Employee Relations

How to conduct effective and legal workplace investigations

03/18/2011

Eventually, every employer will have to investigate some sort of workplace concern. Whether because of a dispute between co-workers or a need to address unethical or unlawful behavior, workplace investigations are an important and delicate exercise. The following tips will help investigations produce useful results.

Lesson from Walmart: How to cut risk when a co-worker harasses

03/18/2011

Here’s some good news for employers that take sexual harassment complaints seriously. In Sutherland v. Wal-Mart, the 7th Circuit emphasized that an employer’s prompt response to an employee’s complaint of sexual harassment may protect it from liability.

Invest in the future: Bring back benefits now

03/16/2011

As the economy strengthens, many productive employees who feel overworked and undercompensated will seek jobs elsewhere. Don’t give your stars an excuse to jump ship. Keep them satisfied by implementing new benefits and reinstating those that you cut during the recession.

Feel free to offer constructive criticism when evaluating employees–even good ones

03/15/2011

You may have employees who perform well but could do better—and you might have some ideas about how they can do that. So at evaluation time, you rate them as good or even excellent employees and want to include some specific suggestions in the narrative part of the evaluation. But you also know that some employees are sensitive to criticism. What should you do?

Benchmark your web site’s recruiting page against the Top 25

03/14/2011

What are the best practices for the “careers” page on your web site? One good strategy for small and mid-size employers is to take a peek at what their big brothers are doing. Here are those top 25 companies and links to their careers pages …

Checklist: A practical guide to investigating workplace harassment

03/14/2011

The U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decisions in Faragher v. City of Boca Raton and Ellerth v. Burlington Industries were a wake-up call for employers to take affirmative steps to prevent, detect and remedy unlawful workplace harassment. HR’s key tool for doing so: the internal investigation. When harassment rears its ugly head, here’s how to conduct your investigation.

Update job descriptions regularly to include new duties & essential functions

03/08/2011

Make sure you have job descriptions for all employees’ positions. Then keep those descriptions updated whenever the duties change.

Hug or a handshake: Which does your workplace embrace?

03/08/2011

Like people, some workplaces welcome huggers. Others prefer a smartly extended right hand. “To hug or not to hug” is the question … and here’s the answer.

SC Johnson employees stick around for 14 years

03/07/2011

The average tenure of an SC Johnson employee is 14 years, a longevity marker the organization attributes to its employee benefits. Employees are offered child care, telecommuting, compressed workweeks, job sharing and fitness facilities.

Improve Your E-Mail Efficiency

03/03/2011

Billions of e-mail messages are sent each day, but one study estimates that the average employee wastes more than 40 minutes a day on worthless e-mail. That doesn’t even include the jokes your friends and family forward and the unnecessary messages your colleagues copy to everyone in the office. Here’s how you can trim the time you spend on e-mail.