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Employee Relations

Address trust, training to keep top performers

09/17/2010

Employees feel overworked and underpromoted, and two in five of them are looking for new jobs. A new study is the latest to reveal that employees who plan to leave their companies say they feel a lack of communication from management. Here are four things your employees might think they’ll find more of elsewhere:

‘Talent’ report helps Deloitte take stock

09/16/2010

At Deloitte, the annual report doesn’t stop with a financial statement. The financial services firm also publishes a “Talent Annuity Report” to chronicle its year in benefits and employee recognition efforts. “We published a Talent Annuity Report because we regard our talent as an investment that generates an annuity,” said CEO Barry Salzberg.

Planning for productivity: What time of day are workers at their best?

09/15/2010

If you plan important meetings for 3 p.m. or host brainstorming sessions after lunch, it’s time to reconsider those strategies. Late afternoon is the most common time for workers to hit the productivity wall, a new study says.

16 creative and cheap ways to say ‘thank you’

09/13/2010
Q. I started in HR at a company six months ago and morale is really low. I want to start an employee appreciation program. Can you share some inexpensive things that work in your company? Here are some suggestions from readers of the HR Specialist Forum:

You can insist on investigation confidentiality

09/10/2010

Make it a policy to keep it confidential when conducting internal investigations into discrimination or harassment. That way, rumors and exaggerated claims won’t influence other employees who haven’t yet told investigators their side of the story. Employers that terminate employees for violating that confidentiality needn’t worry that doing so is retaliation, at least according to a recent 11th Circuit decision.

Philadelphia attorney accused of $1 million embezzlement

09/10/2010
Jeffrey Abramowitz had worked his way from law student to named partner at the Center City firm of Klevan & Abramowitz. That all came to an end last December when senior partner Mitchell Klevan discovered evidence that Abramowitz had been depositing client funds into his personal account and diverting firm funds for his own purposes.

Can worker be disciplined for wheelchair damage?

09/09/2010
Q. One of our employees has intellectual delays and is in a motorized wheelchair. In the past year, he ran over a client’s foot and damaged the office walls numerous times, including punching through the drywall. We are at our wit’s end. Can we terminate him if he continues to cause damage or at least make him pay for wall repairs out of his paycheck?

Proactive steps to turn around workplace disputes

09/07/2010
Many lawsuits result from relatively small, manageable disputes that weren’t dealt with directly, often because HR simply didn’t know what to do or feared making it worse. Kathy Perkins, one of the presenters of our webinar, “How to Resolve Workplace Conflict,” offers these proactive strategies for dealing with disruptive conflict.

Google’s 5 tools to lure and retain the best

09/07/2010

Stock options and stocked kitchens aren’t the only reason employee turnover is so low at Google. While the online giant is legendary for its financial and “comfort” perks, you need to look beyond these to see its real retention tools. Shannon Deegan, Google’s director of People Operations, explained some of these at the SHRM conference in San Diego:

Annual performance reviews are still the norm

09/07/2010
A survey of 500 HR professionals asked how often their organizations conduct formal performance appraisals of employees. The old-reliable yearly performance appraisal is still the standard. Find out other time frames that work for some organizations. Plus, tips for employees on how to get the greatest value from performance reviews.