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Employee Relations

Make common sense the driving force of your business

04/10/2008
Login Email Address Password I forgot my password To continue reading this page, become an HR Specialist Premium Plus member today! Your subscription includes: Ask the Attorney: Answers to your HR legal questions Compliance Guidance: Access to 7,000 HR news articles, updated daily, sorted by state State-by-State: Summaries of HR laws in all 50 states […]

Top 5 mistakes employers make and how to avoid them

04/10/2008

Poor communications with employees isn’t just bad for business. It also creates a work environment that’s ripe for legal trouble. Stay out of the courtroom by taking time to explain your actions and make the workplace seem rational to employees. Here’s how.

Don’t hesitate to discipline a rude and insubordinate employee

04/09/2008
Nothing disrupts the workplace like a rude and nasty employee—especially one who thinks she’s smarter than everybody else and constantly tries to show it by criticizing co-workers and others. To stop the damage, you may have to act firmly, even if that means the employee may sue. If you back your actions with solid evidence, chances are a judge will throw out the case …

Pew report gives low grade to Illinois government

04/09/2008
The Washington, D.C.-based Pew Center recently released a report grading state governments on their general performance. Illinois scored a C on the report card. In keeping with contemporary sensibilities, this C did not mean average—it meant the bottom of the barrel …

State’s lawyer says she was punished for union organizing

04/08/2008
Assistant Attorney General Amy Lawler says she was suspended for speaking out in favor of a union movement in the attorney general’s office. But Attorney General Lori Swanson’s administration says Lawler was put on leave in March only because she had failed to follow the proper channels in raising ethics concerns …

Older worker’s performance falling? Document the decline before discharge

04/08/2008
It almost never looks good in court when an employee who has been with the company for decades suddenly loses his job. For many potential jurors, that smacks of age discrimination even before they’ve heard any testimony. That’s one reason to try to get age cases dismissed long before a jury gets a chance to impose its judgment …

6 steps for managing ‘difficult’ employees

04/07/2008
Login Email Address Password I forgot my password To continue reading this page, become an HR Specialist Premium Plus member today! Your subscription includes: Ask the Attorney: Answers to your HR legal questions Compliance Guidance: Access to 7,000 HR news articles, updated daily, sorted by state State-by-State: Summaries of HR laws in all 50 states […]

Charging falsification? Make sure you can back up claim

04/07/2008
Employees who don’t follow company rules should be disciplined and possibly terminated. But employers must make sure they can back up their claims. Otherwise, they may face lawsuits if the fired employees belong to a protected class …

Quell the rumor mill while internal investigations progress

04/07/2008
Do you have safeguards to protect confidentiality while you conduct internal investigations of sexual harassment and other employee complaints? If not, you should. If an employer is careless and allows word of the allegations to get out to people who have no reason to know about them, the employer may face defamation claims …

Colorado employers make Fortune’s ‘Best to work for’ list

04/01/2008

Fortune magazine recently published its 2008 list of “100 Best Companies to Work For,” and three Colorado employers made the list …