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Makris, senior counsel at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, and Rhoma Young of the HR consulting firm Rhoma Young & Associates offered tips for ensuring that performance appraisals are used legally and effectively. Their suggestions came in a recent BLR®/HR Hero® audio conference. From a legal perspective, performance appraisals are important because they can help defend […]
Makris, senior counsel at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, and Rhoma Young, of the HR consulting firm Rhoma Young & Associates, offered tips for ensuring that performance appraisals are used legally and effectively. Their suggestions came in a recent BLR®/HR Hero® audio conference. From a legal perspective, performance appraisals are important because they can help defend […]
Performance appraisals may be time-consuming and something few people enjoy, but they are worth the effort from a legal and an HR perspective, says Attorney Tom Makris.. Makris, senior counsel at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, and Rhoma Young of the HR consulting firm Rhoma Young & Associates offered tips for ensuring that performance appraisals are […]
We’re encountering challenging disability accommodation situations because of differences in California and federal law. Is the California definition of “disability” always going to be more favorable to employees than federal law? I also don’t understand why whether a person has a disability is determined under California law without considering mitigating measures. If a person is […]
An employee’s ex-spouse calls me when she needs a new insurance card, forms, etc., for their child rather than contacting the insurance company or her ex. I’m tired of being put in the middle and feel this is something that should be handled between the two individuals. If she had a problem with an issue […]
We have a lot of production workers, several “working foremen,” and a few supervisors. A foreman has said that because of the number of people working under him (10 employees), he should be paid as a supervisor. So now we’re trying to sort out the distinction between workers, working foremen, and supervisors. Is there a […]
I recently returned from a meeting where one expert recommended doing a Google search on applicants as part of the evaluation process. He said you often find very interesting things about people, especially if they blog or have their own website. Someone else thought it might be an invasion of privacy, and others objected that […]
We have an employee who’s not up to par. We’ve tried to explain his shortcomings in disciplinary meetings and performance reviews, but he just refuses to acknowledge his performance problems. What do we do? —Anonymous
What are an employer’s restrictions on requiring employees to speak only English while on the clock? We do business in English, and some employees are insulted when there are private conversations in other languages going on around them. It’s also a problem during breaks and lunch. — Matt P., HR Specialist in Sunnyvale
Just in the past year, we’ve started doing almost all of our hiring through online sources. In some ways, it works very well, but I’m becoming increasingly concerned that we’re sort of losing control of what was a pretty solid commitment to diversity. Are we exposing ourselves to discrimination and affirmative action problems by recruiting […]