When employees have questions, they go to HR.
When HR professionals have questions, where can they turn?
When employees have questions, they go to HR.
When HR professionals have questions, where can they turn?
There was a time when it was quite common for individuals to find their spouses (or partners) in the workplace. Indeed, this still happens today, although perhaps less so.
On February 14, 2018, the world witnessed a tragedy that has become all too familiar, another school shooting. On a day that was supposed to be about love and peace, turned dark and cold for so many.
I have seen it all when it comes to Halloween in the office. From nothing to all out costume and Halloween Parties with drunken pirates and everything in-between. So, what should HR allow and where is the line in the sand?
So, let’s start with your actual work environment. Here are a few quick questions to ask:
Are customers or clients regularly on-site or are you sheltered from contact?
As my great-grandfather would always say: “Expect the unexpected so when it reaches you you’re not surprised.” Good advice generally . . . but especially today. . . given the chaos caused by recent major weather events. So, what can employers do to “expect the unexpected”?
The answer is . . . Prepare.
Strong employment policies are crucial to any organization and should be updated regularly. Changing regulations, new case law and technology advances can quickly result in outdated, inefficient or non-compliant policies. Here are three policies that I recommend you review in light of recent events:
1. Electronic Communications Policies
On June 7, @shrmnextchat chatted with special guest Heather Bussing about “Should You Trash Your Policy Manual?”
If you missed this informative chat, you can read all the tweets here:
Policies in the workplace: You can’t live with ’em and you can’t live without ’em.
Or can you?
Some say employment policies are essential for establishing expectations and avoiding litigation. Others think that policies are rules created by people who don’t know how to manage performance.
Employment attorney Heather Bussing falls into the latter camp.
New workplace laws on minimum wage, paid sick leave, criminal background investigations and more are popping up all the time—and they don't always take effect at the beginning of a new year. HR professionals need to communicate these changes with their workforce as the laws become effective, but how often should you revise your employee handbook? Employment attorneys told SHRM Online that the answer depends on a few factors.
Federal and state legal developments over the last year brought a lot of changes that impact workplace policies and procedures, making it critical for companies to review their handbooks for compliance.
"2016 was the busiest year I can recall in this regard," said Elaine Diedrich, an attorney with Littler in Pittsburgh.
In today’s workplace, it is not enough to have an employee handbook in name only, but it must be one that employees have read, digested and received training on. Now is the perfect time to take your employee handbook off the shelf, drag it into the kitchen and add a little spice to it.
Here are some ways:
On November 30, @shrmnextchat chatted with employment attorney Jonathan Segal @jonathan_hr_law about The Holidays: Maximizing the Joy and Minimizing the Risk.
In case you missed this fun and informative chat filled with great ideas for how HR to handle the Holidays, you can read all the tweets here:
You are an exhausted HR professional charged with making the holidays lively without inviting lawsuits. On the day of your company’s holiday party, you walk into the lobby of your building and see the elegant Christmas pine that you had helped decorate. As you behold it in its twinkling glory, a co-worker says, “That tree is inappropriate in the workplace.”
In less than two months, the Presidential election will take place. You are thinking about that when you see your receptionist wearing a button for her political candidate.
You ask her to remove it because you have customers of diverse political views. She says “NO,” promising to file a case with the Supreme Court because you are violating her First Amendment rights. Note to SCOTUS: we hope you enjoy her as much as we do.
A round up of workplace developments and legal trends to help keep HR ahead of the curve
If you’re in HR, March is probably one of your favorite times of year. There are no messy open enrollment or year-end issues to deal with, there’s a bit of an ebb in legislative volatility and winter is poised to end, meaning transportation and attendance issues are hopefully about to clear up a bit while seasonal affective disorder is on its way out.
As we all know, in EEO termination claims, how we treat the "comparators" is critical. Two (2) key questions:
1. Did you let anyone else go for a same or similar reason?
2. Did you not let someone else go even though they had engaged in same or similar conduct?
What do you do if you have an inconsistent practice historically?
Marijuana in the Workplace: A Hazy Issue for Employers