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HR Management

What to do when an employee threatens violence

09/02/2008
Q. I work in the HR area at my company and just learned that an employee who is experiencing some personal problems is now having performance problems at work. I also learned the employee has made threats about hurting his boss and a certain co-worker. What should I do? …

5 criteria your recruiting web pages must meet

08/28/2008
Your next great new hire is probably looking online for a job right now. There’s no substitute for an effective career page that potential applicants can find through your organization’s public website.

New interview question: ‘What’s your favorite color?’

08/28/2008
What do the colors people choose say about their suitability for a certain career? CareerBuilder just unveiled a “Color Career Counselor,” an online color-based personality test that looks at the relationship between color choices and career compatibility …

Proving the ROI of wellness programs just got easier

08/28/2008

Every employer seems to be jumping on the wellness bandwagon in an effort to curb health care costs. But it’s always been hard for HR to prove its wellness investment is worth it. Reason: the inability to nail down a return on investment (ROI) on wellness programs. Now, a host of new approaches and tools have come to the rescue …

Cell phones, laptops and BlackBerrys: Understand the liability risks

08/27/2008

Before you hand out cell phones, laptops and BlackBerrys to everyone on your staff, understand that such tech tools may expose your organization to legal liability. Two legal minefields are particularly worrisome …

Ensuring the confidentiality of HR info

08/27/2008
Q. I’m the HR director of a 45-employee company and have one assistant. Due to the firm’s growth, I’m considering giving my assistant more responsibility. My concern: The assistant is very friendly with about 10 other employees, two of which are her roommates. What’s to stop her from divulging information to her friends? I have said nothing to her about my concerns yet. What can I express to her without overstepping her legal rights? …

Differing male and female grooming standards may signal opening for religious accommodation

08/27/2008
Some religions prohibit men from cutting their hair. That can conflict with company grooming standards that set different limits on how long male and female employees may wear their hair. Generally, courts allow such differences … Even so, a man whose religion says he cannot cut his hair may have a religious discrimination case.

Handling a boorish union rep

08/27/2008
Q. One of our employees serves as a committee member for a labor union that represents some of our employees. He uses his union position to protect himself from our company’s policy on insubordination. Does management have a right to ban this employee from the property when he conducts labor business because of his combative, disrespectful and intimidating manner? What rights does management have under this circumstance? …

Must we translate our handbook?

08/27/2008
Q. If an employee speaks Spanish and doesn’t understand English, am I required to have my handbooks and other policies translated into Spanish? Is the handbook valid if the employee signs but does not understand the content?  …

Ex-Worker charged in killings was upset about a reprimand

08/27/2008
Robert Diamond, the fired worker charged with killing two employees at Simon & Schuster’s distribution center in Bristol on Aug. 1, said he had been harassed by co-workers and was upset about being reprimanded in March for calling a black co-worker “boy.” …