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HR Management

Romance gone bad: What can we do to discourage relationships between employees?

02/28/2011
Q. Two of our employees are having a romantic relationship. One is married. The wife of the married employee came to our facility and demanded to speak with the other woman. We didn’t permit them to speak on the premises. Can we do anything to discourage employee romances or is that strictly off-limits?

Ensure your FMLA practices comply with new GINA regulations

02/28/2011
Under the FMLA employers routinely ask an employee’s health care provider to complete a certification form justifying FMLA leave requests. That could create a GINA compliance problem, because the certification might reveal genetic information about the employee. There are obvious precautions that an employer should take to comply.

Feds sue western Pennsylvania mines over inspection tip-offs

02/28/2011

When federal mine safety inspectors arrived last year at two western Pennsylvania mines owned by Rosebud Mining Co., the first thing they did was shut down the company’s phone system so top-side managers couldn’t warn underground workers that an inspection was about to start. That didn’t stop someone from passing along the news.

Welcome to HR Professionals Week: Monday, Feb. 28

02/28/2011
Welcome to HR Professionals Week, the second annual celebration of the people who make America’s workplaces productive, successful and fulfilling. Each day this week, we’re presenting a virtual gift basket of free skill-building training tools! Just click on the links to download!

Improve safety by knowing why workers ignore it

02/28/2011
Each year, more than 4 million people are hurt at work, costing organizations $48 billion annually. Typically, knowledge of risks isn’t the main problem. A study by VitalSmarts identified five situations in which employees most often ignore safety rules:

HR Professionals Week — Free HR documents

02/28/2011
In celebration of HR Professionals Week, the HR Specialist is offering you free access to an assortment of HR white papers, articles, policies and document templates. Subscribers to the HR Specialist’s Premium Plus online service have access to hundreds of valuable resources like these, plus they can receive answers to their employment law questions via our […]

Managing employees in remote locations? Insist they follow the rules, just like everyone else

02/25/2011

As more and more employees work from locations away from the main office, employers are finding it challenging to manage their workforces. In some cases, that may be so difficult that it doesn’t seem worth having remote workers, especially when an employee tries to take advantage of the distance and begins to ignore the rules. Don’t let that happen.

When manager recommends firing subordinate, investigate to make sure bias isn’t a factor

02/25/2011

If you don’t have a chance to personally observe an employee’s behavior, don’t rely solely on a supervisor’s termination recommendation. Instead, conduct an independent investigation to verify the supervisor’s claim. Otherwise, any employment decision based on that recommendation can be tainted by the supervisor’s hidden bias.

Celebrate HR Professionals Week, Feb. 28 – March 4

02/25/2011
Join The HR Specialist in celebrating the second annual “HR Professionals Week,” a five-day tribute to all that human resources pros do to make American workplaces more effective and American businesses more successful. It happens Monday, Feb. 28–Friday, March 4.

Can we make employee cover up her tattoos?

02/24/2011
Q. One of our employees has tattoos on her upper arms. She usually wears long sleeves, but summer is coming. Can we require her to cover the tattoos? We don’t have any kind of a dress code, but would implement one if it meant she had to cover them.