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HR Management

Oh, no! B.O.! Is body odor a disability? Plus, 7 tips for having ‘the talk’

11/28/2013
By itself, excessive body odor is not generally considered a disability under the ADA. However, if employees tell you the odor is a symptom of a serious health condition, you should follow your normal ADA procedures.

Accommodating religion in the 21st century workplace

11/27/2013
Employers are often reluctant to raise concerns over the impact of an employee’s religious practices. Those issues generally aren’t considered to be job-related, and the fear is that addressing them might cause a discrimination lawsuit.

Isolated attack not grounds for harassment lawsuit

11/27/2013
Employers can control some hazardous work conditions, but not all of them. What a particular customer or client may do when he comes in contact with an employee likely falls into the uncontrollable category.

Don’t let handbook create a contract

11/27/2013
Here are two easy steps to prevent your employee handbook from turning into a binding contract.

Penalties rival incentives as work health tactic

11/27/2013
Employers will use both carrots and sticks to keep workers healthier and stem the tide of higher health care costs, according to the 2013/2014 Towers Watson Staying@Work Survey.

Top 10: The basic rules every HR pro must follow

11/26/2013
While lawsuits may be practically inevitable in today’s litigious society, losing them is not. Ten rules to follow:

Ensure bosses provide training for everyone

11/26/2013
Here’s a tip that can save you from needless litigation: Make sure supervisors don’t play favorites with some employees at the expense of others. You never know which employee will later claim she was excluded from the “inner circle” that got preferential treatment because of a protected characteristic.

Time to unwind? America’s least-stressful jobs

11/21/2013
If HR has you a little stressed out, consider a career switch to one of these jobs, ranked the nation’s least-stressful by CareerCast.com.

Can we ban e-cigarettes?

11/19/2013
Q. Over the past few months I have been seeing more and more electronic cigarettes in our city. Last week, an employee walked into our office while smoking an electronic cigarette. I’d like to ban their use in our offices. I’ve heard that e-cigarettes are just as addictive as the real things.

What should we do about email still on former employee’s company-issued cellphone?

11/19/2013
Q. We give our employees company phones. An employee recently resigned and turned in her phone to her supervisor, in compliance with our technology policy. A week later, it came to my attention that the supervisor had not deleted the departed employee’s email that was still on the phone. A new hire who had been issued the phone could read those messages. What should we do?