HR Management

Defend against hidden bias: Follow policies

12/19/2011

HR can and should serve as a check on overzealous supervisors who want to mete out discipline to those they don’t like while ignoring problems with those they favor. Insist that no final termination or disciplinary actions go through without clear documentation that supervisors followed all the rules.

How should we handle difficult firing meeting?

12/14/2011

Q. We recently decided to terminate an employee based on performance concerns. The employee is in sales and is required to cold call a certain number of individuals each day. In reviewing the daily call logs, the employee’s manager discovered that she has been calling the same disconnected number over and over again … To top it off, she sent an email telling other employees they could do the same. In preparing for the termination meeting, I’m wondering what we should say?

Which of the following is #1 on your HR holiday wish list?

12/13/2011

HR pros say, “Show me the money!”

Your dollars at risk: Protect yourself from personal liability

12/13/2011

HR pros spend a lot of their time ensuring that their companies comply with the law so they don’t wind up in court and lose big bucks to a jury verdict. But more and more, they find themselves defending not their employers’ bottom lines, but their own bank accounts. Here’s how to protect your personal funds.

The top 10 safety and health violations of 2011

12/12/2011

OSHA just released its list of the most frequently cited workplace safety and health violations for fiscal year 2011. Topping the list: fall protection in construction, scaffolding in construction, hazard communication, respiratory protection, lockout/tagout, electrical wiring methods, powered industry trucks, ladders in construction ,,,

Start the new year with new system for employee records

12/08/2011

Make a fresh start in 2012 by creating a new employee record-keeping system. Whether you’re going to stick with paper files, create computer-based folders or go high-tech and store your records in the cloud, you need to create at least four separate sets of records for each employee:

Dead-wrong bereavement leave

12/08/2011

A customer service rep at a call center went out on bereavement leave at least once a month. Lots of aunts and uncles, he said. The HR department discovered the employee had a family member on the “inside” at the funeral home who was creating a fake program for each fake funeral.

Learn from the best: 6 tips from America’s top HR departments

12/07/2011

Even if your HR department has only two or three employees, it can still incorporate some of the best approaches to HR management used in the country’s top HR departments. America’s biggest companies share some basic approaches to HR that can benefit much smaller departments.

When co-workers clash, offer transfer option

12/07/2011

Personality clashes almost always affect work, and inevitably one of the combatants will file a formal complaint. Defuse that tension by suggesting that one or both co-workers transfer to other positions. Offering the transfer option to warring co-workers isn’t an adverse action as long as neither is forced to accept the offer.

Get ahead by drafting your own ‘career annual report’

12/06/2011

What have you learned and accomplished in the past five years? If you can’t answer that question, you’ll have a tougher time planning your career development … and maybe making that next great career move. Use this template to create an annual report that can help collect your thoughts each year.