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HR Management

Restaurant owner learns price of harassment: $40,750

08/01/2007

Three female employees of the Crazy Horse Steak House in New Oxford will share $40,750 for harassment allegedly committed by owner Nicholas Mavros. The women claimed Mavros commented on their breasts, asked what color underwear they were wearing, invited them to come to a motel to have sex, touched them against their wishes and even put his hands down an employee’s pants …

Handle employee background checks correctly to lessen liability

08/01/2007

More and more employers are conducting criminal background checks on prospective and current employees, and that means employers are asking tough questions about prior arrests and convictions in the application process. To avoid potential liability, your company needs to develop practices and procedures for managing the process. You need to understand applicable state and federal laws concerning background checks …

Keeping the work environment safe

08/01/2007

Q. What proactive strategies can employers implement to promote a safe workplace? …

Not all absences are equal; punishment needn’t be either

08/01/2007

You know you can’t go easy on one person for attendance problems and come down hard on another for the same offense—especially if he or she belongs to a protected class. But, as the following case shows, courts will conclude a discipline process wasn’t discriminatory if you can show that tardiness or absenteeism affected important work goals, such as productivity …

Discipline employee who refuses to abide by safety rules

08/01/2007

Q. One of our shop employees was not wearing his safety glasses during a Michigan OSHA (MIOSHA) inspection, for which the company was cited. Our company has a rule requiring employees to wear safety glasses in the plant. Were we wrongly cited? — T.B.

Improve your time management: 6 tips for managers

07/31/2007
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Women in HR: Boost your career by writing your own annual report

07/31/2007

The bad news: You don’t earn as much as your male counterparts. And no one wants to hear you ask for a raise. The good news: You can reinforce "Brand You" by writing a personal annual report. Here’s a six-question template …

What’s the Correct HR-to-Employee Ratio?

07/23/2007
Is your HR department understaffed or overstaffed? Here’s a formula to correctly calculate your organization HR-to-employee ratio.

Personnel records versus investigation records

07/20/2007

Q One of our employees has just filed a complaint with the company claiming that she has been sexually harassed. We are concerned that if we discipline the alleged harasser based on our findings and note this incident in his personnel file, he may demand to inspect our investigation records. May we avoid this by maintaining a separate investigation file?

Keep Copies Of Employee Licenses, Certifications

07/19/2007

We keep copies of our employees’ licenses, certifications and continuing-education certificates. When an employee leaves or is terminated, do we have to hold on to those copies?