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Policies / Handbooks

ADA: Sometimes, no accommodation will work

07/30/2013
Some disabled applicants or employees will never be able to perform their jobs. However, you can only reach that conclusion after both sides engage in the interactive accommodations process. If no accommodation will let the person perform the job’s essential functions, you can terminate an employee or reject an applicant.

6 ways to keep young women’s careers moving

07/30/2013
Women of the Millennial generation are turning their backs on career paths that could give them the keys to the C-Suite. The problem lands squarely in HR’s lap—as do the solutions.

Target misses mark with multicultural training

07/29/2013
Minneapolis-based retailer Target is scrambling to explain a training document that surfaced at one of its Northern California distribution centers. The document purports to tell supervisors how to interact with Hispanic employees—and in the process betrays some offensive stereotypes.

Can we recover business documents from employee’s personal laptop?

07/26/2013
Q. Many of our executives use their personal laptops for business purposes. We don’t have a policy governing this practice. We will be terminating our COO and want to know how we can legally go about transferring or deleting all work-related files from his personal computer.

Does your discipline policy grant ‘one harassment free’?

07/24/2013
We all struggle with drafting policies. In the following case we learn that leaving certain words out of your disciplinary policy can be just as legally dangerous as putting the wrong words in. In this case, the employer’s discipline policy essentially allowed employees to engage in one act of sexual harassment without being terminated.

Set rules for promotion, insist on compliance

07/23/2013
Here’s a good reason to post all promotion opportunities and let employees know where they can learn about openings. Employees can’t sue over missed promotions if they never bother to apply—as long as it’s clear how the promotion process works.

Medical pot laws don’t prohibit drug testing

07/23/2013
You are free to tell employees they can be terminated for having marijuana in their systems and then randomly test for the substance. That’s true even if a doctor recommends that the employee use medical marijuana.

Whaddya bet a lawyer didn’t write these work rules?

07/23/2013

Amy’s Baking Company gained notoriety this spring when TV celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay simply gave up trying to turn around the struggling restaurant on his show. “I can’t help people who can’t help themselves,” Ramsay said after the owners rejected his suggestions for improving the business. Apparently, the owners did try to help themselves when they wrote the restaurant’s employee policies …

National origin, language & religion: Legally managing diversity at work

07/17/2013
To achieve compliance and prevent successful discrimination claims (which could involve class-action exposure), employers must be attuned to workplace issues around national origin, religion and race. For most employers, this means training management and HR personnel to carefully consider their policy-making and daily decisions that can affect such issues.

Back to school … with your office supplies?

07/12/2013
Anecdotal evidence points to a great migration of pens, pencils, binders, folders and other office supplies from America’s workplaces to America’s classrooms as summer break ends.