Employee Relations

Just looking at the caller ID, you’re already dreading answering the phone. The person on the other end of the line is …

08/02/2011

Ouch! Be glad you’re not a vendor—the people HR pros really don’t want to talk to.

All together now: Teaching workers to ‘manage’ their bosses

08/02/2011

Pay-for-performance is effective only when managers spell out for each employee exactly what he or she must do to get paid more or reap perks like flexible scheduling. In reality, too few managers do that. They need to know supervision is a two-way street. Solution: Sometimes employees must “manage the boss.”

Worker lost $700: Can we make him pay it back?

08/02/2011

When an employee loses company property or money, what recourse do employers have to recoup their loss? It depends on the applicable state wage law … and on whether you believe the “loss” was really accidental.

Thin-skinned employee or bully boss? Trust your HR instincts to decide who’s right

08/02/2011

HR professionals must often make judgment calls about who is telling the truth. In fact, just about every workplace investigation requires assessing the credibility of employees, co-workers and managers who disagree about what happened. Trust your gut — and follow these four guidelines for figuring out who’s right.

When can we fire for offensive body odor?

08/01/2011

Q. We have a staff member with body odor so bad that other staff members have complained and even threatened to leave the company. The employee has been disciplined several times and required to go home without pay until she agrees to comply with our grooming code. At what point can we legally terminate her?

What should we do? We suspect string of workplace injuries might be workers’ comp fraud

08/01/2011

Q. We’ve had an exceptional number of suspicious injuries at work so far this year. We don’t want to jump to conclusions, but how can we determine if these injuries are part of a workers’ comp insurance fraud scheme?

Must we make employees available to EEOC investigators?

08/01/2011

Q. A former employee recently filed an EEOC complaint against our company alleging race discrimination. As part of its investigation, the agency will be coming to our offices to interview employees. Do I have to make the employees available? As the HR director, should I sit in on the employee interviews?

‘Can we talk?’: How to handle requests for secrecy

08/01/2011

Say one of your employees stops by your office with a troubled look on her face. She has a complaint, but wants to speak with you “off the record.” Can you comply with her request for confidentiality? Should you? It all depends on the content and context of the complaint.

On the emotional edge: 4 tips for responding to employee rants

07/29/2011

Disciplinary and termination meetings are emotionally charged events that carry the potential for nasty words, hurt feelings and even legal troubles. You never know how employees will respond. But you need to be prepared for anything. Four do’s and don’ts to defuse rants and avoid lawsuits: