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Policies / Handbooks

Scour your policies now for any traces of age discrimination

05/01/2005
Issue: A new Supreme Court ruling ratchets up your vulnerability to federal age-discrimination lawsuits.
Risk: Employees no longer need to show a “smoking gun.” Even policies that inadvertently discriminate can …

Take the lead in identifying premises-liability risks

05/01/2005
Issue: Your organization has a responsibility to provide a safe environment for employees and customers.
Risk: Weak security efforts may lead to a “negligent security” lawsuit, an increasing problem for …

Don’t dock pay for time-Clock mistakes

05/01/2005

Q. We dock employees’ pay by 15 minutes if they don’t punch in or out on their timecards. If this happens more than twice over any 90-day period, we write up the employee. We’ve recently been told that we shouldn’t have such a policy. Is that correct? If so, how can we make sure employees punch in? —K.K., Michigan

Shorter, more frequent breaks reduce on-the-job accidents

05/01/2005
Issue: How to structure break schedules to maximize productivity and safety.
Benefit: Allowing more frequent, but shorter, breaks are smarter than giving longer infrequent ones, new research shows.
Action: …

Take same-race bias complaints seriously

05/01/2005
Don’t allow discrimination to continue simply because the “discriminator” and “discriminatee” are among the same racial minority. The EEOC is warning that it’s seeing more discrimination complaints between people of the …

Will your anti-retaliation policy pay off?

04/01/2005
When it comes to handling employee complaints of unfair treatment, you’d better have a policy and a procedure in place to handle retaliation claims.
That’s the $520,000 message a federal …

3 provisions NOT to include in your sexual harassment policy

04/01/2005
Some judges interpret policies, including those on sexual harassment, as enforceable contracts between employer and employee. To prevent charges that you didn’t live up to your side of the bargain in …

Avoid lawsuits by sticking to performance when you fire

04/01/2005
When terminating someone, it’s critical to choose your words very cautiously. Briefly summarize your reasons for the firing, and allow the person to offer his or her side of the story, …

Terminating smokers: When there’s smoke, can you fire?

04/01/2005
Ever since media reports focused earlier this year on a Michigan company’s strict policy banning smokers on staff, many employers have asked the question: “Can we, should we, do the same?” …

‘Sorry’: the hardest word to say to job applicants

04/01/2005
Issue: Whether , and how , to notify unsuccessful job applicants.
Risk: Spending too much effort on rejection notification can tax your resources, but poor notification can reflect badly on …