• The HR Specialist - Print Newsletter
  • HR Specialist: Employment Law
  • The HR Weekly

Policies / Handbooks

Beware growing liability risk: harassment by customers

11/01/2005
Issue: Courts are cracking down on employers that tolerate customer harassment of foreign-born employees.
Risk: Supervisors sometimes are more lenient with harassment by customers than by employees. That’s a big …

Use safety as a recruiting tool; learn from the best

11/01/2005
Issue: Safety-conscious companies look beyond the bottom line.
Benefit: In addition to reducing costs and boosting morale, safety can be promoted as a recruiting tool to applicants.
Action: Reduce …

How important are post-interview thank-you notes?

11/01/2005
About 15 percent of the 650 hiring managers in a recent CareerBuilder survey said they wouldn’t hire someone who failed to send a thank-you note after an interview. Another 32 percent …

If bird flu hits U.S. shores, prepare a telework plan

11/01/2005
How will your organization respond if a human bird flu outbreak strikes? A major flu pandemic is possible and now is the best time to prepare for the worst. Advice: Consider …

No need to juice up severance package next year

11/01/2005
Nationwide, severance benefits have declined a bit since 2001, according to a survey of 1,030 HR executives by consultant Lee Hecht Harrison. Only one-third of employers changed their severance policies during …

Holiday gifts: Charity is in, ‘bling’ is out for 2005

11/01/2005
Wrapping up a year in which natural disasters and ongoing war grabbed the headlines, look for corporate gifts, including those to employees, to focus more on charity and comfort than on …

A surprise inspection can uncover discrimination before it’s too late

10/01/2005
There may be areas of your workplace that supervisors, and maybe even HR, rarely visit, such as locker rooms, loading docks and break rooms. But don’t take a “hear no evil, …

Check state, local laws on sexual-orientation bias

10/01/2005
No federal law grants job discrimination protection for people due to their sexual orientation or “gender identity,” but many employers are unaware that several state and local laws make workplace bias …

Automatic 401(k) enrollment to become more common

10/01/2005
Look for the U.S. Labor Department to issue proposed regulations by the end of 2005 that will encourage employers to automatically enroll employees in their 401(k) plans.
Currently, most employers …

Heed new driving-time limits for truck drivers

10/01/2005
If you employ commercial truck drivers, take note of new federal rules governing how much time they can drive before having to take breaks.
The U.S. Transportation Department rules took …