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HR Management

Frivolous lawsuit? You’ll need patience

11/01/2011

This may be tough to accept, but sometimes when an employee sues, you just have to be patient. It’s especially difficult if you know that the employee isn’t telling the truth. The judge hearing the case will probably see through bogus claims.

No exit in Brooklyn: Locked doors mean OSHA fine

11/01/2011
Fine Fare Supermarkets faces $62,000 in fines after OSHA inspectors found that all five emergency exits at a store in Brooklyn were kept locked during the night shift. OSHA standards require employees to be able to open an exit route door from inside at all times, without keys, tools or special knowledge.

The HR I.Q. Test: November ’11

11/01/2011
Pet peeves, paper checks and workplace perils: Test your knowledge of recent trends in employment law, compensation and benefits and other HR issues with our monthly mini-quiz.

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.

Judge says injured whistle-blower got railroaded

10/31/2011
An administrative law judge has ruled that Norfolk Southern Rail­way must pay a former employee $122,199 in compensatory and punitive damages after it violated the worker’s rights under whistle-blower provisions of the Federal Railway Safety Act.

You can discipline for email abuse–just don’t thwart ‘concerted’ or ‘protected’ activity

10/31/2011
As soon as employers started equipping employees with email accounts and a list of company email addresses, things started getting complicated. You can punish employees for many email attack campaigns—as long as you first make sure the content doesn’t qualify as concerted or protected activity.

More HR jobs demand social media skills

10/31/2011
This summer, more than 1,000 new online job ads for HR openings included requirements that the candidate holds social media skills. That represents a 160% increase in such requests over the same period in 2010, according to a WANTED Analytics report.

The art of giving negative feedback: A 7-step approach

10/28/2011
Giving feedback is an important management task but certainly not an easy one—especially when the feedback isn’t all sunshine. Fortunately, it’s a skill that can be learned.

NLRB: You may discipline for many employee online postings

10/27/2011
Treading carefully on today’s uncertain social media terrain, many employers might hesitate to punish employees for posting workplace comments online. But the National Labor Relations Board recently found in several scenarios that employers didn’t violate the National Labor Relations Act when they terminated or disciplined the employees.

As phones turn smart, so must your policy: What to include

10/27/2011
A cellphone policy written five years ago may no longer be sufficient. Blame the rise of smartphones. Their multifunctionality makes it more important than ever to have a mobile phone policy, not only to minimize the risks of talking on a phone while driving, but for a number of other reasons as well.