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Policies / Handbooks

Intentional bias can spur court to install applicant into job.

07/01/2004
A school district hired a man rather than Geraldine Fuhr as varsity boys head basketball coach. While the man had two years of experience, Fuhr had been the varsity girls head …

Evaluate your safety efforts with new NIOSH tools

07/01/2004
The National Institute for Occupa-tional Safety and Health (NIOSH) has posted a new guide for employers on how to evaluate workplace safety and health changes. The guidance aims to help organizations …

You can set rules on when employees take vacation time

07/01/2004
While vacation time is a mainstay of basic benefit packages, employers are not legally required to offer paid vacation to employees. But if you do offer vacation time, don’t be afraid …

Pay attention to rising complaints of ‘same-race’ bias

07/01/2004
Issue: Courts are seeing a spike in discrimination claims involving people of the same race.
Risk: Some supervisors wrongly ignore same-race complaints, believing, for example, that “blacks can’t discriminate against …

How to spot a dishonest purchasing manager

07/01/2004
Issue: Employees handling your organization’s purse strings could be pulling them in the wrong way. Risk: Lax controls leave your organization wide open to invoice fraud. Action: Suggest the …

Get tough with habitually absent employees

07/01/2004

Q. We have a new administrative employee in our pediatric office who missed 22 days of work in her first nine weeks. She has doctor excuses for illnesses for most of the days, but my front office is in shambles. Can I put her on written warning for excessive absences? Can I terminate her? —C.F., Georgia

Monitor employees’ e-mail, but notify them first

07/01/2004
Issue Employees wrongly assume their e-mail musings are private, privileged communications. Risk: If you don’t eliminate that belief, you’ll open your organization to disputes and lawsuits. Action: Require employees …

Why you should care about 9/11 Commission report

07/01/2004
The federal panel investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks says the private sector is still unprepared for attacks. It’s expected to endorse a national emergency readiness standard that calls on …

Preserve at-will rights by ditching your employee probation period

06/01/2004
If your employee handbook or job-offer letters say new hires will face a 60- or 90-day probation period, you should consider dropping that policy or, at the very least, referring to …

Don’t write wishy-washy policies that make it hard for staff to comply

06/01/2004
Your employment policies should never leave employees guessing about how they must comply.
That’s why it’s vital to use concrete terms in your
policies that discuss employee behaviors and …