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HR Management

Don’t break the bank for effective wellness programs

07/27/2010
Employers are warming up to wellness programs to help reduce health care costs. And it works! But choosing the wrong pieces of the wellness puzzle can lower your ROI dramatically. For the most bang for your wellness buck, focus on these five efforts that drive the greatest cost savings.

May we check an employee message sent from work to his personal e-mail?

07/23/2010
Q. One of our sales managers thinks a salesperson has been e-mailing confidential customer information to his personal e-mail address. Can we review the salesperson’s sent-messages file on the company’s e-mail server to see what he has been sending out?

Can we use GPS cell phones to track employees without telling them?

07/23/2010
Q. Our employees have company-issued cell phones with global positioning systems capabilities. Can we use the GPS to track employees’ movements without telling them we are doing so?

Am I allowed to check social media web sites for information on job applicants?

07/23/2010
Q. Is it OK for me to consider information about a job applicant that I learn by using Google, viewing Facebook pages and reviewing Twitter feeds?

Federal workers run with the PACK at lunch

07/22/2010

Federal government employees in Washington, D.C., are spending their lunch hours running—alongside dogs from local animal shelters. Federal agencies have teamed with the Washington Humane Society to create the People and Animal Cardio Klub (PACK)—a lunchtime workout program for workers and shelter dogs.

HR lessons learned the hard way: Don’t blindly trust your FMLA software

07/20/2010
As FMLA administration grows more complex, more employers are using software to track it. Most of the time that works fine. But as one employer recently found out, FMLA apps don’t always tell the whole story. Lesson learned: There’s no substitute for doing a hands-on review of employee records.

Text messages and employee privacy: The Supreme Court weighs in

07/20/2010

The U.S. Supreme Court has held that a police department’s search of an officer’s text messages was reasonable and didn’t violate the officer’s Fourth Amendment rights. The court said that even if the officer had a reasonable expectation of privacy in his text messages, the search was motivated by a legitimate work-related purpose and was not excessive in scope.

California Supreme Court limits liability for independent contractor’s injuries

07/20/2010
The California Supreme Court has issued a decision in a closely watched construction liability case that involved an independent contractor’s injury. It concluded that true independent contractors working in construction are responsible for making sure the workplace is safe and can’t claim that the hiring contractor or owner was liable for any resulting injuries.

What will you do if the economy doesn’t rebound this year?

07/20/2010

If the unsteady economy doesn’t improve during the next six months, one in four HR professionals say their organizations are “very likely” to respond with wage freezes, according to a new poll. What’s your Plan B if the recession double-dips?

When times are tough, do only what counts

07/20/2010

A recession has a way of changing the way businesses do business. HR is no exception. Here are three effective strategies for HR pros to consider as the economy recovers and their organizations permanently adopt the cost- and time-effective strategies they have embraced out of necessity over the past couple of years: