Policies / Handbooks

As Valentine’s Day approaches, review policies addressing sexual harassment

01/31/2024

With February comes Valentine’s Day, as good an excuse as any to review your company communications policies so employees understand there are limits on how, where and when they can embrace the spirit of romance at work.

Prepare to comply: Pregnant Workers Fairness Act regulations due soon

10/23/2023

The EEOC is gearing up to begin enforcement of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. The law, enacted in December 2022, requires employers to reasonably accommodate a worker’s limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, unless the accommodation will cause the employer an undue hardship.

Majority of workers already use generative AI, but company policies lag

10/02/2023

More than half of U.S. employees are already using generative artificial intelligence tools, at least occasionally, to accomplish work-related tasks. Yet some three-quarters of companies still lack an established, clearly communicated organizational AI policy.

Prepare to drop or rewrite these handbook rules

09/06/2023

National Labor Relations Board rulings can affect the very rules you write into your handbook. The board’s Stericycle decision, issued in August, calls for a wholesale reexamination of the handbook rules that any private-sector employers seek to enforce, whether or not they operate in a union environment.

Train supervisors to spot the signs of drug impairment

09/05/2023

Before you require an employee to submit to a drug-screening test, make sure your front-line supervisors really know how to spot the signs of impairment. The key: They must be able show that they have a reasonable suspicion that an employee may be under the influence of drugs. If they can’t, you may have a hard time defending the test if the employee decides to sue you.

6 tips for writing a mobile phone policy for your workplace

08/16/2023

Have you been tasked with writing mobile device workplace policies for your organization? If so, you need to know what and what not to include to ensure the policy is not only effective but also lenient enough that your staff will want to go along with it. Here are six useful tips for developing a cell phone policy that will improve productivity without sacrificing morale.

Review work rules in light of NLRB’s new pro-employee ruling

08/14/2023

As political winds shift, so do National Labor Relations Board rulings. Nowhere has this been more apparent than in the realm of cases addressing worker rights under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act.

CROWN Act spreads among the states in effort to prevent race discrimination

08/11/2023

Texas recently became the 21st state to add natural hairstyle protection to its laws prohibiting discrimination in employment. It’s part of a legislative trend to enact what are called CROWN Acts.

How to protect against the coming explosion of anti-DEI lawsuits

07/31/2023

When the U.S. Supreme Court in June struck down Harvard University’s affirmative action admissions plan, it wrote that “[e]liminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it.” Now employers with diversity, equity and inclusion programs worry that their efforts to achieve a diverse workplace will come under attack, too.

California might mandate workplace violence policies

07/10/2023

The California State Senate just passed SB 553, legislation that requires all employers with at least one employee to develop workplace violence-prevention plans and policies.