HRIS / Technology

Punishing a worker for personal blog post

04/01/2007

Q. One of my staff showed me an Internet link to another employee’s personal blog, which included racial and offensive comments about our company and employees. Can we reprimand the employee for the racial slurs?

Let cops search computers; don’t fear a privacy lawsuit

04/01/2007

With all the talk about workplace privacy, remember that your organization, not the employee, owns the computers and the data in them. You needn’t fear a privacy lawsuit if you give permission for law enforcement to read e-mail, search hard drives or access phone numbers on company-owned cell phones …

Compare health care premiums by region on new federal database

04/01/2007

Ever wonder how your health care costs stack up against those of employers in other parts of the country? You can find out by accessing the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s database …

N.Y. law firm learns lesson about legal blogging

04/01/2007

It’s probably career suicide for lawyers to sue their own firms, but that’s what Aaron Charney did. And now all of cyberspace knows about it …

Can porn surfing be a ‘disability’? Lessons from the IBM case

04/01/2007

When employees use their work computers for inappropriate purposes, such as scouring the Internet for pornography, interacting with minors for sexual purposes or transmitting pornographic images, they violate the law and put their employers at risk …

Cell phone policies: Don’t have one? Dial one up today

04/01/2007

The best defense to a cell-phone liability claim is a comprehensive electronic communications devices policy …

Quest lawsuit shows how to plan for ‘Turncoat’ employee

04/01/2007

Lyndhurst-based Quest Diagnostics, the largest U.S. provider of diagnostic tests and services, has sued a former employee for allegedly taking confidential client information to benefit its arch rival …

Benchmark organization’s health benefits using new online database

04/01/2007

The U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, part of the Department of Health and Human Services, has introduced a database of average annual health care costs for workers and employers in major U.S. cities …

Link staff to the mission: Offer them your service, product

03/01/2007

Need an inexpensive benefit and an easy way to boost morale? Allow employees to partake in the services your organization provides to customers (either for free or at a reduced price) …

Ogling Google: Best practices from Fortune’s ‘100 Best’ list

03/01/2007

Google is just eight years old, but it beat out a slew of old-timers last month to snag the No. 1 spot on Fortune magazine’s list of the “100 Best Companies to Work For” …