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HR Management

Convince employees to ‘Pay’ for part of their development

06/06/2008
Here’s an all-too-familiar scenario: Your organization invests considerable time and money training an employee with a lot of potential—and then the trainee takes that education to another company that offers a higher salary. Here are three ways to ease the financial blow to your organization—and lower the likelihood that the employee will leave …

Personnel records a mess? Clean them up now

06/04/2008
How carefully do you maintain your company’s personnel files? If they are a mess and don’t include relevant information such as applications, set aside time now to straighten them out! Courts are increasingly ordering employers being sued for discrimination to turn over any arguably related files …

Make sure handbook spells out maternity leave terms

06/04/2008

Is your employee handbook clear on exactly what constitutes maternity leave and how long it lasts? If you plan to permit just the 12 weeks allowed for pregnancy and childbirth under the FMLA, spell that out. Don’t refer to maternity leave separately and then provide a different week or month count …

Violence on the job? OK to base punishment on job classification and severity of offense

06/04/2008
While a zero-tolerance policy for fighting on the job is a good idea, it may not always be necessary. Instead, you can draw a distinction between violent transgressions and mere arguments that escalate into pushing or shoving. You also may want the discretion to punish workers in some categories more harshly than others …

Restrict access to data about protected characteristics

06/03/2008
One of the most important HR functions is monitoring whether your organization is unwittingly discriminating when hiring, firing or promoting. To do that, you obviously have to know who belongs to what protected classification. At the same time, you don’t necessarily want the supervisors and managers who make employment decisions to have that information at their fingertips …

Noose incident leads to citation at Frontier Airlines

06/03/2008
Denver-based Frontier Airlines says it disciplined two employees who harassed a black co-worker with a noose at Denver International Airport. Juan Sequeira, with help from a fellow employee, allegedly made the noose and showed it to the co-worker in the break room …

Employees find dog in rubble

06/03/2008
A gas explosion at Good Times Adventures, a tour company in Breckenridge, flattened a building on top of Brian Milanski and his dog, Lulu. Four hours later, rescuers extracted Milanski, but there was no sign of Lulu …

Settlement can include clause that bans reapplying

06/03/2008
Not all discrimination claims are crystal clear. Sometimes, employees are treated unfairly, and those situations deserve to be fixed. In such cases, employers may be tempted to settle, offering a small payment along with an agreement that the employee who complained will get additional training or a fair shot at a promotion. But consider the possible aftermath …

Warn about personal liability when conducting discrimination training

06/03/2008
Are you trying to find ways to get employees to listen during your annual harassment and discrimination training session? Here’s something that should get their attention …

Career audits: Does your job work for you?

06/03/2008

Every year, you probably receive (or help write) your performance evaluation. But have you really evaluated your job lately? Doing a “career audit” is a way of asking yourself: How is my position actually working for me? We talk you through the questions you need to ask yourself.