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HR Management

What plaintiff’s lawyers don’t want HR pros to know

08/11/2009

Want to know how to get under the skin of the lawyers who represent employees? Ask one. They won’t all cop to what sinks their cases, but attorney Whitney Warner did. Learn what she fears most when staring down an employer in court.

Productivity plus: Retool with new Internet Explorer tricks

08/11/2009

Move over, Google. Microsoft grabs tech headlines this month by adding zippy new features to its Internet Explorer browser. Here are four cool tricks that will save time for you and your employees.

Downside of providing a recommendation on an employee’s social media page?

08/07/2009

Q. An employee has asked me, as his direct supervisor, to provide him a recommendation on his LinkedIn page. He’s a good employee and I don’t see any harm in granting his request. Are there any risks?

Photo contest unites global IT workforce

08/07/2009

Execs at IT provider Dimension Data had three challenges: (1) promote employee awareness of the company’s “green” initiatives; (2) address low morale as workers and the organization struggle with the economy; and (3) encourage a global workforce to interact more with each other. It solved all three problems with a photo contest.

Make sure your promotion process gives all qualified candidates enough time to apply

08/07/2009

Supervisors who want to hand-select a particular employee for a job may be tempted to play fast and loose with the company promotion process. Watch out!

Is it time to overhaul your vacation policies?

08/07/2009

Take a look around your workplace. How many of your co-workers spent all summer right there at their stations? Maybe they took a long weekend or two, but otherwise they showed up day in and day out. It might be time to make those drudges get out and go on vacation.

From reality TV to ‘wellness ambassador’ at medical lab firm

08/07/2009

Quest Diagnostics is so serious about employee health that it calls the director of its wellness programs the “wellness ambassador.” Bill Germanakos, the 2007 season winner of NBC’s “The Biggest Loser” reality TV show, oversees HealthyQuest, which helps the firm’s 41,000 eligible employees change unhealthy behaviors.

New moms can bring baby to work at Pittsburgh firm

08/07/2009

New moms who work for Maya Design in Pittsburgh don’t have to worry about child care for their hard-to-place infants, at least for six months after they give birth. They can tote the tots to work. The consulting firm and technology research lab welcomes infants through its Babies in the Workplace program.

Virginia firm’s dog lovers take a cause for the paws

08/07/2009

About a third of the 15 employees who work for ClearedJobs.net in Falls Church, Va., bring their dogs to work. So it was pretty easy for Chief Marketing Officer Kathleen Smith to convince the group to pitch in when she decided to send care packages to U.S. military working dogs in Afghanistan.

From across the pond: British firm pays for ‘Botox leave’

08/07/2009

So many employees of Fox Kalomaski were taking leave for “beauty treatments” that the London-based advertising agency added an extra paid day off—and execs there call it “Botox leave.” The day off happens in December, says the managing director, who speculates employees need time to “make sure they’re looking their best for the Christmas party photos.”