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Employee Relations

Snapshot: Telecommuters are less engaged

04/15/2017
Forty-three percent of employees work from home at least some of the time, and 20% are full-time telecommuters.

What makes employees whistle while they work

04/14/2017

Here are things that all workers seek in a workplace, and how those things rate on the “happy” meter.

Court: Indefinite suspension same as firing

04/12/2017
Don’t think that simply suspending someone without pay while you investigate alleged wrongdoing will fly. If the suspension drags on without some sort of resolution, the employee can sue, alleging he or she was actually fired.

Document all details of disciplinary process

04/12/2017
If HR begins receiving multiple complaints about a supervisor, it may be time to demote or even fire him even if he remains convinced that verbal abuse is appropriate.

Conflict: OK to hold boss to higher standard

04/06/2017
When a supervisor and subordinate don’t get along, most of the onus for resolving the conflict falls on the supervisor. If he or she doesn’t rise to the occasion, the appropriate course of action might be to fire the boss.

Why your best talent is leaving, and 4 ways to win them back

04/06/2017

An interesting phenomenon occurs in most organizations. On day one, most employees are fully engaged as these fresh hires are excited to begin a new experience. And yet, according to Metrus Institute, engagement levels drop considerably during the first few years, and often far more than you would expect after a honeymoon period. Clearly something is going on, and most organizations need these four key actions to minimize this degradation of engagement and reboot it to formerly high levels.

St. Paul business executive cops plea for felony theft

03/29/2017
Former St. Jude Medical executive Bryan C. Szweda will pay $117,090 in restitution to the St. Paul medical devices company following a plea deal in which he admitted to stealing $35,000.

Use last-chance agreements to show you’re fair about making termination decisions

03/29/2017
Sometimes, it makes sense to use a last-chance agreement in which an employee agrees that one more violation of a company rule will mean immediate termination.

Being placed on improvement plan isn’t automatic proof of poor performance

03/29/2017
Don’t expect a court to simply take your word for it that an employee was doing a poor job.

Patience makes discipline bullet-proof

03/29/2017
Courts like to see that employers gave employees a chance to improve before firing them for performance problems. That’s why it’s smart to exhaustively document your effort to correct poor performance.