Employee Relations

Politics around the watercooler: Can you discipline ‘overly political’ workers?

12/26/2011

While today’s Iowa caucuses feel like the end of a long campaign season, it’s really just the beginning of a heated political year … one that could spill over into your workplace. Follow these tips for handling political activity in your workplace and employees’ political advocacy outside of work.

Employee ideas help create a safer plant

12/20/2011

Higher-ups at The Timken’s Co.’s Manchester, Conn., plant are leaving it to employees to find out what ails the power-transmission products firm—and to fix it. The organization recently took home top honors in a “Find It-Fix It Challenge” sponsored by the workplace-improvement organization Humantech.

Two employees involved in same incident? Punishment can differ if it’s not discriminatory

12/19/2011

If two employees break the same workplace rule, they should receive the same punishment. But that doesn’t mean you can’t distinguish between degrees of culpability. It’s perfectly fine to terminate an employee who has a long history of rule breaking and retain another because it’s a first offense.

Manage health, retirement spending with employee education

12/19/2011

As benefits continue to become a bigger portion of labor costs, employers are responding by offering more health education and financial advice to employees. According to a new report by WorldatWork, 45% of surveyed organizations report that senior executives consider turning employees into educated consumers of benefits a “very high” priority.

Motivate high performance by promising rewards

12/13/2011

Employee recognition programs aren’t quite as popular as they once were, but the 86% of businesses that use them find that rewards and incentives can still spur sales, improve retention and employee loyalty, and raise productivity during an era of slim pay raises and uncertain bonuses.

Carefully track angry employee’s complaints

12/12/2011

Do you have one of those employees who are never happy and always seem to find something to complain about? It may be tempting to ignore the constant complaining or chalk it all up to personality conflicts, but that would probably be a mistake. Carefully document the tension and your response.

Get ahead by drafting your own ‘career annual report’

12/06/2011

What have you learned and accomplished in the past five years? If you can’t answer that question, you’ll have a tougher time planning your career development … and maybe making that next great career move. Use this template to create an annual report that can help collect your thoughts each year.

Required: Investigating all harassment complaints Not required: Providing a perfect workplace

12/05/2011

Sometimes an employee may feel uncomfortable with the close proximity and may even interpret another employee’s innocent behavior as sexual harassment. While you must respond to every sexual harassment complaint and investigate, that doesn’t mean each incident warrants corrective action. Use common sense.

Passage of time can kill retaliation claim

12/05/2011

There’s some good news for employers concerned about retaliation after an employee participates in protected activity such as testifying in another employee’s discrimination lawsuit. If a substantial amount of time has passed since the employee’s testimony, any disciplinary action you take probably won’t be enough to form the basis of a retaliation claim.

Your detailed records: Keys to legal victory

12/02/2011

You never know which employee will file a discrimination lawsuit. These surprise lawsuits often allege that the employer disciplined others outside the employee’s protected class less severely for the same transgression. Protect your organization by providing detailed reasons for any discipline at the time it occurs.