Policies / Handbooks

How should we handle difficult firing meeting?

12/14/2011

Q. We recently decided to terminate an employee based on performance concerns. The employee is in sales and is required to cold call a certain number of individuals each day. In reviewing the daily call logs, the employee’s manager discovered that she has been calling the same disconnected number over and over again … To top it off, she sent an email telling other employees they could do the same. In preparing for the termination meeting, I’m wondering what we should say?

Your dollars at risk: Protect yourself from personal liability

12/13/2011

HR pros spend a lot of their time ensuring that their companies comply with the law so they don’t wind up in court and lose big bucks to a jury verdict. But more and more, they find themselves defending not their employers’ bottom lines, but their own bank accounts. Here’s how to protect your personal funds.

Dead-wrong bereavement leave

12/08/2011

A customer service rep at a call center went out on bereavement leave at least once a month. Lots of aunts and uncles, he said. The HR department discovered the employee had a family member on the “inside” at the funeral home who was creating a fake program for each fake funeral.

Time to revamp policies banning guns in parking lots

11/30/2011

Many employers have workplace violence policies that prohibit employees from possessing firearms in or around the workplace. They’ll have to rethink those policies, now that Texas has a new law that limits most employers’ right to bar employees from having firearms in vehicles parked at employers’ parking areas.

Harassment: How to stop it before–and after–it starts

11/30/2011

Protect your organization from harassment lawsuits by focusing your attention on both preventive and corrective measures. Give every employee a copy of your anti-harassment policy. Train everyone to ensure they understand their rights and responsibilities.

After hours: How to regulate employees’ off-duty behavior

11/29/2011

Employers can regulate what employees do away from work—but only within narrow limits. There are often good reasons to. Some off-duty acts reflect poorly on employers, raise insurance costs and create conflicts of interest. Here’s how to make the call.

Cupid in the workplace: You can terminate supervisor for lying about personal relationship

11/28/2011

What if you suspect a supervisor/subordinate relationship, but the two people deny it? You probably can’t do anything more than reiterate your workplace rule against it. If it turns out the supervisor lied, you can certainly terminate him or her—both for breaking the rule and then lying about it.

Can we collect employee cellphones at the door?

11/25/2011

Q. We’ve had it with all the texting and social networking by employees when they’re supposed to be working. Can we just make them check their electronic devices at the door? Telling them to stop when we catch them isn’t working.

Worried about reining in religious tension? Don’t ban all discussion of faith

11/16/2011

Some employers ban discussion of religion at work, believing that talking about faith might constitute harassment or coercion of workers who aren’t members of a majority religious group. But such a prohibition can cause more problems than it solves.

OSHA issues new rules on investigating workplace violence

10/31/2011

OSHA has issued enforcement instructions regarding incidents of workplace violence. Officials will use the directive to decide whether allegations of workplace violence warrant an investigation. It also details methods employers can use to minimize the possibility of workplace violence.