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Employee Relations

Fired for 1st violation? Better explain why

12/13/2013
There’s a first time for everything—including firing someone for violating a rule. But that may spell trouble if other employees weren’t punished for breaking the same rule.

Accommodation failing? Focus on performance

12/13/2013
Employers must reasonably accommodate disabled workers so they can perform the essential functions of their jobs. But what should you do if you have made accommodations and they don’t seem to be working?

Same misconduct warrants same punishment

12/13/2013
You might assume that firing an employee for breaking a safety rule would be “safe” from judicial criticism. But if you don’t punish all workers equally for violating the same rule, you may run into trouble if the employee can show that others outside his protected class weren’t punished as severely.

The smart team leader’s code of conduct

12/12/2013
Christine Comaford, author of the new book SmartTribes, says good team leaders can become great team leaders by following this code of conduct:

Holiday cybershopping could kill productivity

12/10/2013
Over half of workers (54%) expect to spend some time at work shopping online for the holidays, up from 49% last year, according to a survey by CareerBuilder.com.

What steps should we take to ensure supervisors issue consistent discipline?

12/02/2013
Q. We are having a hard time keeping discipline consistent between supervisors. To promote consistency, upper management would like to implement a new discipline policy setting out what disciplinary steps should be followed. Do you recommend this?

Warn employees: Text messages may be evidence

12/02/2013

Text messages make communication easy and convenient, but casual comments dashed off electronically may come back to haunt you. That’s why you should remind employees that texts should be composed with the same careful deliberation as letters and memos.

Employees want one-on-one benefits info

12/02/2013
Here’s how employees prefer to learn about their employer-provided benefits options:

Try easy, proven ways to retain best workers

11/29/2013
Determined to retain workers now that business is getting better? Here are several real-life examples of things that organizations have done in recent years to keep workers from moving on to greener pastures.

3 holiday headaches could slow down work

11/27/2013
The period between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day typically finds employees distracted—if they’re at work at all. Head off a big productivity slump by anticipating these three problems.