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HR Management

Praise Your Way to Success: 6 Steps to Effective Employee Recognition

02/05/2008

Many managers can muster up praise for their workers only during annual reviews … if at all. That’s why you need to teach supervisors how to give employee recognition and give them the tools to make it easier. Here are the six steps …

Succession planning is a dying art: Don’t settle for ‘Succession by Default’

02/05/2008

In their zeal for short-term company goals, an increasing number of U.S. organizations are allowing  managers to wallow in daily routines instead of preparing them for the next job. As a result, the next job is often with another company.

Setting policies for covering employees’ electronic communications

02/01/2008
Q. What areas should we cover in our electronic communications policy?

Responding to mold allergy illness complaints

02/01/2008
Q. We have an employee who claims she feels sick whenever she is at work. She attributes it to a mold allergy. What should I do?

Goes without saying, but say it anyway: No porn at work

02/01/2008

You would think it’s common sense, but apparently it’s not. While viewing pornography may be perfectly legal in one’s home (with some exceptions, such as that containing images of children), such viewing has absolutely no place at work. The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals consistently has ruled “the mere presence of pornography in a workplace can alter the ‘status’ of women” and may be objective proof of a hostile environment …

Payroll goes totally paperless, saving time and money

02/01/2008

The Container Store has an entirely paperless payroll department. The transition to a paperless system began five years ago when the Texas-based company adopted new payroll software that allows employees to change their information online …

Armored car employee charged in $7.4 million heist

02/01/2008

Roger Lee Dillon, an employee of armored car company AT Systems International, allegedly coordinated a complicated heist from a company garage in Liberty late last year. Retail receipts from Thanksgiving weekend sales were the targets …

Maintain computer time records to prove overtime hours

02/01/2008

When it comes to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), unpaid overtime claims are perhaps the most feared charges. It’s important to have solid records showing the hours worked, even for exempt employees. If it turns out the employee should have been classified as nonexempt, you’ll have to provide compelling evidence of the hours the employee actually worked …

Public employees may have right to run web site critical of employer

02/01/2008

The Michigan Employment Relations Commission (MERC) has taken the position that, like the federal National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), it can order an employee to be reinstated if a public employer punished him for speaking publicly about workplace issues …

NLRB: You can ban union talk in employees’ e-mail

02/01/2008

The National Labor Relations Board dealt a big defeat to unions recently by ruling that employers can ban their employees from using company e-mail for union-related business …