity training facilitators is to ask employees to drop all pretenses, and just go ahead and express […]
The new world of social networking and electronic communications opens all sorts of questions about etiquette, behavior, and life style. In "Available All the Time: Etiquette for the Social Networking Age," Wharton Professor Nancy Rothbard calls it a "double-edged sword." For example, she says, a Blackberry® can allow parents to attend their children’s soccer games […]
Social Media—The bane of management or the next best marketing tool? Should you control it or encourage it? Of course, the answers depend on your business and your culture, but here’s a sample policy to get you going. This policy is one of several sample social media policies we found at HR.BLR.com®. This policy is […]
A waiver in a severance agreement is only valid when an employee “knowingly and voluntarily” consents to the waiver, say attorneys Lloyd Aubry and Armilla Staley-Ngomo. Reaching that standard can be challenging. The rules for waivers under the Age Discrimination and Employment Act (ADEA) are defined by the Older Workers Benefits Protection Act (OWBPA). Rules […]
“Companies have to be especially cautious when conducting workforce reductions involving employees older than 40,” says attorney Lloyd Aubry. Waivers can help, but they bring their own legal challenges. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has recently issued a Technical Assistance Document covering waivers, say Aubry and Armilla Staley-Ngomo, both with the San Francisco office […]
Managers always “want to get it over with” once they’ve decided they want to fire someone. That’s no surprise, but HR can’t let it happen. Step back and assess the whole picture before acting. Yesterday’s Advisor covered the critical termination policy issues that you must address. Today, again courtesy of BLR’s SmartPolicies® program, we’ll look […]