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Policies / Handbooks

Lessons from the 2006 SHRM conference: Online-Only Handbooks: a risky legal proposition

08/01/2006

Rather than print out paper versions for each new employee, some employers have begun creating electronic-only employee handbooks. With each new hire, HR simply points the person to the online handbook, and tells him or her to read it and sign an acknowledgment form. Online handbooks cut costs and make it easier to amend your policies. But such a strategy could be legally risky …

Lessons from the 2006 SHRM conference: Does your organization need a ‘Chief Mobility Officer’?

08/01/2006

Your organization’s investment in its mobile work force—from flight costs to technology to relocation fees—can far exceed the cost of an employee’s benefits package. Still, many employers manage mobile workers in a fragmented and inconsistent way, which hurts efficiency and expenses …

Silence talk of employee health info; loose lips sink HR

07/01/2006

You know to keep employees’ health records confidential and locked away. Yet some HR professionals and supervisors aren’t so cautious when it comes to in-house talk of health information. Use the following court case to remind supervisors about the legal dangers of such gossip …

Heed legal limits of video monitoring in the workplace

07/01/2006

Monitoring employees with video cameras likely won’t violate employees’ privacy rights, but employers should make sure they don’t step over the line of reasonable privacy concerns. Stay in the legal zone by monitoring only public areas of the workplace, and use soundless recording …

‘Pizza snub’ doesn’t equal religious bias

07/01/2006

A boss bought pepperoni pizza for all employees one day, but a Muslim employee felt slighted because, she said, the boss knew of her religious beliefs about eating pork …

Consistency Erases Risk of Light-Duty Jobs

07/01/2006

Employers who use light-duty programs to cut workers’ compensation costs often make one big legal mistake: They apply their policies haphazardly, allowing some employees to take light-duty jobs, but not others. That inconsistency is the fastest way to trigger discrimination lawsuits …

Employees’ Seniority Trumps Disabled Co-Workers’ ADA Rights

07/01/2006

If you award first choice of promotions, shifts, vacation slots and other perks based on employees’ seniority, you’ll face a dilemma if a disabled employee requests an ADA accommodation that conflicts with that policy …

Have an Affirmative Action Plan? Protect Against Reverse-Bias Claims

07/01/2006

In the HR world, your actions sometimes fall into the “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” category. This is one of those cases …

Breaching employment contract can nullify noncompete clause

07/01/2006

The best way to protect against employee poaching—and against employees using your organization as a training ground to start their own competing firm—is with a solid employment contract and noncompete agreement. But it will mean nothing if you break the agreement first …

‘Ministerial exception’ isn’t free pass for religious groups to discriminate

07/01/2006

If your organization is a religious institution, you may not have adopted anti-discrimination policies or practices because you think you can rely on the “ministerial exception.” But, as a new case shows, that may not always be the case …