• The HR Specialist - Print Newsletter
  • HR Specialist: Employment Law
  • The HR Weekly

Hiring

Remind bosses: No talk of pregnancy plans

06/26/2009

Are some of your organization’s leaders still stuck in the Dark Ages when it comes to attitudes about pregnancy, childbirth and child care? You might be a few off-base questions away from a pregnancy discrimination lawsuit. Remind managers and supervisors to keep their opinions on mothers and motherhood to themselves.

EEOC seeks broad subpoenas? Ask to have them limited

06/26/2009

If the EEOC thinks a complaint it receives may have national implications and wants more information, it has the power to expand its investigation. The agency can seek subpoenas to demand a long list of records from your company as it seeks to develop a broader, perhaps national case against you. The good news is that federal courts generally will scale down the request if you ask.

Take and retain notes on salary negotiations

06/22/2009

In a free-market system, it sometimes takes extra money to entice an applicant to jump ship. But sometimes that causes an existing employee to earn less than a new employee who holds the same job. If that existing employee belongs to a protected class, she may fire off a pay discrimination claim. That’s when interview notes documenting the salary negotiations come in handy.

With DHS cracking down, follow these I-9 best practices

06/11/2009

There’s a new I-9 Employment Eligibility Verification form for employers to complete when hiring employees and reverifying the employment eligibility of certain employees with temporary work authorization. Make sure you have a properly completed Form I-9 for every employee to avoid legal penalties for hiring unauthorized workers.

Settling case? Consider ‘no rehire’ clause

06/05/2009

The main reason to settle a case is to make the whole thing go away. But when you settle with a former employee, consider the possibility that she may apply for open positions in the future. If you want to avoid a second round of litigation, consider including a “no rehire” clause in the settlement agreement.

Clear Channel to give job-seekers free air time

06/05/2009

Clear Channel Radio will allow job-seekers 30 seconds of free air time to broadcast their résumés. Each week, Clear Channel stations across the country will choose five unemployed people to broadcast their qualifications…

Dayton gets unlikely help from union when courts try to force settlement

06/05/2009

Sometimes, the HR business makes for strange bedfellows. Consider what happened in one recent case when the U.S. Department of Justice sued the city of Dayton, claiming its rules for hiring police officers and firefighters unfairly screened out black candidates. The police and firefighters union stepped in to intervene in the litigation.

Set hiring criteria and then stick with it

06/05/2009

Courts give employers the benefit of a doubt when it comes to the qualifications they seek in job candidates, and the questions they ask during interviews. As long as the criteria and questions are job-related and not otherwise illegal, courts grant wide latitude. But once you decide on hiring criteria and use them to rank candidates, resist the temptation to go back and tinker with the rankings.

Internet recruiting strategy reaps tech-savvy movers

06/05/2009

Movers who work for All My Sons Moving & Storage can check online to learn if they need to make the trip to headquarters to pick up a truck. CFO Ormando Gomez is recruiting more Internet-savvy movers—by using the Internet to recruit them.

Feds to lure college grads

06/05/2009

President Obama has said he wants to “make government cool again.” His latest attempt: The federal government’s HR directors are studying a plan to boost the starting pay of college grads by a cool $8,000 a year—to $41,210.