• The HR Specialist - Print Newsletter
  • HR Specialist: Employment Law
  • The HR LAW Weekly
  • The HR Weekly

Employee Relations

The 4 essential skills of a master manager

09/07/2017
Studies of top managers have found it’s hard to be an effective team leader without having some mastery of these skill sets.

Should you ‘write up’ an employee?

08/23/2017
When it comes to negative employee behavior, should you jump to write a formal written warning? It depends. Start with a face-to-face meeting to discuss issues and set expectations, but if that doesn’t work, draft a written warning.

Time spent texting counts as absenteeism

08/17/2017
Workers who waste time on their personal electronics may be present physically but otherwise absent.

Is HR your ‘manager complaint department’?

08/13/2017
HR people realize it’s part of their roles to help supervisors deal with employee issues. But what should HR do with managers who go overboard, reflexively dumping even the smallest of their employee concerns and complaints onto HR?

7 things leaders should never say

08/13/2017
Dave Kerpen, the author of Likeable Leadership, suggests what top managers (including execs and HR professionals) should never say in the workplace.

Courts often cut slack for missing minor deadlines

08/09/2017
Don’t expect a quick dismissal of a lawsuit just because the employee or his lawyers miss a deadline. Courts are quick to grant extensions in the service of “justice” and won’t come down hard for seemingly minor deadline misses.

Prepare to defend against every lawsuit, even the ones that are obviously weak

08/09/2017
Defending against lame lawsuits is just a cost of doing business. Sometimes, you have to spend the time and money even when it’s clear you haven’t done anything wrong.

HR director charged with embezzling nearly $1 million

08/09/2017
The former HR director for HighPoint Solutions, a medical technology consulting firm headquartered in suburban Philadelphia, faces charges she wrote fraudulent checks totaling $919,301.

When discipline is suddenly harsher than usual, document details that explain why

07/31/2017
When you set out to discipline a worker for breaking a rule, prepare a report that tells the whole story. That’s especially important if you need to justify why one employee received a harsher punishment than others who, in the past, may have committed similar offenses.

Clearly spell out performance expectations

07/31/2017
Make sure your managers and supervisors clearly and formally communicate their performance expectations. A performance review that criticizes alleged poor work based on expectations that weren’t clearly communicated can become the basis for a lawsuit.